Inaugural Editorial: Welcome to ASCE OPEN

Much time has passed since Newton wrote to Robert Hooke in a 1675 letter, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants”—a metaphor that predates even Newton by more than four centuries. His distinct acknowledgment of others who paved the way for his own revolutionary work is remarkable in both its simplicity and humility. It was clear that others also deserved recognition, but in that statement, he implicitly acknowledged the power of scientific correspondence as well because, without it, he might not have even known there were giants around from whom he could learn.

It is thus how science and engineering, including our own—and arguably the most senior of them all—civil engineering, make progress. We, often without personal acquaintance and almost always asynchronously, communicate and learn from each other, with sometimes decades or even centuries separating us. The conduits of these interactions are manifold, but the main one today is our peer-reviewed journals. The moniker implies printed matter, yet that format has all but evolved out of existence. Needless to say, just like our science, our journals do evolve.

The latest development we are experiencing in the world of science and engineering communications is a steady migration toward open publishing. Simply put, open publishing is the practice of making information and creative works available to the general public without restrictions or cost. This mode of publishing offers many virtues that benefit both the creators and the consumers of knowledge and information. Open publishing spurs creativity and knowledge development by removing access barriers and bringing more people from diverse backgrounds into collaboration and cocreation. Otherwise, you might be less inclined to access an article from a neighboring discipline, or from the same discipline but a different country, if it required additional subscriptions. Open publishing can also benefit creators by giving them broader exposure and recognition (citations). By the same token, constructive criticism from a wider audience can help authors improve their work. Finally, open publishing reduces the barriers that prevent marginalized groups from accessing knowledge, which is a prerequisite for participating in knowledge production. In all, open publishing should accelerate the pace of inventions and discoveries in our community, and supporting and promoting it will enable a more informed, creative, and just society.

It is with such thoughts and aspirations that ASCE OPEN: Multidisciplinary Journal of Civil Engineering was launched on January 1, 2023, and joined ASCE’s constellation of well-respected and well-subscribed journals as its newest venture. While it is already possible to publish open-access articles in ASCE’s specialty journals, it will be only ASCE OPEN, at least for the time being, that will publish only open-access articles.

Not surprisingly, there will be article processing charges (APCs) to publish in ASCE OPEN. However, they are presently 20% lower than what they are for ASCE’s specialty journals. While the APCs themselves are admittedly a barrier, many academic and research institutions in developed countries already have agreements and subsidies in place to cover them. Moreover, would-be authors should be reminded to include APCs as part of their budgets in grant applications. Nevertheless, not every author will have such support. To alleviate this issue, the ASCE Foundation has launched the ASCE OPEN Research and Global Equity Fund and is continuously seeking and recruiting sponsors to cover the APCs of papers published in the ASCE OPEN (https://www.ascefoundation.org/fund-open-research). These funds will be used at the Editor’s discretion to waive APCs for authors who are unable to cover them.

While open publishing is a prominent feature of ASCE OPEN, it is not its only attribute that sets it apart. ASCE OPEN seeks submissions with a multidisciplinary flavor. The word multidisciplinary in its full title should not be interpreted as it being a journal that is publishing articles related to any civil engineering subdiscipline. Rather, it should be interpreted as ASCE OPEN being primarily interested in publishing articles that draw from multiple disciplines, with at least one of them being rooted in civil engineering. ASCE’s specialty journals are already excellent venues for subdiscipline-specific studies. ASCE OPEN, on the other hand, wishes to be the venue for convergence research.

Convergence research is a multidisciplinary approach that seeks to address complex research questions by bringing together experts from different fields to collaborate on a common problem. In the context of sustainable and equitable solutions for civil infrastructure, convergence research appears essential. While discipline-specific advances will always be needed and must continue and lead us to more efficient and optimally designed subsystems (e.g., a novel mass-timber structural frame optimally designed for seismic loading), it appears that the new challenges are compelling our discipline to focus more and more on the built-environment from a systems or system-of-systems (i.e., big picture) perspective. A plane with super engines but without landing gear would be hard on the passengers.

It can be argued that we have already been doing exactly that—because every civil engineering endeavor already directly or implicitly receives feedback from many actors. In that sense, convergence research could simply be interpreted as an accelerated version of the same, wherein engineers, social scientists, policymakers, and other stakeholders work together and simultaneously develop comprehensive solutions that account for the complex interplay between technical, natural, social, and economic systems. It is also true that this type of work will also offer motivation and distinct objectives to subdiscipline-specific efforts (e.g., “we need landing wheels that can …”).

ASCE OPEN: Multidisciplinary Journal of Civil Engineering aspires to be the home of convergence research. That it is an open journal is a critical attribute in that sense and not a bonus feature.

As its inaugural Chief Editor, I invite my ASCE colleagues to not only think of ASCE OPEN as the go-to venue for their multidisciplinary work but also serve as its ambassadors and let it be known far and wide that ASCE now has a distinct destination for this type of work.