The National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS, Japan) has announced a new collaboration with the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa, Switzerland) to expand the open access journal Science and Technology of Advanced Materials (STAM).
NIMS and Empa have signed a new 5-year collaborative agreement for the editorial management of the journal. As a result of this, NIMS and Empa will join forces to further strengthen the position and visibility of STAM in Europe and the US, extending the existing publishing partnership with IOP Publishing.
Professor Gian Luca Bona, the CEO of Empa, has agreed to act as a STAM Regional Editor, and Professor Harald Krug, a member of Empa's Board of Directors, will become the new Co-Editor-in-Chief. Empa will also set up a STAM editorial office in Switzerland, which will act as the journal's editorial hub in Europe.
STAM claims to be one of the highest ranked gold open access journals in materials science and is celebrating its 15th anniversary in 2014. In 2008, NIMS took over the management of its peer review and financial systems, and IOP Publishing began co-publishing and hosting the journal. This partnership led to a continuous rise of the Impact Factor from 1.267 in 2008 to 3.752 in 2012.
