Although I took over as honorary editor from Stuart Moy last November this is the first editorial (barring a previous special issue) that I have had chance to write. It is a great privilege to ‘look after’ one of the world's most prestigious structural engineering journals. It is also a task that has been made very easy by the excellent legacy that Stuart has left. The journal is in very good health and we currently have sufficient contributions to increase the size of each issue. It is possible that we may consider six rather than the current four issues each year.
As you may be aware a new ICE Journal on Bridge Engineering will commence publication soon. Consequently over the past few months, bridge-oriented papers submitted to this journal have been directed (with the author's agreement) to the new journal. The number of specifically bridge papers that will feature in the Structures and Buildings Journal will reduce over the next few issues. I would like to wish Ben Barr (the Honorary Editor) every success with the new journal.
Even though the number of papers offered to the journal is very high I would like to use this editorial to press for more and perhaps to encourage more papers on practice. To maintain its position as a ‘top’ journal it is right that papers at the cutting edge of research feature prominently; however there is also cutting-edge practice and eliciting papers on this appears to be very difficult. There are many reasons for this, including confidentiality and market advantage; however I think the main reason is that practising engineers do not see publication as a part of their job in the same way that academic researchers do. I would be interested to hear views on this and even more interested to receive papers from practising engineers.
One final comment is to note that this issue is special to me not only as I have the opportunity to write the editorial but also in the fact that my name appears on one of the papers. Rest assured that the honorary editor had absolutely no influence in this. Almost all papers are reviewed and then assessed and decisions made without input from the editor. It is only the very few difficult cases on which I have to adjudicate. This does allow me to pay tribute to the editorial panel and the support staff at the ICE who manage the process so well.
