Update on the State of the Journal

The readers of the Journal of Infrastructure Systems (JIS) have probably noticed several changes in the Journal during the past 2 years. First, we have added three new Associate Editors to our team—Dr. Benjamin Hobbs, Dr. Pablo Durango-Cohen, and Dr. David Rosowsky—to replace three departing members. Benjamin, Pablo, and David provide strength and expertise in water supply systems analysis, risk analysis, systems and structural reliability, and infrastructure systems optimization.

The second change is that we have seen a significant increase in the number of papers published. This change is attributable in part to three special issues that have appeared in the Journal. We have developed special issues for two purposes. One purpose was to increase the number of submissions. The other reason was to attract a new group of authors, writing in either young areas of scholarship or established areas within the original scope of JIS. In 2004 and 2005, we published two special issues in the field of infrastructure systems sustainability, both of which were coedited by Dr. Arpad Horvath (who became an Associate Editor of JIS 3 years ago) and Dr. H. Scott Matthews. Arpad and Scott were successful in attracting a large pool of submissions, which produced a sufficient number of accepted papers to produce the two special issues. The third special issue, edited by Dr. Ken Maser, focused on the field of automated Inspection of infrastructure systems and was based on papers that had been presented at the 2002 Application of Advanced Technologies in Transportation (AATT) conference, which was organized by ASCE.

We have a fourth special issue forthcoming within a year; it is on the subject of infrastructure performance modeling and maintenance planning and is coedited by Dr. Rabi Mishalani and Dr. Mark McCord of Ohio State University. Two other special issues are in the planning stages; the first is on infrastructure planning for large events. The two guest editors are still accepting submissions. Interested readers are encouraged to read the announcement of that special issue at the following URL: http://ascedev.inforonics.com/journals/cfpIS.html

Another change, less visible to our readers but quite obvious to authors who have submitted manuscripts to the Journal in the past year, is that we have now moved to an electronic submission and review system. The instructions for electronic submissions can be found on the ASCE Web site, at http://www.pubs.asce.org/journals/submissis.html. JIS is one of seven ASCE journals that has made this transition to electronic submissions and reviews.

These initiatives have led to a significant increase in the workload of my assistant, Roslyn Aronson, who has handled it with her usual competence and enthusiasm. In the past 4 years, she has been essential in keeping our review process running smoothly. I greatly appreciate her contributions.

I look forward to hearing from you regarding these developments in the Journal of Infrastructure Systems. I can be reached at [email protected].