Since 1929, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (JASA) has been the leading source of theoretical and experimental research results in the broad interdisciplinary subject of sound.

The journal serves physical scientists, life scientists, engineers, psychologists, physiologists, architects, musicians, and speech communication specialists.

Subjects include:

    Linear and nonlinear acoustics
    Aeroacoustics
    Underwater sound and acoustical oceanography
    Ultrasonics and quantum acoustics
    Architectural and structural acoustics and vibration
    Speech, music, and noise
    Psychology and physiology of hearing
    Engineering acoustics, sound transducers, and measurements
    Bioacoustics, animal bioacoustics, and bioresponse to vibration

All submissions for publication are subject to peer review to determine their suitability for publication. In addition to contributed manuscripts, the journal contains news items of interest to acoustical scientists, book reviews, references to contemporary papers in acoustics, reviews of acoustical patents, and news on the development of standards. Periodically the journal also issues cumulative indexes of published articles.

Special Issue on Wave phenomena in periodic, near-periodic, and locally resonant systems
Submission Date: 2024-12-31

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (JASA) and JASA Express Letters are calling for papers for a joint Special Issue on “Wave phenomena in periodic, near-periodic, and locally resonant systems”.

Periodic, near-periodic, and locally resonant vibroacoustic systems are receiving increasing research attention arising from their extraordinary capabilities to manipulate and control elastic and sound waves. Locally resonant systems, also called metamaterials, are artificially structured materials that can exhibit exotic wave phenomena due to the strong coupling of global (structural) and local (individual element) resonances. Periodic, near-periodic, and locally resonant systems can achieve exceptional sound and vibration attenuation or transmission performance by utilizing multiple wave scattering. The emergence of the new wave phenomena including subwavelength resonant scattering, focusing, cloaking, trapping, and nonlinear wave interaction has resulted in wide-ranging multidisciplinary applications of vibroacoustic wave scattering systems and metamaterials such as non-destructive defect detection, acoustic tomography, and noise and vibration control. This Special Issue presents recent advances on periodic, near-periodic, and locally resonant vibroacoustic systems, covering fundamental aspects of the theory of multiple wave scattering to experimental studies that demonstrate performance and potential applications of the systems. Scientists, engineers, and industry practitioners working in this broad field are invited to present their work in this Special Issue.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

    Fundamental aspects of wave scattering in periodic, near-periodic, and locally resonant vibroacoustic systems
    Practical applications of periodic, near-periodic, and locally resonant vibroacoustic systems
    Tunable and reconfigurable systems
    Non-reciprocal wave propagation
    Nonlinear wave scattering and metamaterials
    Acoustic metasurfaces

If you have any questions about your intended paper, please email the Guest Editors.
Submission Deadline

    Deadline for manuscripts is 31 December 2024

Please note: Accepted papers will be published in the next available regular issue of the selected journal and identified as belonging to this Special Issue. After all papers from both journals have been published for the Special Issue, they will all be listed in a joint online collection on the JASA and JASA Express Letters websites.

Guest Editors:

Vladislav Sorokin
The University of Auckland, New Zealand
Email: v.sorokin@auckland.ac.nz

Luke Bennetts
University of Adelaide, Australia
Email: luke.bennetts@adelaide.edu.au

Nicole Kessissoglou*
UNSW Sydney, Australia
Email: n.kessissoglou@unsw.edu.au

Alex Skvortsov
Defence Science and Technology Group, Australia
Email: Alex.Skvortsov@dst.defence.gov.au

Special Issue on Climate Change: How the Sound of the Planet Reflects the Health of the Planet
Submission Date: 2024-12-31

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (JASA) and JASA Express Letters are calling for papers for a joint Special Issue on “Climate Change: How the Sound of the Planet Reflects the Health of the Planet.”

Climate change is altering ecosystem productivity and changing how species interact with each other and with their environment. It follows that the statistical structure of auditory environments of ecosystems will also be altered on a planetwide scale. Changes in overall ambient sound levels, as well as the spectral and temporal characteristics of altered ecosystem soundscapes reflect conditions with potentially grave consequences in an acoustic ecology framework. The highly adapted/specialized acoustic communication systems of terrestrial and aquatic life forms alike may be compromised when ecosystems undergo rapid transitions and associated soundscapes will be concomitantly altered.

In this regard, there is a need for the development and application of cost-effective acoustic instrumentation scaled and designed for deployment in widely varying environmental conditions with signal processing algorithms to track and extract relevant acoustic features of the changing soundscape as our planetary system warms, oceans acidify, weather events intensify, precipitation patterns evolve, and the human enterprise is transformed. Recognizing the urgency of the climate crisis, this Special Issue invites papers investigating efforts to monitor and mitigate the environmental, economic, and social disruption threatened by an increasingly warm planet.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

    Long-term studies documenting shifting soundscapes as global temperatures warm
    Investigations of ethological alterations and health of aquatic and terrestrial life forms (e.g., foraging, migratory patterns, communication) resulting from climate change
    Tracking changes in ocean temperature (e.g., ocean acoustic thermometry)
    Measurements of ocean acidification
    Monitoring changing weather patterns (including precipitation)
    Studies of environmental transformations caused by climate change
    Mapping underwater methane seeps
    Effects of green energy on the soundscape (e.g., wind turbines)
    Methods to monitor the carbon cycle and assess carbon sequestration
    Novel instrumentation and signal processing algorithms for monitoring climate change
    Modeling the acoustical effects of climate change
    Acoustic methods to mitigate climate change

If you have any questions about your intended paper, please email the Guest Editors.
Submission Deadline

    Deadline for manuscripts is 31 December 2024

Please note: Accepted papers will be published in the next available regular issue of the selected journal and identified as belonging to this Special Issue. After all papers from both journals have been published for the Special Issue, they will all be listed in a joint online collection on the JASA and JASA Express Letters websites.

Guest Editors:

Megan S. Ballard*
University of Texas at Austin, USA
meganb@arlut.utexas.edu

Edward J. Walsh
University of Minnesota, USA
ewalsh@umn.edu

Lauren A. Freeman
Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Newport, USA
lauren.a.freeman3.civ@us.navy.mil

Daniel T. Blumstein
University of California Los Angeles, USA
marmots@ucla.edu

Ying Tsong Lin
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD, USA
ytlin@ucsd.edu

Special Issue on Active and Tunable Acoustic Metamaterials
Submission Date: 2025-01-31

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (JASA) and JASA Express Letters are calling for papers for a joint Special Issue on “Active and Tunable Acoustic Metamaterials.”

Acoustic metamaterials are a class of materials with engineered microstructure that is carefully designed to generate on-demand acoustic or elastodynamic properties. While the metamaterials studied over the last 20 years have demonstrated a wide range of novel and useful physical phenomena, most designs have fundamental limitations due to the fixed and passive nature of their constituent material properties and sub-wavelength geometry. These limitations include narrowband operation, fixed material properties, and reduced range of achievable acoustic and elastodynamic properties. To address these shortcomings, recent research has employed active and tunable acoustic metamaterials (ATAM), which use elements that inject (extract) energy into (from) propagating waves in order to manipulate or to dynamically change the dynamic effective properties metamaterials. These approaches result in programmable structures with properties that can be tuned on-demand and/or are impossible in passive systems. For the purpose of this special issue, we define active metamaterials as those being controlled with external power via coupled fields to inject or extract energy into background fields, i.e., with circuits connected to piezoelectric transducers. On the other hand, the effective properties of tunable metamaterials are altered using approaches such as shape-morphing or responses to the application of electric or magnetic fields. This Special Issue invites all manuscripts exploring new active and tunable acoustic or elastodynamic metamaterials.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

    Active metamaterials with broadband properties unachievable in passive structures such broadband, extreme mass/stiffness/Willis anisotropy
    Demonstrations of new types of tunability in controlling acoustic wave propagation in metamaterials such as origami-inspired approaches, electro-mechanical coupling, or mechanochemistry
    Computational methods for predicting ATAM including stability analysis for active metamaterials
    Metamaterials with tunable non-linear responses
    Demonstrations of ATAM scalable in the number of unit cells
    Demonstrations of ATAM for transformation acoustics devices
    ATAMs designed with methods inspired by control theory
    ATAMs with Willis, electromomentum, or other domain-coupled material properties
    Stable and extremely high gain/loss media

If you have any questions about your intended paper, please email the Guest Editors.
Submission Deadline

    Deadline for manuscripts is January 31, 2025

Please note: Accepted papers will be published in the next available regular issue of the selected journal and identified as belonging to this Special Issue. After all papers from both journals have been published for the Special Issue, they will all be listed in a joint online collection on the JASA and JASA Express Letters websites.

Guest Editors:

Michael R. Haberman*
University of Texas at Austin, USA
haberman@utexas.edu

Christina Naify
University of Texas at Austin, USA
christina.naify@arlut.utexas.edu

Bogdan Popa
University of Michigan, USA
bipopa@umich.edu

Serife Tol
University of Michigan, USA
stol@umich.edu

Special Issue on Advanced Air Mobility Noise: Predictions, Measurements, and Perception
Submission Date: 2025-02-28

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (JASA) and JASA Express Letters are calling for papers for a joint Special Issue on “Advanced Air Mobility Noise: Predictions, Measurements, and Perception.”

This special issue covers tools, technologies, ground/flight testing, human response and metrics, and regulation and policy related to advanced air mobility (AAM) vehicle noise. The emerging aviation market of AAM for passengers, cargo, and public services encompasses electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, air taxis, urban air mobility (UAM) vehicles, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

    Predictions of pertinent noise characteristics, whether theoretical, numerical, or empirical
    Measurement of AAM noise sources: components, systems, or full vehicle
    Auralization techniques
    Human perception of AAM noise sources
    Community noise, impact, engagement, policy, and regulation
    Aspects of noise certification for vehicles that will perform AAM missions
    Cabin noise or other aspects of passenger comfort
    Low noise operations

If you have any questions about your intended paper, please email the Guest Editors.
Submission Deadline

    Deadline for manuscripts is 28 February 2025

Please note: Accepted papers will be published in the next available regular issue of the selected journal and identified as belonging to this Special Issue. After all papers from both journals have been published for the Special Issue, they will all be listed in a joint online collection on the JASA and JASA Express Letters websites.

Guest Editors:

Matthew Boucher
NASA Langley Research Center, USA
matthew.a.boucher@nasa.gov

Alexandra Loubeau*
NASA Langley Research Center, USA
a.loubeau@nasa.gov

Beckett Zhou
University of Bristol, UK
beckett.zhou@bristol.ac.uk

Eric Greenwood
Pennsylvania State University, USA
eric.greenwood@psu.edu

Damiano Casalino
Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
D.Casalino@tudelft.nl

Special Issue on Sound Absorption and Diffusion: Modeling, Measurement and Application
Submission Date: 2025-04-30

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (JASA) and JASA Express Letters are calling for papers for a joint Special Issue on “Sound Absorption and Diffusion: Modeling, Measurement and Application.”

Absorption and diffusion from surfaces are the two main design tools for adjusting the acoustic conditions in a room. As such, the correct modelling and measurement of sound absorption and sound diffusion are of paramount importance in the creation of quality acoustics, which often results from an appropriate combination of absorptive and diffusive surfaces. Surface diffusion is a relatively young subject area, and there are many misconceptions surrounding its application and characterization. While there is greater understanding of the mechanisms of sound absorption, new research has reignited the long-running debate over its measurement and prediction.

This Special Issue aims at covering the latest developments in the prediction, measure, quantification, and design of absorptive and diffusing surfaces.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

    Modeling of absorptive and diffusive surfaces
    Techniques for the measurement of sound diffusion (diffusion and scattering coefficients)
    Standardization: challenges and perspectives
    Techniques for the measurement of sound absorption (absorption and reflection coefficients, surface impedance)
    In situ vs. standardized characterization methods
    Low frequency phenomena
    Use of absorption/scattering coefficients in room acoustics simulations
    Design of absorptive and diffusive new and metasurfaces

If you have any questions about your intended paper, please email the Guest Editors.
Submission Deadline

    Deadline for manuscripts is April 30, 2025

Please note: Accepted papers will be published in the next available regular issue of the selected journal and identified as belonging to this Special Issue. After all papers from both journals have been published for the Special Issue, they will all be listed in a joint online collection on the JASA and JASA Express Letters websites.

Guest Editors:

Mélanie Nolan
Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
Email: melnola@dtu.dk

Ning Xiang*
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA
Email: xiangn@rpi.edu

Peter D’Antonio, USA
RPG Acoustical Systems
Email: pdantonio@rpgacoustic.com