Akira Kojima
(Iron and Steel Institute of Japan)

Name of society:	The Iron and Steel Institute of Japan http://www.isij.or.jp/e_index.htm
Founded:	1915
Membership:	9,406 individual members (as of Feb. 28, 2010) 187 institutions as sustaining members (as of the same date)
Journal titles:	(1) ISIJ International, monthly English-language journal (2) Tetsu-to-Hagané (Iron and steel), monthly Japanese-language journal
Field:	All areas that contribute to the advancement of scientific and engineering knowledge in fields related to iron, steel, the materials and processes involved in their production
Platforms used:	J-STAGE (Tetsu-to-Hagané and ISIJ International) CiNii (Tetsu-to-Hagané, vol. 1 (1915) to vol. 95 no. 3 (2009) only)
URLs:	[ J-STAGE ] Tetsu-to-Hagane: http://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/browse/tetsutohagane ISIJ International: http://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/browse/isijinternational [ CiNii ] Tetsu-to-Hagane: http://ci.nii.ac.jp/en
E-journal specifications:	Articles (full text; PDF files), bibliographic and citation metadata
Electronic submissions system:	The J-STAGE Electronic Submissions Review System is used for ISIJ International.
Copyright policy:	The electronic journals are open access. Authors may deposit articles in institutional repositories (at universities, public institutions, etc.) one year after publication.

Measures Needed to Further Improve the Journals

• We are making ongoing efforts to encourage submission and publication of high-level articles from all over the world.
• To accommodate the increased numbers of submissions due to our introduction of open access and the Electronic Submissions Review System, we are studying ways to obtain the services of more high-quality reviewers (such as paying an honorarium, creating a senior reviewer system, and using overseas reviewers).
• About twice a year, we plan feature issues to encourage submission of cutting-edge articles.
• We are studying ways to make the Electronic Submissions Review System more user-friendly, together with access systems and platforms making our articles easier to cite.

E-journal Sales Promotion to University Libraries

• Site licensing is an issue requiring further study.

Promotion to Authors to Further Increase Submissions

• ISIJ International receives 30 to 50 submissions a month, over 60 percent of which come from abroad.
• Overseas submissions are also accepted from nonmembers.
• Articles from Tetsu-to-Hagané may be reprinted in ISIJ International and vice versa (within one year of first publication).
• The impact factor of ISIJ International has been rising in recent years, from 0.709 in 2007, to 0.817 in 2008, to 0.902 in 2009. It ranks among the world’s leading scientific and technical journals devoted to iron and steel.
• In January 2010, the online version of ISIJ International adopted completely open access; the author pays only a page charge. Also, in April, we introduced the Electronic Submissions Review System. We expect both submissions and accesses to increase in future. (Accesses from abroad showed a rapid rise when we moved to open access.)