Editor-in-Chief

I am honored to be assuming the role of Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering (JGGE). I would like to thank out-going editor Rich Finno and Editor-in-Chief Craig Benson for their many years of dedicated service to the Journal. I would also like to welcome incoming editors Patrick Fox and Mo Gabr. I look forward to working with them along with continuing editors Kenneth Fishman and Joseph Labuz, as well as the many editorial board members, reviewers, and authors that allow JGGE to function.

I was fortunate to have been an editor when the Journal was under the steady and very capable leadership of Craig Benson. Craig worked hard, and with great effectiveness, at maintaining the high technical standards of the Journal while also reducing review times so as to better serve the profession through the timely publication of the best technical work in our field. I learned a great deal from him that I hope to apply during my own tenure over the next $3\text{years}$ .

Looking toward the future, our collective challenge is for JGGE to remain the top resource for practitioners and academics looking to keep abreast of the latest developments in the field and of authors seeking a venue to publish their best work. In the presence of increasing journal proliferation in recent years, why should readers and authors alike look first to JGGE? The reasons are numerous:

The editors of JGGE are continually working to maintain and strengthen these positive attributes of our journal. For example, manuscript submissions and reviews for our journal have transformed (as of January 2007) from an email-based process into a Web-based process. This change will reduce handling time (leading to faster manuscript decisions) and real-time information for authors regarding the status of manuscripts under review. While Craig, myself, and the ASCE staff have worked hard to check and customize the system for JGGE, issues will inevitably come up, so I urge your patience in the months to come as we begin using the new system. Moreover, I welcome any feedback from authors, reviewers, and editors on how the system can be improved over time.

In addition to the Web-based manuscript review system, we will continue our efforts to reach out to the Geo-Institute membership to encourage the submission of practice-oriented manuscripts, manage manuscript reviews as carefully as possible to ensure timely decisions, and develop innovative new features such as an electronic supplement to JGGE to facilitate archival publication of data, over-size figures, and color graphics (useful, for example, in case history papers).

The above changes are designed to maintain and even enhance the competitiveness of JGGE in the face of ever increasing journal proliferation. Most of the new journals profess to serve a niche of our profession, whether geographic or subject-related (in fact, the scope of all of these journals overlaps substantially with that of JGGE). The problem is that more journals inevitably results in a dilution of the technical quality of published work as well as an ever-increasing number of sources that must be checked by readers. Feedback I receive is that there are already too many journals, indicating a broad consensus that journal proliferation is counterproductive. The solution I believe is to maintain a strong JGGE that is responsive to the needs of Geo-Institute members. I welcome feedback from all JGGE constituents regarding any shortcomings (and successes) in our management of the Journal. Editors, reviewers, authors, and readers alike, let’s work together to make our journal the best it can be now and into the future.