Introducing <i>Engineering Reports</i>: its mission and vision

Abstract

I am thrilled to announce the launch of Engineering Reports, a new Open Access journal dedicated to all aspects of engineering and computer science. In this editorial, I would like to introduce the mission and scope of the journal, our distinguished international editorial board, the policies for more transparent research practices that we are committed to implementing, and our exciting vision for the future. We undoubtedly live in one of the fastest evolving times ever, with scientific and technological advances permeating our daily lives at a relentless, “race-for-space” -like pace. The diversity, breadth, and implications of this new technological revolution are unprecedented. Some refer to this era as the dawn of the Fourth Industrial Revolution1 or the Second Machine Age2, 3: a time of changes and disruptions characterized by pioneering digital technologies that tightly connect physical, digital, and biological worlds. As in previous revolutions, engineers undisputedly play a crucial role in the development of technologies to address these pervasive challenges that are vertiginously rapid, broad, and complex. The engineers of today are asked to work and interact in a global and multidisciplinary environment, and provide rapid solutions for a variety of problems, which, as reported by the National Academy of Engineering,4 range from climate change to sustainable housing, from virtual reality to advanced artificial intelligence, from cybersecurity to terrorism, from advanced health and biomedical informatics to personalized medicine, and from smart maintaining infrastructure to autonomous things. The challenges we face as a society are global in scale and have an impact on a social, political and economic level. Public engagement in science and engineering is more vital than ever before, to shape this technological revolution and collectively pave the way for a more prosperous and fairer world. In this context, Engineering Reports aims to help the research community face today's fascinating and multifaceted challenges, by offering a fast route to publication and the ability to share research with the widest possible audience of engineers, scientists, professionals, and other interested people across the globe. As an open-access journal devoted to the broad scope of engineering and computer science, Engineering Reports provides a unified outlet for rigorously peer-reviewed and well-conducted scientific research to appeal to anyone working in any area of engineering in academia, industry, or government, including engineers, scientists, consultants, policy makers, government officials, economists, and corporate organizations. At Engineering Reports, we are firmly convinced, to use Karl Popper's words, that “the essence of the critical method is that our attempted solutions, our theories, and our hypotheses, can be formulated and objectively presented in language, so that they become objects of consciously critical investigation.”5 Bearing this in mind, the journal gladly welcomes manuscripts with a specialist or niche focus, as well as pilot studies, incremental findings, or negative results, and accepts papers that are scientifically and technically sound, with appropriate methodology and presentation, and conclusions adequately supported by data. Reflecting our commitment to providing a venue for researchers to publish their findings and opinions, the journal includes different article types: research articles, reviews, perspectives, tutorials, and short communications. Finally, we are fully engaged in proactively working with authors and reviewers to help improve the quality and impact of the manuscripts we receive. Engineering Reports is managed by a full-time editor-in-chief at Wiley and supported by a topically and geographically diverse editorial board of preeminent thought leaders. As editor-in-chief, I am particularly proud to be working with a vibrant and distinguished team of experts who help me to ensure Engineering Reports features the best open-access research in the field while also providing an exceptional publishing experience for authors. See the full list of Editors at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal/25778196/homepage/editorial-board. Nowadays, ever more scholars, readers, societies, and academic institutions are demanding transparency about authorship and reproducibility in research. In a few words, there is a wider need for trustworthiness.6 As a Wiley journal, Engineering Reports is committed to promoting transparency and “intelligent openness” (ie, an openness where data are effectively communicated and meet standards that enable the other party to find, follow, and assess what one says or writes6, 7) in all aspect of scientific communication. For this purpose, the journal will embrace new initiatives to enhance transparent reporting and peer review, and scientific reproducibility.8, 9 We appreciate and invite suggestions that may improve our service. Please send suggestions and comments to the editor-in-chief at EngReports@wiley.com. We are excited about the journal's future and its opportunity to provide an excellent forum for well-conducted research. We are confident that together, we can offer an exceptional publishing experience for authors and a learning environment for all our reviewers and editorial members. The journal and its entire editorial board would like to express their profound and sincere gratitude to the highly skilled reviewers who have been assisting the journal with the evaluation of manuscripts since it opened for submissions. We can never be thankful enough for their invaluable participation in the peer-review process, which is critical to the journal's success and directly impacts the quality of the journal we publish. As the first issue is published, we sincerely hope our broad and diverse readership will enjoy reading the journal. We hope that this journal will act as a stimulus to feature high-quality content; to mine, map, and create scientific collaborations between international experts; to stimulate opportunities for multidisciplinary research; to generate cooperation between institutions; and to collectively and proactively shape a better future. We look forward to receiving your relevant contributions for publication.

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