Focus: The International Journal of Refrigeration (IJR)

In 1978 the International Institute of Refrigeration (IIR) launched a new international scientific journal, the IJR. The first volume of the IJR consisted of 4 issues comprising 29 scientific articles in all. Today, we publish 8 issues with an average of 200 articles per year.
In 1978 the International Institute of Refrigeration (IIR) launched a new international scientific journal, the IJR. At that time, the IIR was already 70 years old. The first Editor-in-Chief, Prof. G. G. Haselden, University of Leeds, UK, mentioned in his introductory Editorial that “…Now, with the unanimous backing of its Scientific Council and Executive Committee, it is embarking on a new enterprise to bring new knowledge in the field of refrigeration much more quickly to a larger readership”.

The first volume of the IJR consisted of 4 issues comprising 29 scientific articles in all. Today, we publish 8 issues with an average of 200 articles per year. The spirit, the concept and the aims of the Journal have not changed, but the size, worldwide distribution and the IJR’s international reputation and scope have grown tremendously. The IJR is now the world’s leading journal in the field of refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pump technology.

The most innovative step in the IJR’s history was to go online in 2006. All articles ever published in the IJR can be found and downloaded from the Web. We are observing an exponential increase in downloads of full-text IJR articles. In 2011, a level of over 1100 downloads per day was reached.

The chart shows the origin of accepted papers in 2011. We received about one third from Asian and European countries, respectively. About 19% came from American countries, and an increasing number of accepted articles come from the Middle East (13% in 2011).
                
An indicator for the quality and international reputation of a scientific journal is the Citation Impact Factor (IF). Like other indicators, it continuously increased from a level of 0.5 in 2000 to 1.817 (©Thomson Reuters Journal Citation Reports 2012) for 2011. The IJR is now ranked 16th out of 121 journals in mechanical engineering.

Our readers like state-of-the-art articles. On the average, we publish one per issue. Each accepted one is rewarded by a fee of 500 €. Also, Special Issues on news within our scope of topics are very welcome by the community. At present, several are being prepared, and cover: Boiling and Condensation, Compressor Technology, Magnetic Refrigeration, and Solar Cooling.

The success of the Journal is closely related to the quality of our authors and reviewers. The best authors are rewarded every year by two ‘Best Paper Awards’.

Today, the IJR looks back on a positive development, and with the help of the IIR community, we, the Editorial Board (Hein Auracher, Keumnam Cho, Eckhard Groll, Jacques Guilpart, Tuan Pham, Akio Saito, Felix Ziegler), can expect ongoing success.

Corporate and private members of the IIR are entitled to a free subscription to the paper IJR. Furthermore IJR articles can be downloaded via the IIR’s Fridoc database on its Web site, and members benefit from quotas of free downloads.

Hein Auracher, Editor-in-Chief