This issue features a bright new cover for Applied Earth Science comprising a mosaic of granite photos. The choice of granite will connect to our broad and inclusive readership and reflects our need for articles to have wide appeal and high readability. The mosaic of samples symbolises the various scales of observation that we use during our research in the earth sciences.
The peer review process for scientific publications has been discussed in some detail in recent editorials (Appl. Earth. Sci. Vol. 121 Issue 1 and 2). It is a critical stage in the generation of high quality scientific articles, and it is an important factor that sets our journal articles apart from company reports, and conference proceedings and abstracts. Important components of our peer review process include evaluation by experts in the particular field covered by a manuscript, complemented by a more general review to evaluate the clarity, readability and applicability of a paper to our AES readership. In virtually all reports from our reviewers, the expert and other reviewers respond with suggestions on how to improve the manuscript. In some cases a manuscript goes back to a reviewer for a second evaluation after it has been revised.
The editor and editorial board of Applied Earth Science are grateful to all those who have reviewed manuscripts in our recent issues. Some of these people have reviewed multiple manuscripts. We thank Alwyn Annels, Rob Burnett, Stephen Carey, Cindy-Lee Cox, Paul Forman, Daniel Guibal, Patrick Hayman, Richard Herrington, David Holwell, Martin Hughes, Rais Latypov, Dick Minnitt, Daniel Oliveira, Greg Partington, Russell Penney, Diogo Rosa, Kalyan Saikia, Bob Smith, Michael Stewart, Donald Thomson, Natasha Van Leeuwen and Julian Vearncombe.
My special thanks to Emma Leighton and members of the editorial board who not only review most manuscripts, but provide guidance and many ideas so that we can progress Applied Earth Science.
We have advertised for a co-editor recently. We can announce that Dr Marat Abzalov and Dr Simon Jowitt are our two new co-editors of Applied Earth Science. This change follows the move of Simon Dominy from co-editor to our editorial board; Simon is thanked for his contribution to AES and will now be focussing on some AES special issues arising from the Geomet and Cardiff Conferences.
Neil Phillips
Editor