State of the Journal

This article presents the state of the journal report for the ASCE Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering (JGGE) for 2014. Publication of such end-of-year reports fulfills one of my goals as editor-in-chief.

The JGGE continued to strengthen its position in 2014 as a leading worldwide venue for publication of geotechnical engineering research. I am pleased to report that the latest metrics are again excellent. The JGGE has the highest circulation of all geotechnical journals and is currently one of the largest and most selective ASCE journals. Submissions in 2014 were 656 new manuscripts and 438 revised manuscripts received for review. The acceptance rate was 32%, which is a typical low number for the last several years. The 1-year impact factor was 1.469 and the 5-year impact factor was 1.775, both at record levels. These impact factors reflect large increases from 2013 values of 1.16 and 1.35, respectively, and attest to the dedication and hard work of the editorial board to maintain high quality for our published papers. In addition, there was only one appeal made to our ombudsman out of hundreds of decline decisions. One of my priority goals has been to reduce review times for the journal. Thanks again to the hard work of our editorial board and manuscript reviewers, the average time to first decision decreased to a record low of 1.8 months for all submissions and 3.9 months for papers that underwent full review.

The JGGE was served by an outstanding editorial board in 2014. In addition to the editor-in-chief, the other four editors were Mohammed Gabr of North Carolina State University, Rodrigo Salgado of Purdue University, Timothy Stark of the University of Illinois, and Joseph Wartman of the University of Washington. The editorial board also includes approximately 50 associate editors (AEs) who work with external reviewers to make publication recommendations to the editors. The JGGE was honored to again offer the services of our ombudsman, John Christian, who provides final editorial decisions for paper appeals and general assistance to the editor-in-chief on issues facing the journal. AE Thomas Sheahan, Northeastern University, retired from the editorial board in 2014. We sincerely thank Tom for his service and wish him every future success. In addition, the following new AEs were appointed last year:

The editors look forward to working with all newly appointed and continuing AEs to enhance the reputation of the JGGE worldwide. Similarly, 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 2014 recipient of the award for Outstanding Associate Editor is Jie Han of the University of Kansas. This award is made annually to an AE who displays 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 to the editors. I would also like to acknowledge Jie’s exceptional duration of service to the editorial board, which began in 2002. Our sincere thanks go to Jie as well as all of our excellent AEs who handle the daily workload of paper management for the journal. The award was be presented at the 2015 ASCE Geo-Congress in San Antonio.

The new article category of technical breakthrough abstract (TBA) gained momentum in 2014 with seven manuscripts received. TBAs are short (one-page) contributions that present original, concise, and practical information on an important breakthrough relevant to geotechnical engineering. TBAs were developed as a new concept for the JGGE and represent the first publication of this type by ASCE. An editorial describing the TBA article category is available online and was printed in the February 2014 issue.

Another editorial, coauthored by Craig Benson and myself and entitled “Forum Articles and the JGGE,” appeared in 2014. This editorial brings forum articles to the attention of the JGGE readership and introduces the first forum ever published by the JGGE or its predecessors. The article was written by John Christian and Gregory Baecher on the life and visionary contributions of D. W. Taylor. Forum articles are thought-provoking opinion pieces or essays, sometimes containing speculation, on a topic of relevance to the profession. Examples include historical perspectives, assessments of engineering practice, new policies and regulations, future research needs, and recent developments and trends of wide professional interest. Forum articles can also be used as a platform to pose important questions and generate additional discussion in the JGGE and at ASCE conferences. I would like to thank John and Greg for their inspired contribution and encourage others to submit forum articles to the JGGE.

In closing, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for the outstanding and dedicated service of our editorial board in 2014 who, along with many hundreds of authors and reviewers, maintain the JGGE at the highest level of excellence worldwide. The success of the JGGE is also attributed in no small part to efforts of the ASCE Journals Department staff, and in particular our editorial coordinator, Jennifer Chapman, who provide ongoing support and assistance. As former editor-in-chief, I am pleased to report that the state of the journal is strong and welcome your comments and suggestions on ways in which we can improve our Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering.