The Journal of Instrumentation (JINST ) is the fourth international, peer-reviewed, online-only journal created by the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) and the Institute of Physics Publishing (IOP Publishing), following the success of JHEP, JCAP and JSTAT. SISSA Medialab is in charge of the peer review of submissions, while IOP Publishing is in charge of the online publication of articles and subscriptions.

JINST covers major areas related to concepts and instrumentations in radiation detector physics, accelerator science and associated experimental methods and techniques, theory, modelling and simulations:

1. Accelerator science: concepts, modelling, simulations and sources
2. Instrumentation and hardware for accelerators: particles, synchrotron radiation, neutrons
3. Detector physics: concepts, processes, methods, modelling and simulations
4. Detectors apparatus and methods for particle, astroparticle, nuclear, atomic, and molecular physics and for synchrotron-radiation research
5. Methods and apparatus for astronomy and astrophysics
6. Detectors and apparatus for biomedical applications, life sciences and material research
7. Instrumentation and methods for plasma research
8. Instrumentation and techniques for medical imaging, diagnostics and therapy
9. Instrumentation and techniques for dosimetry, monitoring and radiation
10. Detectors and methods for non-destructive tests (NDT)
11. Detector readout concepts, electronics, trigger and data acquisition methods
12. Algorithms, software and data reduction methods
13. Materials and associated technologies, etc.
14. Engineering and technical issues.

The Journal's scope should not be regarded as fixed and will evolve and adapt over time to the changes in research trends.

Consequently, the Advisory and Editorial Boards, composed of distinguished scientists in the field, jointly establish the JINST 's scientific policy and ensure the scientific quality of accepted papers. Editors and referees operate anonymously, but they can reveal their identity to the authors if they so wish.

When submitting a paper to the Journal, contributors must look up the JINST list of keywords and choose the ones that best define the subject of their work. The JINST system will then automatically assign the submission to a member of the Editorial Board by choosing the best match of the author's keywords with the areas of expertise of the available editors, taking editor workload into account. Editors take full responsibility for the submission, either reviewing the preprint themselves or sending it to as many referees as may be necessary. Editors may also consult a fellow member of the Editorial Board. The criteria for acceptance are scientific quality, originality and relevance. Length should be appropriate to the information presented. Editors are asked to apply a strict quality filter in selecting contributions for publication. Editors and referees generally operate anonymously, but are free to reveal their identity to the authors if they so wish.

JINST has a regular Papers section and a Technical Reports section which share the same Advisory and Editorial Boards. Journal content also includes useful links to instrumentation groups, databases, conferences, proceedings, etc. Technical reports are reports on technical achievements related to topics covered by JINST. Technical reports must describe components, techniques, processes or results that do not fulfill the requirements for an Article but are nonetheless of value to the scientific community. Thus the emphasis is not necessarily on novelty or on scientific value, but rather on relevance to the community. Technical reports can be used to report on a significantly updated and improved instrument and must also include a comparison with physical data and demonstrate performance. Technical reports are a suitable complement to regular articles. Authors can include informative, detailed results on an instrument, measurement technique, or data analysis method.

On some occasions referees/editors may find that manuscripts submitted as regular articles are more suited to the category of technical reports. In such cases, the Editor will inform the author that his/her article is not suited for publication as a regular paper (stating the reasons) and will offer him/her the possibility to publish it as a technical report.

Proceedings contributions for conferences that have requested publication in JINST are also published in the Journal in a specific page dedicated to the conference. These submissions are processed and published separately with respect to research papers and technical reports, however the same criteria apply for acceptance of a preprint by JINST, such as high scientific quality and relevance. More in general, proceedings also should be aligned with common practices in the community as well as with the journal’s policies.

JINST is organised as follows:

• Scientific Director
• Advisory Board
• Editorial Board
• Editorial Office at SISSA Medialab
• Publishing Office at IOP Publishing

The Scientific Director is in charge of supervising the Editorial Board and monitoring the quality of the journal. The Scientific Director is first instance for an appeal in cases of disagreement between Authors and Editors.

The members of the Advisory Board periodically review the journal and advise on its scientific policy. The Advisory Board is consulted by the Scientific Director in the event of a major disagreement between Authors and Editors.

The Editorial Board JINST's most important asset. Editors are in charge of the peer-review of submissions and take themselves the final decision on whether or not to publish a contribution. JINST has a large Editorial Board, in order to provide competent coverage for all the areas indicated by the keywords and thus avoid generic decisions or the inappropriate selection of referees.

The Editorial Office is in charge of supervising the functioning of the Journal in collaboration with the Editorial Board. SISSA Medialab, where the Editorial Office is based, runs the software system that automates the editorial process.
The Editor-in-charge takes full responsibility for the paper. (S)he can assess it him/herself or send it to one or more referees. The Editorial Office monitors the journal daily, provides assistance to authors, editors and referees, and takes action in close collaboration with the Scientific Director in the event of any problems or delay that may arise.

The Publishing Office at IOP Publishing is responsible for the marketing and distribution of the Journal, including the publication of accepted contributions. As for archive preservation, IOP Publishing and SISSA Medialab are committed to maintaining the archive (i.e. through LOCKSS http://www.lockss.org) and take appropriate steps in the event of signifcant technology changes.

JINST is a joint SISSA Medialab-IOP Publishing publication. SISSA Medialab controls the peer-review of submitted manuscripts, while IOP Publishing is in charge of the publication of papers, which can be read and downloaded at http://iopscience.iop.org/jinst. The editorial website is hosted at SISSA Medialab (https://jinst.sissa.it/jinst) , where a web-based software system has been developed and is used to process submissions and the entire editorial procedure: the submission of preprints, their automatic assignment to the appropriate editors, the review by referees, the contacts between editors, referees and the Editorial Office, the revision and proof-reading of contributions and the delivery of contributions to the Publishing Office at IOP Publishing, as well as the administration of the journal. Editors, referees and authors have their personal web pages, where they can take action or check the status of preprints.

The JINST software relies on a powerful database that stores the files of the contributions, their metadata and, most importantly, all the correspondence between the journal users (authors, editors, referees, the editorial office and the typesetters). All users have a single username and password to access their home page on the JINST website for all of their different roles (author, editor or referee).

Published papers are available online through IOP Publishing's Electronic Journals service. Contributions are published as soon as they are available in their final form. Online publication offers enhanced features and functions:

• Powerful search engines replace the table of contents and indexes used by paper journals. Readers can `cluster' search results by topic.
• Extensive reference linking. IOP Publishing is part of CrossRef and also has bilateral reference-linking agreements with other physics publishers.
• Contributions are published in PDF format and are hypertextual, with links within the articles themselves and to the papers quoted in the references.
• Multimedia. JINST encourages authors to submit multimedia files to enhance the online version of published research articles. Multimedia enhancements typically consist of video clips, animations or supplementary files.

The JINST Editorial office can be contacted via email at jinst-eo@jinst.sissa.it

Sissa Medialab srl
Via Bonomea, 265
34136 Trieste - Italy
Tel. +39-040-3787 620
Fax. +39-040-3787 640
pec@pec.sissamedialab.it