Scope and Direction of the Journal of Hydrologic Engineering: Serving the Hydrology Community and Beyond

To better reflect the changes in the scope and to clarify the actual areas covered by the journal, a revised version of the aims and scope has recently been proposed and approved. The Journal of Hydrologic Engineering disseminates interdisciplinary information in the field of hydrologic science and engineering. The journal publishes original research and practical applications related to water in natural and built environments. It covers fundamental and applied hydrology and emerging areas (e.g., surface water, vadose zone, groundwater, water quality, snow/ice and glacier, urban/agricultural/forest, and coastal hydrology; hydroinformatics, ecohydrology; hydroclimatology; and sociohydrology). The journal encourages submissions utilizing analytical, numerical, probabilistic/stochastic, experimental, remote sensing, artificial intelligence (e.g., machine learning), and other data-driven approaches that advance hydrologic science and engineering practices and promote sustainable and resilient engineering solutions to real-world water and environmental problems.

The journal publishes different types of papers, mainly including technical papers, technical notes, case studies, state-of-the-art reviews, forums, and discussions. As explicitly indicated in the revised aims and scope, the journal covers not only surface water hydrology, but also subsurface hydrology (vadose zone hydrology and groundwater hydrology). More importantly, it broadly covers a variety of specialized and emerging areas of hydrology addressing environmental and water problems associated with watersheds, ecosystems, pollutants, dynamic human–water interactions, climate change, cold regions, and coastal zones, as well as land use and land cover (e.g., urban, agricultural, and forest). In addition to analytical, numerical, and statistical methodologies, laboratory/field experimental studies, and varying scale modeling endeavors, the journal also encompasses artificial intelligence (e.g., machine learning), soft computing (e.g., neural networks, evolutionary algorithms, and fuzzy logics), and other data-driven approaches. Although the scope of the journal involves ecological, environmental, agricultural, social, and other interdisciplinary topics, the related issues should be addressed from the hydrologic perspective in a published paper. Hydrologic technical content is essential to this journal.

All members of the journal editorial board, including the editor in chief (EIC), section editors (SEs), and associate editors (AEs), endeavor to maintain high standards and make every possible effort to ensure an efficient and fair review process for all manuscripts submitted for publication. Once a manuscript passes technical check performed by ASCE journal staff, it is sent to the EIC to start the review process. Generally, the manuscript is evaluated first by the editorial board members to ensure it fits the scope of the journal. This initial stage also focuses on the overall quality of the English writing and technical content of the manuscript. This stage typically takes less than a week. If the manuscript is not ready for further peer review, it is directly declined without review mainly due to (1) being outside the scope of the journal (in this case, the editor may suggest a transfer to another ASCE journal), (2) substandard English and technical writing (if the manuscript can be potentially publishable after significant revisions, the editor may suggest “revise before review”), or (3) lack of sufficient technical content. If the editorial board members determine there are no major technical or English language usage concerns, the peer review process is initiated, and reviewers are invited. Once all reviews have been received, the AE and SE make recommendations, and the EIC submits via the Editorial Manager system the final decision, which can be accept as is, revise for re-review (or re-review by editor only), or decline (decline final or decline with encouragement to resubmit). The entire process from submission to the first decision typically takes about 2 months. If a revision is recommended, it is crucial for the authors to fully address all comments from both reviewers and the editorial board members, provide their point-by-point responses, and detail their modifications. It is helpful for the re-review process if the authors submit a separate document to show all tracked changes. The re-review process generally takes much less time. We understand that an efficient review process and timely publication of papers are important to all authors. We are planning to take special actions to reduce the processing time and minimize the rounds of review.

The authors are strongly encouraged to review and follow the ASCE journal publication guidelines (https://ascelibrary.org/doi/epdf/10.1061/9780784479018.fm) and the relevant information at the ASCE Author Center (https://ascelibrary.org/author-center) when preparing their manuscripts. Depending on the technical content, the authors must select the right paper type and pay close attention to page limits, format requirements, organization of materials and sections, and all other specific requirements. The common problems frequently identified during the review process include:

The Journal of Hydrologic Engineering provides a forum for exchanging research ideas and findings and advancing hydrologic science and engineering for the community of hydrology and water resources. It is your journal, and your support is crucial to its success. Together with the dedicated reviewers, the editorial board members are striving to improve the service for the professional and scientific communities and the public. We encourage you to make contributions to the journal by submitting your work for publication (any paper types, from a technical paper to a case study, a technical note, a state-of-the-art review, a discussion, or a forum) and serving as a reviewer to support the review process. In addition, the journal also publishes both topic-oriented (important or emerging topics) and region-oriented (regional studies) special collections. We invite you, an expert, to propose a special collection and serve as a guest editor. Please contact us for the detailed procedures. Young professionals at the early stage of their career may also consider joining the Early Career Editorial Board (ECEB). Please refer to the editor’s note published in 2020 (Volume 25, Issue 1) for more details on this ASCE program, the qualifications, and responsibilities, and contact us for the application and selection procedure. We look forward to serving you, working with you, and listening to you.