SIAM Publications: Ensuring Trust, Quality, and Accessibility

Before I dive into the many exciting developments for SIAM Publications over the last year, I want to begin by acknowledging the passing of Howard Elman, SIAM’s former Vice President for Publications, in September 2025 after a long battle with illness.

Remembering Howard Elman

Howard was a highly accomplished, dedicated, and respected member of the SIAM community who had an invaluable impact on the SIAM Publications program. He served on the Editorial Board of the SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing for more than 25 years and was editor-in-chief for six of those years. He was also a member of the SIAM Journal Committee before becoming Vice President for Publications in 2020 — a tumultuous time to assume such an important role. But more than all of that, Howard was a great person who was always thoughtful, kind, and collegial in his approach to any topic. The SIAM Publications team and I will miss him a great deal, and we send our condolences to his family, friends, and colleagues. A recent obituary in SIAM News details his life and legacy [2].

I would also like to thank Tamara Kolda of MathSci.ai for stepping up as interim Vice President for Publications last year, and we are delighted that she is officially succeeding Howard in 2026. Tammy first met Howard when she was a graduate student—in fact, he appointed her to her first editor position—so it is fitting that she will build upon his work in this role.

Record Submissions and Readership for SIAM Journals

2025 was another strong year for the highly respected SIAM Journals program, with record levels in author submissions and readership. Journal article downloads have increased by roughly 80 percent since 2020, and an article is now downloaded once every 19 seconds. 

As always, I ask you, your colleagues, and your students to access SIAM journals from within your campus IP range or institutional VPN whenever possible. Doing so ensures that librarians see that SIAM journals are being read, which prompts them to renew institutional subscriptions. Every download of a SIAM article is a vote for your library to retain the corresponding SIAM journal. If you don’t have institutional access to a particular SIAM journal, please contact your librarian and make the recommendation; alternatively, feel free to reach out to SIAM at service@siam.org.

Editor-in-chief Transitions for SIAM Journals

2026 will see editor-in-chief (EIC) transitions for three SIAM journals: Multiscale Modeling and Simulation (MMS), the SIAM Journal on Mathematics of Data Science (SIMODS), and the SIAM Journal on Optimization (SIOPT) (see Figure 1). We sincerely thank all of the outgoing EICs for their work and dedication and welcome their successors.

Submit to the SIAM Journal on Life Sciences

We were delighted to see the new SIAM Journal on Life Sciences (SIALS) open for submissions in July 2025, with the first articles expected to publish in early 2026 (see Figure 2). Jonathan Rubin of the University of Pittsburgh is the founding editor-in-chief, while Simone Bianco of Altos Labs is serving as a founding section editor. Rubin and Bianco proposed the journal to the SIAM Board of Trustees in 2024 after a successful “Special Section on the Life Sciences” in the SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics.

SIALS will publish research on the substantive use of quantitative methods to study biological systems and their applications. Submissions should involve novel mathematical models of biological systems, the development and application of new quantitative methodologies, and/or the use of existing mathematical methodologies for the analysis of biological models. All articles must include a clear connection to life sciences issues with biological, medical, or industrial relevance.

The launch of SIALS marks a milestone for an idea that has circulated within the SIAM community for more than two decades. SIAM has had a thriving conference and Activity Group on Life Sciences for many years, and now the SIAM Journals program offers a dedicated home and voice for research in this growing field.

Joint Math Society Author Guidelines on Accessibility

SIAM continues to work with our publications platform and production vendors to ensure compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2, which surpass the standard need for compliance with the European Accessibility Act as well as updated U.S. mandates under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.

In early 2025, SIAM brought together the American Mathematical Society, European Mathematical Society, and London Mathematical Society to jointly create Author Guidelines for Preparing Accessible Mathematics Content. These guidelines will (i) assist authors so that their content allows for conversion to a range of accessible formats and (ii) ensure that math societies and publishers ask authors to follow the same protocols when creating content, e.g., writing alt text for every figure.

Each society is publishing their own version of the guidelines that are tailored to their specific processes (SIAM’s version is available online), but the core tenets will remain the same. The guidelines will undoubtedly be refined over time, and we encourage members of the SIAM community to send any feedback to publicationsaccessibility@siam.org. They will be shared widely with other mathematics publishers as well as publishing industry accessibility groups, and I presented the project at several library conferences in 2025 and the 2026 Joint Mathematics Meetings.

While the Author Guidelines for Preparing Accessible Mathematics Content will help with newly published material, making the archives accessible will be a significant, long-term project in terms of time and cost. In the meantime, if a student or researcher needs an accessible version of a specific item, they (or their librarian) can contact SIAM at the aforementioned email address and we will work to provide accessible text within a reasonable period of time, depending on the complexity and feasibility of the archived content. An Accessibility Statement for the SIAM Publications Library is available online.

SIAM to Publish ICM and ICIAM Proceedings

The SIAM Proceedings collection continues to grow with the inclusion of prestigious new series. In September 2025, the Board of the International Council for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM) selected SIAM to publish the ICIAM Proceedings book series, starting with the proceedings of the 2027 International Congress on Industrial and Applied Mathematics—set to take place in the Hague, the Netherlands—and continuing with future congresses. 

In addition, SIAM is preparing to publish the 2026 International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) proceedings. ICM 2026 will be held from July 23 to 30 in Philadelphia, Pa. SIAM secured both the ICIAM and ICM proceedings after competitive request-for-proposal processes, and we are delighted to serve as their trusted partner.

In December 2025, SIAM also published the proceedings from the esteemed 2025 New York Scientific Data Summit, which was organized by Brookhaven National Laboratory and took place in September. I encourage members of the SIAM community to contact me at bowling@siam.org if they know of other high-quality proceedings that SIAM should consider publishing.

Call for Book Proposals and Author Testimonials

One of the most unique things about SIAM Publications is our authors’ appreciation of their experiences with our team, particularly compared to commercial publishers. It is not hyperbolic to say that SIAM offers an industry-leading level of copyediting, along with personal care and attention in our author interactions.

The following is a selection of lovely, unsolicited comments that SIAM book authors have sent:

• “Steve [Weinstein] and I just got our books, and they are breathtaking! Everything I would expect from having SIAM books during my academic career. Thank you so much for making this happen!” – Nathaniel Barlow
• “I wish to sincerely thank you, and more generally SIAM, for the quality of your cooperation with authors and of the books that you actually publish. When I discuss with some colleagues who are publishing books with other publishers, they all envy me!” – Philippe Ciarlet
• “I appreciate your professional and punctual handling of the manuscript, it was the best publication experience I’ve had.” – George Haller
• “What a pleasure it is to work with SIAM!” – Michael Overton

If you have an idea for a book, please contact Elizabeth Greenspan (Executive Editor of SIAM Books) at greenspan@siam.org. SIAM publishes high-quality monographs and textbooks and is also seeking proposals for more general interest books.

Increasing Levels of AI Use

Readers of my last annual update will recall my comments that generative artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to impact scholarly publishing in both positive and negative ways [1]. SIAM’s Editorial Policy on Artificial Intelligence, which has been in place since October 2023, stipulates the way in which authors and reviewers can utilize AI and large language models (LLMs). Over the last year, authors have disclosed the use of AI in their articles, but we have also seen some suspected undisclosed usage in a few submissions and reviews. As models continue to improve and eradicate hallucinations that may serve as easy detection signals, the risk increases that editors may receive plausible-sounding submissions that are actually partially or wholly fraudulent and AI-generated.

On the flip side, however, AI models are also beginning to offer powerful new capabilities for authors who wish to check the validity and accuracy of their work. Such competencies may be promising as long as they are used in a responsible and ethical manner. SIAM is actively engaging in a number of conversations to explore the effective employment of LLMs in a safe, trusted, and transparent way while also proceeding cautiously to ensure the preservation of research integrity and standards. If you are involved in any such projects or have ideas about how AI should or should not be used in the context of research and publishing, feel free to contact me at bowling@siam.org.

Anthropic Class Action Settlement for Books 

AI startup Anthropic was sued in August 2024 for its alleged use of pirated books to train its AI-based LLM model, Claude. The case resulted in a settlement of $1.5 billion USD in relation to roughly 500,000 titles, which include several hundred SIAM books. SIAM has already contacted the affected authors and will guide them through the claims process with the settlement administrator.

I will note that this settlement is not because Anthropic allegedly used copyrighted books to train its AI, nor does it rule on whether doing so would fall under fair use; instead, it is a copyright infringement allegation of illegal book downloads. Other cases in the courts might soon rule on the legality of training an LLM with copyrighted material.

Thank You to SIAM Editors and Reviewers

Let me close by paying tribute to the excellent editorial work of our many editors and reviewers who uphold the incredibly high standards of SIAM publications. That trust in SIAM content—whether it be journals, books, or proceedings—will only become more vital as scholarly publishing and society at large battles against AI slop and questionable content.

As always, please reach out to me at bowling@siam.org if you have ideas, questions, or comments about the SIAM Publications program.

References
[1] Bowling, K. (2025, January 21). SIAM publications: Safeguarding quality in a changing landscape. SIAM News, 58(1), p. 5.
[2] Ramage, A., Silvester, D., & Wathen, A. (2025, December 1). Obituary: Howard Elman. SIAM News, 58(10), p. 2.