Passing the Baton

Charles Jahren has been selected by a search committee to become the next editor for the Journal of Construction Engineering and Management. He starts in his new role as editor with the April 2007 issue. I want to congratulate Dr. Jahren—I think that he will do a fine job leading the Journal and bringing in new ideas to help us maintain our status as a top academic construction journal. He has been most helpful in his role as Associate Editor.

Our Journal has seen a major transformation over the past five years as we have made significant changes to the organizational structure from a small team to one that includes 37 people covering 11 specialty areas. The popularity of our Journal has increased, as measured by the number of submissions, from about 200 to 300 papers per year. This increase in volume has now resulted in our monthly publication status, which has also helped reduce the backlog of ready-to-publish papers and reduced cycle time. We also changed from a paper-based system to an electronic system. A database was developed to help track papers and reviewers. An Industry Forum has been added to the Journal to help provide industry practitioners with a vehicle to express their ideas related to critical research topics that should be considered by our community.

Going through these changes would not have been possible without the dedication of specialty editors and reviewers. I have appreciated working with all of you and want to thank you for everything that you have done. I have also really appreciated the support and guidance of the ASCE team, especially Johanna Reinhart, Jackie Perry, Jane Perry, and Holly Koppel. They do an amazing job and support our team with a high degree of professionalism and dedication.

I have really enjoyed my time with the Journal and look forward to continuing with my role as a reviewer. Thanks again for all your support.

Please welcome Dr. Jahren as he takes over as editor.