Background info:

OJ-UFFC was created as a gold fully open-access topical journal in 2020. An IEEE Policy shift in November 2022 (https://open.ieee.org/transformative-journals-plans/) qualified all of IEEE’s hybrid journals as ‘transformative journals’ under Plan S. With this change, authors receiving research grants from Coalition S funders are now compliant with Plan S requirements when publishing their research articles in any IEEE fully open access or hybrid journals.
 

This policy change puts T-UFFC and OJ-UFFC in direct competition as they both attract contributions from: medical ultrasonics; transducer & transducer materials; sensors and, at a relatively lower rate, from physical acoustics; surface and bulk acoustic waves; ferroelectrics and frequency control.

In response to this, active discussion with focus groups including UFFC members active in ultrasonics, ferroelectric, and frequency control has been ongoing and a motion was passed at the April 2024 IEEE UFFC Adcom meeting that “the Publications Committee and the Editor-in-Chief of the Transactions commence formal procedures regarding the scope change of the Transactions UFFC into a journal focused on Ultrasonics." The intention is that the changed scope of the Transactions will include all current areas of Ultrasonics and topics from Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control that are directly related to research on Ultrasonics. The Open Journal will accept papers covering all topics from all three technical areas.

To prepare the scope and title change process and to best differentiate between the two journals of the IEEE UFFC-S to allow these two journals to continue serving the UFFC-S community in the best way possible, we would like you to complete the following survey concerning desired scopes and possible new names for the two journals.