NRR, Moving on: Editorial

In the preceding issue of NRR (vol. 21, no. 4, p. 413), Jerry Jensen introduced the transfer of editorial responsibilities to me. In view of the achievements of my predecessors—Richard McCammon, Daniel Merriam, Jerry Jensen and Keith Long—as Editors-in-Chief of NRR, I humbly take on this function with some trepidation. It is a daunting chore, but I will do my best to maintain, if not improve, NRR’s role as a leader of publishing results of research and applications in the natural resources area. In fact, because NRR is not recognised yet by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), it is my humble ambition to change that.

When I did my PhD on mineral prospectivity mapping 10–15 years ago in TU Delft, I published most of my papers in NRR, and I was not aware then that it was not ISI-indexed. I only knew then and I still know now that NRR is an important medium for publishing results of my works in quantitative modelling of mineral prospectivity, which is by the way only a part of NRR’s aim and scope:

Natural Resources Research publishes peer-reviewed, quantitative geoscientific studies on the search for and development of natural resources, including associated environmental, economical and risk-related aspects. Reports regarding petroleum or energy-mineral resources are of interest, as are investigations on the exploitation of any metallic or non-metallic mineral resource. Typical articles utilise geoscientific data or analyses to assess, test, or compare resource-related activities. NRR reports cover a wide variety of resources, including coal, water, vegetation and heavy oil. Case studies are particularly welcome.

However, I only realised the importance of ISI recognition when, in an interview for an academic post I applied for [but was not chosen] after obtaining my PhD, I was criticised that most papers linked to my PhD are published in a journal not indexed by ISI. Although ISI recognition of NRR would be beneficial mainly to our contributors from the academe and partly to those from industry and government, I believe it would represent a culmination in the exciting journey of our journal since it was founded in 1992 by Richard McCammon. Indeed, ISI acceptance would be an important recognition of the high standards of our journal, which we hope to demonstrate further in the coming years.

The main criteria considered for ISI recognition include publication standards, editorial content, international diversity and citation data (Garfield 1990). Publication standards are about timeliness, international editorial conventions, full text in English, peer review and inclusion of funding acknowledgements. I believe NRR currently meets these standards, but I will ensure that these are maintained or improved during my tenure. Editorial content relates to aim and scope, ISI subject categories, and special issues. Of these, my main concern is the publication of articles that are coherent with a single theme (see later). International diversity relates to authorship, editors and editorial advisory board members. We certainly need to continue, however, to attract and increase submissions from authors in various parts of the world. Since my appointment as Editor-in-Chief of NRR, I have succeeded already in making changes to the editorial board (see later). Citation data determine the impact of a journal (see later).

Special issues focus attention on hot topics, and thus, can enhance the profile of a journal, attract top authors and potentially boost citations. Since 1992, NRR has published the following special issues:

• Materials flow in the New Materials Society—transition to sustainable development (1996, vol. 5, issue 4);

• Quantitative estimates of the geology of large regions and their application to mineral resource assessment (1997, vol. 6, issue 3);

• Papers from the 14th International Conference on Applied Geologic Remote Sensing (2000, vol. 9, issue 4);

• Papers from the Symposium on the Application of Neural Networks to the Earth Sciences (2003, vol. 12, issue 3);

• Papers from the Canadian Gas Potential Committee’s Symposium on Resource Assessment Methodologies (2005, vol. 14, issue 3);

• Mathematical geology for resource exploration (2005, vol. 14, issue 4);

• Spatial modeling in GIS (2007, vol. 16, issue 2); and

• GIS-based mineral resource assessment: special issue in honour of Frits Agterberg (2008, vol. 17, issue 2).

The issues listed make an average of less than one special issue per year. We hope to increase that number to 1–2 special issues per year during my tenure. If you have an idea for a special issue that you think is suitable for publication in NRR, please contact me.

Aside from me, the new editorial board of NRR now consists of the following: Deputy Editor (Douglas Peters, USA), Associate Editors (Deborah Shields, USA; Timothy Coburn, USA; Andrea Förster, Germany; Mohsen Jalali, Iran; Katsuaki Koike, Japan; Renguang Zuo, China), Founding Editor (Richard McCammon, USA), and Editorial Advisory Board members (Frances Hein, Canada; Rosa M. Prol-Ledesma, Mexico; Frederik Agterberg, Canada; Earl Bardsley, New Zealand; John Davis, USA; Lawrence Drew, USA; Mário Gonçalves, Portugal; Cedric Griffiths, Australia; Eric Grunsky, Canada; Mikael Höök, Sweden; Jerry Kuma, Ghana; Jacek Majorowicz, Canada; Ghislain de Marsily, France; Younes Noorollahi, Iran; David Pimentel, USA; Alok Porwal, India; Mohammed Adbdul Rasheed, India; Donald Singer, USA; Marios Sophocleous, USA; Jorge Yamamoto, Brazil). Our new editorial board consists therefore of internationally diverse members with expertise that adequately cover the current aim and scope of NRR (i.e., hydrocarbon, geothermal, water, and mineral resources as well as geomathematics). The new editorial board consists of old and new members. I thank the former members who opted to discontinue serving the editorial board to pave the way for ‘young blood’ to contribute to the journal, and I thank both old and new members who have accepted to serve the journal on voluntary basis.

The average number of citations received per paper published in a journal in two preceding years defines the impact factor (IF) of that journal for a given year. For year X, the IF of a journal is A/B, where A is the number of times articles published in years X − 2 and X − 1 were cited by [indexed] journals; and B is the total number of citable items published by that journal in years X − 2 and X − 1. Citable items include articles, reviews, proceedings, or notes; not editorials or letters to editor. Although NRR is not recognised yet by ISI, its IF has been growing since 2000, mostly greater than 0.6 since 2001, and has been mostly greater than 1.0 since 2007 (Fig. 1). These numbers exceed those of many journals already recognised by ISI.

Figure 1

Annual impact factors of Natural Resources Research. Source SCImago Journal & Country Rank (http://www.scimagojr.com/index.php)

Aside from authorship, peer reviewers contribute significantly to the standard of NRR. In fact, the main dilemma of a journal editor is to find reviewers who have both the expertise required and the time to make timely reviews of papers. Therefore, in every first annual issue of NRR, I would acknowledge individuals who have reviewed at least one paper in a preceding year. Those individuals who have done one or more reviews for NRR over the past 12 months are thanked and listed hereunder.

Therefore, with your various contributions as authors, reviewers, editors in the coming years of my tenure as NRR’s Editor-in-Chief, I hope and will endeavour that NRR gets recognised by ISI.

Reviewers List

Agterberg, Frits

Akpinar, E.K.

Albert, Gaspar

Ale, Srinivasulu

Al-Hwaiti, Mohammad

Altan-Sakarya, Ayse

Alvarado, Vladimir

Ayers, Walter

Begum, Abida

Buccianti, Antonella

Burnham, Alan

Carranza, E.J.

Castro, Liliana

Celik, A.N.

Cey, Edwin

Chattopadhyay, A.

Cherpeau, Nicolas

Daneshfar, Bahram

Davis, John

Dershowitz, William

Deutsch, Clayton

Drew, Lawrence

Ericson, Richard

Ferreira da Silva, Eduardo

Fingas, Merv

Ford, Arianne

Goncalves, Mario

Guellala, R.

Gui, Herong

Gulen, Gurcan

Gupta, Praveen

Haagenson, Darrin

Hale, Beverley

Hanks, Catherine

Harder, Brian

Hassanzadeh, Hassan

Henley, Stephen

Hoagland, Porter

Hohn, Michael

Huysmans, Marijke

Jaber, Fouad

Jablonowski, Christopher

Jakobsson, Kristofer

Jebrak, Michel

Jordán, Antonio

Jowitt, Simon

Kalpana, G.

Kaviani, Danial

Koike, Katsuaki

Kumar, Vijay

Lee, Jin-Yong

Lee, Saro

Lin, Zhulu

Lisitsin, Vladimir

Lochner, Stefan

Loh, Douglas

López-Garriga, Juan

Lu, Xiancai

Manrique, Eduardo

Marshall, Paul

McKinley, J.

Miliaresis, George

Modica, Giuseppe

Moerschbaecher, Matthew

Moncur, Michael

Monecke, Thomas

Morris, William

Navarrete, Ian

Nickel, Julia

Oldenburg, Thomas

Olea, Ricardo

Orris, Greta

Ortiz, Julian

Pashin, Jack

Patzek, Tadeusz

Paul, Rajib

Pawlowsky-Glahn, Vera

Pimentel, David

Porwal, Alok

Pourret, Olivier

Rasheva, Svitlana

Rotevatn, Atle

Rybach, Ladsi

Samanta, Biswajit

Schellenberg, M.P.

Schmidt, Matthias

Shahid, Shamsuddin

Shoji, Tetsuya

Sophocleous, Marios

Specter, Herschel

Subias, Ignacio

Tan, Swee Ngin

Thiart, Christien

Topal, Erkan

Vargas-Guzman, J.A.

Verma, Mahendra

Wiesmeier, Martin

Wu, Jianbing

Yamamoto, Jorge K.

Zuo, Renguang