Dec 10, 2010Throughout the past five years, I've been approached by many academics seeking to publish academic papers and asking if RFID Journal articles are ever peer-reviewed. The answer is no, but there is a need for a peer-reviewed journal, and I'm glad one is now being launched—namely, the International Journal of RF Technologies: Research and Applications.
This journal will establish a forum for exchanging information and research results regarding RF technology deployment, data analytics and business value creation. I fully support its launch, as it complements the work of the RFID Academic Convocation, which I helped get off the ground, and that of the Global RF Lab Alliance (GRFLA).
The RFID Academic Convocation is a series of events organized by the Auto-ID Labs at MIT and academics from around the world. Its mission has been to foster dialogue and collaboration among academics doing applied research, and with end users seeking to deploy RFID systems. The Global RF Lab Alliance is made up of labs from around the world that share ideas and research results.
The new journal's editor-in-chief is Bill Hardgrave, head of the University of Arkansas' RFID Research Center. Bill and a team of other editors are looking for articles focusing on how to deploy RF technologies to create business value. Potential technologies to be covered in the journal include radio frequency identification (RFID), real-time location systems (RTLS), near-field communication (NFC) and RF-based sensors.
For data analytics, the journal will publish articles that focus on how and where to capture data (such as real-time, at the device or on the server). It will also present approaches for finding patterns in the data that may reveal process anomalies or areas for improvement, and examine the development and use of software related to RF technologies.
One thing I like about this approach is that while the journal will support solid scientific research, it will publish only "innovative and challenging papers that have a clear applicability to the business world and are focused on driving business value." The editors are defining business value broadly: any use of RF technologies that transforms "an input into a more valuable output."
The editors are now actively encouraging submissions. To learn how submit your paper, visit www.informaworld.com/rftechnologies and click on the "authors" tab.
All papers will be peer-reviewed and, if accepted, guaranteed rapid publication. Articles and inquiries should be directed to
journal@grfla.org. Or, for more information about the journal, visit www.informaworld.com/rftechnologies.