October 21st, 2019

In January this year, ISSI launched Quantitative Science Studies. This was the result of a conflict between the editorial board members of Journal of Informetrics and Elsevier, the publisher of the journal. The entire editorial board of Journal of Informetrics decided to resign and to work with ISSI and MIT Press to create Quantitative Science Studies (QSS). This post provides some updates on the development of QSS.

During the past months, the editorial board of QSS and the publishing team at MIT Press have worked hard to establish a high-quality journal that is organized in a smooth and robust way. A number of developments bear particular mention:

• The first 11 manuscripts have been accepted for publication. Another 35 manuscripts are currently in the peer review process. The accepted manuscripts have been made available on the website of QSS as ‘just accepted’. They are currently undergoing typesetting and copyediting. We expect these manuscripts to be published in the first issue of QSS, which will appear in early 2020.
• In line with the commitment of QSS to open citations and open metadata, for all manuscripts published in the journal extensive metadata, including references, abstracts, ORCIDs, and author affiliations, will be made openly available in Crossref.
• Initially, manuscripts needed to be submitted to QSS by e-mail. Recently, an online submission system (ScholarOne) was set up to make the editorial process more efficient and reliable.
• A number of special issues are in preparation. The special issue ‘Understanding Chinese science: New scientometric perspectives’ has an open call for papers. Proposals for contributions can be submitted until the end of October. This special issue is edited by Li Tang, Liying Yang, and Lin Zhang, three Chinese colleagues who recently joined the editorial board of QSS.
• In collaboration with the Fair Open Access Alliance (FOAA), MIT Press recently published a breakdown of the Article Processing Charges for QSS. By publishing this breakdown, QSS follows the Fair Open Access Principles developed by the FOAA.

As Editor-in-Chief of QSS, I am grateful to everyone who has contributed to the successful launch of the journal. In particular, I would like to mention the publishing team at MIT Press that is working hard to support QSS in the best possible way.

Of course, the success of QSS ultimately depends on authors that submit their work to the journal. It is great to see that so many authors have already submitted high-quality manuscripts to QSS. I look forward to receiving many more submissions. Don’t hesitate to contact me if you would like to discuss the possibility of publishing your work in QSS.