王 应 宽

2010-04-14

Beijing, China

 

Address at Inauguration Ceremony of CIGR Ejournal Handover to China

 

Address by Dr Bill Stout

CIGR Honorary President

Former CIGR Ejournal Editor-in-Chief

 

Good morning to my dear friends and colleagues in China! Good evening to others!

 

I am honored to be invited to participate in this video conference to inaugurate the CIGR Ejournal operations in China. As many of you know, I have been associated with the Ejournal since the original concept was born. It was in August, 1998. I was in Oslo, Norway visiting with CIGR Honorary President, Prof. Egil Berge. We were discussing the need for CIGR to host a means for dispersing technical information to its members in some 95 countries and others interested in agricultural engineering technology around the world. The idea of some kind of international journal emerged.  But how?  Paper journals are expensive, far beyond the financial resources of CIGR.  We talked about the possibility of an electronic journal which has many advantages over paper journals and is much less expensive.

 

I went home and talked with my Texas A&M colleagues. They were enthusiastic about the idea and Dr George Sabbagh stepped forward and volunteered to serve as the first Editor-in-Chief. I should also acknowledge the dedicated service of two other Editors-in-Chief---Dr Rosana Moreira and Dr Lingjuan Wang. All these Editors served admirably for several years.

 

The first year, 1999, we published only 7 technical articles and 2 invited overviews.  The number of submissions and published articles grew every single year during the first 10 years that I was involved. By the end of 2009 we had published 484 peer reviewed original research papers and 115 invited overviews with authors from 57 countries. All this was done with no cost to authors or readers. But as the Ejournal continued to grow in numbers and quality it became apparent that the workload of processing the submissions was outgrowing the capability of  a volunteer Editor-in-Chief to handle.

 

Dr Fedro Zazueta, IT Specialist at the University of Florida (and Incoming President of CIGR) stepped forward  and proposed that the Ejournal adopt the Open Journal System, an automated technical journal management system. Everyone agreed so Dr Zazueta was appointed as Editor-in-Chief last year and starting with Volume XI, 2010, the OJS was used. And submissions continued to increase substantially---196 last year.

 

China proposed to host the Ejounal some time ago.  Prof. Li Shujun will give details in his address later in this program. That leads us to today---the inauguration of Dr Yingkuan Wang as the Editor-in-Chief under the sponsorship of CSAE and CSAM.

 

Finally, I want to recognize CAAMS and its President, Dr Li Shujun for the moral and financial support for the Ejournal. Details will be given in other presentations.

 

The future of the CIGR Ejournal is bright. It is serving a critical need by providing technical information for both developing countries and industrial countries around the world. It continues to strive for higher quality and is well on its way to becoming as good as any of the best journals in the field of agricultural and biological engineering.

 

I wish the new Editor-in-Chief, Dr Yingkuan Wang  and all his colleagues well as they undertake this important assignment. And I look forward to continuing to work as their advisor and supporter.

 

Thank you.

 

 

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