ACS - Journal of Environmental Quality Editorial Board (ACS324.1)
2021 Annual Report
2020 JEQ Editor’s Report—Doug Smith
Editorial Board Update
Merrin Macrae served as JEQ Science Communications Editor and provided excellent advice on promoting articles to the scientific community and lay audience. The Associate Editors listed below will complete their terms at the end of the 2021. They have provided excellent oversight of manuscript reviews and conducted comprehensive reviews. On behalf of the Technical Editors, I thank them for their hard work: John Kelly, Celia Manaia, Nikolina Udikovic-Kolic, Nora Casson, Casey Kennedy, and Bryan Spears.
JEQ Best Paper Award
This award was established to recognize an outstanding scientific paper published in JEQ in the last three years. A panel comprising the Technical Editors and me, reviewed and evaluated a number of papers. We selected the best paper on the basis of how the manuscript has advanced knowledge in environmental science, the effectiveness of communication, originality, and the scientific impact as measured by number of citations and downloads.
The JEQ Best Paper for 2021 is: In situ denitrification in saturated riparian buffers by T.A. Groh, M.P. Davis, T.M. Isenhart, D.B. Jaynes, and T.B. Parkin (2019) 48:376-384. doi:10.2134/jeq2018.03.0125. We congratulate Dr. Groh and coauthors and appreciate their outstanding contribution to JEQ.
Analysis of submissions
See Tables 1–3.
Summary of papers by category to show trends in current topics
See Table 4
Special Collections of Papers in JEQ (2016-2021)
2021: 1 with 6 papers
2020: 2 with 18 papers
2019: 5 with 79 papers
2018: 4 with 58 papers
2017: 2 with 30 papers
2016: 5 with 71 papers
Special Collections of Papers Published in 2021
Soils in Urban, Industrial, Traffic, Mining and Military Areas; Guest Editors: Zhongqi Cheng, Kye-Hoon Kim and Ganga Hettiarachchi
Special Collections expected in 2021
Manuresheds—Reconnecting Livestock and Cropping Systems; Guest Editors – Sheri Spiegal, Maria Liveria, Curt Dell, John Baker, Shabtai Bittman, Pete Kleinman and Heather Preisendanz
Exploring the Soil Health–Watershed Health Nexus; Guest Editors – Ann-Marie Fortuna, Ann Marcelle Lewandowski, Will Osterholz, Heather Preisendanz, and Yakov Pachepsky
JEQ’s Impact Factor
The journal’s impact factor increased this year – from 2.14 to 2.75. The 5-year IF also improved (from 2.76 to 3.31).
JEQ Statistics Panel
A JEQ Statistics Panel was established last year (see names below). The purpose of this Panel is to have
experts in statistics available to answer statistical questions/concerns that come up during reviews of manuscripts. The advice provided has been invaluable for answering some questions and improved the manuscripts. I encourage you to use this expertise. Please contact a Statistics Panel member (or your TE) if you or your reviewers have any questions related to statistics in manuscripts under review. Their names are (for now) on the list of reviewers in Manuscript Central.
Members of the JEQ Statistics Panel
Kate Hu, Kimberly Campbell, Yanchong Huangfu, Puran Bridgemohan, Russell Yost, Edzard van Santen,
Nothabo Dube, Dale Wilson, Terry Loecke, Vera Bulaevskaya, and Alison Eagle
Developing new special collections of papers
Some of the most highly cited/downloaded papers in JEQ are in special collections and so they are important to the journal. Please consider suggesting or leading the organization of a special collection yourself. Forward your ideas and suggestions to me.
Increasing the visibility and promoting JEQ articles
1. Improving the visibility of JEQ articles will raise awareness of environmental science and our scientific disciplines. We have a Science Communications Editor who oversees which JEQ papers to publicize to the general public or scientific community. There is a feature in Manuscript Central that appears on the dashboard at the final recommendation stage. It allows you to flag an article for promotion when you make a final decision. It is here that you can add a few sentences to describe the importance of the research and why the paper should be promoted.
2. JEQ has a Twitter account (@jenvironqual). We would like to welcome our new Social Media Editor – Giovani Preza Fontes. Follow JEQ if you’re on Twitter and please retweet messages.
Reviewers—how to find them
Finding suitable reviewers can often be difficult and sometimes AEs can invite numerous reviewers but no one accepts. This causes delays in the review process. Please contact the TE or me after asking 5 individuals to review a paper without success; we will help you find reviewers.
Sometimes there are errors in the emails or other contact information for reviewers in the ScholarOne system or the automatically email for the assignment may end up in someone’s “Junk Folder.” It is advisable to contact potential reviewers outside of the ScholarOne system to see if they would be willing to help with a review and if they are you can tell them to be on the lookout for the official invitation before you assign them in the system.
Contact information for JEQ
Ann Edahl, managing editor (aedahl@sciencesocieties.org)
Matt Wascavage, director of publications (mwascavage@sciencesocieties.org)
Abby Morrison, editorial assistant (amorrison@sciencesocieties.org)
Lauren Coleman, submissions manager (lcoleman@sciencesocieties.org)
Acknowledgments
I want to take time to express my gratitude and appreciation to each and everyone of the JEQ Editorial Board members as well as to the reviewers and authors that contribute to the success of the Journal. The tireless efforts the Technical Editors and Associate Editors give and their feedback and ideas to improve how we operate are genuinely appreciated.
I especially thank Ann Edahl for her help, advice and hard work as Managing Editor; it has been a pleasure to work with her.
Douglas Smith, Editor
Journal of Environmental Quality
Table 1. Submissions and acceptance rate of manuscripts submitted to JEQ (2015-2021)
Number of manuscripts submitted | Acceptance rate |
2021: 318 | 2021: 26% |
2020: 397
| 2020: 35% |
2019: 401 | 2019: 48% |
2018: 414 | 2018: 46% |
2017: 461 | 2017: 39% |
2016: 466 | 2016: 36% |
2015: 621 | 2015: 37% |
Table 2. Average review times for JEQ manuscript (2015–2021).
| Year |
|
| ||||
| 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
| Average number of days |
|
| ||||
Days with reviewer | 24.9 | 23.6 | 18.8 | 18.7 | 18.7 | 34 | 45 |
Days to first decision | 68.1 | 62.7 | 60.1 | 64.9 | 56.9 | 52 | 41 |
Days to final decision | 80.1 | 76.0 | 56.1 | 63.6 | 69.3 | 70 | 59 |
Table 3. Submissions by Paper Type, 2021
Type | Total number | Percentage |
Letter to the Editor | 1 |
|
Dataset Paper | 8 |
|
Environmental Issues | 57 |
|
Reviews & Analyses | 39 |
|
Special section: Soil Health | 9 |
|
Special section: Manureshed | 12 |
|
Technical Notes & Preliminary Communications | 16 |
|
Technical Reports | 169 |
|
Table 4. Number of papers published in each subject matter category (2016-2021)
Category | Vol. 50 2021* | Vol. 49 2020 | Vol. 48 2019 | Vol 47 2018 | Vol 46 2017 | Vol 45 2016 |
Reviews & Analyses | 12 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 5 | 4 |
Environmental Issues | 2 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
Special Collections | 6 | 18 | 79 | 58 | 31 | 71 |
Technical Notes & Preliminary Communications | 9 | 13 | 14 | 11 | 13 | 14 |
Atmospheric Pollutants and Trace Gases | 11 | 9 | 11 | 15 | 15 | 22 |
Biodegradation and Bioremediation | 2 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 4 |
Ecological Risk Assessment | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Ecosystem Restoration | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Emerging Contaminants | 1 | – | – | – | – | – |
Environmental Microbiology | 7 | 4 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 5 |
Environmental Models, Modules, and Datasets | 5 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 9 |
Ground Water Quality | 5 | 6 | 4 | 9 | 5 | 4 |
Landscape and Watershed Processes | 4 | 11 | 9 | 4 | 9 | 13 |
Organic Compounds in the Environment | 7 | 9 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 9 |
Plant and Environment Interaction | 6 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 4 |
Resource Recovery & Reusea | 3 | 14 | 11 | 11 | 20 | 17 |
Surface Water Quality | 15 | 20 | 26 | 16 | 22 | 23 |
Trace Elements in the Environment | 7 | 12 | 5 | 0 | 9 | 11 |
Urban Pollutants | 2 | 8 | 3 | 13 | 3 | 3 |
Vadose Zone Processes and Chemical Transport | 3 | 9 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 5 |
Wetlands and Aquatic Processes | 2 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 3 |
Datasets | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 3 |
|
aFor Volume 50, the Waste Management category was replaced with Resource Recovery & Reuse
Items Requiring Board Attention:
Members of the Committee:
Nicholas Goeser (Member, Ex Officio)
Lauren Matthews (Member, Ex Officio)
Matt Wascavage (Member, Ex Officio)
David Myrold (SSSA Editor-in-Chief)
Jeffrey Volenec (ASA Editor-in-Chief)
C. Wayne Smith (CSSA Editor-in-Chief)
Douglas Smith (JEQ Editor)
Alex Chow (JEQ Technical Editor)
Richard Farrell (JEQ Technical Editor)
Yakov Pachepsky (JEQ Technical Editor)
Heather Preisendanz (JEQ Technical Editor)
Michelle Soupir (JEQ Technical Editor)
Daniel Strawn (JEQ Technical Editor)
Merrin Macrae (JEQ Science Communications Editor)
Eduardo Alvarez Santos (JEQ Associate Editor)
Barbara Amon (JEQ Associate Editor)
Ray Anderson (JEQ Associate Editor)
Sheel Bansal (JEQ Associate Editor)
Daniel Blackburn (JEQ Associate Editor)
Mikhail Borisover (JEQ Associate Editor)
Anthony Buda (JEQ Associate Editor)
Tucker Burch (JEQ Associate Editor)
Nora Casson (JEQ Associate Editor)
Laura Christianson (JEQ Associate Editor)
Gianluca Corno (JEQ Associate Editor)
Fien Degryse (JEQ Associate Editor)
Curtis Dell (JEQ Associate Editor)
Girisha Ganjegunte (JEQ Associate Editor)
Laura Good (JEQ Associate Editor)
Mussie Habteselassie (JEQ Associate Editor)
Thomas Harter (JEQ Associate Editor)
Diederik Jacques (JEQ Associate Editor)
Rob Jamieson (JEQ Associate Editor)
Jaehak Jeong (JEQ Associate Editor)
Tim Johnson (JEQ Associate Editor)
John Kelly (JEQ Associate Editor)
Casey Kennedy (JEQ Associate Editor)
Hyunjung Kim (JEQ Associate Editor)
Peter Kopittke (JEQ Associate Editor)
Darshani Kumaragamage (JEQ Associate Editor)
Krzysztof Lamorski (JEQ Associate Editor)
Rong Li (JEQ Associate Editor)
Anna Lintern (JEQ Associate Editor)
Jian Liu (JEQ Associate Editor)
Terry Loecke (JEQ Associate Editor)
Merrin Macrae (JEQ Associate Editor)
Bijesh Maharjan (JEQ Associate Editor)
Celia Manaia (JEQ Associate Editor)
Gonzalo Martinez (JEQ Associate Editor)
Michael Mashtare (JEQ Associate Editor)
Paul Murphy (JEQ Associate Editor)
Maren Oelbermann (JEQ Associate Editor)
Ying Ouyang (JEQ Associate Editor)
Heidi Peterson (JEQ Associate Editor)
Daniel Plaza-Bonilla (JEQ Associate Editor)
Sanjay Shukla (JEQ Associate Editor)
Bryan Spears (JEQ Associate Editor)
Jason Stuckey (JEQ Associate Editor)
Ke Sun (JEQ Associate Editor)
Martin Tsui (JEQ Associate Editor)
Nikolina Udikovic-Kolic (JEQ Associate Editor)
Habibullah Uzun (JEQ Associate Editor)
Tameria Veith (JEQ Associate Editor)
Yongshan Wan (JEQ Associate Editor)
Jun-Jian Wang (JEQ Associate Editor)
Yu Yang (JEQ Associate Editor)
Samantha Ying (JEQ Associate Editor)
Wei Zhang (JEQ Associate Editor)
Jian Zhao (JEQ Associate Editor)
Wei Zheng (JEQ Associate Editor)
Xia Zhu-Barker (JEQ Associate Editor)
Francis Zvomuya (JEQ Associate Editor)
Ann Edahl (JEQ Journal Manager)
Prepared By:
Smith, Douglas R.