State of the Journal

The following article is the State of the Journal report for 2010 for the ASCE Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering (JGGE). Publication of such end-of-year reports fulfills one of my goals as editor in chief.

The JGGE strengthened its position in 2010 as a leading worldwide publication venue for both the practicing and research geotechnical engineering communities. I am pleased to report that the latest metrics are excellent. The JGGE has the highest circulation of all geotechnical journals and is currently the largest of the ASCE journals by submissions, pages published, and papers published. The number of new manuscripts submitted reached a record of 611 in 2010, exceeding last year’s total by more than 100. The number of revised manuscripts received was 392. The acceptance rate for 2010 was the lowest on record at 28%. The one-year and five-year impact factors were 1.09 and 1.44, respectively, both the highest on record. The Web-based Editorial Manager system continues to provide increased efficiency in manuscript handling and has allowed the Editorial Board to significantly reduce manuscript turnaround times. The average time to first decision was 5 months in 2010, which is a significant improvement as compared to several years ago, before the use of Editorial Manager.

Changes to the Editorial Board include the retirement of Jonathan Stewart as chief editor in April. The JGGE prospered over the previous 3 years under Jon’s very capable leadership. Kenneth Fishman also retired as editor in 2010, after a long period of excellent service to the JGGE. New editors Iraj Noorany, formerly of San Diego State University, and Joseph Wartman, of the University of Washington, were added to the board in 2010. They, along with continuing editors Mo Gabr and Vaughan Griffiths, make an outstanding editorial team, and it is my privilege to work with them. The following Editorial Board members (EBMs) also retired: Jonathan Bray, George Gazetas, Dennis Grubb, Erik Loehr, Ning Lu, George Mylonakis, Daniel Whang, Andrew Whittle, and Hai-Sui Yu. The editors sincerely thank these individuals for their years of dedicated service to the JGGE. Four new EBMs were added in 2010: John McCartney of the University of Colorado at Boulder, Monica Prezzi of Purdue University, Abdul-Hamid Soubra of the University of Nantes, and Lianyang Zhang of the University of Arizona. The editors look forward to working with them and our continuing EBMs, to enhance the reputation of the JGGE worldwide in the coming years. Similarly, I would like to take this opportunity to invite leading professionals 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 Editorial Board Member for 2010 goes to Anand J. Puppala of the University of Texas at Arlington. This award is made annually by the JGGE editors to an EBM who displays extraordinary dedication to the responsibilities of manuscript review management, including timely handling of a large number of papers and careful evaluation of review comments to provide quality publication recommendations. Our sincere thanks go to Anand as well as all of our excellent EBMs who handle the daily workload of paper management for the JGGE. The award will be given in Dallas at Geo-Frontiers 2011.

Starting in 2011, our EBMs will have the new title of associate editor, which is more consistent with other ASCE journals and with their role of providing recommendations toward publication decisions. I am also especially pleased to announce that ASCE has agreed to my request that all associate editors receive complimentary copies of the JGGE in recognition of their service. The editors are sincerely grateful for this meaningful gesture of appreciation to our hard-working associate editors.

The Editorial Board continues its efforts to encourage the publication of papers that directly benefit engineering practice. In consultation with the Technical Publications Committee of the Geo-Institute, we are working to identify practice-oriented papers, such as those from G-I conferences, for possible publication in the JGGE. In addition, the JGGE has a new article submission category of “Case Study” to highlight project-specific papers in the table of contents for each issue.

In closing, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for the outstanding and dedicated service of our Editorial Board in 2010. 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 welcome your comments and suggestions on ways in which we can improve our Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering.