|
 The introduction to the launch issue of International Materials Reviews (IMR), published in 1956, begins: ‘The publication ... of reviews and progress reports, describing advances in specific fields in a comprehensive but critical manner, is an important ancillary to the pursuit of new knowledge. The Council of the Institute of Metals recognises that there is a need for authoritative, critical, and interpretive reviews of existing knowledge in various fields of metallurgical interest and has therefore decided to publish this new quarterly, Metallurgical Reviews.’
IMR is now an international publication covering all aspects of materials science and  engineering – in the 1950s still to emerge as a unified discipline – but the initial declaration continues to embody its ethos and rationale to a marked extent. The continual expansion in the technical literature has only increased the value of its reviews (all commissioned from international authorities) as a concise, critical introduction to specific topics for researchers, engineers and students alike. Authors are prompted not only to survey the current state of knowledge, but to go on to identify unresolved problems and suggest future research projects. The journal’s citation half-life of approximately 18 years reinforces the continued relevance of these contributions, even in relatively fast moving areas.
A major advance came with the co-ownership agreement reached in 1974 between the Metals Society (now the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining) and the American Society for Metals (now ASM International), which gave IMR an international presence, ensuring access to a greatly expanded pool of author expertise. Policy development and commissioning is undertaken by two Editorial Boards, administered by the two bodies and chaired by the journal’s Co-Editors. The current editors, Krish Chawla (University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA) and Philip Withers (University of Manchester, UK), have been in post since 2007.
 The journal launched with an ambitious prospectus of forthcoming reviews, from fundamental topics in metal physics and semiconductors, through properties and processing, to production and refining and characterisation/inspection. Coverage has evolved with the discipline and recent IMR reviews have covered metals, ceramics, polymers and composites; biomaterials, functional materials, material/cell interactions and biomimetics; materials chemistry; and materials modelling. Nanostructures and nanotechnology represent an obvious extension of topics represented since the founding of the journal. This has been reflected in changes of title, from Metallurgical Reviews, to International Metallurgical Reviews (1972) and International Metals Reviews (1976) and finally International Materials Reviews (1986).
For more information on the scope of this journal, please see the International Materials Reviews homepage.
|
