Ad Hoc Committee on Journal Branding-A4E3526B
Home
/
Publication
Date: April 30, 2018
To: ExCom
From: Ad Hoc Committee on Journal Branding (AHJB):
Sam Armato, Jeff Williamson, Michael Mills, Per Halverson, Shiva Das, Colin Orton, Bruce Thomadsen, Michelle Svatos (chair)
Background
The AHJB committee was formed in November 2017 with the immediate goal of determining whether and how to update the journal covers of Medical Physics and JACMP, given that Wiley offers all new customers a free service to update the journal cover if so desired.
After meetings and email discussions, it was decided that there would be significant advantages to modernizing the journal covers. Most importantly, a cohesive “look and feel” to the covers could make both journals immediately recognizable as AAPM publications, of equal status, which together provide coverage to the full spectrum of topics and practices of interest to Medical Physicists today. A cleaner, crisper look could have the potential to draw in newer readers and intrigue them to take a closer look, while also indicating ongoing investment in our publications to our established audiences. After iterating on multiple examples and employing the help of AAPM staff expertise in graphic design (Abby Pardes and Farhana Khan), the attached cover samples were chosen as most promising. We brought these designs to Wiley, and found their team could indeed replicate them for publication with only very minor changes.
Highlights of the proposed changes include
(1) a uniform updated cover font, echoing the AAPM newsletter font;
(2) related layout for both journals with corresponding elements lining up where possible (title block, logo, issue/volume/date, publisher acknowledgement, etc);
(3) new color for JACMP, which is the AAPM “teal” from the webpage, complementing the traditional Medical Physics burgundy (note both colors stand distinct alongside the AAPM logo color in royal blue);
(4) cover art from featured authors is larger on Med Phys with no caption – captions will appear in the frontmatter (example attached); meanwhile the cover for JACMP, rarely seen in full resolution given its online-only format, was proposed as a constant but slightly updated image suggesting voxels;
(5) simpler text on the Med Phys cover (the “hybrid gold open access” statement was deemed no longer necessary) and the statement about being an “official journal of AAPM” and other organizations is now phrased exactly the same on both journals;
(6) Wiley, as publisher, is acknowledged with the single word in their font, rather than written in the paragraph, as is the case for many of their other journals.
A frontmatter sample for Medical Physics is also attached, with two comments added to point out the new title treatment and author cover art caption.
Recommendations from AHJB:
1- Proceed with Wiley to implement the new cover templates (see attached) for both Medical Physics and Journal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics, as soon as reasonably possible.
2- If there are no further assignments for this committee, the AHJB mission should be considered complete when the new cover templates are implemented.
See the covers in the complete report here
To: ExCom
From: Ad Hoc Committee on Journal Branding (AHJB):
Sam Armato, Jeff Williamson, Michael Mills, Per Halverson, Shiva Das, Colin Orton, Bruce Thomadsen, Michelle Svatos (chair)
Background
The AHJB committee was formed in November 2017 with the immediate goal of determining whether and how to update the journal covers of Medical Physics and JACMP, given that Wiley offers all new customers a free service to update the journal cover if so desired.
After meetings and email discussions, it was decided that there would be significant advantages to modernizing the journal covers. Most importantly, a cohesive “look and feel” to the covers could make both journals immediately recognizable as AAPM publications, of equal status, which together provide coverage to the full spectrum of topics and practices of interest to Medical Physicists today. A cleaner, crisper look could have the potential to draw in newer readers and intrigue them to take a closer look, while also indicating ongoing investment in our publications to our established audiences. After iterating on multiple examples and employing the help of AAPM staff expertise in graphic design (Abby Pardes and Farhana Khan), the attached cover samples were chosen as most promising. We brought these designs to Wiley, and found their team could indeed replicate them for publication with only very minor changes.
Highlights of the proposed changes include
(1) a uniform updated cover font, echoing the AAPM newsletter font;
(2) related layout for both journals with corresponding elements lining up where possible (title block, logo, issue/volume/date, publisher acknowledgement, etc);
(3) new color for JACMP, which is the AAPM “teal” from the webpage, complementing the traditional Medical Physics burgundy (note both colors stand distinct alongside the AAPM logo color in royal blue);
(4) cover art from featured authors is larger on Med Phys with no caption – captions will appear in the frontmatter (example attached); meanwhile the cover for JACMP, rarely seen in full resolution given its online-only format, was proposed as a constant but slightly updated image suggesting voxels;
(5) simpler text on the Med Phys cover (the “hybrid gold open access” statement was deemed no longer necessary) and the statement about being an “official journal of AAPM” and other organizations is now phrased exactly the same on both journals;
(6) Wiley, as publisher, is acknowledged with the single word in their font, rather than written in the paragraph, as is the case for many of their other journals.
A frontmatter sample for Medical Physics is also attached, with two comments added to point out the new title treatment and author cover art caption.
Recommendations from AHJB:
1- Proceed with Wiley to implement the new cover templates (see attached) for both Medical Physics and Journal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics, as soon as reasonably possible.
2- If there are no further assignments for this committee, the AHJB mission should be considered complete when the new cover templates are implemented.
See the covers in the complete report here