Editorial

Dear Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy Review reader,

You will be pleased to know that we have reached the first quartile, Q1, of journals in our subject categories with a 2019 Impact Factor of 2.785. Each subject category is divided into four quartiles: Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4. These quartiles respectively indicate the top 25%, upper-middle 25%, lower-middle 25%, and bottom 25% of journals. Reaching Q1 indicates that our journal is considered to be among the best journals available for our subject matter. This is greatly improved from when I had first taken over this journal when our Impact Factor was only 0.2. Our 2019 Citescore is 4.4 which is also a good achievement. Building on this, so far, 2020 has been very successful, with our journal receiving 548 citations, with 197 of those citing papers within the last three years. We have achieved this high standard of quality by constantly listening to our editorial board, authors, reviewers and readers. While this is a great achievement, we would like to emphasize the viewpoint presented by Taylor & Francis that ‘research needs to be assessed on its own merits and the IF used alongside a range of metrics to tell the full story of impact’ as ‘in many cases, research that has societal impact, niche research, and researchers working to solve real world challenges don’t receive the credit that they deserve’⁽¹⁾. We acknowledge this and would like to encourage researchers to consider this.

We recently contacted approximately fifty members of our editorial board and of our readers to request suggestions for our scopes aims. After receiving excellent input, we have decided to refine the focus of the journal to the following points:

1. Review papers on particular topics in mineral processing and extractive metallurgy including: ore genesis; mineral properties and utilization; extraction, separation, and purification of minerals and metals; and post-treatment of effluents and tailings including solid waste valorization.

2. Research topics relevant to sustainability, circular-economy, and process intensification as well as the processing of advanced materials (critical and strategic) through pyro-, hydro-, and solvo-metallurgical routes.

3. Broadly significant research papers that are of general interest in the field. Research papers that are too narrowly focused or are based on only a small number of experiments will not be accepted.

4. Short Communications on recent trends including new discoveries, climate change, global warming, technical notes to be published quickly, or discussion on a published paper.

5. Contributions that deal with new developments or new directions for future research in plants or processes and that can be given quantitative expression are promoted, including financial and economic analyses, uncertainty and sensitivity analyses, and computer-based studies.

Our journal publishes papers dealing with topics in Mineral Processing, Hydrometallurgy, and Pyrometallurgy. Our primary emphasis is on well-sourced, clearly written, and cutting-edge papers which cover critical topics within these fields. We aim to ensure that papers are quickly evaluated, reviewed, and published, and to that extent we have increased the options available for publishing with our journal.

As part of these changes we are introducing a new category of papers called Short Communications. This category is meant for rapid publication of new discoveries which can be expounded upon in a short communication format. We will review and publish these articles as quickly as possible, so that the latest information can be made readily available to those who need it.

Additionally, we are also glad to announce that a Special Issue of the Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy Review journal on “Recent Advances on Sustainable Processing of Critical Elements/Metals” will be published in one of the 2021 issues. Based on your expertise, we would like to invite you to provide a contribution to this special issue. The scope and submission details for this special issue are mentioned below.

The journal invites review and research articles on various aspects of the processing of critical metals, including the following:

• Advanced processing of critical elements/metals including energy metals/for the efficient recovery from low-grade complex ore deposits/resources including geo-metallurgy, flotation and technology developments.

• Innovative hydrometallurgical routes for the processing of high technology/battery metals for separation and purification.

• Recycling and purification from secondary resources, including e-wastes.

• Waste utilization and environmental aspects with reference to life cycle assessment, safe disposal and storage of processing residues.

All contributions will be peer-reviewed in accordance with the journal’s procedures. To submit your paper please visit the journal website: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/gmpr20/current. The special issue will be edited by Dr. Sunil Tripathy and Dr. Lev Filippov, who are both members of the editorial board.

Regarding the editorial Board, we also plan to change the editorial board structure to include three types of editors:

• The Advisory Editorial Board, who will suggest new paths going forward and give guidance to the journal.

• The current Editorial Board, which will remain as is in structure and purpose.

• The Junior Editorial Board, which will be more involved in day-to-day work, acquiring papers for the journal, suggesting reviewers and reviewing papers themselves.

We are excited by the new changes in the editorial board structure and by the progress of the journal. We want your support. We want to retain the position we have reached. We need your input, your comments, and your suggestions. Please do not hesitate to send me your input at [email protected].