Most Downloaded Journal Articles of 2023

One of our favorite things to do in the Publications Office at the end of the year is to look back and see which articles ended up getting read the most over the course of the year. In that time, we publish hundreds of articles across our three journals, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (JASA), JASA Express Letters, and The Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics (POMA). Publications span topics from all fourteen technical committees in the Acoustical Society of America, so it’s always a bit of a surprise to see which of the many diverse topics our journals cover end up piquing readers’ interest the most.

Today, we’d like to share the most downloaded articles with you, so you can see the research that’s currently making an impact in the field of acoustics. Here are the three most downloaded articles from each journal in 2023:

JASA

From the Special Issue on Reconsidering Classic Ideas in Speech Communication, this article points out the strengths and limitations of using intelligibility measures as metrics for speech perception.

This editorial introduces the special issue of the same name. (For an even more in-depth overview of the issue, check out this conversation we had with the editors on Across Acoustics!)

The third most-downloaded article from JASA this year is another Special Issue article, this time from the Special Issue on Fish Bioacoustics: Hearing and Sound Communication. This paper proposes an automated method for separating fish chorus from the environment, which could potentially help with research that will aid in the protection of vulnerable fish species.

JASA Express Letters

The most downloaded JASA Express Letters article for the year received quite a bit of attention for research into the noise of NASA’s Space Launch System, including a press release and an episode of Across Acoustics!

This Editor’s Pick analyzed the use of distributed acoustic sensing for monitoring the ocean.

This research exploring a central aspect to music mixing was featured in a press release and an episode of our podcast.

POMA

This article based on a presentation from the 184th ASA meeting in Chicago identified character defining acoustical differences between two historic churches.

This article from the 183rd ASA Meeting in Nashville discusses methods for measuring hearing aid microphones’ sensitivity to intrinsic vibration, which can cause feedback that is difficult to resolve.

This research presented at the Fourth Vienna Talk on Music Acoustics explored ways to produce deep-bass tones in pipe organs when you don’t have a space the size of a cathedral to house said organ.

We hope you enjoy these articles as much as we did! Thank you to our authors for a sharing their research with us this year, and thank you to our readers for turning to our publications to find the latest in theoretical and experimental research results in the broad interdisciplinary subject of sound.

New Across Acoustics Episode: Student Paper Competition – Chicago

Another meeting, another round of amazing student research! This episode, we talk to winners of the POMA Student Paper Competition from the 184th meeting of the ASA about their research into using machine learning to model concert hall reverberation time, the effect of clear speech on memory, noise from the Atlas-V rocket launch, the bridge force exerted on the string of a bowed instrument, and a new approach to underwater acoustic source localization.

Like the episode? Read the associated articles:

  • Jonathan Michael Broyles and Zane Tyler Rusk. Predicting the reverberation time of concert halls by use of a random forest regression model. Proc. Mtgs. Acoust.51, 015004 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0001751
  • Nicholas B. Aoki and Georgia Zellou. When clear speech does not enhance memory: Effects of speaking style, voice naturalness, and listener age. Proc. Mtgs. Acoust.51, 060002 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0001766
  • Logan T. Mathews, Mark C. Anderson, Carson D. Gardner, Bradley W. McLaughlin, Brooke M. Hinds, Megan R. McCullah-Boozer, Lucas K. Hall, and Kent L. Gee. An overview of acoustical measurements made of the Atlas V JPSS-2 rocket launch. Proc. Mtgs. Acoust.51, 040003 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0001768
  • Alessio Lampis, Alexander Mayer, Montserrat Pàmies-Vilà, and Vasileios Chatziioannou. Examination of the static and dynamic bridge force components of a bowed string. Proc. Mtgs. Acoust.51, 035002 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0001755
  • Dariush Kari, Andrew C. Singer, Hari Vishnu, and Amir Weiss. A gradient-based optimization approach for underwater acoustic source localization. Proc. Mtgs. Acoust.51, 022002 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0001753

And if you’re a student presenting at the latest meeting in Sydney, don’t forget to submit your POMA to the next Student Paper Competition!

Myth busted: classroom acoustics can be easy and cheap

Coralie van Reenen – cvreenen@csir.co.za

Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Gauteng, 0001, South Africa

Popular version of 3pAAb – Classroom acoustics: a case study of the cost-benefit of retrofitted interventions
Presented at the 185th ASA Meeting
Read the abstract at https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0023323

Please keep in mind that the research described in this Lay Language Paper may not have yet been peer reviewed.

Achieving the right acoustic conditions for classrooms is often dismissed by school planners as being too difficult or too expensive. This is to the detriment of students who are unable to hear the teacher properly, especially for children who are being taught in their second language, as is common in South Africa. This study proves that acoustic treatment need not be difficult or costly to achieve.

To refute the notion that acoustic improvements are expensive and specialized, this experimental case study was designed and carried out in a typical classroom in the small rural village of Cofimvaba in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The ideal classroom environment has a low ambient noise level of 35 dB and a reverberation time below 0.7 seconds, but this classroom has a reverberation time of 1 second. Reverberation time refers to the time it takes for a noise to die down and essentially refers to how much a room echoes, which negatively affects speech clarity. The experimental intervention simulated the installation of floating ceiling islands by installing different materials on the roof of temporary gazebos in the classroom.

The four materials used were acoustic ceiling tiles which represent a typical solution and three DIY solutions using carboard egg cartons, thermal insulation batting, and sponge foam bed mattresses. Each material provided an improved reverberation time. The best performing was the sponge at 0.6 seconds, while the other three materials performed equally at 0.8 seconds.

The cost of each material was reduced to a rate per square meter. The most expensive material was the acoustic ceiling tiles at R 363.85/m2 while the cheapest was the egg cartons at R 22.22/m2, or less if they are available as waste items.

The availability of materials was evaluated in terms of the distance to supply and whether the product is available in a retail store or requires a special order and delivery. The batting is available from hardware stores nationwide and could be purchased by walk-in from the local hardware store, within a 2 km radius of the site. The egg cartons could be ordered online and delivered from a packaging company within a 150 km radius. The foam mattresses could be purchased by walk-in at a local retailer within a 5 km radius of the site. The acoustic ceiling tiles were ordered online and delivered from the warehouse within a 700 km radius of the site.

Using the weighted sum model and assigning equal weighting to each attribute of acoustic performance, cost, distance to supply, and walk-in availability, a performance score for each intervention material was calculated. The batting ranked number one, followed in order by the sponge, egg cartons and lastly acoustic tiles.

The case study demonstrates that an improvement in acoustic conditions of at least a 0.2 second reduction in reverberation time can be achieved without significant cost. Although the batting did not achieve the ideal reverberation time, when only the speech frequencies were considered, it fell within the recommended maximum of 0.7 seconds.

The recommended design intervention is a frame containing batting covered with a taught fabric and suspended from ceiling hooks, thus avoiding disruptive construction works. This shows that improved classroom acoustics can be achieved without high cost or technical difficulty.

From POMA to Peer Review

Last week, we talked about how Lay Language papers are a great steppingstone towards writing a POMA, but did you know that the publication “path” can go even a bit further? As it turns out, publishing research in POMA is not considered prior publication for JASA or JASA Express Letters. That means you can build on the effort you made with your POMA, reaping the benefits of both publishing in POMA and in one of the ASA’s peer-reviewed journals.

Here are some recent examples of POMAs that helped pave the way for JASA or JASA Express Letters publications (pun intended).

Give it a shot yourself! The next time you present at an ASA meeting (maybe Sydney?), write a POMA, then use it as a jumping off point for a JASA or JASA Express Letters article. Your research can start making an impact almost immediately in POMA, then be developed further in a peer-reviewed JASA or JASA Express Letters article. Don’t miss out on any of the options available to you! If you have any questions about the process of turning your POMA into a JASA or JASA Express Letters article, reach out to Liz Bury, Senior Managing Editor of the ASA.

POMA invites all Sydney Meeting Presenters to submit their conference papers

Helen Wall Murray

POMA Manuscript Manager

helenwallmurray@acousticalsociety.org

The submission window is open! Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics (POMA) is currently receiving papers related to upcoming presentations and poster sessions set for the 185th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Sydney Australia, 4-8 December 2023.

POMA has long served as an added benefit to ASA meeting registrants, enabling presenters to capture the essence of their timely research and findings through a published written summary of their oral presentations.  POMA articles are published online without cost to authors or readers, are widely downloaded and shared on social media, and indexed in scholarly databases.

POMA’s written format allows authors to formalize their results and provide additional details post meeting.  Many meeting attendees find POMA useful for revisiting content shared at the numerous sessions scheduled throughout the week. POMA’s rolling submission policy allows authors to submit corresponding papers from any ASA Meeting as long as the material was presented at an official session.

POMA is especially poised to provide opportunities for student authors to build technical writing skills and bolster their CV.  POMA’s Student Paper Competition – launched just after the Denver Meeting in May 2022 – has proven to be an excellent opportunity for student presenters to win a prestigious award and elevate and highlight their research.  The 4th Competition is scheduled to commence after the close of the 185th Meeting. Students are invited to submit a corresponding paper by the competition deadline, 8 January 2024.  For more information about the POMA Student Paper Competition, please review the recent post announcing the winners from the 184th Chicago Meeting which also details the guidelines and requirements. To hear interviews with the winners of the past POMA Student Paper Competitions visit Across Acoustics, the official Podcast of the ASA’s Publication Office.

Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics (POMA)We look forward to receiving your Sydney submission!  Submission to POMA is quick and easy! For more information or if you have any questions, please contact the POMA Editorial Office (poma@acousticalsociety.org).