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About the Journal

The Journal of Research of the National Institute of Standards and Technology was the flagship publication of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. It was published under various titles and forms since 1904, with its roots as Scientific Papers issued as the Bulletin of the Bureau of Standards.

In announcing the first volume of the Bulletin of the Bureau of Standards, S.W. Stratton (first Director of the Bureau) wrote:

"The Bulletin of the Bureau of Standards, of which this is the initial number, will embody the results of its investigations, researches, and other work which may be of importance to the scientific, technical, and manufacturing interests of the country."

In 1928, the Scientific Papers were combined with Technologic Papers, which reported results of investigations of material and methods of testing. This new publication was titled the Bureau of Standards Journal of Research. Beginning in 1959, the Journal was published in four separate sections, A, B, C, and D. Section A covered physical and chemical research, Section B covered studies in mathematics and mathematical physics, Section C covered engineering and instrumentation, and Section D covered research in radio propagation, communications, and atmospheric physics. In 1977 Sections A and B were combined and published as the Journal of Research of the National Bureau of Standards.1 After the National Bureau of Standards became the National Institute of Standards and Technology on August 23, 1988, the journal was renamed the Journal of Research of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. In 2012, Journal of Research of NIST moved to an electronic-only, rapid publication model.

The Journal of Research of NIST served as a major mechanism for NIST scientists to report on their research in metrology and related fields of physical science.

The Journal of Research of NIST remains an open access publication and all papers published within it are available for free. Papers published in the Journal of Research of NIST are not subject to copyright in the U.S. Authors may post the formatted versions on their websites. No fees are charged to authors. Please provide proper attribution for any use.

When citing articles from the Journal of Research of NIST  without issue or page numbers please use the article number and the following format:

Cook RF, Michaels CA (2017) Review: Coefficients for Stress, Temperature, and Composition Effects in Fluorescence Measurements of Alumina. J Res Natl Inst Stan 122:43. https://doi.org/10.6028/jres.122.043.

The Journal of Research of NIST will cease publication with Volume 126. All articles that have been published in the Journal of Research of NIST will continue to be available on the NIST website, and will be securely archived in PubMed Central and the NIST digital archives

[1] Schooley, J.F., Responding to National Needs: The National Bureau of Standards Becomes the National Institute of Standards and Technology, 1969-1993. Appendix J. https://doi.org/10.6028/nist.sp.955. Section C of the Journal ceased publication in 1972 and Section D continued to be published by the Environmental Science Services Administration beginning in 1966.
Created February 7, 2011, Updated March 1, 2022