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Geotechnical Research Volume 1 Issue 2 Editorial Rahman and Lo Geotechnical Research, 2014, 1(2), 52 http://dx.doi.org/10.1680/gr.2014.1.2.52 Published with permission by the ICE under the CC-BY license.(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)52 Editorial Md Mizanur Rahman Member, Editorial Board Sik-Cheung Robert Lo Member, Editorial Board Welcome to Geotechnical Research, one of the first gold open access journals for geotechnical engineering, by ICE. Most publicly(government) funded researchers are encouraged to make their research outputs available to the wider public as soon as possible so that both scientists and the public can gain knowledge and derive maximum benefit from these outputs. Thus, the importance of open access journals is increasingly recognised in many countries. For example, the Australian Research Council (ARC), the largest and most prestigious government funding body in Australia, introduced a new open access policy for ARC-funded research, which took effect from 1 January 2013. According to this new policy, ‘the ARC requires that any publications arising from an ARC supported research project must be deposited into an open access institutional repository within a twelve (12) month period from the date of publication’ (ARC, 2013). Recognising the copyright and licensing arrangements currently in place between authors, institutions and publishers, ARC encourages developing mechanisms to ensure compliance with their policy. In our opinion, publishing in an open access journal ensures such compliance and will be encouraged in future as a means of research output dissemination. While open access is a rare but emerging publishing model in mainstream geotechnical journals, ICE’s Geotechnical Research is a timely step which will no doubt benefit the wider geotechnical community. The second issue of Geotechnical Research contains three articles and contributing authors are from the academic environment in Canada,Israel, Sweden and the USA. The articles cover a relatively wide range of soil behaviour: strength rate parameter, dimensional analysis of elastic modulus and dam stability. Klar et al. (2014) examined the relation between the rate parameter in the strength law and the rate effect parameter deduced from full-flow penetrometer soundings. Their analysis, for energy terms associated with the plasticity problem,led to the development of a simplified expression which relates well with numerically derived values. In their article, Adem and Vanapalli(2014) demonstrate a procedure for dimensional analysis to develop a dimensionless model for establishing the modulus of elasticity for unsaturated expansive soil. The model was validated with conventional and suction control triaxial tests. The last article is by Rönnqvist and Viklander (2014), who re-examined the internal stability of granular material (with fines) in dams using the Kenney–Lau method. A large number of existing dams with core material of similar coarseness were considered so that the influence of filter materials was reduced in their study. They recommended that the Kenney–Lau method can be extended for granular material with fines. While this issue contains articles from academia, we would like to emphasise that contributions from industry or articles on engineering innovations are particularly welcome. Such articles are testament to success as a result of research and development. Hopefully, through the publication of such articles, practising engineers will take a stronger interest in research and development. Research transfer to industry may not be considered as academically novel but the resultant innovations are high impact and thus of high publication value. Joint authorship from academics and practising engineers, in addition to enhancing the platform of collaboration between academia and industry, offers a different perspective in the research paradigm. Geotechnical Research also welcomes review articles which are particularly helpful to practising engineers who may get confused in trying to synthesise the findings of different articles written by different research groups to different venues at different times. Such articles serve as a bridge between practising engineers and researchers. While Geotechnical Research, like all other open access journals,has the potential to maximise the impact of a publication, it also covers a wide range of topics and allows an unlimited article length,which is an attractive feature for fundamental and elaborate research outputs in geotechnical engineering. There is a publication charge for publishing in Geotechnical Research; however, the journal offers a range of discounts for different groups of researchers, particularly researchers from International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) countries. Such a discount policy for open access is not very common and it partially eliminates the economic barrier to disseminating research outputs from developing countries. On behalf of the editorial board and ICE Publishing, we would like to take the opportunity to invite academics and practitioners from all over the world to consider Geotechnical Research as a platform for disseminating their research output. We hope you will find this journal interesting and useful for your careers in academia or in engineering industry. References Adem HH and Vanapalli SK (2014) Elasticity moduli of expansive soils from dimensional analysis. Geotechnical Research 1(2):60–72, http://dx.doi.org/10.1680/gr.14.00006. ARC (Australian Research Council) (2013) ARC Open Access Policy(version 2013.1). ARC, Canberra, Australia. See http://www.arc. gov.au/applicants/open_access.htm (accessed 28/05/2014). Klar A, Pinkert S and DeJong JT (2014) Evaluation of a logarithmic-law strength rate parameter using full-flow penetrometers. Geotechnical Research 1(2): 53–59,http://dx.doi.org/10.1680/gr.14.00002. Rönnqvist H and Viklander P (2014) Extending the Kenney–Lau method to dam core soils of glacial till. Geotechnical Research 1(2): 73–87, http://dx.doi.org/10.1680.gr.14.00007.