Editorial – Consolidating the new deal of the Italian Journal of Geosciences

Since our first editorial, the Italian Journal of Geosciences underwent several changes in the submission procedure, evaluation and distribution. In the last three years the Editorial Board was composed by Angelo Camerlenghi, William Cavazza, Raffaello Cioni, Sandro Conticelli, Giovanni Battista Crosta, Elisabetta Erba, Claudio Faccenna, Stefano Mazzoli, and Daniela Pantosti. The Editorial Board was constantly supported by Alessandro Zuccari and Fabio Petti of the Editorial Office of the Italian Geological Society (SGI) to complete with success the changes made. The Editorial Board of the Italian Journal of Geosciences began its activity in 2010 but the first cover to be signed was in 2011, when the first issue was composed of by papers handled by the new board was published. The very effective collaboration between the Editorial Board and the Editorial Office of the Geological Society resulted in the successful launch of the ScholarOne system for online submission and manuscript handling, in February 2010, and in joining the GeoScienceWorld website, in May 2012. The transition to the ScholarOne manuscript managing system was very smooth, and no complains were raised in these three years from authors, associate editors, and peer reviewers. The migration to a system with good self-managed functions for both reviewers and editors is providing a clear and attractive pathway to publication. Since the on-line submission system was activated on 10th of February 10th 2010, 181 manuscripts have entered the system. Among these 92 have been accepted, 66 rejected (this includes those asked to resubmit after major changes), and 33 are still in the process. Manuscripts for which a final decision has been made have an average processing time of 49 days; 43% of decisions were taken within 30 days from submission, 24% within 2 months, and 18% within 3 months, with only 15% of manuscripts having spent more than 4 months in the process. Joining the GeoScienceWorld website has increased the visibility of the Italian Journal of Geosciences among the geological international community with submissions originating from many different countries. Within this year most of the Editors will complete their terms. To avoid a full change of the Editorial Board at the same time the number of editors has been increased, and we welcome the new board members listed below. We have also included few words about their respective key fields of expertise, which of course do not capture the breadth of their work. Hugo Bucher – Universität Zürich – Mass extinctions and recoveries, quantitative biochronology, theoretical morphology. Simonetta Cirilli – Università di Perugia – Sedimentology and stratigraphy of carbonate and mixed carbonate-siliciclastic depositional systems; Palaeogeography, palaeoclimatology palaeoceanography; sedimentary petrology and carbonate diagenesis; organic facies and palynofacies. Laura Crispini – Università di Genova – Structural Geology; Regional Tectonics; Subduction and exhumation of HP rocks; Geological mapping. Maurizio Mazzucchelli – Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia – petrogenesis of mantle-derived rocks; petrology of within plate magamatic rocks; lithosphehic mantle; archaeometry of bronze artifacts. Carmelo Monaco – Università di Catania – Regional tectonics and field analysis of tectonic structures; seismotectonics; geoarchaeology; geology of urban areas. Giulio Ottonello – reactive properties of Earth materials, thermodynamics of geological systems, environmental geochemistry, water-rock interaction, computational geochemistry. The new Editors will work on manuscripts that will appear starting with the 2014 volume as the 2013 volume being almost completed with the already accepted papers now in the Editorial pipeline