Introduction of Supplemental Data Feature for Journal Articles

I am pleased to announce that we have introduced a supplemental data feature for the Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering. 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 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 a traditional appendix would be. Interested readers would then be 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 subject to the same peer-review criteria as the main content of a manuscript. As such, they should be submitted for review with the manuscript. The Journal’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 part of the submission. Reviewers and editors/EBMs access the materials from a clickable link within the pdf of the manuscript. Detailed instructions and requirements for 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.