Editor’s Note

This note marks the beginning of the 13th year of publication of the Journal of Composites for Construction. In the first issue of the new year, I present recent statistics for the Journal and acknowledge the individuals who help ensure the Journal’s success.

Recently, the average period elapsed between submission and publication of a paper has been about 19 months, while the average period between submission and approval (including re-reviews) has been about $5\text{months}$ . The paper acceptance rate in 2007—the last full year for which data are available at the time of this writing—was 41 percent. The latest impact factor for the Journal is 0.728.

In April 2008, ASCE migrated the Journal to a new, society-wide, Web-based manuscript submission and review system known as Editorial Manager. While I often miss the opportunity to correspond personally with my reviewers, as I did when I began editing the Journal in 2003, the new system certainly is efficient in terms of the use of resources.

Papers appearing in the Journal have traditionally been categorized into five general topics as follows:

Table 1 shows the breakdown of the papers and discussions published in the five general topics. The Journal published 65 technical papers and notes in volume 12. The year-end issue of each volume of the Journal contains an index of the year’s papers by subject and author.

In closing, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the many people who help me in ensuring the continuing quality of the Journal. First, the distinguished members of the international editorial board of the Journal are acknowledged for their tireless reviewing work. Every paper submitted to the Journal is reviewed by at least one board member. Board members are appointed by the editor for two-year renewable terms. In addition to providing timely reviews of exceptionally high quality, board members provide valuable input to the editor on the directions and policies of the Journal. Second, I thank the many reviewers who are not on the board yet provide equally important critiques of manuscripts. I try to keep the number of reviews by non-members of the board to no more than one or two manuscripts per year. Reviewers are listed by name in the last issue the Journal each year. Additional persons who are interested in reviewing papers for the Journal are encouraged to notify me with their contact information and technical area of interest. Finally, I thank Ms. Renee Lindenberg, who assists me in the management of the Journal at Penn State and ensures that deadlines are met, and the Journals Department staff at ASCE headquarters for their expert handling of all manuscripts and valuable advice on many editorial matters.