Sue McNeil talked with ASCE Publications about the interdisciplinary nature of infrastructure and her vision of the journal. McNeil, Ph.D., P.E., Dist. M.ASCE, is Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at University of Delaware.

ASCE Publications: What separate the JIS from others in the field?

Sue McNeil: Infrastructure systems cuts across different disciplines, whether that is transportation, water, waste water, or energy. This journal is all about infrastructure systems as a whole. Because what we do touches many different fields, we don’t want to be seen as just a civil engineering journal. We have made an effort to focus more on methodologies to support decision making and the interdisciplinary requirements for this field. We don’t focus on one type of infrastructure and often receive submissions for topics that wouldn’t immediately fit into other more traditional ASCE journals.

ASCE Publications: What do you see are the hot topics?

Sue McNeil: 1. Resilience – the combination of infrastructure, climate change and extreme events. There is a lot going on and it is definitely a hot topic for infrastructure.

2. Sensors – allows for on-site monitoring and assessment of civil engineering structures. Technology is changing and growing, and this is definitely something to watch

3. Public private partnerships – important topic but it is really hard to find well-written papers on this subject. Authors tend to tell a story of what they did, but do not explain the innovation and its relevance to other projects. We are looking for the good papers, the ones that can take experiences and move them forward.  

ASCE Publications: What changes have you seen during your time as editor?

Sue McNeil: I have been editor for four years, and I was one of the founding associate editors! Twenty years ago when the journal started, we didn’t have a well-defined community, but we’ve made strides to define our content area and audience, although there’s more work to do.

Since being editor, we have seen the implementation of web-based publishing and the move to faster publication. I’m excited as well about the push for open access, and ASCE has done a good job of providing authors with options and flexibility.

ASCE Publications: What will readers see in the journal?

Sue McNeil: In JIS, you will see good methodological papers that address infrastructure as an entire system. Our content offers both new ideas and concepts, as well as new applications and the supporting case studies.

In addition to that, I am excited about ASCE’s transition to special collections. We will be publishing one final special issue, then we will migrate to special collections. With the collections, we will have more flexibility on what particular topics or areas of interest we can build on and make the collections available faster. I am enthusiastic about this innovative solution and am confident that this will be to our advantage.

ASCE Publications: What challenges do researchers face?

Sue McNeil: Funding and open access issues are obvious ones. For us the role interdisciplinarity plays is also important, but researchers need to publish in the journals that are right for the audience they are targeting. The questions of who is the right audience, and what publications can reach that audience are key. For us, we know our audience is broader than just civil engineering. Civil engineers in the infrastructure systems space tend to be more interdisciplinary; having experience in decision making; and economic behavioral aspects of choice-making.

ASCE Publications: What are your aspirations for the future?

Sue McNeil: One of the things that’s important to me is what started the journal in the first place—that community of like-minded people. Our readers want to see what’s in this journal. We interact at conferences; it’s an open community, but I’d like to see the editorial board do more to better define the community. This is in part a reflection on our home in ASCE. I would like to see the JIS be broader; interact with a variety of technical communities (not just transportation) to grasp the whole picture; all the disparate elements that make up infrastructure. Ultimately, this could involve a revision of our aims and scope.

ASCE Publications: What makes a good article?

Sue McNeil:A good article has a very well-defined contribution to the profession (knowing your audience and having something to share). It has to have a methodological contribution, and it has to have a systems element to it. Infrastructure is not just one structure; its more than ‘this is how we rehabilitated a bridge.’ The good articles are the ones in which the authors have thought about who their audience is, who might use it, how will they use it, what does it mean, and how does it connect with future research that may occur.

ASCE Publications: Any advice for new researchers?

Sue McNeil: Writing papers goes hand-in-hand with doing reviews. A colleague once told me, that for every paper a researcher submits, they should do four reviews (typical journals have 3-5 reviewers). The more experience you have reviewing, the better you write papers! My experience from 20 years in journal editing is that I’ve never seen a paper that was accepted on the first submission. Become part of the community, volunteer to review, and write better.

And two more things: (1) please don’t eke five publications out of one piece of work; if there really aren’t five different ideas; and (2) choose good topics.

ASCE Publications: What drew you to civil engineering?

Sue McNeil: Civil engineering for me was a love of math and science and a high school field trip to a water authority. I have a clear memory of this dam spillway model, and they talked about how they used dimensionless numbers to produce a scale model. And I went, “Wow there’s something here; there’s actually a rationale behind it all.”

As for becoming an editor, it was the sense of community. Jeff Wright, founding editor, said we could really use a journal that could be an outlet for infrastructure, as well as traditional systems-oriented engineering. I believe in supporting and nurturing that community. I like to see what people are doing, what’s going on, and encourage younger people’s work and contribution to the profession.

So far, it’s been a lot of fun. Lots of interesting people, tons and tons of interesting papers, and some great associate editors. And I expect that to continue!

Learn more about the Journal of Infrastructure Systems.