Meet the Editor: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering

The Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering (JGGE) covers the broad area of practice known as geotechnical engineering. Papers are welcomed on topics such as foundations, retaining structures, soil dynamics, engineering behavior of soil and rock, site characterization, slope stability, dams, rock engineering, earthquake engineering, environmental geotechnics, geosynthetics, computer modeling, groundwater monitoring and restoration, and coastal and geotechnical ocean engineering. Authors are also encouraged to submit papers on new and emerging topics within the general discipline of geotechnical engineering. Theoretical papers are welcomed, but there should be a clear and significant potential for practical application of the theory. Practice-oriented papers and case studies are particularly welcomed and encouraged.

Catherine O'Sullivan spoke with ASCE Publications about her tenure as editor-in-chief and aspirations for the journal. O'Sullivan, Ph.D., CEeng, FICE, FIEI, M.ASCE, is Professor of Particulate Soil Mechanics and Head of the Geotechnics Section in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Imperial College, London, UK.

ASCE Publications: What advice do you have for new researchers?

O'Sullivan: In the JGGE we seek manuscripts that document novel and significant research using a rigorous scientific approach.  To achieve novel research researchers really need to look for gaps in knowledge or technology.  In other words, it is a good idea to identify areas in which there is a deficit of research activity. In my own case, through a combination of luck and excitement about doing something new, I completed a PhD in particle-scale simulation of soil when that modelling technique was not widely used.  This enabled me to deliver papers that both contributed to the development of the technology but also that have provided new insight into soil behavior. At the start of your research career in particular, it is not easy to identify gaps in scientific and engineering research.  Again, drawing on my own experience, one fruitful area to explore is the boundaries between disciplines and technology / knowledge transfer between disciplines. 

A good research plan will set out a clear overall hypothesis or research question.  Can you articulate the overarching hypothesis or aim that drives your research study?  It can be useful to remind yourself of this aim as you design your simulations, experiments or field work and analyze your data.  However, fortuitous observations and failures along the way can lead to novel insight and generate new research directions.  

Thinking about significance, it is important to consider how your research will advance geotechnical engineering.  ASCE is committed to the UN sustainable development goals.  How does your research contribute to addressing one or more of these goals?  Can your research contribute to reducing the carbon footprint or the cost of delivering infrastructure?  Does your research open up a new area of scientific exploration?  Are you developing a transformative approach to modelling, experimental research or field instrumentation?  Does your work provide the scientific basis for new methods that can be adopted in industry?

In terms of rigor, it is important to include checks and balances to ensure your data is robust.  How can you validate your numerical model?  How can you calibrate and check calibrations on any measurement equipment you use?  Are environmental variables such as temperature unduly impacting your measured values?  If you look at your data from a different perspective does it still make sense? Higher quality papers include descriptions and supporting evidence (even if concise) of these checks.

As a researcher you need to be resilient.  Research is inherently risky; you will undoubtedly fail at times.  Research grants success rates are often low.  Successful researchers take the feedback from these setbacks on board and iterate and refine their ideas and working practices to come back with new perspectives and approaches.  I hope that the authors of the papers submitted to the JGGE that make it into the review process can take the feedback provided by the reviewers and our associate editors.  We hope that this process refines the manuscripts in the review system, while also helping authors to come back with higher quality future submissions.

ASCE Publications: What are the biggest challenges facing researchers working in the field of geotechnical engineering today (and in the coming years)?

O'Sullivan: Skilled and engaged people are essential to enable continued delivery of innovative, high-quality research in geotechnical engineering. Recruiting talented research students and post-doctoral researchers to support our research is essential. In many countries at present the demand for geotechnical engineers in industry is compromising recruitment of master’s and doctoral students.  At the same time new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning appear more attractive to prospective university students.  So, there is a clear challenge to continue to attract talent into civil engineering in the first place.

Our discipline is maturing, and the challenges facing the profession are evolving. The societal challenges of climate change adaptation and mitigation provide obvious challenges to geotechnical engineers. How can we deliver sustainable and economical foundation and anchoring systems for offshore wind energy generation? How can we reduce the threat posed by the shrink-swell behavior of clay to infrastructure and buildings? How can we maintain and ensure the ongoing integrity of aging geostructures including levees, road embankments and embankment dams? How can we predict the response coupled response of soil considering mechanics and hydro-mechanics as well as environmental variations in temperature and pore-fluid chemistry.

In my experience in both the US and the UK there is a good dialogue between geotechnical engineers based in industry and geotechnical engineers in academia.  The geotechnical industry continues to recruit graduates from PhD programs, and this is key to keeping this essential dialogue alive.  However, more interaction between geotechnical contractors, rather than consulting engineers, and academic researchers may lead to more innovative ideas and solutions.

ASCE Publications: How do you differentiate your journal from similar journals in the civil engineering field?

O'Sullivan: There are many good geotechnical journals at the current time. I think we have managed to strike a very nice balance between theoretical and more applied research. In the JGGE we specifically encourage papers from industry, for example, in the form of case study papers. We look at how to include more representatives from industry on our editorial board on an ongoing basis.

From an organizational perspective, one of the things I really value about the JGGE is its strong link to the ASCE and the ASCE Geo-Institute. As Editor-in-Chief I serve on the Technical Publications Committee of the ASCE Geo-Institute and interactions with colleagues on that committee gives me a broader perspective of my role and forms a link between me and people who I can approach if I need advice. I also am invited to give a presentation just before the first plenary lecture at the GeoCongress each year on the state of our journal and this gives us a unique opportunity to highlight the journal and its achievements to the geotechnical community in the US. 

I also appreciate the structure of the editorial board; the 4 editors work closely together and collaborate with me on the key decisions we make. I continue to learn from discussions and email interactions with all of them and working with this team has been an absolute privilege. Prof. Mo Gabr, as our editor at large, and a former editor in chief, is always incredibly generous with his time and can provide invaluable advice based on his involvement in the journal over a number of years. I am always impressed by the integrity, knowledge and commitment of the ASCE publications team. I very much enjoy working with Jennifer Parresol and Megan Tonkovich who correspond with me almost daily to keep the journal running smoothly. 

The less visible contributors to the process are our Associate Editors and Reviewers. Almost every week I see a review or a synthesis of a set of reviews by an Associate Editor that stands out in terms of the level of detail and insight provided on a submitted manuscript. These team members remain anonymous during the process, however the ASCE provides forums where we can publicly recognize both our outstanding Associate Editors and our outstanding Reviewers.  I think this is very important.

While emphasizing the links between the ASCE and the JGGE, it is important to emphasize that we are very much an international journal. We welcome papers from any country and authors do not need to be ASCE members. Our priority is to publish excellent manuscripts, irrespective of the country of origin. Our 50 editors and associate editors are spread across 10 countries, and we will continue to expand the geographical spread of the editorial board.

ASCE Publications: What aspirations do you have for the future of the journal?

O'Sullivan: I want the JGGE to be a journal associated with top-quality, novel, transformative research and ideas.  To achieve this goal the JGGE should be the first journal researchers and practitioners consider when selecting where to send papers. Key to this is our selection process which aims to select top papers for publication and to improve these papers through the review process. However, our author’s experience is also very important; we try to provide authors with quality decisions in reasonable time as well as constructive feedback to improve the quality of current and future submissions.  Delivering upon this aspiration poses challenges at times as our reviewers and associate editors are volunteers and have challenging day jobs. A key element of my role is to keep our team of associate editors engaged with the journal and continue to acknowledge the fantastic contribution they make. At the same time, we need to identify and work with top reviewers who will be willing to review for us if they know they will be the first to see really stellar papers. 

One key thing I would like to see us improve over my tenure as editor is making the data underlying the papers we publish more accessible to the broader research community. We have already started discussions at editorial board level and exploring how to achieve a culture change in the community so that data and models underlying papers are made available via reliable repositories.

I have spent a reasonable amount of time looking at the rational for diversity and inclusivity in organizations. Expanding the spread of authors who submit to us is important to increase the pool of papers we can select from and to ensure we capture a diverse range of ideas in these papers. I think that the decision of the ASCE Technical Publication Committee to appoint me as UK-based Editor in Chief sends a clear message that we are very much open to authors from all over the world.

ASCE Publications: What emerging technologies are impacting your area and how do you address these in the journal?

O'Sullivan: Obviously, AI and machine learning are starting to have a real impact on geotechnical engineering.  However, these tools are not always applied in a way that offer clear benefits; it is important for researchers to consider how these tools give a real advantage over more traditional empirical regression. Curation of large datasets is now more tractable, and exploitation of new data science tools presents significant opportunities.  Bio-geotechnics and bio-inspired geotechnical solutions are also interesting areas of research; however, many of the submissions we see in this area relating to ground improvement are incremental variations on prior studies. Reflecting on the points made above, there are still research gaps and unexplored potential here and I look forward to seeing what this will lead to in geotechnical engineering in the future. New modelling tools such as the material point method present the opportunity to enhance risk assessment in geotechnical engineering. As a profession we should be able to exploit advance in electronic engineering to develop new monitoring technologies. Remote observation via techniques including InSAR and drones (UAVs) can provide new perspectives on the behavior of natural deposits and engineered geostructures. We always welcome contributions relating to these, and other emerging technologies. t is important that authors documenting the exploitation of these new tools clearly articulate the significance, relevance, and added value of their work to geotechnical engineering when developing their manuscripts..

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