|
Editorial |
Hong Kong SAR, December 2007
At the end of a busy 12 months at the Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology (QJEGH) the members of the Editorial Board can reflect on a year which has seen positive changes to the submissions rate and level of discussion in the Journal, and a significant increase in its Impact Factor (IF).
|
First, the high quality of papers must be maintained through the editorial process and second, publication must not be slowed such that authors become disillusioned with QJEGH and we begin to see a negative effect on our IF. Thus, in order to accommodate the excellent material awaiting publication in a timely fashion, the Geological Society's Publications Management Committee has allowed an additional 96 pages – the equivalent of an extra issue – for the first time since 1996.
This reflects the hard work of Editorial Board, as does the fact that the Journal's IF also reached a record level despite the limitations of this as an index of quality. It now exceeds many of our competitors and is competitive with most, if not all, others. The challenge is now to maintain this important index at its present level and, perhaps, to increase it further still. This must be achieved without detriment to the appeal of the Journal to the profession.
This volume of QJEGH opens with Andrew Skinner's paper based upon his 2006 Ineson Lecture. Andrew traces aspects of the development of hydrogeology in the UK over the last 60 or so years, and in parts his paper relates to the excellent Nitrates theme which appeared in the final issue of the last volume.
The amount of discussion submitted to the Journal has also increased over the last year. This issue sees three such items with more on the way for future issues. I strongly believe that discussion is the sign of a healthy Journal which is, in turn, a sign of a healthy profession. Your discussion contributions are welcomed as much as contributions in more conventional forms such a papers, technical notes and photographic features.
One item of discussion in this issue focuses upon the paper from 2006 by Nichol et al. on the A6 Llyn Ogwen peat slide at Capel Curig in North Wales. I fully expect that this Lyn Ogwen paper, the associated discussion and the paper on peat slides in Ireland by Jennings et al. in this issue will generate further discussion on this subject. This is an important topic, not just from a scientific point of view, but in terms of its impact upon our ability to economically develop wind farms in remote areas, for example. This subject merits thorough exploration, and progress towards a better understanding of the mechanisms that drive peat slide failures is beginning to accelerate; your contributions to this process will welcome at QJEGH.
Issue 2 will open with a paper celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Lötschberg tunnel disaster followed by the first of two Special Issues to be published in 2008. This first Special Issue of the year will report on ‘200 Years of Engineering Geology’, amongst other papers. Such content seems especially appropriate as we reflect upon the Bicentennial Celebrations of the Geological Society and I hope that QJEGH will publish some of the papers from the Bicentennial Conference in the near future. In reading the papers for ‘200 Years of Engineering Geology’ I am sure that we will all reflect upon the future for our profession, if not for the next 200 years! However, a number of questions spring to mind:
These are all issues that need to be addressed. QJEGH has proved to be a valuable forum for airing views on some of these topics in the past and I hope that it will be in the future.
The second Special Issue of 2008 will appear in a significantly swollen Issue 3 and will be a Symposium in Print (SIP) on ‘Subsidence – Collapse: Occurrence, Impact and Mitigation’. The symposium itself will be held on Thursday 4th September 2008, at the University of Birmingham.
Electronic publishing is becoming increasingly pervasive and I have been exploring the Geological Society's excellent Lyell Collection (http://www.lyellcollection. org/), as I am sure many of you have. For those of you that have not done so I commend it to you, especially as so much of it comes as part of the Fellowship package and the remainder can be accessed for a relatively small supplement. Perhaps this may persuade more of our readers and authors to become Fellows of the Geological Society.
As part of the move towards electronic publishing, all submissions to QJEGH will be online from 3rd March this year (at http://qjegh.allentrack.net) and the electronic Journal becomes the definitive version from this issue. While this might at first sit a little uncomfortably with some people there are some significant advantages, not least the ability to default to colour illustrations in the electronic version. The Journal's Instructions for Authors, which can be found on the Journal's Home Page (http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/qjegh), give more detail.
It is always useful to hear what readers, subscribers and authors want from the Journal, be it more, less or different debate, discussion, papers, technical notes or photographic features. I have my own ideas but I would like very much to hear a range of your views. You can contact me via the ‘Contact Us’ link at the Journal's Home Page (see above).
Finally, I would like to announce that our Young Author of the year for papers published in 2006 is Dr Daniel Neuffer of RTW in Nevada for his paper on ‘Mechanisms of slope failure in Valles Marineris, Mars’ published in Part 3 of Issue 39 (co-authored with R A Schultz of the University of Nevada). Congratulations to Daniel; as part of his prize he joins the QJEGH Editorial Board for a one year term.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
