The "Diamond" standard: an AI interview with the EIC, Francesco Iacoviello

 

1. The "Why" behind the Diamond

AI: Let’s start with the elephant in the room—or rather, the Diamond. Most high-impact journals today are leaning heavily into APCs (Article Processing Charges), yet you’ve stuck to the Diamond Open Access model. For an author deciding where to send their best work, what does this 'free to read, free to publish' philosophy say about the journal's soul?

FI: In recent years, the opportunities for authors to publish their papers with different editorial models have increased dramatically. Considering the presence in the “market” of really good “subscription journals”, in the last two decades new publication models became more an more popular: gold open access, where the authors or their institutions have to pay Article Processing Charge (APC), hybrid model, where subscription journals gives to the authors the opportunity to make their article Open Access… paying APC,  green open access where the authors deposit a version of the paper in public repositories, often after an embargo period, or diamond/platinum open access, where the cost for authors and readers is 0 are only some example. The Italian Group of Fracture decided in 2007 (almost twenty years ago!) to start the publication of Fracture and Structural integrity (formerly, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale) as a Diamond OA journal because we strongly believed, and we still believe, in free research, without any restrictions due to financial constraints, or political, religious, or cultural reasons. Our journal is open to the contribution from any country, and the financial constraints are not a limit for a publication. A really good motivation for an author to publish in a Diamond Open Access journal is that this publication model offers a good compromise between high visibility and zero costs… and I think that this is really a good reason!

 

2. Speed vs. rigor: the balancing act

AI: Authors are always in a rush—we get it. But in the world of structural integrity, a mistake in peer review isn't just an erratum; it’s a safety issue. How does the journal manage to keep the review process fast and agile without losing that critical, fine-tooth-comb scrutiny that the fracture mechanics community depends on?

FI: First of all, we check the presence of plagiarism/selfplagiarism and AI contributionwith one of the best services, iThenticate. In addition, we adopted the TITAN2025 guidelines to navigate the AI revolution, allowing the authors to use the possibilities offered by this new technology, but maintaining an ethic approach to the paper preparation. After that … our Reviewers panel is simply fantastic! About four hundred colleagues registered themselves in the journal website, being categorized according to their expertise. In addition, we also activated the service “Reviewer Credits” that allows us to find other motivated and competent reviewers. With this double approach, it is not too hard for the journal to find two or three colleagues that are available to spend their time and their efforts volunteering as reviewers for our journal. This allows us to keep the publication time mean value below five-six weeks from the first submission. Sometimes the process takes a bit longer, often due to multiple rounds of review. This is especially true for young researchers, where extra feedback is vital—and quality coaching simply takes time!

 

3. Beyond the PDF: the community services

AI: You offer more than just a landing page for papers; there are video presentations, workshops, and a very active involvement with the Italian Group of Fracture (IGF). How do these 'extra' services transform a standard publication into a living tool for a researcher’s career?

FI: The development of our journal was simply amazing. We started publishing paper in Italian with a double column format… really hard to be read on a mobile screen. Thank we changed to the one column format, adopting English as the official language of the journal. Than, we published the issues in a browsable format using the software FlippingBook. After that, gradually, we published for each paper the Visual Abstracts (a two minutes video with the “core” of the paper), the Graphical Abstract (prepared using NotebookLM and approved by the authors), the podcast, always prepared using NotebookLM, and, finally, the HTML version. All these services have different goals and, maybe, a different audience. Some of them are dedicated to offer to the potential readers a quick overview of the paper content, other try to offer to the readers the best reading experience depending on the device. According to our statistics, all these services are really appreciated by our community. Just as an example, we started publishing the Visual Abstracts in July 2018 and, in a few years, we had more than 120000 visualizations!

 

4. Navigating the indexing jungle

AI: With the journal being indexed in Scopus and Web of Science, you’ve hit the 'prestige' milestones. But for a young researcher looking at metrics like CiteScore or Impact Factor, why should they see Fracture and Structural Integrity as a strategic home for their high-citation work compared to the 'big-box' commercial publishers?

FI: Many colleagues, no matter if young or “senior”, complain about being “forced” to publish papers in subscription, hybrid or Gold OA journals as a publication in a high-impact journal is necessary or mandatory for their career. New approaches to the metrics are becoming increasingly popular, for example, PlumX, which is already integrated in our journal. In my opinion, a journal like Fracture and Structural Integrity will be able to adapt easily to these new metrics. In addition, given the 2025 Scimago results, with a Q2 across all indexed categories, I think Fracture and Structural Integrity can be considered a good impact journal! 😅

 

5. The “structural” future of the field

AI: "Fracture mechanics is evolving—we’re seeing more AI integration, additive manufacturing challenges, and multi-scale modeling. As EIC, when you look at the submissions crossing your desk today, what emerging trends get you truly excited about the next five years of the journal?"

FI: Considering the rate of technological evolution, I think it’s quite difficult to forecast any emerging trends over the next five months! However, I am thrilled by the possibilities offered by AI, but it is crucial to maintain an ethical approach to its use… and I think this will be the most important challenge in the coming months, not years!

 

6. A personal note to the skeptic

AI: If you were sitting down for a coffee with a researcher who has only ever published in traditional, paywalled journals and is skeptical about the 'independent' model, what would be your 30-second pitch to convince them to join your community?

FI: The publication models are continuously evolving. My suggestion for a skeptic is to use all the publication models that are ethically correct, giving a chance also to Diamond Open Access journals … you might be surprised by the results!!

The digital revolution: responsive HTML is the future

Let's face it: we've all done it. You are on the train or waiting for a coffee, and think about that paper you have to read. You locate it on your phone, open the PDF, and then… the "pinch and zoom" saga commences. You pinch and zoom to the left for the first column, to the right for the second, and then you stop because the text is too small and the images are three screens away from their references.

At Fracture and Structural Integrity (F&SI) we want to make it easier to read great research on fracture mechanics. So, with Issue 71 in January 2025, we've taken a major step: all our articles are now available in responsive HTML.

This is more than a "nice-to-have" - it's a game-changer for science publishing. Here's why responsive HTML is the future.

No more "PDF-only" publishing

The PDF has dominated academic publishing for many years. You can print it and it won't change the layout. But the truth is, the PDF is a static document from the paper age. It doesn't know if you're reading it on a smartphone, a tablet or 27-inch screen.

Our responsive HTML version will. The text will wrap to your screen whether you're in the lab or on the go. No more horizontal scrolling. No more eye strain. It's easier to find, and quicker to access, on the go or at home.

Better for you, better for Google (SEO)

You've done the hard work, you want others to access your research. In the online environment, if search engines can't "read" your content, it's equivalent to not being there at all.

The web is written in HTML. By doing this, we are greatly improving the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) of each article. So your article is more likely to be found on Google Scholar and other international databases. We've even changed the journal name to English to make it easier for our international audience to locate these articles.

The "Diamond" standard in a digital world

We are using the latest technology but our principles remain the same. F&SI is still a Diamond Open Access journal. That means it is free for authors and readers, funded by the Italian Group of Fracture (IGF) and crowdfunding.

We are also pioneering ethics with our TITAN 2025 guidelines, meaning that if you use AI in your work, you can do it openly and transparently. With tools such as Contrimetric, which measure the social impact of your research in real time, we are creating a platform that is both cutting-edge and rigorous.

Give it a try!

If you haven't seen the January 2025 issue, please visit our website and click on the "HTML" link beside an article. Read it on your phone. Test the navigation. Watch the visual abstract, view the graphical abstract, or listen to the dedicated podcast!

The future is responsive, and it's fracture mechanics. We hope you enjoy this adventure with us.

Enjoy (no more zooming)!

Reflecting on a Year of Transformation for Fracture and Structural Integrity

It's hard to believe that another year has already come and gone. It feels like just yesterday we were celebrating the start of 2024, and now here we are, on the cusp of a brand new year. As we reflect on the past 12 months, we can't help but feel a sense of pride in all that we've accomplished here at Fracture and Structural Integrity. In 2024, we received 446 submissions and published 85 papers, resulting in an 84% rejection rate (73% at desk). The average time to rejection was just one day, and the time from submission to acceptance decreased significantly from 69 days in January 2024 to 48 days in October 2024. We published four issues featuring authors from a diverse range of countries, up to 19 countries in the April issue. 

It's been a year of significant change and growth for our journal, and we're excited to share some of the highlights with you.

New name, new look

One of the biggest changes we made this year was to our name. Formerly known as "Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale", we decided to rebrand ourselves as "Fracture and Structural Integrity." This new name in English will improve the journal's visibility, especially in web search engines.

New publishing schedule

Furthermore, 2024 saw the implementation of a new publishing schedule, enabling immediate paper publication upon acceptance of proofs and the uploading of Visual Abstracts.

Embracing the future of publishing with our AI policy

Another major change we made this year was introducing a new AI policy. This policy outlines authors, reviewers, and editors' acceptable use of generative AI tools. AI has the potential to revolutionize the publishing process, and we're committed to embracing these new technologies responsibly and ethically.

Launching our new podcast platform

We're also excited to announce the launch of our new podcast platform. This platform will feature interviews and podcasts on various fracture and structural integrity topics. We believe this is a great way to engage with our readers and share our knowledge with a broader audience.

Looking ahead to 2025

We're incredibly proud of all we've accomplished this year and excited to see what the future holds for Fracture and Structural Integrity. We're committed to continuing to publish high-quality research in the field of fracture and structural integrity, and we look forward to serving our community for many years to come.

We'd like to take this opportunity to thank our authors, reviewers, editors, and readers for their continued support. We couldn't do it without you!

In the meantime, we wish you all a very happy and successful New Year!

OK, now we have an Impact Factor... a revolution is necessary!

 

In June 2023, FIS obtained an IF! 

This great result was possible only thanks to the Section Editors time, to the Editorial boards members help, to the reviewers efforts and, last but not least, to the authors who considered FIS as a good platform to publish their papers! … A value of 1.4 is not exceptional, but, considering that the journal is completely based on the volunteers’ time and that any APC are requested, this value is not terrible! 

In the last years, the number of submissions to FIS dramatically increased. Considering 81 submissions in the July-November 2020 period (the pandemic crisis year), we had 166, 282, 252 submissions in the same periods of the years 2021, 2022, and 2023 respectively. Although we have a high rejection rate (higher than 90%), this huge number of submissions forced us to modify the structure of the journal. 

Some weeks ago, we renewed the list of Thematic Sections, trying to offer to the authors a more complete and “equilibrated” choice:

1) Analytical, computational and physical Models

2) Damage mechanics

3) Environmentally assisted fracture

4) Failure Analysis and Forensic Engineering

5) Fatigue and Fracture of metallic alloys

6) Fatigue and Fracture of non-metallic materials

7) Integrity of materials and structures

This implied a renewal both of the Section Editors team and of the Editorial Board.  

In addition, we are working on the papers structure. Starting from the next section (January 2024), the authors will be asked to prepare their visual abstract according to a template. This visual abstract will be directly available in the pdf and in the browsable version of the paper, while the written version of the abstract will be always available on the website page of each paper. The first VAs prepared according to the new template are already available on the YouTube channel dedicated to Visual Abstracts.

This is, maybe, the most important “revolution” of our journal of the last years. 

If you have any suggestions to further improve the journal, please, do not hesitate to post your suggestions in the comments or, privately, using the dedicated form.

Do you enjoy social media?

Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, Telegram … both Gruppo Italiano Frattura (IGF) and Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale (FIS) are active on all these social media. They are mainly used to spread news and info about the IGF activities (the organization of events, for example) and to inform our community about the papers publication on the IGF journal. 

Analyzing the IGF social media, here you find some more details:

• Facebook (IGF): it is used to spread the info about the events organized by IGF, the publication of issues on Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale or on Procedia Structural Integrity, or, even, the organization of events that could be of interest for the IGF community. Sometimes, the IGF Facebook page is used to stream live the events organized by IGF. This page is also used to collect the pictures of the events organized by IGF,
• Facebook (FIS): it is dedicated to spread the info about the publication of papers on FIS, the publication of issues or, even, the activation of new services. 
• YouTube (IGF): this channel is active since 2011 and it is used to publish the presentations that were held during the IGF events (since IGF19, Milan 2007). More than 1300 videos are available, with more than 650 subscribers. The IGF YouTube channel is also used to stream live the events organized by IGF.
• YouTube (FIS): this channel is active since 2018 and it is used to publish Visual abstracts. Since July 2018, all the papers published in FIS are connected to Visual Abstracts, trying to offer a quick view of the paper content. 
• LinkedIn & Twitter: the activity on these platforms is similar to the Facebook (IGF) page.
• Telegram: It is mainly used to publish news about the IGF activities and FIS publications.

Do you have any suggestions to improve our social media activity?

We are now thinking about the possibility to activate a podcast platform ... do you think it will be useful for our community? 

In case of a positive answer, do you think that this platform will have to be focused on the IGF journal (publishing "audio abstracts", for example) or will have to publish interviews or podcasts on topics of interest for our community? 

Please, share your thoughts about it. Any suggestions will be welcome!

Help us to improve the journal!

 

Many high-quality journals focused on the same FIS topics are already published by many professional publishers. Since the first issue, it was clear that Frattura ed Integrita Strutturale (FIS) couldn't be simply an additional journal offered to our community. It was necessary that it should offer something different. 

First of all, IGF decided to organize FIS as a Diamond Open Access journal, without APC and completely free for the readers. Obviously, also the Open Access has a cost (we recently published a post on this topic), but the number of participants to the next IGF27 (February 22-24, 2023) demonstrated that our community understood and appreciated the approach we are following!

Then, in the years, we started offering some different services. Among them, we can recall:

- we adopt OJS, Open Journal System in order to handle the submission, reviewing, publishing and distributing processes;

- papers are published according to the CC-BY 4.0 license; Authors are allowed to retain both the copyright and the publishing rights of their articles without restrictions; each paper has its own DOI (Digital Object Identifier); 

- the Authors have the possibility to embed videos, animations and audio files in their papers;

- all the issue are published also in a browsable version (LINK);

- all the papers are immediately published after acceptance in the "Online first" section;

- we offer the possibility to comment the papers;

- all the papers are organized in "Categories", allowing to the Readers to immediately find the papers focused on many different topics;

- since issue 45, July 2018, Visual Abstracts for all the published papers are published in a dedicated YouTube channel (LINK), improving the papers visibility;

- the publication of this Blog.

... and many other minor services!

Thanks to the quality of the published papers, and to the help of many friends as reviewers or editors, we obtained the journal indexing in many databases like Scopus, WoS etc... and we increased our usefulness for our community... and this is more important!

Now, we are asking you to help us to further improve the journal and its usefulness for our community. 

Please, if you have an idea for a new service to be implemented, for something that you think could be useful, please, do not hesitate to share your thoughts by posting your comment to this post! Ciao!

Issue 63 (January 2023): visual abstracts

 

We started publishing the Visual Abstracts for all the papers published in Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale in July 2018. After 18 issues and 52465 views, the statistics confirm the usefulness of the Visual Abstracts YouTube channel  in supporting the papers visibility. Please, share with us your thoughts and your suggestions to further improve the usefulness of this channel! 

Here you find the visual abstracts of the issue 63 (January 2023).

   

     

   

  

  

   

   

   

   

   

      

 

    

Let’s talk about money and open access

Short 2022 report about Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale:

• Submitted papers: 508
• Accepted papers: 137
• Rejection rate: 73% (94% in the last three months!)

We are grateful for the help of editors, members of the editorial boards, reviewers and, obviously, authors: it is only thanks to this wonderful community that it was possible for Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale to improve year after year its quality and its usefulness for our community. 

This amazing result was possible only to their help and … to money! Money is not for salaries (nobody is paid in our journal… we are all volunteers!) but it is necessary for the publication of the papers.

According to Google, “Diamond Open Access refers to a scholarly publication model in which journals and platforms do not charge fees to either authors or readers. Diamond Open Access journals are community-driven, academic-led, and academic-owned publishing initiatives”.

Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale is a “diamond” open access journal. 

But the publication of an OA paper has a cost … considering the cost of Journal website maintenance, templates and plug-ins, DOIs, Crossref, Plagiarism check software, Reviewers acknowledgment service, Flipping book software and miscellanea, the final amount is about 12000 euros per year. 

For the Gruppo Italiano Frattura (IGF, the journal publisher) the only way to publish the journal is to find about 12000 euros per year. The “business model” adopted by IGF is really simple:

• IGF organizes conferences (with really low fees);
• The money collected with the fees is completely used for the conferences organization and for the journal.

For this reason, if you love Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale and the possibility it offers to our community to publish papers with a good quality standard (without APC!), join the events organized by IGF!

The next event organized by IGF is IGF27, the 27th International Conference on Fracture and Structural Integrity (February 22-24, 2023)

The registration and abstract submission deadline is not far! Join us and enjoy the conference and the journal! Ciao

Visual Abstracts: Report and suggestions

 

Since July 2018 (issue 45), we “forced” all the authors to submit a Visual Abstract with the paper to be published in Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale. We opened a YouTube channel dedicated to the FIS Visual Abstracts and we started publishing the Visual Abstracts … we think that after four years we have to check if it was a good idea and if this channel is useful for the authors to spread their own papers and if this channel is appreciated by the readers.

But first of all… what is a Visual Abstract (VA)? There is not a “standard” definition! For Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, a VA is short length presentation (2 minutes max) with the “core” of the paper. Longer VA are accepted, but we warmly advice all our authors to submit short VA, as the readers strongly appreciate them. We offer a tutorial to help the authors to prepare these visual abstracts: LINK.

At the moment, we have 51488 visualizations with 534 subscribers. The result is really interesting and it confirms the channel usefulness… but let’s check some diagrams.

Visualizations vs time

Viewers age

Traffic sources

Considering the diagrams above, the main comments are:

• The channel visibility and usefulness is more and more increasing: the visualization vs time diagram clearly shows this trend.
• VAs usefulness is confirmed, especially with younger researchers (more than 88% of our viewers is younger than 34!);
• The VA channel usefulness is confirmed by the traffic sources: only about 20%  of the views are due to links with the journal website or to links in playlist. About 80% of the views are due to searches that are “external” or directly on YouTube!

But … we want more! 

Please, post your comments and your suggestions… they will be warmly appreciated!

How to publish in FIS - Suggestions

Dear friends,

the FIS rejections rate is higher than 90%. It is evident that some suggestions are necessary! Here you can find a short list:

- prepare always the paper using the journal template following the authors' guidelines. This is mandatory. In particular, please, prepare the Refs. using the journal style.

- do not submit a paper that is not focused on one of the journal topics. Please, consider that the title of the journal is "Fracture and Structural Integrity". It means that either "fracture" or "structural integrity" must be evident in the paper! As a consequence, we will reject at the desk:

• Papers with only some mechanical tests results, without any discussion about the damaging mechanisms;
• Papers with only some numerical results, without any validation;
• Papers with some mechanical tests results, but with a focus that is clearly far from the journal's main topics.

- we check the plagiarism/self-plagiarism using iThenticate. There is not a defined threshold, as we check also the "quality" of the plagiarism/self-plagiarism. It means that a paper with a plagiarism/self-plagiarism score that is quite low (e.g., 20%), but that is due to a "copy and paste" of a paragraph, is rejected. In addition, we reject also papers with figures that are not original (we can accepte them only if the ref is clearly shown in the caption and a written permission is submitted to the journal).

- suggest the reviewers, but, please, avoid reviewers from your own country. They will not be accepted.

- after a review round, please, send the new version within one month (with all the requested files. After 30 days from the editor decision, the paper will be considered as withdrawn.

- after being accepted, the author receive the proofs. Please, send the proofs acceptance (or amendments) as soon as possible with the Visual Abstract;

- Visual Abstract is a short video presentation with the "core" of the paper: 2 minutes is the maximum suggested lenght. Longer videos are accepted, but we warmly advice to respect the maximum lenght (readers appreciate short videopresentations!).

Last but not least... the journal is a "Diamond" open access journal. No fees for the readers. No APC for the authors. Nobody is authorized to ask for money to publish a paper in Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale. In case of problems, send an email to gruppofrattura@gmail.com.

Please, share your opinions/suggestions!

Article Review Acknowledgement - NEW

​Dear friends,

we wish to thank all our reviewers for their help. Their crucial activity is already acknowledged with  "Clarivate" (formerly Publons) and "Reviewer Credits" (you find the links at the end of the reviewing process).

Starting from December 2022, we offer our reviewers the further possibility to obtain an immediate reviewer certificate and 10 euros of discount for the fees of the events that will be organized by IGF in 2023 (discounts are cumulable and can be used only for one event): LINK.

This is only a small reward to confirm our appreciation for the time and effort  spent by the reviewers.

By the way, don't forget the next IGF event:

IGF27, the 27th International Conference on Fracture and Structural Integrity

(February 22-24, 2023)

The event will be held at the Engineering Faculty of Rome "Sapienza", but remote participation will be also allowed (all the remote participants will be allowed to participate to all the sessions and discussion).

Please, don't forget that IGF conferences allow to Frattura ed integrità Strutturale to be a "diamond" open access journal, with no fees to either readers or authors... so... join us in Rome (or in remote!).

Please, share with us your comments and suggestions!