Summary of the Editorial Committee Meeting of Journal of Palaeogeography in Geneva, at the 19th International Sedimentological Congress (ISC)

During August 18-22, 2014, the 19thInternational Sedimentological Congress was successfully held by the International Association of Sedimentology in Geneva, Switzerland.

A total of around 950 registered sedimentologists and experts of related disciplines participated in the congress, among them 176 from China. In total 1000 abstracts were submitted to the congress.

The “Palaeogeography, palaeoecology and resource geology in the geological past” session was successfully held on the morning of August 19thand the afternoon of August 22ndrespectively, co-chaired by Profs. Ian D. Somerville, Gérard Stampfli and Zhong-Qiang Chen. A total of 32 presentations were submitted to this session, 16 orals and 16 posters which cover the domains of: palaeobiogeography and palaeoecology, stratigraphy, sedimentology, microbialites, Geodynamics,palaeoclimatology and sedimentary responses, geochemistry and sedimentary environments.

Prof. Ian D. Somerville and Ms. Yuan Wang were discussing about the agenda of the Editorial Committee Meeting of JoP.

Photograph of the conveners of the “Palaeogeography, palaeoecology and resource geology in the geological past” session.From left to right: Profs. Gérard Stampfli, Ian D. Somerville,Zhong-Qiang Chen.

In the evening of August 19th, Profs. Ian D. Somerville and Zhong-Qiang Chen and the Associate-Editor-in-Chief of JoP, Ms. Yuan Wang and Xiu-Juan Zheng co-chaired the Editorial Committee Meeting of JoP (Geneva). The attendees include the Editorial Committee Members: Profs. Ian D. Somerville, Zhong-Qiang Chen, Dai-Du Fan, Steve Kershaw,Long-Yi Shao, Xiu-Mian Hu, You-Bin He (represented by Jin-Xiong Luo), Xiao-Min Zhu, Jia-Xin Yan, Wan Yang, Santanu Banerjee, Hao Liu, and non-members: Prof. André Strasser, Drs. Christian Vérard, Biplab Bhattacharya, Prof. H. N.Bhattacharyya and Dr. Ms. Ananya Biswas.

First, Prof. Ian D. Somerville (Associate-Editor-in-Chief of the Editorial Committee of JoP) summarized the first part of the session. In total 12 orals were well presented by speakers from 6 different countries. Their topics cover the following domains: palaeobiogeography and palaeoecology, stratigraphy, sedimentology, microbialites, Geodynamics, palaeoclimatology and sedimentary responses, geochemistry and sedimentary environments. Combining with the later half“palaeogeography, palaeoecology and resource geology in the geological past” session and considering the entire editing and publication process of JoP, Ian Somerville suggested that all presentations finally submitted to JoP be published in two special issues (January and April issues of year 2015) after being peer-reviewed and accepted by JoP. According to the currently presented talks, they will possibly be categorized into different topics of each issue such as the “microbialites” or the “geochemistry and sedimentary environments” depending on the time of their submissions. Ian Somerville emphasized that since the “palaeogeography” session was convened on behalf of the Editorial Committee of JoP and a suggestion was proposed in advance that presentations made on this session should be submitted to JoP, thus authors need to arrange their schedule of completing the manuscripts.

Oral presentation by Prof. Zhong-Qiang Chen in the “palaeogeography, palaeoecology and resource geology in the geological past” session held in August 19th.

Attendees of the Editorial Committee Meeting of JoP held in the evening of August 19th at the University of Geneva.

Second, Ms. Yuan Wang updated the latest progress related with the development of JoP: (1) feedback from the SCI, status about application of establishing the ISP (International Society of Palaeogeographers) and the latest issue(October issue). (2) Yuan Wang mentioned that from the latest journal selection standards of the Thomson Reuters(SCI index system), there are two aspects which need our attention: a-Compared with the competitors which have already been included in the SCI, to what degree the journal has enriched the Web of Science? b-Analysis will be made regarding the authors and Editorial Committee Members of JoP: if they are from the SCI database. (3) Application of establishing the ISP is currently under a handling process of the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Civil Affairs. And we will update the latest information at all times on the website and through emails to all members as well. (4) In total 6 papers will be published in the October issue which includes a new column “Academic discussion”. Two papers holding entirely opposite view points regarding “internal wave and internal tide deposition”. One paper is an original review research including plenty of references of this domain and the other is a direct reply. JoP sincerely welcome authors to submit such type of manuscripts which will not only promote the impact and citation of the journal, but also promote the development of the discipline.

Discussions among the attendees, from left to right: Profs. Steve Kershaw, Li Guo and Dai-Du Fan.

Third, a thorough discussion was conducted among all attendees. They talked about the following aspects : (1) Whether the scope and domain of JoP should be narrowed and concentrated in some characteristic columns according to the standards of the SCI; The final conclusion was that JoP should maintain its current aim and scope and emphasize its characteristic “palaeogeography” as the unique specific journal. (2) The download difficulty from the current website needs to be solved as soon as possible; All attendees hope that it will be solved by reducing the resolution of figures in the near period. (3) Profs. Ian Somerville and Zhong-Qiang Chen suggested that an initial deadline for submission to the JoP should be confirmed. In total 7 attendees confirmed their intended submission before the end of September.