Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
Title	Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
Discipline	Acoustics
Abbreviation	JASA
Publisher	Acoustical Society of America
Country	United States
History	1929–present
Frequency	Monthly

Journal of the Acoustical Society of America is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the Acoustical Society of America. It covers research on sound and vibration including theoretical, experimental, and applied studies relevant to architecture, engineering, medicine, and physics. The journal has chronicled developments in acoustics alongside institutions, societies, and figures influential in twentieth- and twenty-first-century physical science.

History

The journal was established in 1929 during a period when organizations such as the National Research Council (United States), American Physical Society, and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers were expanding disciplinary publication programs, and early issues reflected interactions with laboratories like Bell Labs, Harvard University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Founding contributors included researchers associated with United States Navy, United States Army Signal Corps, and industrial research at Western Electric and General Electric; editorial leadership featured scientists who also held posts at Johns Hopkins University, Cornell University, and Columbia University. Across mid-century decades the journal documented advances tied to events such as World War II innovations, Cold War funding from agencies like the Office of Naval Research and National Science Foundation (United States), and international collaborations with institutes including Max Planck Society, Royal Society, and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. Later editorial boards drew on scholars from University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, University of Tokyo, and University of California, Berkeley, reflecting globalization of acoustical research. Special issues and commemorative volumes have highlighted conferences like the International Congress on Acoustics and awards such as the Denmark Prize and Medwin Prize.

Scope and Content

The journal publishes articles on physical acoustics associated with laboratories such as Argonne National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, as well as biomedical acoustics investigations connected to Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins Hospital, and Cleveland Clinic. Topics span underwater acoustics relevant to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Scripps Institution of Oceanography, architectural acoustics linked to projects at Royal Albert Hall and Carnegie Hall, and noise control studies referencing regulatory bodies like Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Environmental Protection Agency. The journal includes work on nondestructive evaluation with ties to Sandia National Laboratories and Fraunhofer Society, speech and hearing research referencing American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and World Health Organization, and musical acoustics connected to institutions such as Juilliard School and Royal College of Music. Interdisciplinary contributions often intersect with physics departments at Princeton University, University of Chicago, and Yale University and engineering faculties at Stanford University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and ETH Zurich.

Publication and Editorial Process

The journal operates on a monthly publication schedule under the governance of the Acoustical Society of America with editorial oversight provided by an editor-in-chief drawn from academia or national laboratories such as University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign or University of Michigan. Manuscripts undergo peer review involving reviewers affiliated with organizations including National Institutes of Health, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and research universities like University of Edinburgh and McGill University. The editorial workflow integrates submission systems used by publishers that collaborate with societies such as American Institute of Physics and Springer Nature; decisions reflect policies influenced by professional codes from bodies like Committee on Publication Ethics and funding acknowledgements tied to agencies like European Research Council and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

Abstracting and Indexing

The journal is indexed in major bibliographic services including Science Citation Index, Scopus, PubMed, INSPEC, and Web of Science, facilitating discoverability for researchers at institutions such as University of Oxford, University of Toronto, and National University of Singapore. Abstracting coverage by databases maintained by ProQuest, EBSCO, and CrossRef supports citation linking to authors affiliated with California Institute of Technology, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, and University of Sydney. Library aggregators at Library of Congress and university consortia such as JSTOR reflect archival inclusion for historical scholarship and contemporary research.

Impact and Reception

The journal's impact factor metrics are tracked by bibliometric services like Clarivate Analytics and Elsevier and inform evaluations at departments including Columbia University Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College Department of Physics, and MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Its reception among professional societies including Acoustical Society of America, European Acoustics Association, and Acoustical Society of Japan has been shaped by citation practices and landmark reviews produced by scholars from Duke University, University of Pennsylvania, and Northwestern University. Debates stimulated by publications have engaged committees at National Academy of Sciences, panels convened by World Health Organization, and editorial commentaries authored by fellows of organizations such as Royal Society of London and American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Notable Articles and Contributions

The journal has published seminal papers on topics later associated with laboratories and scholars at Bell Labs, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, and Harvard Medical School, including foundational work on sonar influenced by Harvard Underwater Sound Laboratory, psychoacoustic studies connected to Haskins Laboratories, and speech synthesis research linked to AT&T Bell Laboratories. Influential contributions have guided standards developed with bodies like International Organization for Standardization, American National Standards Institute, and Institute of Acoustics (United Kingdom), while articles on echo, reverberation, and room acoustics informed designs for venues such as Royal Festival Hall and Sydney Opera House. Biomedical ultrasonics papers cited by Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency trace to research from University of Minnesota and University of Wisconsin–Madison, and advances in array signal processing reflect collaborations with Princeton University and University of Toronto.

Category:Acoustics journals