Published monthly by The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS), JOM is a technical journal devoted to exploring the many aspects of materials science and engineering. JOM reports scholarly work that explores the state-of-the-art processing, fabrication, design, and application of metals, ceramics, plastics, composites, and other materials. In pursuing this goal, JOM strives to balance the interests of the laboratory and the marketplace by reporting academic, industrial, and government-sponsored work from around the world.

Written for academic and industrial audiences alike, the journal is distributed to all members of TMS as well as nonmember subscribers; as a result, more than 10,000 individual readers see the journal each monthly. Additionally, the journal reaches more than 3,000 institutions and libraries. The readership consists of scientific, engineering, and management professionals and students from the manufacturing, processing, research, and academic sectors of the international materials community.

The editorial scope includes archival-quality technical papers, general overviews, economic outlooks, developments in engineering education, articles on professional concerns, archaeotechnology papers, research and business updates, meetings announcements, interviews, opinion pieces, conference and literature reviews, software coverage, and news about TMS. Each issue thoroughly explores at least two technical topics by presenting three to six articles on each subject. In this way, JOM provides well-rounded coverage of an array of materials-related subjects, from minerals characterization and developments in extraction to the production of advanced electronic materials and the performance of tomorrow's aerospace structural components.

To facilitate a wide scope of coverage, JOM uses a Technical Emphasis Calendar, which is assembled by the editorial staff in consultation with the JOM Advisory Committee. Each issue of JOM focuses on one theme comprising two or three technical topics, with each topic being sponsored by one or more technical committees. The editor or advisor acquires a prospective manuscript, both review it and consider the merit and compatibility of the paper with the proposed technical emphasis topic. Usually, this process takes about a month.

Potential authors should formally notify the editor of the desire to publish by submitting a 300-word abstract, probable title, and a brief biographical sketch using the abstract-submission form. Anyone wishing to publish in JOM should follow the guidelines established in the JOM Author's Guide, which features detailed information on communication, manuscript preparation, and publication procedure. Manuscripts are scheduled for publication according to the Technical Emphasis Calendar. If an article is not compatible with an upcoming topic, it must be very general in content to qualify for consideration as a non-topically aligned paper.