Editors’ Vox is a blog from AGU’s Publications Department.
We are delighted to share that Ann Rowan has just taken over as the Editor-in-Chief of JGR: Earth Surface. We asked her some questions about her own research interests and vision for the journal.
What are your own areas of scientific interest?
I’m a glacial geomorphologist and my scientific interests are fairly broad—I’m interested in Quaternary glacial landscape evolution and the impact of climate change on glaciers in the past and the future.
I started out as a Quaternary geologist doing a lot of field mapping, and now a large part of my group’s work involves collecting data to explore glacial processes at scales that are useful to constrain and evaluate numerical models. This year we are working at Khumbu Glacier in the Everest region of Nepal to measure ice temperatures above the Khumbu icefall and determine the thermomechanical evolution of high-elevation Himalayan glaciers, which will be both scientifically and personally challenging!
What does it mean to you to serve as Editor-in-Chief of JGR: Earth Surface?
Serving as Editor-in-Chief is a privilege, both to be able to take responsibility for a journal that is important to my field, and to be part of and learn from the large community of researchers representing AGU journals.
Serving as Editor-in-Chief is a privilege, both to be able to take responsibility for a journal that is important to my field, and to be part of and learn from the large community of researchers representing AGU journals. I’ve been an associate editor for JGR: Earth Surface for the last six years and it’s exciting to be able to shape the future of the journal. The outgoing EIC, Amy East, has left the journal in a strong position with a diverse editorial board representing a wide range of expertise.
Leading the team of 42 editors and associate editors and being able to call on their great range of geomorphological knowledge and editorial experience means that the decision for each manuscript represents a rigorous and constructively critical process that aims to help authors write the best possible paper about their research.
What makes JGR: Earth Surface special?
In common with all the JGR journals, JGR: Earth Surface represents a strong focus on quality, with the result that there are many interesting papers published here that are a pleasure to read. When I was a PhD student, my supervisor used reviews from this journal of their own papers as examples of best practice in peer review, and as students we were impressed by the depth and care taken by the reviewers of each manuscript. This commitment to rigorous peer review has only become more impressive as I’ve had more experience of peer review and the problems that can arise in communicating and progressing research.
JGR: Earth Surface is important to the community of geomorphologists who contribute as readers, authors, reviewers, and editors.
What makes JGR: Earth Surface special is that it is important to the community of geomorphologists who contribute as readers, authors, reviewers, and editors. Each paper is evaluated by myself, as EIC, an editor, associate editor, and several reviewers, and we take the time to understand, appreciate, and review each other’s work to create a journal that is worth taking the time to read.
What are some of the challenges of leading this journal?
A major challenge lies in how we continue to support high quality research across the broad range of topics represented by JGR: Earth Surface while also being inclusive of a broad range of authors representing all career stages and backgrounds. A diverse editorial board is useful because we understand the many differences in research and peer review culture across the Earth sciences that allow us to find reviewers. This is beneficial in reducing the time taken to complete the peer review of a manuscript by spreading the load across a larger number of reviewers, and by widening participation in peer review we enable progress in moving individual research fields forward.
New volunteer reviewers are always welcome at AGU journals. Learn more.
A related challenge is that the focus on quality can come at the cost of time taken to handle each manuscript. The time it takes to receive the decision is understandably important to authors, particularly for early career scientists, but finding good reviewers takes time and a broad reviewer community is helpful. New volunteer reviewers are always welcome at AGU journals. Learn more about how to be a reviewer for AGU journals.
How do you plan to take the journal forward in the coming years?
While continuing to focus on publishing the highest quality research in geomorphology, whether that is theoretical, experimental, or a case study, there are three things that I would like to achieve as EIC.
First, I want to encourage early career researchers to choose the journal to publish their best work by reducing the handling time for manuscripts in general, and particularly for those led by early career scientists.
Second, I’m adding new editors and associate editors to the editorial board, and encouraging those who are strong candidates for these roles to join the board. Mentoring associate editors is an important part of being an EIC, as well as supporting everyone involved in the editorial process to make their best contribution to the review process and to communicate their decisions effectively.
Finally, we are working on how best to follow AGU’s policies for open science in sharing the data and code associated with each paper during review and after publication.
—Ann Rowan (ann.rowan@uib.no, 
0000-0002-3715-5554), University of Bergen, Norway
