Advances in Science, Technology and Innovation

Advances in Science, Technology and Innovation (ASTI): A Scholarly Profile

Advances in Science, Technology and Innovation (ASTI) is a peer-reviewed book series published by Springer in collaboration with IEREK (International Experts for Research Enrichment and Knowledge Exchange). Despite a name that can be mistaken for a journal, ASTI is not a periodical: it is a series of scholarly books — edited volumes, monographs, contributed volumes, and textbooks — built around emerging research in science, technology, and innovation, with a unifying orientation toward sustainable development. For authors and readers, the practical consequence of that format is important: books in the series are long-form, thematically coherent works, not articles in an issue cycle.

The series was established to capture research that, in the publisher's framing, redefines current disciplinary boundaries in science, technology, and innovation in order to develop integrated concepts for sustainable development. Its intellectual anchor is the set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations for 2030. Volumes discuss progress toward securing more resources, allocating smarter solutions, and rebalancing the relationship between nature and people, and they provide in-depth insights from comprehensive research addressing the SDGs. That development orientation gives the series a distinctive identity among Springer book series: it is explicitly a venue for research that claims practical relevance to sustainability challenges.

Since its launch, the series has grown rapidly. By the mid-2020s the Springer catalogue listed on the order of two hundred volumes published between 2018 and 2026, covering an unusually wide subject range — from aerospace and navigation systems to materials science, marketing, workforce strategy, water resources, geotechnical engineering, urban planning, environmental science, and digital transformation. The breadth reflects the series' editorial model: rather than commissioning from a single discipline, ASTI draws on the best research papers presented at IEREK's international conferences and other international conferences, supplemented by externally proposed edited books, contributed volumes, monographs, and textbooks.

What the Series Actually Publishes

ASTI publishes full-length books, each with its own ISBN and DOI, sold and licensed through Springer's standard channels (SpringerLink, institutional e-book packages, print-on-demand, and booksellers). The dominant format is the edited volume or contributed volume: a collection of chapters, usually expanded from selected conference papers, assembled under the stewardship of volume editors and organized around a theme — sustainable cities, water–energy–food security, green urbanism, digital transformation, environmental management, geotechnics, or similar. Alongside these, the series accepts monographs and textbooks proposed directly by authors, provided they meet the series' standards and scope.

The conference-to-book pipeline is the series' engine. IEREK organizes international conferences in fields such as sustainable urban development, environmental science, geotechnical engineering, and related areas; the best research papers from these events are selected, substantially expanded, and developed into book chapters. Springer is explicit that the series draws on the best research papers from various IEREK and other international conferences to promote the creation and development of viable solutions for a sustainable future and positive societal transformation through integrated, science-based approaches. The interdisciplinary contributions present innovative approaches and highlight how they can best support both economic and sustainable development — through better use of data, more effective institutions, and global, local, and individual action, for the welfare of all societies.

Two features of this model deserve emphasis for prospective authors. First, external conference proceedings proposals are no longer accepted as direct publications in the series; instead, the series invites significant expansions of selected papers previously submitted to conferences, with the editors' role evident in reviews through an intensive double-blind peer review process, helping authors with edits and collaborating with them to demonstrate great academic significance through clear research findings and innovative solutions that go well beyond a typical conference submission. Second, the series actively welcomes external proposals for edited books, contributed volumes, monographs, and textbooks — so the door is open to projects that did not originate at an IEREK conference, provided they fit the scope and pass review.

Aims and Scope

The series' stated aim is to publish peer-reviewed books based on important emerging research that redefines disciplinary boundaries in science, technology, and innovation in order to develop integrated concepts for sustainable development. In practice, the scope is organized around several recurring emphases. One is digital transformation: conceptual and empirical contributions that use data, computation, and digital tools to address development problems. A second is resource security: practical solutions aimed at ensuring food, water, and energy security as foundations for achieving the SDGs. A third is sustainable urbanization: new case studies offering concrete examples of how to resolve sustainable urbanization and environmental issues in different regions of the world. A fourth is the nature–people relationship: research on rebalancing human activity with ecological limits, covering environmental science, natural resource management, and green technologies.

The subject range, as the catalogue shows, is deliberately transdisciplinary. Volumes span engineering (civil, geotechnical, environmental, materials), architecture and urban planning, environmental and earth sciences, information technology and data science, energy systems, and the management and social-science dimensions of innovation and sustainability. The intended readership named by the publisher is professionals in research and teaching, consultancies and industry, and government and international organizations — a practitioner-and-policy audience alongside the academic one, consistent with the series' applied, solutions-oriented posture.

The SDG framing is more than decorative. Because the series asks authors to situate their work relative to sustainable development, volumes tend to include explicit discussions of how their findings connect to goals such as clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, sustainable cities and communities, climate action, and related targets. For readers, this means ASTI books often read as problem-driven research with policy-adjacent conclusions; for authors, it means proposals should articulate the sustainability relevance of the work, not only its disciplinary contribution.

Publication Details

Advances in Science, Technology and Innovation is published by Springer (Springer Nature). The series carries the print ISSN 2522-8714 and the electronic ISSN 2522-8722, and it is listed in Springer's catalogue as series number 15883. The Series Editor is Mourad Amer. Books appear on SpringerLink with full-text access for subscribing institutions, and individual chapters carry DOIs. The series' editorial office — the contact point for proposals and author assistance — is reachable at asti.series@ierek.com, reflecting the operational collaboration between Springer and IEREK.

Publication frequency is not that of a journal: books appear as they are completed, reviewed, and produced, with multiple volumes published each year. The series' output has been substantial — roughly two hundred volumes across 2018–2026 according to Springer's professional catalogue listings. There is no article processing charge, because the series does not publish articles; books are published under Springer's conventional book-publishing model, in which costs are recovered through institutional e-book licensing, print sales, and library acquisition rather than author-facing per-article fees. (Conference participation itself is a separate matter: attending an IEREK conference involves registration, and the iDirect direct-submission pathway described by IEREK involves its own timeline and invoicing — these are conference and submission-service matters, not publication charges levied by the series.)

Open access in the series follows Springer's book open-access policies: individual titles can be published open access where funding supports it, but the series as a whole is not an open-access series, and most volumes are available through subscription or purchase. Authors interested in open access for a specific volume should discuss options and any associated book processing charges with the Springer editor handling their proposal.

Editorial Information

The series is led by Series Editor Mourad Amer, working with Springer's editorial staff and with IEREK's editorial office (asti.series@ierek.com), which assists authors and volume editors in producing work of the required quality. Each volume additionally has its own editors — the scholars who propose the book, assemble contributors, and shepherd chapters through review. The publisher's description of the editorial process is unusually explicit for a book series: the series draws on selected conference papers, and the editors' role should be evident in the reviews through an intensive double-blind peer review process, helping authors with edits, and collaborating with them to demonstrate great academic significance through clear research findings and innovative solutions that go well beyond a typical conference submission.

That emphasis on "well beyond a typical conference submission" is the series' quality bar in a sentence. Chapters are expected to be substantial expansions of conference papers — not reprints — with new analysis, fuller literature engagement, and clearer findings. The double-blind peer review process applies to chapters within volumes, and Springer applies its standard publishing ethics policies to the series, including its policies on authorship, plagiarism, and the responsible use of AI in scholarly writing (as referenced in Springer's and Brill-group publishing ethics materials for the current publishing environment).

Indexing and Abstracting

Indexing is one of the series' documented strengths. Springer states that the ASTI series was accepted for Scopus in September 2020, with content published in the series beginning to appear on the Scopus site in early 2021. Because Scopus indexes books and book chapters selectively and on an ongoing basis, authors should confirm the indexing status of a specific volume rather than assuming it. Third-party conference and publishing-opportunity pages additionally describe the series as Scopus-indexed and note that some titles appear in Web of Science; the Web of Science claim is not made on Springer's own series page, so it should be verified title by title for any assessment purpose.

Beyond Scopus, Springer books are indexed and discoverable through the standard scholarly infrastructure: SpringerLink, Google Scholar, library discovery services, WorldCat, and bookseller databases, with chapter-level DOIs and metadata feeding citation databases and reference managers. For a book series, chapter-level indexing in Scopus is the meaningful visibility metric, and it is the one Springer itself documents.

Metrics — What Applies and What Does Not

As a book series, ASTI has no Journal Impact Factor, no CiteScore, no SJR indicator, and no journal h-index of its own — these are journal metrics, and they do not apply to book series. Anyone encountering third-party pages that present journal-style metrics for the series should treat them as unofficial and methodologically dubious. The meaningful indicators for a series like ASTI are book-world indicators: the number of volumes published, library holdings and e-book package inclusion, chapter citations, downloads on SpringerLink, and — documented by the publisher — Scopus coverage of the series' content since early 2021.

The series' scale is itself a signal: roughly two hundred volumes in under a decade represents a major publishing program, and the Scopus acceptance in 2020 indicates that the series met the indexing service's selection criteria for book content. For authors weighing where to publish an edited volume or monograph on sustainability-related STI topics, the relevant comparison is with other Springer book series and with competing publishers' edited-volume programs, not with journals.

Submitting a Proposal

The series welcomes external proposals for edited books, contributed volumes, monographs, and textbooks. The practical route is to contact the series' editorial office at asti.series@ierek.com for assistance, or to approach Springer through its standard book-proposal channels. A strong proposal will include: a clear statement of the book's theme and its relationship to science, technology, innovation, and sustainable development (ideally with explicit links to relevant SDGs); a chapter-by-chapter outline or list of confirmed contributors with abstracts (for edited volumes); the intended audience (researchers, practitioners, policymakers); an assessment of competing or related titles; and the editors' or author's qualifications. For monographs and textbooks, sample chapters strengthen the proposal.

Prospective volume editors should note the series' expectations about the review process: chapters undergo intensive double-blind peer review, and editors are expected to play an active role in reviews and in helping authors develop their chapters well beyond typical conference-submission standard. Proposals that are essentially unrevised conference proceedings are no longer accepted as direct publications; what the series wants is significant expansions with clear research findings and innovative solutions. Timelines for edited volumes run from proposal acceptance through chapter drafting, peer review, revision, copy-editing, and production — typically a year or more — and volume editors should plan contributor management accordingly.

Authors coming through the conference route should understand the sequence: present at an IEREK or other international conference, have the paper selected as among the best, expand it substantially into a book chapter, and pass it through the volume's peer review. Direct-submission pathways advertised by IEREK (such as iDirect) have their own timelines — initial decision and invoicing within weeks, online discussion sessions, certificates, and peer review culminating in publication within months of final acceptance — and their own fee structures tied to the submission service; these are IEREK services, distinct from the series' editorial standards, which remain Springer's.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Advances in Science, Technology and Innovation a journal? No. It is a Springer book series (series no. 15883): a sequence of peer-reviewed books — edited volumes, contributed volumes, monographs, and textbooks — not a periodical publishing issues and articles.

Who publishes it, and with whom? Springer (Springer Nature) publishes the series in collaboration with IEREK. The Series Editor is Mourad Amer, and the editorial office can be reached at asti.series@ierek.com.

What are the series ISSNs? Print ISSN 2522-8714; electronic ISSN 2522-8722.

Is the series indexed in Scopus? Yes — Springer states the series was accepted for Scopus in September 2020, with content appearing on Scopus from early 2021. Confirm the status of any specific volume if it matters for assessment.

Does it have an Impact Factor? No. Impact Factors are journal metrics; ASTI is a book series. Book-relevant indicators are volumes published, library holdings, chapter citations, and Scopus book coverage.

Can I submit a conference proceedings volume directly? No — external conference proceedings proposals are no longer accepted as direct publications. The series invites significant expansions of selected conference papers, developed into chapters through intensive double-blind peer review.

Can I propose an edited book, monograph, or textbook? Yes. The series explicitly welcomes external proposals in all these formats, subject to scope fit and peer review.

Are there article processing charges? No — the series publishes books, not articles, and there is no per-article fee. Books follow Springer's conventional publishing model; open access for individual titles is arranged separately where funding exists.

What topics fit the series? Research in science, technology, and innovation oriented toward sustainable development and the UN's 17 SDGs — with emphasis on digital transformation, food/water/energy security, sustainable urbanization, and environmental solutions — across engineering, natural sciences, urban planning, and related fields.

Who is the audience? Per the publisher: professionals in research and teaching, consultancies and industry, and government and international organizations, as well as academic researchers.

The Series in Context: IEREK, Conferences, and the Sustainability Agenda

Understanding ASTI requires understanding IEREK's role. The International Experts for Research Enrichment and Knowledge Exchange is an organization that convenes international conferences across sustainability-related fields — future smart cities, green urbanism, environmental science, geotechnical engineering, and others — and the ASTI series is its principal book-publishing outlet with Springer. This conference-to-book pipeline explains both the series' volume and its character: many volumes are thematically tied to conference editions, and their chapters carry the imprint of live scholarly exchange — papers first debated in conference sessions, then expanded, reviewed, and revised into durable book chapters. For readers, this means ASTI volumes often capture the state of discussion in fast-moving applied fields at a particular moment; for authors, it means the series rewards work that began as a conference contribution but was developed substantially afterward.

The sustainability agenda that organizes the series is worth unpacking, because it shapes what counts as a good fit. The seventeen Sustainable Development Goals run from poverty and hunger through health, education, gender equality, water, energy, work, industry and innovation, inequality, cities, consumption, climate, oceans, land, peace, and partnership. ASTI volumes cluster most densely around the goals concerned with infrastructure and environment — clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, industry innovation and infrastructure, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, and climate action — but the catalogue also reaches into health, education, and economic development where technology and innovation are the lever. A proposal that can name the goals it addresses, and explain concretely how its findings advance them, speaks the series' language.

The series' scale also invites a note on how to use it as a reader. With on the order of two hundred volumes, ASTI is best approached not as a shelf to read straight through but as a searchable corpus: researchers typically arrive via a chapter on SpringerLink, a Scopus-indexed book chapter, or a library discovery search, and the volume around it provides the thematic context. Librarians building sustainability or engineering collections will find the series a reliable source of current edited volumes; because Springer sells the series into e-book packages, many institutions hold large runs of it without title-by-title selection. Citation practice for the series follows book norms — cite the chapter, with its DOI, and the volume — and chapter-level DOIs make this straightforward.

Finally, a word on expectations for prospective volume editors. Running an ASTI edited volume is a substantial editorial project: recruiting contributors, enforcing the expansion-and-review standard, managing double-blind peer review of chapters, and working with Springer's production process. The series' insistence that editors' roles be evident in the reviews is a signal that Springer and IEREK take volume editorship seriously as scholarly labor, not as a ceremonial credit. Editors who invest in that labor produce volumes that stand up as coherent books rather than stapled-together proceedings — and it is the coherent books that get cited, taught, and held by libraries.