Publication Guide
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) has published engineering research since its founding in 1880, and its Transactions journals remain the reference venues for mechanical engineering worldwide. The portfolio is compact - roughly 35 peer-reviewed journals - but unusually deep within one discipline: applied mechanics, heat and mass transfer, fluids, turbomachinery, design, manufacturing, tribology, energy, and biomechanical engineering all have a dedicated ASME title, and most trace their lineage back decades (the Journal of Applied Mechanics dates to 1933).
Two things changed recently that authors should know. First, the flagship thermal-sciences title Journal of Heat Transfer (1959-2022) was renamed the ASME Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer beginning in 2023. Second, in April 2026 ASME announced an agreement under which Wiley operates a significant portion of its journals publishing business - sales, marketing, and the Digital Collection - while ASME retains copyright, editorial governance, and peer review. As part of this partnership, manuscript submissions are progressively moving from ASME's own Journal Tool to Wiley's Research Exchange (ReX) platform.
Which ASME journal fits your paper?
ASME's titles map cleanly onto mechanical-engineering subfields, so journal choice is usually about scope fit and open-access needs rather than tiering.
| You're most likely to... | Choose this route |
|---|---|
| Have a theoretical or computational solid-mechanics paper | Journal of Applied Mechanics - ASME's oldest Transactions title and the core venue for fundamental mechanics. |
| Work on conduction, convection, radiation, or multiphase transport | ASME Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer - the renamed Journal of Heat Transfer, the society's flagship thermal-sciences journal. |
| Study machining, additive manufacturing, or production systems | Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering - the standard manufacturing-research venue. |
| Research design theory, optimization, or mechanisms | Journal of Mechanical Design - covers design automation, design theory, and mechanism synthesis. |
| Work on gas turbines, combustion, or power systems | Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power or Journal of Turbomachinery - closely tied to the ASME Turbo Expo community. |
| Need a fast, fully open-access venue for any mechanical-engineering topic | ASME Open Journal of Engineering - the society's broad-scope Gold OA journal with the lowest APC. |
| Want a state-of-the-art review published or commissioned | Applied Mechanics Reviews - invited and contributed review articles across mechanics. |
What ASME actually publishes
- ~35 Transactions journals covering every mechanical-engineering subfield, most titled "Journal of ..." and collectively known as the Transactions of the ASME.
- ASME Open Journal of Engineering - a fully open-access, broad-scope journal launched in 2022.
- Conference proceedings - one of the largest engineering-proceedings archives (Turbo Expo, IDETC-CIE, IMECE, and dozens more), hosted in the ASME Digital Collection.
- Books and standards - ASME retains its book program (about 400 print and 200+ digital titles) and is the world's leading mechanical-engineering standards body (e.g., the Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code), though standards sit outside the journals program.
Open access and APCs
ASME is a hybrid publisher: every journal offers an open-access option, and one journal is fully OA. There are no submission or page charges for standard subscription-route papers.
| Route | Cost (2026) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription route (any ASME journal) | $0 | No fee to submit or publish a standard research paper. |
| Hybrid OA in any Transactions journal | $3,000 | CC BY license; payment required before publication. |
| ASME Open Journal of Engineering (Gold OA) | 1,950 non-members | The cheapest OA route; ASME membership saves $250. |
| Conference proceedings OA | ~$1,500 per paper | Optional OA for proceedings papers. |
| Green OA (self-archiving) | $0 | Accepted-manuscript archiving permitted; check per-title terms. |
Authors at institutions with an ASME Read & Publish agreement - including CAUL member universities in Australia and New Zealand and several US universities such as Michigan and Vanderbilt - can have the APC waived or discounted. Check the ESAC registry or ask your library. APCs are revised periodically, so confirm on ASME's publication-charges page before submitting.
Peer review
ASME journals use single-anonymized peer review: reviewers know the authors' identities, but not vice versa. Review is managed by volunteer associate editors drawn from the relevant ASME technical divisions, which keeps evaluation close to the practitioner and research communities. Turnaround varies by title and is not centrally published - check recent papers' submitted/accepted dates or the journal's page for a realistic estimate.
How to submit
- Pick the journal. Match your topic to the Transactions title with the closest scope, or choose the ASME Open Journal of Engineering for a broad-scope OA venue.
- Read the author guidelines. ASME journals share common format rules (ASME numbered citation style, defined figure and SI-unit conventions) plus per-title scope statements.
- Prepare your manuscript. Use the ASME Word or LaTeX template on SciSpace to meet the format requirements first time.
- Submit via the right platform. Historically ASME's own Journal Tool (journaltool.asme.org); under the Wiley partnership, titles are migrating to Wiley Research Exchange (ReX). Each journal's page tells you which system it currently uses.
- Pay only if you choose OA. Standard papers publish free; the APC invoice applies only to open-access articles.
Ethics and integrity
ASME is a member of COPE, OASPA, and STM, and follows COPE guidance on corrections and retractions. Authors retain copyright under CC BY for open-access articles; subscription articles use a standard copyright transfer to ASME. Under the 2026 Wiley agreement, editorial governance and peer-review processes remain fully with ASME.
