International Association of Journals and Conferences

Dr. Mark Rajai, IAJC PRESIDENT

In the tight, competitive global markets of the 21st century, the leading companies in various industries have embarked on massive reorganizations, mergers, partnerships, and cutting-edge collaborative projects with their like-minded peers—including their rivals—primarily to survive but ultimately to grow.  These innovations are evident in the industrial world, including the creation of a Sky Team in airline industries, various mergers and partnerships in the telecommunication industry and many others.

As industry changes so must academia. However, academic organizations, journals, and conferences have been hesitant to make changes. As the founder of two start-up companies and a major international journal, I realize that academia needs a major umbrella consortium to bring together groups of journals, professional organizations, and conferences to offer a global network for all of these entities to collaborate, share resources, grow, and become more quality-driven.

Beginning in 2004, the editorial board of the International Journal of Modern Engineering (IJME) embarked on groundbreaking and unprecedented efforts to establish strategic partnerships with other major journals and organizations to share resources and offer authors a unique opportunity to participate in one conference and then publish their papers in several diverse journals. These efforts resulted in an innovative joint international conference in 2006 that included a number of organizations and journals.

The 2006 IJME-Intertech International Conference was a tremendous success. It brought several journals and conferences together in a joint venue for the publication of scholarly work in engineering and technology education, creating excitement in academic communities around the world. This provided the motivation to found this new organization called the “International Association of Journals and Conferences” (IAJC).

There are many conferences held each year around the world offering authors the opportunity to publish in conference proceedings. However, unfortunately due to the looming global recession, massive budgets cuts, and other issues, most of today’s conferences are quantity- rather than quality-driven.  This should not come as any surprise as it is very expensive to hold a conference these days. As a result, many have noticed a decline in the quality of the conferences they attend each year. This is also due in large part to the fact that journal publication in becoming more and more the primary metric for faculty scholarship at colleges and universities. However, many authors, especially junior faculty, are not completely familiar with the journal publication process. The protracted timeline associated with traditional journal submission is a barrier for many faculty members.  They still need to attend and publish in a quality-driven conference first in route to journal publication. IAJC, thorough its unique “From Conference to Journal Publication” concept, offers authors this opportunity.

IAJC is a first-of-its-kind, pioneering organization.  It is also a global, multilayered umbrella consortium of academic journals, conferences, organizations, and individuals committed to advancing excellence in all aspects of technology-related education.

Unlike other professional organizations that offer few tangible benefits to their members, IAJC will offer its selected members many benefits including a multilayered  review process in preparing manuscripts for journal publication, help in finding the right journal for timely publication in one of our many member journals, discounts at sponsored conferences, and a host of other benefits. As we build this pioneering organization, we hope you’ll join us in this exciting endeavor so together we can reshape and create a better future for the next generation of students, faculty, and researchers in academia and industry.

Mark Rajai

Mark Rajai, Chairman and President, IAJC