ION journal NAVIGATION goes open access on Jan. 1

Image: ION

The Institute of Navigation (ION) has announced that its quarterly journal, NAVIGATION, Journal of The Institute of Navigation, will move to an open access (OA) model of publishing beginning Jan. 1, 2022.

NAVIGATION is a leading peer-reviewed and indexed scientific journal publishing articles on all areas related to the art and science of positioning, navigation and timing (PNT).

Printed paper copies of NAVIGATION will be discontinued beginning with the Spring 2022 issue. Instead, ION members will receive an environmentally friendly link to download a compiled electronic copy of each issue.

“Moving NAVIGATION to an open access domain is critical to supporting ION’s mission of advancing positioning, navigation and timing,” said Lisa Beaty, managing editor and executive director of ION. “Moving NAVIGATION to an OA platform will speed the delivery of timely PNT research, without the restrictions of paywalls or price barriers, to a worldwide audience. We want all scientists and engineers to be able to collaborate, analyze and build upon each other’s work for society’s common good.”

The NAVIGATION Editorial Advisory Board’s recommendation to the ION Council to move to an OA model is in keeping with the growing trend to broaden the impact and availability of scholarly research. OA has been shown to increase citations, increase readership, improve the quality of paper submissions, improve search engine prioritization, and increase a Journal’s Impact Factor (JIF). The ION Council approved this recommendation at its July 16 meeting.

The past two years of technical papers that have been published in NAVIGATION will now be available free through the ION website, and after Jan. 1, 2022, will be made available through numerous indexed and abstracted scientific bibliographic databases including:

• Advanced Technologies & Aerospace Database (ProQuest)
• ArticleFirst (OCLC); COMPENDEX (Elsevier)
• Current Contents: Engineering, Computing & Technology (Clarivate Analytics)
• Earth, Atmospheric & Aquatic Science Database (ProQuest)
• Electrical & Electronics Abstracts (IET)
• Google Scholar (Google)
• INSPEC (IET)
• Materials Science & Engineering Database (ProQuest)
• Natural Science Collection (ProQuest)
• Science Citation Index Expanded (Clarivate Analytics)
• SciTech Premium Collection (ProQuest)
• SCOPUS (Elsevier)
• Technology Collection (ProQuest)
• Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics).

NAVIGATION’s Open Access model will also be coupled with changes to ION membership. The Institute of Navigation will eliminate the price differential that was required to cover international mailing costs for members who reside outside the United States.

Professional membership will increase benefits to include 12 complimentary technical paper downloads per month — up from 12 per year — from ION’s extensive database of technical papers published in official ION conference proceedings. Students, Retired and Corporate Associate members will also now enjoy 12 complimentary technical paper downloads per month. Premium Professional Member downloads will double from 25 to 50 complimentary technical paper downloads per month.

For more information on NAVIGATION, email publications@ion.org.