Dear Readers,

The statement that “Nothing is permanent (or constant) except change” is attributed to Heraclitus, who lived 2,500 years ago—and it is still true! Romy Mathies, who volunteered as a Graphics Editor for this journal quite a few years ago, and then became an Associate Editor last year, has decided to step down from this unpaid position so that she can concentrate on her new duties at the University of Waterloo. Luckily, a few months earlier, Chuck Cravotta, of the US Geological Survey, volunteered to take on the job of Associate Editor whenever a position opened up and so the transition was relatively easy. We thank Romy for her many years of professional service to our journal and Chuck for volunteering to step into her shoes.

Before she left, Romy made several good suggestions on how we can recognize the important service that peer reviewers provide to our authors, editors, and to IMWA in general. The one I plan to implement soon is to start publishing the names of all of the folks who provided reviews for papers during the past four issues in our December or March issue each year. We are not really set up to do this, but it is possible, and we will be talking to Springer on how the Editorial Manager™ (EM) system can possibly be modified to make it easier. We will also be discussing with them whether the option can be created in EM to allow us to blind-copy reviewers on the letters that go to our authors so that our reviewers can see how their suggestions and comments were passed on to the authors and what the other reviewers thought. Those of you who have reviewed papers for us, please let us know—What do you think of these ideas? What else would you like to see us do to recognize our reviewers?

If you have never reviewed a paper for us and would like to be registered as a reviewer, please send me an e-mail and let me know what topic areas you find most interesting. We have a record number of new members (more on that later); perhaps some of you would like to review papers? If you have already registered as a reviewer and have never been asked to review a paper (or would like to be asked more often), please log on to http://www.MWEN.info/em and look at how you have described the papers that you are interested in reviewing. If you have selected very specific areas, then you shouldn’t be too surprised if you don’t get asked very often. Also, look at your contact information. You may be surprised to learn that the e-mail address that we have in the reviewer data base is one that you haven’t used for years or has a typo in it. And if you have been asked once, and not asked again, it is possible that the review you provided was either late or superficial. A review that simply says that a paper is fine or focuses on editorial aspects serves no value; no paper is so good that it can’t be improved, and we want our reviewers to focus on the science, not the grammar (that’s our job!). But if you have checked the data base, and it accurately describes your interests and your e-mail address, then please drop me an e-mail at editor@imwa.info and let me know that you would like to review a paper or two and we will try to ensure that you get asked as soon as possible. The number of manuscripts being submitted (and published) is higher than ever and we can always use your help.

I wish to express my gratitude to two members of our journal’s International Editorial Board, Professors Edgardo Donati and Changshen Wang. Thanks to them, the abstracts of our papers are now being translated into Spanish and Chinese before they are electronically published. This will make it easy for researchers and practioners who speak those languages more fluently than English to quickly review the abstracts on-line and decide which papers are worth wrestling with.

I also thank our entire International Editorial Board, who reviewed all of the 28 papers published in Mine Water and the Environment during 2010 and selected one as being the best paper. The balloting was very close as there were several excellent candidates. The paper that they selected to receive our third annual Best Paper Award was: “Tracking the Aquatic Impacts of a Historical Metal Mine using Lacustrine Protists and Diatom Algae” by Susanna Kihlman and Tommi Kauppila, which was published in our June 2010 issue. That award will be presented at the IMWA Congress in September in Aachen, Germany. Board members should consider themselves warned; given the fact that Springer has allotted us more pages per issue this year, there will likely be even more papers to evaluate for this award next year.

As I alluded to earlier, IMWA already has over 80 new members (and journal readers) this year and I am writing this column at the end of July; it is clear that at this rate, 2011 will see a record increase in our membership. Christian expresses some concern in his Mine Water Notes column at the end of this issue that the number of mine water conferences continues to grow and (if you read between the lines) that this dilution may adversely affect attendance at our IMWA conferences. But the increase in our membership clearly indicates that interest in mine water continues to grow, as does the number of papers being submitted to this journal for publication; in my opinion, the fact that the number of conference and workshop options continues to increase is just another indication of the growing importance of this field.

On a personal note that ties back to the quotation at the start of this column—a few of you have asked about my plans for next year. Yes, I am planning to retire soon from the U.S. Department of Energy but I do not plan to truly retire, or to abandon my position as Editor of this journal, or to step away from mine water issues. In fact, quite the opposite is true. Although the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), where I have been employed ever since the U.S. Bureau of Mines was dissolved in 1996, does not receive funding for mine water issues, NETL has allowed me to maintain my role in IMWA and this journal while I focused on other environmental issues related to energy. I will be considering several work options, including consulting or technical writing/editing (or something else entirely), but I plan to focus more of my efforts on mine water issues, which I always have, and always will, find fascinating. And I will continue to serve as editor-in-chief of this journal. My NETL e-mail address will become dysfunctional soon, but you can easily reach me at: editor@MWEN.info or b.kleinmann@MWEN.info. Or just do a search for me by name to reach the web site that my wife set up for me—it provides contact information.

Finally, I want to briefly introduce the eight papers that are included in this issue. As is typically the case after we publish a Special Issue, we now have a backlog of accepted papers on various aspects of mine water. So, this issue is a potpourri of articles and technical communications on a variety of topics written by authors from all around the world. I hope you enjoy the variety as much as I do.

Keep your papers coming!

Best Regards,

Bob Kleinmann, Editor-in-Chief.