Ever notice all the magazines that line up near the register at a grocery store? You will never see the DSIAC Journal among them. That’s because it is not an everyday magazine but, in fact, a journal. Although our journal is often mistakenly referred to as a magazine, it carries the distinction and traits of a scientific journal with a scientific audience.
The misconception in terminology might arise from similarities that our publication shares with typical magazines. We sport an aesthetically-pleasing, glossy cover, and our articles are interspersed with images, figures, and plots that illuminate the written content. In contrast, typical scholarly journals have plain covers and few-to-no images associated with their articles. Scholarly journal articles very rarely have any color and certainly do not have the eye-catching, lead-in imagery that we use on the first page of each one of our articles. For these reasons, casual readers of the DSIAC Journal may describe it as a magazine.
Nonetheless, we aim to incorporate important features in our publication that distinguish it as a journal. Most notably, our articles are written firsthand by researchers, scientists, or engineers to describe their own technical efforts, often in a very in-depth manner. Information in the articles is well referenced and typically contains a concluding section substantiated by the prior write-up. The articles are written so that they are intelligible to a technically proficient reader well versed in the defense systems community. Therefore, they are not necessarily intended to be accessible to the general public.
Further, our technical articles, while not peer reviewed in the same thorough way as scholarly journal articles, are reviewed by technical staff to verify the scientific merits of their content. Alternatively, magazines articles are written for the general public, often as second-hand accounts, and with content that is not fully sourced and referenced. Magazines are also frequently littered with advertisements, whereas our journal is ad free.
We strive to produce a journal-quality publication that authors and readers in our defense systems community can benefit from in sharing technical research, findings, and technology.
Concern of publication type (journal or magazine) involves more than just semantics. We strive to produce a journal-quality publication that authors and readers in our defense systems community can benefit from in sharing technical research, findings, and technology. We have set a certain expectation for our authors and readers. Authors should understand the level of publication they are contributing to before they submit their article and participate in our publication process. Readers should understand the type of content they expect to find in each DSIAC Journal.
What can you, as a reader, expect to find in the DSIAC Journal? We are committed to producing a quarterly journal that features technical articles exploring new ideas and emerging trends in defense systems science and engineering topics. Specifically, our chartered areas focus on advanced materials; autonomous systems; directed energy; energetics; military sensing; non-lethal weapons; reliability, maintainability, quality, supportability, and interoperability [RMQSI]; survivability & vulnerability; and weapon systems. Our articles will be technically substantive and yet accessible to the reader familiar with the defense systems community. Finally, the articles will be packaged together in a polished, visually appealing product published in print and digital formats.
Please enjoy this and all releases of our journal!