Some may recall that twenty-five years ago in January 1983 the rapidly growing Journal of Mechanical Design was divided into two daughter journals. One became the Journal of Vibration and Acoustics and the other, the Journal of Mechanisms, Transmissions and Automation in Design, was renamed the Journal of Mechanical Design in 1990. This later version of the Journal of Mechanical Design has grown to 1600 pages published monthly, and recently echoes arose of the challenges that lead to the division of the previous version, however, our response this time is different.
Even as the Journal of Mechanical Design was recognized as the premier venue for the publication of mechanical design research and among the top ten of mechanical engineering journals, rapidly expanding research interests in a wide range of areas lead many in our design research community to feel their needs were not being met. Discussions in the technical committees of the Design Engineering Division and in the Executive Committee explored a variety of ways to accommodate new and exciting design research in a way that preserves the success of the Journal of Mechanical Design. The Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics was the outcome.
It is an honor to introduce to you the first issue of the new Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics, and I hope you find the wide range of topics presented in this inaugural issue to be exciting and new to our mechanical engineering design research community. I recently looked at the tables of contents of recent issues of the Journal of Mechanical Design and was struck by the number of new directions that I had not seen during my past years of service to that journal. It is clear that our authors are already taking advantage of the presence of these two journals to expand the scope of their contributions to design research.
It is this expansion both in breadth and depth of scholarship lead by our authors that ensures the success of the Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics and the Journal of Mechanical Design as they strive to serve our research community.
