Editor’s Note

It has been a while since my last editor’s note, but I have some exciting Cold Regions Engineering news. A few short days ago, on June 6, the Journal of Cold Regions Engineering entered a new stage in its life as we joined other ASCE journals being administered by the Editorial Manager system. This is a totally Web-based system for manuscript submittal, review, and processing. We join more than 2,800 scientific and technical journals that use this system for manuscript submittal and review. All new Journal of Cold Regions Engineering submissions will be handled by that system. Manuscripts that are currently in our eRoom review system will be completed in that system. Some of the great features in Editorial Manager will allow us to provide for improved tracking and shorter review times, hopefully resulting in faster publication time.

Authors will submit their manuscripts electronically (no more mailing five copies and a disk), and I can assign reviewers or pass the manuscript on to one of the Journal’s associate editors with a particular expertise to handle the reviews. Potential reviewers receive an e-mail requesting their service, and they can accept or reject the assignment (based on the submitted abstract) from links within the e-mail. Reviewers can view the paper online or print off a copy for further assessment, make their comments directly online, or upload review documents. Reviewers are assured that their identity remains anonymous to the authors by special sections of their review that are directed to the authors and others that are directed only to the editor.

All uploaded files are stripped of any identifying file properties. Reviewers receive a courtesy “ping” one week before their review is due, and both the reviewers and editors receive weekly reminders when a review is late. Other features include review and e-mail history, as well as allowing the author to see directly where their manuscript is in the review process. I look forward to this new system and will work diligently to speed up the review and publication process. For more information or to submit a manuscript, see https://www.editorialmanager.com/jrncreng/default.asp.

As I write this note, permafrost engineers and scientists from around the world are preparing to descend upon Fairbanks, Alaska, and the Ninth International Conference on Permafrost (NICOP). This conference is being cosponsored by the ASCE Technical Council on Cold Regions Engineering (TCCRE) and will be held June 29–July 3. More than 150 oral and 250 poster presentations on all aspects of permafrost and frozen ground will provide a wealth of information for cold regions engineers. I look forward to this conference being a source for new papers for the Journal.

Another upcoming event is the ASCE 14th International Conference on Cold Regions Engineering, to be held in Duluth, Minnesota, in late August 2009. The call for papers should be out by the time you read this. This conference continues the TCCRE series, which has been so successful since the inception of the Council in 1979. Duluth was the host of the Ninth International Conference on Cold Regions Engineering in 1998, and we look forward to another great conference next year.

So pick up your pens and start writing about that interesting research that you’ve just completed, the case study of a great project recently finished, or comments or complaints about a recently published Journal paper. Don’t be surprised when you get an e-mail requesting your services as a reviewer for a manuscript. Remember that the quality and success of the Journal are based on the dedication of authors to submit manuscripts and volunteer reviewers to provide their expertise and suggestions to make those manuscripts into top-quality journal papers.