About Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology

About

Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology (QJEGH) is owned by the Geological Society of London and published by the Geological Society Publishing House.

Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology is a Plan S compliant journal.

Scope

Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology (QJEGH) was established in 1967 to foster engineering geology research and practice. International in scope, its focus is on geology as applied to civil and environmental engineering and groundwater resource management. QJEGH publishes high-quality, authoritative, peer reviewed, international papers, addressing sustainability, climate change, energy transition, geohazards and geo-resilience, to inform academic and industry practitioners in engineering geology and hydrogeology. All QJEGH submissions must have geological content and/or relevance.

Papers are invited from, and about, all areas of the world on engineering geology and hydrogeology topics, including but not limited to:

• engineering and environmental geology
• applied geomorphology and geophysics
• ground modelling
• hydrogeology
• groundwater quality and resources
• contaminated land
• waste management
• ground source energy
• land use planning
• surface and underground mining
• geotechnics
• landslides
• geomaterials
• rock mechanics
• geological hazards

QJEGH publishes the prestigious:

• Glossop Lecture of the Engineering Group of the Geological Society,
• Ineson Lecture of the Hydrogeological Group of the Geological Society,
• John Mitchell Lecture, and
• Hanrahan Lecture

Editorial board

The Editor-in-Chief, Prof Cherith Moses (Edge Hill University, UK) is supported by four Assistant Editors from the following sub disciplines: engineering geology, geomaterials, geotechnical, hydrogeology, along with an international editorial board .

Article types

QJEGH welcomes submissions of research articles, reviews, case histories, techncial notes, photographic features, discussions, editorial content and thematic collections. Unless otherwise specified submissions should be up to 12 typeset journal pages (straightforward word count – no figures: 1 page = 1000 words). Longer submissions will be considered if justified by the content. There are no restrictions on figures/tables.

Research

Research articles are communications of original research. They report on primary and unpublished studies.

Review

Review articles are overviews of topics that have seen significant development or progress in recent years, with comprehensive depth and a balanced perspective.

Perspective

Perspectives (normally six pages or less) are commentaries putting published articles in the context of wider research and society. They generally present a brief discussion on a specific area of investigation. They can also be written by editors to summarize a thematic collection. They are a review of a collection of papers. The form of this type of article is that of a commentary. Perspectives express a personal opinion or perspective on a particular topic. An example of a QJEGH perspective on a thematic collection can be found here .

Technical note

Technical notes are short communications (normally six pages or less) that present updates to well-established work or principles, novel or emerging ideas, short case studies or the results of recently completed research, or ongoing work that is of immediate interest to the engineering geological and/or hydrogeological community: example of a Technical Note .

Photographic feature

Photographic features are intended to allow authors to produce articles that are driven by illustrations of features, processes, etc. and that will be of interest to the readership. Such Photographic Features should illustrate the exceptional, whether that exception is in relation to events, features, processes or the exceptional quality and/or observations made. The balance between illustration and text is flexible but as a minimum the text must be sufficient to adequately describe the imagery, set it in context and draw some meaningful observations/conclusions regarding that which is illustrated. A Photographic Feature will not normally exceed six pages. In almost all cases a location map will be required in a Photographic Feature: example of a Photographic Feature .

Case study

Case study papers focus on specific examples that will advance engineering geology and hydrogeology practice. Across a broad scope, papers may focus on a particular method, site or analytical technique or may evaluate a large-scale project. It is helpful to focus the paper on one example, providing the geological context and a detailed, well-illustrated description of the project/method and analyses. The paper should also provide details on the lessons learned from the case study for engineering geology and/hydrogeology practice, i.e. an evaluation as well as implications, and may make recommendations for future work: example of a Case study .

Discussion

Discussions on papers that have already appeared in the journal or a GSL Engineering Geology Special Publication are acceptable. Discussions should be submitted within a year of the publication of the article discussed. Discussions should be succinct, written in an objective and scientific manner, and ideally about 1,000 words in length. Discussions should be submitted online as described above. Please ensure that you include your own address and all the references that you cite, even if they were in the original paper: example of a Discussion . Discussions should add something to the debate and not be just an additional observation.

Thematic collections

Thematic collections are curated sets of papers that present a timely snapshot of research in a topic of high current interest and importance. Edited by experts in the field, invited contributions undergo peer review to the normal QJEGH standards and are made available online upon acceptance. The papers are collated on a dedicated collection page on an ongoing basis which ensures that this significant research is visible to the community at the earliest opportunity.

Browse recent examples of thematic collections.

The subject of the collection must be of interest to a broad international audience and the science must be of the highest quality. All the papers must be acceptable to the Journal in their own right.

Thematic collections may have 'guest editors' who work closely with one of the regular Journal editors. The guest editors would be expected to write a short perspective to accompany the collection.

If you would like to submit a proposal for a thematic collection in QJEGH , we request the following information:

• Names and contact details of the guest editors
• A list of papers, including title and all authors
• A brief explanation of its aims and how it will enhance the Journal
• Details of the meeting that generated the set (if appropriate)
• Your planned schedule for submission, refereeing and editing

Peer review

QJEGH operates a single-blind peer review process, in which reviewers remain anonymous to the authors throughout the review process. Should the reviewer wish for their name to be known to the author, they have the option to do so.

A member of the editorial board will send your paper to at least two referees. They will handle the papers through the reviewing and scientific editing procedure and approve the finalised script for publication.

We expect the reviewing and editing procedure to take about three to five months in the case of a paper requiring little revision. We are of course dependent on the goodwill of unpaid reviewers to achieve these targets.

You can keep track of this process through the online submissions package.

Co-reviewing

GSL supports co-reviewing across its portfolio of publications. In co-review, invited reviewers have the option to involve a co-reviewer (often a junior colleague, for training purposes) in completing their report. All peer reviewers for GSL publications are expected to follow the Society’s ethical guidelines, including confidentiality of peer review.

If an article is not accepted for publication, we may offer the author the opportunity to transfer their submission to another GSL journal or Lithosphere .

Publishing policies

QJEGH maintains the highest standards of publication and research ethics. All publishing policies can be found on our Publishing Policies page .

The Geological Society is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics ( COPE ), and applies the principles of publishing best-practice as detailed in COPE’s Core Practices.

Abstracting and indexing

We work with our authors to help make their work as easy to discover as possible. QJEGH is currently included in the following abstracting and discovery service.

• CLOCKSS
• Crossref
• Current Contents
• Dimensions
• GeoArchive
• Geobase
• Geological Abstracts
• GeoRef
• Google Scholar
• Mineralogical Abstracts
• Petroleum Abstracts
• Science Citation Index
• Scopus

Open access

Authors may choose to make their article fully open access (sometimes called ‘gold open access’) on payment of an Article Processing Charge.

• 2024 APC price: £2,400/$3360/€2880 (+VAT as applicable as the time of invoicing and subject to change).
• Articles where the corresponding author or at least half the authors are Fellows of the Geological Society are entitled to a 25% discount.
• Corresponding authors at institutions that have signed a read and publish agreement with the Geological Society of London, qualify for waived APCs. The list of qualifying institutions can be found on our open access page.

More information on the Society’s policy can be found on the  open access page . You will be asked to select your publishing option at the point of acceptance.

If you require open access but cannot pay the APC, the Geological Society also supports ‘green open access’, where you can post your final post-refereed version of the article to a website or repository 12 months after the online publication date. Authors must not post a typeset proof or final version to any website or repository unless the article is fully open access.

The William Dearman Early Career Award

The William Dearman Early Career Award is annually presented for the best paper in QJEGH from an engineering geologist or hydrogeologist in the early stages of their career. To be eligible, authors must be within ten years of the award of their first degree in geoscience or a cognate subject on submission of their accepted paper (or up to 12 years in case of an interrupted career path). Those nominated do not have to be Fellows of the Society.

The prize is a free-of-charge gold open access paper (subject to full peer review) in the journal, for a paper submitted within 2 years of your award, an SP (or EGSP) of your choice and an invitation an invitation to join the QJEGH Board as a guest editor for one year.

If you wish to be considered for the award, please email the Journal Manager at [email protected] with the title of the paper and names of eligible authors.

Criteria for the award are as follows:

• Single or lead author. If the latter, a declaration from their supervisor will be sought stating that the candidate led the work
• Exciting topic set in a general context – not parochial
• Should be a novel approach or interpretation
• Discussion and development of ideas, not just a collection of results/observations
• Clear conclusions of general relevance
• Clearly and concisely written
• Logical structure and argument
• Relevant and clear diagrams

View the past winners for the QJEGH Professor W Dearman Early Career Award.

Contact

For all enquiries, please contact the QJEGH Editorial Office at [email protected] We produce a regular author newsletter. If you would like to receive this, please visit our subscriptions page or email our marketing team ( [email protected] ). You do not have to be a published author to sign up. You can unsubscribe at any time.