“Editors’ Choice” articles are ones selected for special attention by the Hydrogeology Journal (HJ) editorial team (Martin Appold, Jean-Michel Lemieux, Liz Screaton, Maria Schafmeister, Cliff Voss) and the guest editors of the 2015 HJ theme issue (Bithin Datta, George Kourakos, Brian Wagner). These articles were selected for one or more of several good reasons including: outstanding science, innovative approach, potentially important conclusions, interesting field area or phenomenon, unusual topic, political/social/historical/philosophical interest, etc.

At the conclusion of each publishing year, the editors select five articles from among the year’s crop of about 130 published articles. The HJ editors believe that readers will find these articles to be somehow especially interesting or valuable.

Editors’ Choice articles are highlighted on the International Association of Hydrogeologists’ (IAH) website (https://iah.org/hydrogeology-journal/hj-editors-choice-articles), in the IAH newsletter, and on the Hydrogeology Journal website (http://www.springer.com/hydrogeologyjournal).

Our publisher, Springer, is making these articles freely accessible to all readers for two months from the publication of this editorial message. It is expected that further interest will be generated through the IAH and Springer social media, including, LinkedIn, Facebook, email alerts, and tweets via @IAHgroundwater and @SpringerGeo.

The 2015 selection comprises a mixture of Papers and Reports and one Technical Note. The diversity of article types, subject matter, and author nationalities associated with Editors’ Choice articles since the start of the selection process (in 2010) demonstrates the principles by which IAH and HJ encourage global involvement in hydrogeology, and the editorial team is proud to promote such high quality articles. 

The Editors’ Choice articles for the 2015 publishing year are listed in Table 1.

Table 1 Hydrogeology Journal’s 2015 Editors’ Choice articles
Full size table

Congratulations to all of these distinguished authors!