Greetings From the New Editors-In-Chief

Abstract

After the 5 years of the editorial services of Akihiro Kano and Tatsuki Tsujimori from 2020 to 2024, it is an honor and privilege for us to take over the roles of Editor-in-Chief of Island Arc from January 2025. On behalf of the new editorial board, we would like to express our deepest gratitude to the previous editorial team for their exceptional contributions to the journal.

Island Arc, the official international journal of the Geological Society of Japan, was established in 1992. Over the past three decades, Island Arc has served as a vital platform for discussions among the international earth science community and advancing our understanding of the diverse geological processes involved in plate convergent margins in circum-Pacific regions. The dedication of the previous editorial board resulted in the drastic enhancement of the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) by Clarivate Analytics from 2019 to 2022 (up to 2.442). However, despite their efforts, the value unfortunately declined to 1.0 in 2023, partly due to changes in the JIF calculation methodology. Similarly, Elsevier's CiteScore dropped from 3.5 in 2022 to 2.9 in 2023, although these values remain higher than those recorded during the 2016–2019 period (1.6–2.6). Please note that journals with a low annual article count, such as Island Arc, are more susceptible to significant fluctuations in their journal-level metrics. Furthermore, citations from the Journal of the Geological Society of Japan are not factored into the JIF calculation. Nevertheless, it is clear that maintaining the journal's high quality and enhancing its reputation remain key responsibilities. To this end, we encourage the community to submit exciting and high-impact manuscripts to Island Arc. Our editorial team is committed to ensuring professional, efficient, and fair manuscript handling and strives for swift publication.

The previous editorial team implemented several significant changes, including renewing journal's cover art, and transitioning to a “one issue per year” format following the cessation of print editions to move entirely to online publication. They also made considerable efforts to accelerate the peer-review process, particularly through the recent transition from ScholarOne Manuscripts to Wiley's brand-new Research Exchange (ReX) platform. While the new ReX platform still requires further refinement, this modern web-based system benefits not only authors but also reviewers. In parallel with these efforts, Island Arc continues to provide significant value by not requiring an article processing charge (APC) for publication. Additionally, if an author's institution has an open-access publishing agreement with Wiley, articles can be published as open-access at no cost (or with a substantial discount) to the authors. In recent years, Island Arc has notably increased international readership, particularly from the U.S. and China, in recent years. Many articles published in Island Arc attract significant attention from researchers worldwide, further establishing their relevance and impact in the earth science community.

As always, we welcome international contributions not only from traditional geoscience fields but also from interdisciplinary areas that explore innovative perspectives. We strongly encourage submissions from early-career scientists and look forward to publishing their groundbreaking works in Island Arc. We warmly invite you to submit your work to Island Arc and contribute to advancing research in the earth sciences.

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.