Water Science & Technology as a journal has been published for nearly half a century and thus covers most of the history of the field. Despite changes and adaptation in the focus and management of the journal, the structure of the editorial board is inherited from its beginnings and has remained largely unchanged. As the number of submissions that need to be handled now reaches and looks to exceed 2500 per annum, this has led to a huge number of Editors and Associate Editors, which currently stands at 94 in total.
In order to allow for a more targeted approach in terms of editorial strategy and organisation, it was decided to restructure the editorial board and to implement an additional organisational layer, i.e. the Core Editor Team (currently 7 members). The key targets of this new team are first operational, e.g. how can the peer review process across the journal be improved, looking at ideas on how to optimise the interaction with reviewers we currently have while also recruiting new reviewers, supporting newer Associate Editors with any difficulties they may have etc. This makes it necessary that the members of the Core Editor Team take responsibility of certain topical areas. The other role of the Core Editors is strategic, as it is hoped to identify new research areas/topics that the journal may want to consider adding to the journal, as well as ideas for Special Issues.
This results in the following hierarchy on the journal:
- Editor in Chief
- Core Team of Editors: Act both as Editors, but also as responsible members for a specific category, in terms of strategic development and operational guidance of Editors and Assoc. Editors
- Editors: Role is unchanged but there is more operational independence from the journal office in London (this is currently being trialled)
- Assoc. Editors: Role is unchanged but support from the journal office in London is given as well as from the core editor team – if needed.
Lastly I would like to briefly introduce the members of the Core Editor Team in alphabetic order:
Karsten Arnbjerg-Nielsen – Professor at the Danish Technical University – Department of Environmental Engineering. His research focusses on understanding climate change impacts and how these should be integrated into the formation of sustainable and smart liveable cities. His understanding of the topic is not only from a theoretical background but also stemming from his extended experience in practice.
James Ball – Associate Professor at the University of Technology Sydney – School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. In his research he deals with a variety of topics in water and wastewater technology, most important urban drainage, hydroinformatics, water quality and catchment modelling. Prof. Ball has been instrumental in a large number of national and international committees. As well as working on WST, James is also on the Editorial Board of several other journals.
Jo Burgess – Research Manager at the South African Water Research Commission – Mine Water Treatment and Management. Dr Burgess accumulated her experience in wastewater treatment, process science and water pollution control technology in the UK and South Africa. At the WRC she manages two areas of research, first the treatment and management of water in mining and mineral processing and second the development of technologies for drinking water treatment.
Guenter Langergraber – Senior Scientist at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU). His key scientific expertise is in modelling and simulation, wastewater treatment, treatment wetlands and resources-oriented sanitation. Dr. Langergraber is an active member within the IWA and has recently been elected to the Strategic Council.
Marie-Noëlle Pons – CNRS Research Professor at the University of Lorraine, Nancy, France. Her key scientific expertise is in modelling and simulation, wastewater treatment, river quality and metrology. She is an active member within the IWA and member of the management committee of the Modelling and Integrated Assessment specialist group.
Leiv Rieger – CEO of inCTRL Solutions Inc. in Ontario, Canada. Dr. Rieger specializes in monitoring, control, and modelling of biological wastewater treatment processes as well as in novel tools for data quality evaluation. Due to his long-standing academic career and ongoing involvement in the IWA task groups he is perfectly suited to bridge science to practice.
Ivana Teodorovic – Professor of Environmental Sciences at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad, Serbia. Her key scientific expertise is aquatic ecotoxicology and ecological risk assessment. Due to the intense involvement with national and international (EFSA) competent authorities in the area of risk assessment of regulated chemicals and her long academic experience, she constantly works within the science – policy interface.
Water Science & Technology offers a unique mixture of practice related topics and scientific content. Our readership are both scientists working on questions that relate to relevant and practical problems in the field of wastewater management and practitioners that want to keep up (and apply) the latest developments from research. We hope the new structure of the editorial board will allow the journal to thrive and maintain this balance.
Wolfgang Rauch
Editor-in-Chief
