Welcome to Geotechnical Research, ICE’s gold open-access journal for geotechnical engineering. Publishing in an open-access journal ensures that your research output becomes more widely accessible, read and hopefully cited more frequently due to unrestricted online access.
The concept of open-access publishing can be traced back perhaps more than 20 years ago during the advent of the Internet or dot.com era in the 1990s and early 2000s. One of the earlier driving forces behind this ‘free-of-charge’ and ‘no barrier’ for knowledge initiative was the Open Society Institute, which initiated the Budapest Open Access Initiative in February 2002 (Suber, 2012). On hindsight in today’s term, that small gathering of 16 like-minded colleagues is recognised as one of the defining events that has catapulted the open-access movement into the mainstream of today’s digital age. On the initiative’s tenth anniversary in 2012, it was re-iterated with affirmative recommendations to propel the open-access initiative to ‘become the default method for dissemination of new peer-reviewed research in every field and country’ in the next 10 years (Budapest Open Access Initiative, 2012). The deliberate action of embracing open-access publication and publishing in recent years has gained so much momentum that it does not seem to show any sign of slowing down in the near future! For example, it is fast becoming a policy in countries like the UK (Wanatowski, 2014) and Australia (Rahman and Lo, 2014) to encourage compulsory contribution of research outputs to relevant depositories to benefit a wider audience.
In terms of definition, ‘self-archiving’ of publications in open-access institutional repositories is termed ‘green’ open access, while ‘gold’ open access involves publishing in an open-access journal where authors pay an article publication charge (APC). The terms ‘self-archiving’, ‘green’ and ‘gold’ were coined by S. Harnad (Suber, 2012) and had since been used religiously when associated to any open-access project. If readers have already learned something new from the author’s opening paragraphs herein, it is the immediate benefit of being able to just get connected to the internet to easily retrieve important research articles and news by way of open-access websites in under an hour!
Geotechnical Research is a gold open-access journal funded by APC, and its main aim is to disseminate knowledge related to geotechnical engineering. The online journal, led by editor-in-chief D. Wanatowski, is now publishing its third issue in its inaugural year 2014. The blind peer-review process relies on its highly qualified international editorial board members who are experts in their respective fields of geotechnical engineering. The dedicated team of the editorial board comprises 39 members from 17 countries.
In this latest issue of Geotechnical Research, readers are treated to two articles, one each from industry and academia. The first article, by Joseph (2014), investigates the inherent soft soil–structure behaviour in terms of viscosity and secondary consolidation by evaluating data from many parts of the world. It is enlightening to note that the probable, more important physical mechanism that helps explain the viscosity behaviour of soils may lie in the inherent adsorbed water layers surrounding the soil particles, thus possibly relegating the actual soil particle material, fabric and structure to play only secondary roles. In terms of secondary compression, it was postulated that at the onset of effective stress at the end of primary consolidation, continued slippage of semi-stable particles occurs at random strains due to particles readjusting their positions. In conclusion, the current design practice of using one-dimensional consolidation curves derived from incremental loads to calculate consolidation settlements does seem reasonable.
In the second article, by Huang et al. (2014), the novel installation method and the long-term behaviour of tunnel lining using optical fibre Bragg grating (FBG) are presented. Important findings include presence of lock-in stresses, greater stress and lateral earth pressure magnitudes recorded and/or calculated from the instrumented tunnel lining throughout its life cycle, starting from its manufacture through field installation and commissioning. More importantly, this implies that construction-related issues may be a greater contributor than geology-related matters in the increase in inherent stresses experienced by tunnel lining. It is concluded that FBG has the potential to be used in the long-term monitoring of the serviceability of tunnel lining via soil–structure interaction due to any future adjacent construction.
The two most recent articles described herein have showcased the important symbiotic relationship between industry and academia. Joseph (2014) (from industry) has keenly acknowledged the contributions of a few academics in helping him shape his article, while Huang et al. (2014) (from academia) have a co-author who is from the industry. The interaction and collaboration between industry and academia are important in shaping the research direction so that its outcomes become more tangible and applicable for the benefit of the wider community.
Geotechnical Research endeavours to maximise its readership and hence the impact of its articles. It invites all interested academics, practising engineers in private and public sectors, constructors and suppliers to submit review articles on the many aspects of modern geotechnics, such as soil, rock and fluid mechanics; geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering; physical and numerical modelling; case studies; micromechanics; engineering geology; geotechnical design and construction issues; hydrogeology and geochemistry; among others. There will be no word limit imposed on new submissions. APC discounts are offered to authors from countries that are members of the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications. All accepted articles will be published online within 4 weeks from the acceptance date.
On behalf of fellow editorial board members and ICE Publishing, we would like to sincerely invite article contributors worldwide to capitalise on ICE’s Geotechnical Research gold open-access platform as the ideal springboard and vehicle for disseminating research outcomes. We look forward to receiving your articles and hope that you will find this journal refreshing, insightful and useful for the advancement of geotechnical knowledge and your careers.
