Dear reader,
The first issue of the IDA Journal coincided with the 2009 IDA World Congress in Dubai four years ago so it is fitting this issue coincides with the 2013 IDA World Congress in Tianjin. From the start of the 2014 volume, Dr Isabel Escobar of the University of Toledo will take over the editorship. So this may be a good time to look backwards, see what we have learned, and see how Isabel may profit by our experiences. We clearly look forward to suggestions she may have to improve our journal.
Since this is the IDA Journal of Desalination and Water Reuse, I have naturally adopted the same goals and criteria that the IDA itself has pursued. At the risk of sounding obvious, both desalination and water reuse are processes or families of processes intended to provide alternative water resources to an increasingly thirsty world. They are not regulation-driven pollution control or power generation, although these may be of great interest to some of IDA’s members. These latter activities have their own associations and publications.
Desalination and water reuse processes may be thought of as verbs. (I’ll bet I lose some readers here!) But they rely on many nouns, such as membranes, pipes, pumps and other components. These components are of interest to the IDA as they are vital to the execution of desalination and water reuse. But at the same time they also have their own associations and publications.
So what am I getting at? The IDA Journal, in its acceptance of manuscripts, has to draw boundaries, for example, in the continuum between the intricacies of membrane research and membrane performance in a commercial RO plant. I may be guilty of having strayed too far toward the application side of things. It is up to the Editor and the IDA to develop a policy or guidelines for the scope so the readers are best served. (The IDA Journal would be delighted to hear reader opinions on this.)
Perhaps what I am really saying in all this is that the Journal cannot be all things to all readers. If it strays too far into publishing a broad variety of topics involving water treatment, water recycle, ultra pure water for industry, pollution control, etc., that loss of focus will be detrimental. We should be very specific about what we do so that we can put all our energies into doing it very well. I believe that is the only route to success.
It is a pity this issue is coming late in the year. The transition from the American Water Works Association to Maney Publishing has been more challenging than expected. However, things are picking up and I expect the journal to be back on track shortly.
Dr Jim Birkett
Jim Birkett ([email protected]) is Editor of the IDA Journal of Desalination and Water Reuse. He brings to his position more than 40 years of experience in desalination, advanced water treatment, and membrane separation industries and technologies.