Status Report: Section A

Wishing everyone a very happy New Year 2021 and a year free of the troubles that many of us went through in 2020.

This editorial presents a status report on Section A (Cementitious Materials) to readers of the Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering (JMCE) and provides information about some upcoming changes. JMCE is constituted of four sections, of which Section A accounts for more than 50% of its published articles. Section A has been receiving more than 1,000 papers a year, which is approximately a 100% increase in submissions in the last five years. Papers come from all over the world, with a significant increases in submissions from Asia. We have instituted robust policies over the past few years in dealing with this increase, which have resulted in the time to first decision dropping from 2.9 to 2.2 months (for papers that are sent to review) and from 1.9 to 1.1 months (for papers that are rejected by the editors). The acceptance rate for the journal stands at around 25%, and the five-year impact factor has steadily increased to 2.5 from 1.5 five years ago. The credit for this should go to authors from all over the world, who have trusted JMCE to publish their scientific research, and to the associate editors (AEs) and reviewers who have carried out the most demanding of journal-related tasks. Currently we have 45 Section A AEs with diverse specializations relating to cementitious materials. These AEs are serving the journal with immense dedication, without which we would not have been able to attain the metrics that we have achieved.

Given the large submission volume, we have decided to split Section A into two parts: A1 and A2. Section A1 deals with the following broad topics: development of novel cementitious materials (new types of cements, geopolymers, alkali-activated systems, polymer modifications, etc.), use and impact of cement replacement materials, hydration and microstructure development, modeling of chemical reactions including coupled processes, and fundamental chemistry and chemical reactions with respect to mechanical properties and durability (ASR, sulfate attack, etc.). Section A2 broadly covers investigations into mechanical and durability properties of cement-based materials, modeling and prediction of these properties, and service life prediction. For papers that are at the interface of the two sections, such as creep measurements at the macroscale and mechanism elucidation at the microscale, the editor will choose the appropriate AE irrespective of the section identified by the authors.

It is important to inform authors as to the type of papers that are not within the scope of JMCE. This is to keep the focus of the journal and serve its broad readership, which predominantly consists of civil engineers. Papers dealing with pure chemistry (e.g., organic chemistry studies on developing chemical admixtures) are not of primary interest unless their dominant component is the influence of organic chemistry in cementitious systems. If the topic of a paper is the use of a material of interest to a certain region because of local availability and abundance, and likely not of global interest, such papers are also discouraged. If a paper focuses explicitly on waste utilization, rather than the science and engineering of the waste material, it should be submitted to other, more appropriate journals. Papers that consider pure modeling of physicochemical phenomena or properties, without attendant experimental verification and validation, are not of interest. Similarly, statistical modeling of properties without emphasis on the mechanistic component, testing of structural systems without an explicit and relevant materials-related component, and application of well-established soft computing techniques (e.g., neural networks) to a materials problem, without establishing their advantage, are not topics of primary interest. Nor are papers that exclusively deal with test methods or standards development. We also discourage submissions that report just the results from a large set of experiments without delving into the fundamental aspects of materials science or mechanics, and those that report results that have been well established in the literature. Needless to say, novelty and scientific rigor are essential for papers to be considered for review and publication.

On that note, I welcome two new section editors to the JMCE fold: Prof. Farshad Rajabipour of Pennsylvania State University for Section A1, and Prof. Mahmoud Reda Taha of the University of New Mexico for Section A2. Both have been JMCE AEs for a long time and have contributed immensely to the journal’s progress. They have already assumed their responsibilities starting early 2021, after I have stepped down as section editor after eight years in that role.

It has been my privilege to be associated with JMCE, leading Section A through its rapid growth. Once again, I express my gratitude to the AEs, who have willingly accepted increased workloads and carried out tireless, dedicated service to the journal. Thanks are also due to our reviewers, without whom the journal could not exist in its current form. The chief editor, Prof. Antonio Nanni, and the journal staff at ASCE also deserve a special mention for their unwavering support and timely interventions.

Once again, wishing all readers a happy and prosperous 2021, and hoping that JMCE will continue to be the journal of choice for high-quality research contributions.