Thank you for taking on the important role of JOM advisor. This guide is designed to provide you with an overview of your responsibilities and answer questions you may have along the way. With proper planning, serving as an advisor can strengthen your professional network and provide you with firsthand insight into advances in your field. At the same time, your work benefits your committee, TMS, and your profession, as you aid in sharing knowledge around the globe by publishing in JOM.
Advisor or Guest Editor?
Two types of technical topic contributors ensure the quality and relevance of JOM to its readers: advisors and guest editors.
- Advisors are appointed by a committee to manage the committee’s publication in JOM.
A typical advisor term is two years. Advisors can serve from one to unlimited terms, at the discretion of the technical committees appointing them.
- Guest editors are the volunteers who do the majority of the work on a topic. Guest editors are acknowledged in the issue of the print journal for which they volunteer. Most often, advisors are the guest editors for their topics, but the advisors do, at times, delegate that work to another volunteer, who serves as the guest editor. Here, the term guest editor will be used to indicate anyone, including advisors, who leads the topic’s development and execution.
Topic Submission
JOM editorial staff and the JOM advisors work together on developing an editorial calendar for the upcoming calendar year. For most committees, the process begins at the TMS annual meeting, when they discuss and select a topic for the following year. Advisor appointments are typically made at these meetings. If requested, additional topics will be accommodated. Multiple technical committees may work jointly on a single topic.
The proposed topic, along with a 75-word abstract and five keywords, must be submitted to the JOM editorial office after the annual meeting and no later than March 31. The JOM editorial team, working in consultation with the advisors, assigns each topic to a month of publication. The advisor can begin the paper solicitations as soon as the topic is finalized.
Please use the JOM Topic Submission Form to submit your topic proposal.
Key JOM Advisor Responsibilities
Soliciting Technical Papers
The main role of an advisor is to solicit technical papers for JOM that, as a collection, provide current, comprehensive coverage of your committee’s topic. Alternatively, the advisor will delegate that responsibility to a guest editor. The goal is to collect approximately four to eight papers that provide complete coverage of a topic.
Please note the following guidelines as you curate your topic:
- For your convenience, a JOM Invitation Letter Template is available to complete and distribute to potential contributors.
- Papers can be solicited from colleagues, mentors, committee members, coworkers, and conference presenters, to name a few potential contributors.
- Unsolicited papers should be considered, as long as they fit the topic. The Editorial Calendar is posted online and often authors will submit papers without being invited.
- All papers considered for JOM must be new and unpublished.
- Advisors may submit their own papers, but they must be reviewed by an independent reviewer.
- Out of courtesy to authors, all submissions should be handled within 2 weeks of assignment to you.
- Note that papers are available online for citation and download well before the print issue is published.
Reviewing
The guest editors oversee the peer review of the submitted articles. This usually involves selecting reviewers and, based on their recommendations, deciding whether to publish the papers.
Writing a Commentary
JOM recommends that each guest editor write a commentary of 800 to 1,600 words. The commentary is a nontechnical introduction to the topic and to the papers that follow.
Manuscript Deadlines
The deadline for final, reviewed, revised, and advisor-accepted manuscripts are to be submitted online through Editorial Manager is no later than 3.5 months prior to the month of publication (e.g., December 15 for the April issue).
A Closer Look at the Review Process
Every technical paper submission goes through a peer review process. The guest editors or their designees review the papers through the Editorial Manager website. Once papers are submitted the following process occurs:
- The paper is held until a JOM staff member does a quality check.
- After the initial review, JOM staff assigns it to the proper guest editor.
- The guest editor receives an email indicating the paper is ready for review.
- The guest editor accesses the paper through Editorial Manager within 7 days, and decides whether the paper is appropriate for the topic.
- The paper is either assigned to a reviewer or rejected.
Questions to Ask When Considering a Paper’s Merit
- Is the subject matter of interest to JOM readers and is it current?
- Is the manuscript a rehashing of widely known information or is there something new and of interest?
- Is the manuscript complete and accurate with regard to the subject matter?
Revision and Rejections
Reviewers have four options after reading the paper:
- Accept as written
- Accept with minor revisions
- Accept with major revisions
- Reject
When revisions are required, the guest editor asks the author(s) to rework the paper appropriately, providing specific guidance as to necessary revisions. Guest editors may need to review the paper again after revisions are made.
The Complete Technical Topic
The final, published coverage of a technical topic generally follows this structure:
- A commentary by the guest editor lays the foundation for the topic and describes the papers that follow (800 to 1,600 words).
- A review paper provides a thorough compilation and succinct summary of research performed in an area of interest to JOM readers. (Recommended length is 6,000–10,000 words).
- An original paper describes a novel, technically in-depth investigation from the minerals, metals, and materials community (3,000–6000 words).
- An article describes an industrial application or case study of the subject. (2,000 to 4,000 words).
Recommended Timeline
All papers must be reviewed, approved, and submitted to Editorial Manager 3.5 months prior to the month of publication. The following timeline is recommended to assist you in meeting this deadline:
- May (Editorial Calendar Finalized): Contact potential authors to announce your leadership of the topic and invite their participation. Share a realistic deadline with them that will allow you ample time to review the papers in your topic.
- Six Months Prior to Paper Submission Date: Develop your list of papers, confirm authors who are willing to contribute, and send the list of authors and paper titles to the JOM production editor.
- Five Months Prior to Paper Submission Date: Inform JOM production editor of any potential problems with topic development so appropriate staff support can be offered.
- Two Months Prior to Paper Submission Date: confirm that reviewers have acted promptly on any assignments.
- Two Weeks after Paper Submission Date: Submit a commentary introducing the paper.
Helpful Tools
Contact Us
For questions or additional information on your role and responsibilities as a JOM Advisor, please contact the JOM Editor .