Journal of applied research and technology. Presentation

Instrumentation & Development, the Journal of the Mexican Society for Instrumentation (Sociedad Mexicana de Instrumentación), was established in 1981 with following objectives: a) To publish and disseminate the results of research and development efforts of high quality in the field of Instrumentation. b) To support the consolidation of a Mexican professional community devoted to Technological Development of new products to help to solve the problems of developing countries like ours.

During the last 20 years, this Journal has evolved, adopting the format of an international journal, with an Advisory International Board and a rigorous acceptation procedure for articles. The papers had to be written in English and were reviewed by three independent referees specialized on the paper topic. Asa consequence, Instrumentation & Development was officially admitted to the Register of Scientific Publications of the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (Mexican Science & Technology National Council). We also implemented the electronic edition of the Journal in CD.

At this moment, on the way to get international recognition, the Editors tried to get the Journal indexed in the most suitable international journal indexes. However in order to be indexed, the Journal should be edited by a recognized editorial house or a renowned University that guarantees the needed economic and intellectual resources to publish it at least three times a year, with a minimum of 1000 copies and to have a broad international distribution to get the necessary impact factor.

All this had required a budget that the Society cannot afford, because it is a non profit society and its revenues come only from membership fees and sometimes from its annual congress. Considering these facts, the Society decided to transfer the Journal to the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (National Autonomous University of Mexico) whose Centro de Ciencias Aplicadas y Desarrollo Tecnológico (Centre for Applied Sciences and Technological Development) accepted to take-over its edition, giving it an institutional support and a more stable character. This will open the possibility for the Journal to be indexed by the international scientific journal indexes.

Moreover, during the last years the actual scope of the Journal has became much broader than the field of Instrumentation, the University authorities and the Society decided to change its name from instrumentation & Development to Journal of Applied Research and Technology. We do believe that this name is much better suited to cover the research fields of the community we serve.

Because of all these changes, the editors are on the way to define a new Editorial Board, integrated by top scientists and engineers at the world level. In the meantime, the already accepted papers for instrumentation & Development will be published with the consent of the authors in the first issues of the new Journal; meanwhile the new Editorial Board will take the responsibility to review the new incoming papers.

I have the pleasure to present this first issue of the Journal of Applied Sciences and Technology corresponding to April 2003. I do hope that this change in the name and editors will be for good. Therefore I invite the authors and friends of Instrumentation & Development to join us in this new endeavor and to give the new Journal of Applied Research and Technology the sympathy and support they gave to its ancestor. Le Journal est mort. Vive le Journal!

Felipe Lara-Rosano
President of the Mexican Society for Instrumentation (SOMI)
Director of the Centre for Applied Sciences and Technological Development
of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).