| Bell Labs Technical Journal | |
| Cover: | --> |
| Former Name: | AT&T Technical Journal, AT&T Bell Laboratories Technical Journal, Bell System Technical Journal |
| Abbreviation: | Bell Labs Tech. J. |
| Discipline: | Electrical engineering, computer science, telecommunication |
| Editor: | Charlie Bahr |
| Publisher: | Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers |
| History: | 1922–2020 |
| Frequency: | Annually (1996–2020) Monthly (1952–1995) Quarterly (1922–1951) |
| Impact: | 0.333 |
| Impact-Year: | 2020 |
| Issnlabel: | Bell Labs Technical Journal |
| Issn: | 1089-7089 |
| Eissn: | 1538-7305 |
| Lccn: | 96642116 |
| Oclc: | 35120920 |
| Issn2label: | AT&T Technical Journal |
| Issn2: | 8756-2324 |
| Lccn2: | 85644399 |
| Oclc2: | 11492357 |
| Issn3label: | AT&T Bell Laboratories Technical Journal |
| Issn3: | 0748-612X |
| Lccn3: | 29029519 |
| Oclc3: | 10464416 |
| Issn4label: | Bell System Technical Journal |
| Issn4: | 0005-8580 |
| Coden4: | BSTJAN |
| Lccn4: | 29029519 |
| Oclc4: | 6313803 |
| Website: | http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=6731002 |
| Link1: | https://web.archive.org/web/20110810202426/http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/bstj/ |
| Link1-Name: | Bell System Technical Journal |
| Link2: | http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/aboutJournal.jsp?punumber=6731005 |
| Link2-Name: | Bell System Technical Journal Online archive |
The Bell Labs Technical Journal was the in-house scientific journal for scientists of Nokia Bell Labs, published yearly by the IEEE society.
The journal was originally established as the Bell System Technical Journal (BSTJ) in New York by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) in 1922. It was published under this name until 1983, when the breakup of the Bell System placed various parts of the companies in the system into independent corporate entities. The journal was devoted to the scientific fields and engineering disciplines practiced in the Bell System for improvements in the wide field of electrical communication.[1] After the restructuring of Bell Labs in 1984, the journal was renamed to AT&T Bell Laboratories Technical Journal. In 1985, it was published as the AT&T Technical Journal until 1996, when it was renamed to Bell Labs Technical Journal. The journal was discontinued in 2020.[2] The last managing editor was Charles Bahr.[3]
The Bell System Technical Journal was published by AT&T in New York City through its Information Department, on behalf of Western Electric Company and the Associated Companies of the Bell System.[1] The first issue was released in July 1922, under the editorship of R. W. King and an eight-member editorial board. Its mission was to fill the desire for a technical journal to "collect, print, reprint, and make readily the more important articles" for the electrical communication engineer in a broad array of related disciplines, that were previously scattered in numerous other industry publications.[4]
From 1922 to 1951, the publication schedule was quarterly. It was bimonthly until 1964, and finally produced ten monthly issues per year until the end of 1983, combining the four summer months into two issues in May and July.
Publication of the journal under the name Bell System Technical Journal ended with Volume 62 by the end of 1983, because of the divestiture of AT&T. Under new organization, publication continued as AT&T Bell Laboratories Technical Journal in 1984 with Volume 63, maintaining the volume sequence numbers established since 1922. In 1985, Bell Laboratories was removed from the title, resulting in AT&T Technical Journal until 1995 (Volume 74).
In 1996, the journal was revamped under the name Bell Labs Technical Journal, and publication management was transferred to Wiley Periodicals, Inc., establishing a new volume sequence (Volume 1).
The journal was directed by the following former editors:
The following abstracting and indexing services cover the journal:According to the Journal Citation Reports, the journal has a 2020 impact factor of 0.333.[7]
The Bell System Technical Journal and its successors published many papers on seminal works and revolutionary achievements at Bell Labs, including the following: