Supplemental Data Features for the Manuscripts Submitted to the Journal of Bridge Engineering

I am pleased to announce that we have introduced a Supplemental Data feature for the Journal of Bridge Engineering (JBE). This feature was introduced to help address two long-standing problems:

Supplemental Data enables publication of materials better suited to electronic media than a paper format. These might include movie files, audio files, animated gifs, 3D rendering files, as well as color figures, data tables, and text (e.g., appendices) that serve to enhance the article but are not considered vital to support the science presented in the article. A complete understanding of the article should not depend upon viewing or hearing the supplemental materials. The Supplemental Data materials should be briefly described and referenced within the main manuscript, much as the traditional Appendix would be. Interested readers would be then able to access the supplement materials by clicking on a link at the end of the manuscript (if reading a pdf copy) or from a link in the Journal’s electronic table of contents at ⟨http://scitation.aip.org/gto/⟩.

Supplemental Data materials are subjected to the same peer-review criteria as the main content of a manuscript. As such, they should be submitted for review with the manuscript. JBE’s Editorial Manager System has been equipped to handle submission of these materials. Authors submitting their manuscript for review in Editorial Manager will see a tab on a drop-down menu that allows uploading of Supplemental Data materials. The supplement is then a part of the submission. Reviewers and editors/editorial board member access the materials from a clickable link within the pdf of the manuscript. Detailed instructions and requirements for the authors submitting supplement materials can be accessed from ⟨http://pubs.asce.org/authors/journal/⟩, click on “parts of a journal article” and then “supplemental data.”

I hope that you find the Supplemental Data feature to be useful. It is my pleasure to invite you to consider using this feature to submit supplemental data with your manuscripts so that readers can understand and use your research more effectively.