This is my first year as Editor of Géotechnique Letters. I am Professor of Geotechnical Engineering at Ecole des Ponts ParisTech and I was a member of the Géotechnique advisory panel between 2000 and 2003, with my first year in fact overlapping with Matthew Coop's last year, who was also a member at that time. I must say that I was quite honoured and also somewhat impressed to be invited to take the responsibility of being Chair of the editorial panel of Géotechnique Letters following Matthew, who founded this journal as the first major online journal in geotechnics together with Ben Ramster of ICE in 2010.
Thanks to the contribution of a prestigious international panel composed of 17 members from nine countries across four continents, three volumes have been published under Matthew's management, with 17 papers in 2011, 35 in 2012 (including the 12 papers of the themed issue ‘Geomechanics across the scales’ edited by Itai Einav) and 33 in 2013 (including the ten papers of the themed issue ‘Experimental micro-mechanics’ edited by Béatrice Baudet and Jean-Michel Pereira). A new themed issue ‘Geoengineering Energy and Geo-Storage’ edited by Frank Wuttke and Jean-Michel Pereira, with six to seven papers will be published soon.
The challenge of having fast responses to authors has been won by the ‘founding group’ and I guess that this is quite an attractive feature of the journal. I recently discovered and appreciated this quite efficient process, which works in the following way. Submitted manuscripts are very rapidly forwarded by the Editor to an assessor who selects the reviewers among a network of internationally acknowledged experts. The journal is lucky enough to get fast and detailed responses from the reviewers. The manuscript reviews and assessment are afterwards discussed by the panel members through a web-based forum prior to being finalised and sent to the authors. Particular cases and other matters related to the journal are discussed during teleconferences held every 3 months.
The fast average acceptance period is also due to the letter format of the journal, with a maximum length of 2000 words, an option that we will certainly keep. The strong commitment of panel members and reviewers is a key factor of this success and they should once again be warmly acknowledged. I guess that it is appreciated by successful authors to have contributions accepted so rapidly, in particular in the case of PhD students who may get feedback on some aspects of their research prior to defending their thesis. This is a good way to attract and promote young talents.
The panel was changed at the end of this first fruitful 3-year period, with Matthew as outgoing Chief Editor. I would like to thank the outgoing members for their significant work and strong commitment, starting with Matthew (Hong-Kong PR China) and also Profs M. Gutierrez (USA), J.P. Harrison (Canada), B. Jeremić (USA), R. Lagioia (Italy), Y. Nakata (Japan), T. Sitharam (India), M.D. Nicholson (UK) and Dr T. Roberts (UK). Some panel members kindly accepted to stay a year more to ensure better continuity (Dr B.A. Baudet (Hong-Kong PR China, who has recently been appointed as Deputy Chair of the panel), Prof. I. Einav (Australia) and Dr Jean-Michel Pereira (France)). As well as the existing panel members (M.F. Bransby (Australia), Dr B. Byrne (UK), Prof. J. Kumar (India), Dr M. Preene and Dr D. Shuttle), new members have joined the panel in 2014 (Prof. C. Gaudin (Australia), Prof. C. Augarde (UK), Prof. A.M. Ferrero (Italy) and Prof. G. Buscarnera (USA)). We are presently in the process of extending the panel, with new members from all continents, confirming the international dimension of the journal.
This impressive work carried out by Matthew and by the former panel, together with the high scientific level of the papers published (particularly by outstanding researchers who decided to regularly support this young and new online journal from the very beginning by providing high-quality papers), led to the Web of Science acceptance of Géotechnique Letters in 2013 (i.e., after less than 3 years, which is close to the minimum required age that a journal can be accepted). I must say that, like Matthew and the panel members, I was quite enthusiastic to learn this good news, since this remarkable success indeed made my job as Editor much easier. The impact factor of the journal should be known by June 2014 and it seems that it will be quite satisfactory. This significant achievement recognises the high standard of the journal. It makes it even more attractive for authors, as observed in the rate of submission since the beginning of 2014.
An original idea launched by Matthew and Ben Ramster is the online discussion community established through LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Geotechnique-Letters-indexed-WoS-4138910). It includes some remarked contributions of M.J. Endicott (Hong-Kong) and Prof. T. Atkinson (UK) that fostered interesting debates on some issues related to geotechnical engineering and its practice. We are presently looking forward to publishing a new contribution by Prof. C. Santamarina (USA). This community is quite lively with now approximately 930 members and everybody is invited to participate.
The panel members also select what they consider to be the best paper every quarter, called the ‘Editor's choice’. These papers are given free access to all, together with the best paper of the year. In 2013, papers by Festugato et al. (2013), Hanaor et al. (2013), Andò et al. (2013) and Panaguia et al. (2013) were selected. The Telford Premium prize is awarded to the best paper of the year and it was decided to select the paper by Panaguia et al. Warmest congratulations to the authors of these excellent papers!
As you can see, this young new online journal is behaving quite well thanks to the efforts of all, and I am most happy to act as new Editor. Let's look forward with the panel members and our reviewers going on with fast online publishing of high quality papers!
