The Second-Year Publication of the Open Access Book Series “Progress in Landslide Research and Technology”

Abstract

The ICL new open-access book series “Progress in Landslide Research and Technology” was launched in 2022, and the founding issues, Vol.1, No.1 and No.2 2022 were successfully published by active authors, KLC2020 official promoters as well as voluntary volume editors. The starting point of this new book series is the publication of the journal “Landslides” of the ICL in 2004. Based on the experience and the assets of good editors and enthusiastic authors through these 18 years, the ICL and journal editors have been challenged to launch the Open Access Book Series “Progress in Landslide Research and Technology” in 2022.

The book series provides a joint platform for the publication of recent progress in landslide research and technology for practical applications and the benefit for the society contributing to the Kyoto Landslide Commitment 2020, which is expected to continue until 2030 and beyond to globally promote the understanding and reduction of landslide disaster risk, as well as to address and help implementing the UN 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development Goals.

This short article states firstly the financial management (Book Processing Charge: BPC), which is the most important for the sustainability of publishing an open access book series, and the selection of cover photo and the issue editors on the front cover. Number of issue editors were changed from 5 for Volume 1 Issue 1, to 9 for Volume 1 Issue 2 and 11 for Volume 2 Issue 1. Secondly, the creation of a new Award related to this book series, and the support of the core activities of the International Programme on Landslides (IPL): A Programme of the ICL for Landslide Disaster Risk Reduction through this book series are explained.

The countries of the authors, and the number of pages and articles of eight categories were compared in the founding two issues and the first issue of the second year. Finally, the oral presentation opportunity on their results for the authors of P-RLT in 2023 is introduced. We had the first oral presentation opportunity at the ICL 20th Anniversary and IPL-KLC Symposium in November 2022. Authors obtained something different merits from printed publication as from oral presentation. We have a plan to offer the next opportunity for orally presenting the results in June and November, 2023.

1 Management of P-LRT

Book processing charge

The total number of printed pages of an article is flexible in the book series up to 100 pages. The page number of one article is within three ranges, 4–10 pages, 11–20 pages, and more than 20 pages. The book processing charge (BPC) is different in these three ranges. BPC is different reflecting the financial and practical contributions to P-LRT as shown in Table 1

• BPC for Regular authors are USD50 per page for 4–20 pages, and USD40 per page for an additional page (from 21 to 100 pages).

• BPC for ICL Associates, ICL Supporters, and Working editors for P-LRT are USD25 per page from 4 to 10 pages, USD50 per page from 11 to 20 pages, and USD40 per page for an additional page (from 21 to 100 pages).

• BPC for ICL full members and KLC Official promoters are USD0 per page until 10 pages and USD50 per page for 11 to 20 pages, and USD40 per page for an additional page (from 21 to 100 pages).

Additional Explanation

• USD0 or reduced BPC up to 10 pages is applicable for one article for each of ICL organization in each volume (NOT each issue). Membership fee payment for each organization of ICL is once a year.

• ICL membership fee is decided in proportion to GNI/PC published annually by the World Bank for each country.

• Each full member can select one rank lower category of membership fee. Those members are classified as ICL associates.

• Invoice of BPC will be sent after acceptance and formatting of an article by the publisher.

The publisher will format each article in its editorial role. Printed figure size and layout will be different from the submitted article. Often the final page number is different. BPC is charged to the printed page number and not submitted one.

Table 1 Book Processing Charge (BPC) in the four categories

Design of the book cover

Design of the book cover as well as the assignment of the handling editor for each submitted article is decided by the all editors meeting by Zoom crossing three continents (America, Europe and Asia). We organized such Book Editorial Meetings eight times in 2022.

Figure 1 presents the cover of Vol. 1, Issue 1 and Issue 2. Each photo was selected from the published articles in each book. Photo of Vol. 1, Issue 1 is the 2016 Rain-induced rapid and long-travelling landslide with 127 fatalities in Aranayake, Sri Lanka. Photo of Vol. 1, Issue 2 is the 2016 Earthquake-induced rapid triggered by 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake in Aso, Japan. The Aso-Ohashi Bridge was destroyed and disappeared. Figure 2 presents the proposing cover design of Vol. 2, Issue 1. The final design is decided by the publisher. The photo is the 2020 reactivated slow moving (0.4–0.5 m/day) landslide in Buzulgan, Northern Caucasus, Russia.

Fig. 1

Published cover of Volume 1, Issue 1 and Volume 1, Issue 2 of the P-LRT

Fig. 2

Book cover for Volume 2, Issue 1

Editors on the front cover of Vol. 1, Issue 1 was five editors with Editor-in-Chief role in the WEB editorial manager “EquinOCS.” However, editors on the front cover of Vol. 1, Issue 2 were additionally four active authors writing more than two articles in the previous and the coming issues, as well as the five EIC in OCS. Editors on the front cover of Vol. 2, Issue 1 are selected six active authors as well as five EIC in OCS in the same principle. For the success of this book series, contributions as writing authors, book series editors and KLC2020 official promoters are equally important.

New Awards and Free BPC as an award

The founding two issues of the new ICL Book Series “Progress in Landslide Research and Technology” were published. Based on the publication of this new book series to promote the Kyoto Landslide Commitment 2020, the ICL has launched two new awards, A: ICL Book Article Award, and B: IPL-KLC Award for Success as below.

• A: ICL Book Article Award

  • Award is a free Book Processing Charge (BPC) for 20 pages.

  • The effective period for a book article submission is 1 year after the decision of the award.

  • The number of annual awards is 1–3 in different article categories.

  • (1) Award candidate nomination committee members (around 10) is from EIC members (5) of OCS-web and a few editors (1–3), who read almost all the articles.

  • (2) Nomination of Award (2–3) is voted by the editors of P-LRT who attend the periodical (around 2–4 times for one issue) editorial meeting of the Book.

• B: IPL-KLC Award for Success

  • Award is USD3000 in cash.

  • The number of awards for each World Landslide Forum is 1–3 in different article categories (similar to the previous IPL Award for Success).

  • (1) Candidates are authors of ICL open access book series (prerequisite condition) and Journal “Landslides” to have reported IPL-KLC activities.

  • (2) The first nomination is around 10 candidates from EIC members (5) of P-LRT and the screening editors of Journal Landslides who monthly read submitted articles.

  • (3) The approval is by the IPL-KLC Global Promotion Committee.

Both awards are expected to contribute to the success of the Kyoto Landslide Commitment 2020 as well as the new book series. BPC can be a supplementary award for ICL awards.

• 20 pages free BPC is awarded to the recipient of annual Varnes medal as a supplementary award. He/she needs to contribute one article within a year.

• 10 pages free BPC is awarded to the recipient of annual Oldrich Hungr award. He/she needs to contribute one article within a year.

• 10 pages free BPC is awarded to the recipient of the triennial Hiroshi Fukuoka IPL Award. He/she is requested to contribute one article within a year.

• 20 pages free BPC is awarded to the recipient of the Landslides-best paper award.

  The effective period is 1 year.

World Centres of Excellence and IPL Projects

The World Centers of Excellence on Landslide Risk Reduction (WCOE) 2020–2023 was nominated in 2020. And WCOE 2023–2026 will be nominated in 2023 by the application and the evaluation procedure.

The applicating organization for a WCoE 2023–2026 should have published or contributed to P-LRT [Vol. 1, Issue 1 and Issue 2 in 2022, Vol. 2, Issue 1 and Issue 2 in 2023 or Vol. 3, 1. Candidates of WCOE 2023–2026 which have neither published nor contributed for 2½ years (five issues) are not eligible to be evaluated, even if they submitted an application.

The International Programme on Landslides (IPL) is a programme of the ICL for landslide disaster risk reduction. IPL projects are a core activity of IPL. The IPL project leaders published simple annual reports to the IPL web. The ICL has now the new open access book series, which are accessed and downloaded free of charge. Leaders of the ongoing IPL projects can contribute an article to the open access book series “Progress in Landslide Research and Technology” and disseminate their results worldwide.

2 Comparisons of Vol. 1-1, Vol. 1-2, and Vol. 2-1

At the begging of the second year of P-LRT, we have compared three issues to evaluate the initial state of this new publication.

Authors for each issue.

• Vol. 1, Issue 1: The number of contributing authors is highest in Italy and Japan (both with 20 authors). And the number of countries/regions/United Nation and International organizations are highest (26) within three issues.

• Vol. 1, Issue 2 issue: The number of contributing authors is highest in Japan, and the second was Vietnam.

• Vol. 2, Issues 1: the number of contributing authors is more than 10 in 6 countries: 21 Vietnam, 15 Italy, 14 Croatia, 13 Japan, 12 Mexico, 11 Russia.

Table 2: Number of articles and the number of pages in each article category.

• Vol. 1, Issue 1: Three forewords with video from ICL President, IUGS President, IUGG Presidents, and three greetings (greeting for the Fifth World Landslide Forum) from the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, the United Nations Under-Secretary General (Rector of the United Nations University) and the Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences of the UNESCO were published.

  The following three editorials were published as the basic information of this book series; (1) Aim and outline of the new book series, (2) the International Consortium on Landslides, (3) the International Programme on Landslides.

  10 articles, 118 pages for IPL/WCoE/KLC activities are highest in the three issues.

• Vol. 1, Issue 2: 13 articles, 161 pages for original articles are the highest in the three issues.

• Vol. 2, Issue 1: 2 articles and 124 pages for ICL Landslide lesson. This category presents lessons by global and emerging experts with distinguished achievements in one of the specific aspects in understanding and reducing landslide disaster risk. Landslide lesson is a characteristic category of this book series for practitioners and the benefit for the society contributing to the Kyoto Landslide Commitment 2020.

Table 2 Number of articles and the number of pages in each article category

Figure 3: Shares of the article number and the page number of each category.

Trend of the categories for 3 years is clearly presented in Fig. 3. Original articles (blue) and IPL/WCoE/KLC articles (purple) are two big categories through 3 years. ICL Landslide lesson (Vol. 2, Issue 1) and World Landslide Report (Vol. 1, Issue 2) is 1 year only. Articles for ICL two articles in the category of Landslide lesson are expected to contribute to Vol. 2, Issue 2. The World Landslide Report are reports from less funded authors from landslide-prone developing countries. Reports of landslides less published regions/countries are invited to contribute to this category. No BPC for articles in this category. Maximum 40 pages per issue. Review articles are 76 pages in Vol. 1, Issue 2. However, no review articles are published in Vol. 2, Issue 1. However, two review articles (one is long) are planned to contribute to Vol. 2, Issue 2.

Fig. 3

Share (%) of categories in Vol.1, Issue 1, Vol.1, Issue 2 and Vol.2, Issue 1

Teaching tools with video tutorials are the characteristic of this book series for practitioners and the benefit for the society contributing to KLC2020. Every issue includes teaching tools with video tutorials.

3 Oral Presentation Invitation for the Authors of P-RLT Articles

(Vol. 1, Issue 1 and Issue 2, Vol. 2, Issue 1 and Issue 2, Vol. 3, Issue 1)

All articles of P-LRT are available worldwide free of charge. The oral presentation face-to-face with an opportunity for discussion with colleagues in the community of landslide disaster risk reduction and the KLC2020 has a different meaning from written contributions.

2023 IPL-KLC WEB Symposium on Landslides

Invited speakers will include: Authors of the Open Access Book (P-LRT) Vol. 2, Issue 1 and Vol. 2, Issue 2 (Submission deadline: 30 March 2023), Proposers of the WCoE 2023–2026 (submission deadline is 30 March 2023), and proposers of 2023 IPL projects (Submission deadline is 30 May 2023).

Time and date:

Time domain (PDT):

9:30–12:00 PM on 22–23 June 2023

Time domain (CEST):

6:30–9:00 AM on 23–24 June 2023

Time domain (JST):

1:30–4:00 PM on 23–24 June 2023

6th World Landslide Forum on 14–17 November 2023 in Florence, Italy

The Open Access Book (P-LRT) was launched to promote the Kyoto Landslide Commitment 2020.

The following sessions of the Theme 1 Kyoto Landslide Commitment for sustainable development invite the authors of P-LRT from Vol. 1, Issue 1 and Issue 2 in 2022, Vol. 2, Issue 1 and Issue 2, in 2023, and Vol. 3, Issue 1 in 2024 to join the Forum sessions.

Theme 1: Kyoto Landslide Commitment for sustainable development

• Coordinators: Kyoji Sassa, Matjaž Mikoš, Shinji Sassa, Khang Dang

Session 1.1 International Programme on Landslides

• Conveners: Kyoji Sassa, Matjaž Mikoš, Irasema Alcantara-Ayala

Session 1.2 Global and International activities for KLC2020

• Conveners: Qunli Han, Kazuo Konagai, Claudio Margottini, Snježana Mihalić Arbanas

Session 1.3 Cascading multi-hazard risks: Submarine landslides, tsunamis, and impacts on infrastructures

• Conveners: Shinji Sassa, David Tappin, Finn Løvholt

Session 1.4 Landslides and Society: Open and citizen science for capacity development and education

• Conveners: Matjaž Mikoš, Irasema Alcántara-Ayala, Beena Ajmera

Call for Contribution and KLC2020 Official Promoters

Editors as well as the KLC2020 secretariat sincerely request any further contribution of articles and further expansion of the number of KLC2020 official promoters in order to sustain global understanding and reducing landslide disaster risk. The success of the open access book series deeply depends on the contribution of good articles and strong support from the KLC2020 official promoters.

Those who are willing to contribute articles and promote this initiative as KLC2020 official promoters are requested to inform the KLC2020 Secretariat:

• Kyoji Sassa

• Secretary General of the Kyoto Landslide Commitment 2020 and the ICL

• Editor-in-Chief, ICL Open Access Book Series

• “Progress in Landslide Research and Technology”

• e-mail: klc2020@iclhq.org

• Kyoto, Japan, date: 25 January 2023