State of the Journal

The following article is the State of the Journal report for the Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering (JGGE) for 2011. Publication of such end-of-year reports fulfills one of my goals as editor in chief.

The JGGE continues to be a leading worldwide venue for publication of geotechnical engineering research. The latest metrics are similar to those for 2010 and are strong relative to historical trends. The JGGE has the highest circulation of all geotechnical journals and is currently one of the largest ASCE journals in terms of submissions, pages published, and papers published. The number of new manuscripts submitted in 2011 was 579, and the number of revised manuscripts submitted was 485, yielding a total of more than 1,000 manuscripts handled for the second year in a row. In 2011, the acceptance rate was 34%, the 1-year impact factor was 0.687, and the 5-year impact factor was 1.146. The Web-based Editorial Manager system continues to provide highly efficient manuscript handling for the editorial board. The average time to first decision was 2 months for all submissions, and 5 months for papers that were ultimately published. One of my priority goals for 2012 is to reduce the average review time for the Journal.

The JGGE was served by an outstanding editorial board in 2011. Incoming manuscripts are divided equally among five editors, including myself, who work independently to render publication decisions. The other four editors are Mohammed Gabr of North Carolina State University, D. V. Griffiths of the Colorado School of Mines, Iraj Noorany, a consulting engineer, and Joseph Wartman of the University of Washington. In addition, the JGGE is honored to offer the services of our ombudsman, John Christian, a consulting engineer, who provides final editorial decisions for all paper appeals. The editors work with approximately 50 associate editors (AEs) and hundreds of external reviewers to provide publication recommendations.

The following AEs retired from the editorial board in 2011:The editors sincerely thank these individuals for their years of dedicated and excellent service to the JGGE.

The following new AEs were appointed to the editorial board in 2011:It is noteworthy that Rod and Tom served previously on the JGGE board with excellent records and agreed to return for a second appointment. The editors look forward to working with them as well as all newly appointed and continuing AEs to enhance the reputation of the JGGE worldwide. I would like to take this opportunity to invite leading individuals in practice and academia to consider serving on the editorial board and contributing to the mission of excellence for the JGGE.

The award for Outstanding Associate Editor is announced annually by the JGGE editors. It is granted to one or more AEs who display extraordinary dedication to the responsibilities of manuscript review management, including timely handling of a large number of papers, and careful evaluation of manuscripts and review comments to provide quality publication recommendations. It is my privilege to announce that the Outstanding Associate Editor award for 2011 goes to Daniel Pradel of Group Delta Consultants and Timothy Stark of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. These awards will be given at the 2012 Geo-Congress in Oakland. The JGGE sincerely thanks Daniel Pradel, Timothy Stark, and all of our excellent AEs who handle the daily workload of paper management for the JGGE.

In closing, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for the outstanding and dedicated service of our Editorial Board in 2011. I look forward to working with the board members and the many excellent reviewers and authors to maintain the JGGE at the highest level of excellence worldwide. The success of the JGGE is also attributed not in small part to the efforts of the staff of the ASCE Journals department, and in particular, Jennifer Parresol, our editorial coordinator, who provides ongoing support and assistance to the JGGE.

As editor in chief, I am pleased to report that the state of the Journal is sound, and welcome your comments and suggestions on ways to improve our Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering.