EDITOR'S NOTE

This note marks the beginning of the ninth year of publication of the Journal of Composites for Construction (JCC). As the only international peer-reviewed journal dedicated exclusively to the research and application of fiber-reinforced polymer composites in civil engineering structures, the Journal continues to attract high-quality papers from leading investigators around the world.

In the past year, we have dramatically reduced the time typically elapsed between the day we receive a manuscript for review and the actual date of publication. Due in large part to a 50% increase in pages allocated to the Journal from ASCE with Volume 8, this “time-to-print” decreased from about 2 years to about 1 year for manuscripts needing only one round of review. Roughly half of manuscripts eventually accepted need only one round of review prior to publication. The target time to review a manuscript submitted to the Journal is 3 months from the date of submission. The time required to print a manuscript subjected to multiple reviews can be heavily dependent on the time it takes authors to carry out the suggested revisions. Recently, about two-thirds of the papers submitted have been ultimately accepted. Papers in the regular issues of the Journal (i.e., not including special issues) appear in the order in which they were received in finalized form at ASCE.

Another positive development that has occurred in the past year is the first-time listing of the Impact Factor for the Journal by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI 2003). The impact factor for the Journal is 1.234, which is the second highest among 22 journals filtered under the categories of “materials science” and “composites.” Such an impressive impact factor is a testament to the quality and timeliness of papers published in the Journal. Many thanks go to the authors and reviewers for this impressive statistic. In this regard, I thank the continued dedication and competent service of the distinguished members of the International Editorial Board, each of whom reviews, on average, three to four papers per year for the Journal, not including rereviews and resubmissions. Every paper submitted to the Journal is reviewed by at least one board member. Board members are appointed by the editor for 2 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. Secondly, 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 nonmembers of the board to no more than one or two manuscripts per year. Additional persons who are interested in reviewing papers for the Journal should feel free to notify me with their contact information and technical area of interest. Thirdly, I thank Ms. Renee Lindenberg, who assists me in the management of the Journal at Penn State and ensures that deadlines are met. Finally, I owe a great deal of thanks to Ms. Johanna Reinhart and Ms. Jackie Perry at ASCE Headquarters, who provide me with invaluable guidance and advice on all editorial matters.

The papers appearing in the Journal have traditionally been divided into five general areas, as follows:

Table 1 shows the breakdown of the papers into the five areas for the last five volumes of the Journal. During the 8th year of publication, the following papers were published in the five topic areas:Reinforcements for concrete (5 papers):Repair and strengthening of concrete and masonry (43 papers):Structural shapes (5 papers):Hybrid structural elements and systems (7 papers):Codes and standards (2 papers):