Announcement of New Journal Content: Technical Breakthrough Abstracts

On behalf of the editorial board, I am very pleased to announce that the ASCE Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering (JGGE) will begin publishing a new type of article called a technical breakthrough abstract. The following description has been added to the types of content for the journal:

Technical breakthrough abstracts are short contributions that present original, concise, and practical information regarding an important new breakthrough relevant to geotechnical engineering. Technical breakthrough abstracts may contain figures, tables, and references but may not exceed one published page (single side) in the journal, which corresponds to a length of approximately 800 words or word-equivalents.

The technical breakthrough abstract (TBA) was developed as a new concept for the JGGE and represents the first publication of this type by ASCE. TBAs will appear at the beginning of journal issues and are intended to rapidly and concisely disseminate important new information to the geotechnical engineering community.

A TBA will consist of

TBAs must contain original content that has never been previously published and that can be considered a breakthrough in research or practice. A breakthrough generally implies a significant new observation, finding, or method that has the potential to change the current approach to a specific aspect of geotechnical engineering. The length of a TBA is strictly limited to one published page (single side) in the journal. This is intended to shift the focus from details to concepts and lessen the burden of writing, reviewing, and reading these contributions. To assist authors with the length restriction, TBA manuscripts will be submitted using a template that is available for download from the author home page of Editorial Manager. TBA manuscripts will be reviewed at the editor level and generally permitted no more than one round of revision to reduce the time to publication. Depending on the response, a new senior JGGE editor may be appointed to handle TBA reviews. We anticipate that, once accepted, TBA manuscripts will be typeset and published online within eight weeks and published in print in the next available issue. TBAs will be citable in the literature and subject to written discussion and closure. TBA discussions and closures will also be limited to a single published page. Finally, publication of a TBA does not preclude future submission of a technical paper or technical note to the JGGE with complete details of the work. As an example, the first TBA can be found in this issue of the journal.

TBAs will provide a fresh new venue for the JGGE through which the latest advances and breakthrough research can be quickly conveyed to the readership. With a relatively light burden required of authors, the benefit–cost ratio for TBAs is expected to be high. As such, we hope to receive more submissions from practicing engineers who often do not have time to write full articles for the journal.

In closing, I would like to thank the JGGE editors, our Ombudsman, John Christian, and our Geo-Institute Past President, Craig Benson, for their comments and support during this process, and Angela Cochran and Bruce Gossett of the ASCE Publications Department for their approval of this initiative.

The submission of technical breakthrough abstracts is now welcome for the Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering.