Journal Leadership

We have been continuously working on editorial board diversity in terms of expertise, gender, and geographical location. In early 2023, we had 12 female associate editors out of a total of 47, and we have added associate editors from nearly all regions of the world. Although that work is not yet complete, we now have representation from most of the countries from which we receive large numbers of submissions. The range of expertise of our associate editors covers all aspects of geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering. We will continue to review the technical areas of the manuscripts that are submitted to us and adjust the make-up of the editorial board to ensure we are well positioned to identify appropriate reviewers and provide solid technical assessments of all submissions.

JGGE has received between 800 and 1,100 papers per year for the last 4 years. To place this in perspective, these numbers are approximately twice the number of submissions we received 10 years ago. Acceptance rates have oscillated around 19%, with a higher rate—26%—in 2021. The highest rate of submissions was also observed in 2020–21. Consequently, an unusually high number of papers was published in 2021. More recently, JGGE has published on the order of 150 papers per year.

JGGE considers manuscripts of various types—technical papers, technical notes, case studies, discussions, closures, technical breakthrough abstracts, and forum articles. Specific instructions on how to prepare a manuscript of each of these types can be found on the journal’s website. All manuscripts are reviewed for novelty and rigor, the two main acceptance criteria for the journal. Rigor means the appropriate choice and application of techniques to answer a specific research question and the correct calculation or measurement of pertinent variables. Novelty requires that something both new and of sufficient significance to geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering has been achieved.

An important factor in determining the strength of a journal is whether it attracts the strongest papers from authors. Two interesting metrics to gauge that are Google Scholar’s $h5$-index and $h5$-median. The $h5$-index functions exactly like a scholar’s $h$-index, except that the period of observation is 5 years instead of a scholar’s entire career. JGGE’s strong $h5$-index (49 in July 2023) shows that JGGE is attractive to authors. The $h5$-median is the median number of citations received by the papers with number of citations matching or exceeding the $h5$-index. JGGE’s high $h5$-median (74 in July 2023) shows that these JGGE papers are clearly receiving a large number of citations over a 5-year period.

With the proliferation of journals and the high publication rate in our field, reviewers are in strong demand. Despite the pressure on the system, our community of reviewers has continued to support JGGE and the authors who submit to us by agreeing to perform reviews and completing them. Review times have consistently gone down for many years now, with only a slight uptick in 2022. Fairly assessing manuscripts for publication has been our top priority, but performing this assessment in a reasonable amount of time is also very important to us. The leadership team consistently focuses efforts on recruiting and retaining associate editors who are committed to these two priorities.

Working with my JGGE colleagues, the Geo-Institute publications committee, and ASCE Production has been one of the most gratifying professional experiences that I have had. Accordingly, many thanks are in order.

I would like to express, first, my gratitude, but also that of our entire board, to our authors for sending us their best work. Reviewers are also crucial to our overall mission. As I stated previously, demand for reviews has ballooned, and we appreciate the support that our colleagues have given JGGE in performing timely and comprehensive reviews.

I am personally grateful to ASCE Production staff, particularly Jennifer Parresol, Michelle English, Laurie Hertneky, and Taryn Dollings, for their work on behalf of the journal. Associate editors play a key role in the editorial process of JGGE. They help us select papers for publication but also provide helpful feedback to authors. We also count on a number of colleagues with specialized roles who have handled discussions and closures (Mike Duncan, Ed Kavazanjian, and Roman Hryciw), technical breakthrough abstracts (Patrick Fox), and appeals (the late John Christian and Craig Benson). I am impressed with the enthusiasm they have displayed and continue to display in these functions. I thank our entire board for the quality work they have done and continue doing. And last, but not least, special thanks go to those who have taken roles in the leadership team of JGGE in the last several years—Scott Brandenberg, Mo Gabr, Ed Kavazanjian, John McCartney, Robb Moss, Catherine O’Sullivan, Tim Stark, and Armin Stuedlein—for the professionalism, collegiality, sense of fairness, and sincerity they have brought to the editorial work during my term.