Montse Fuentes, JABES Editor

Montse Fuentes

I would like to introduce myself as the new editor of the Journal of Agricultural, Biological, and Environmental Statistics (JABES) and welcome my team of 25 associate editors.

I look forward to working closely with them over the next few years.

We have been working on several exciting initiatives. First, we are transitioning to an electronic paper submission system managed by Springer this month.

The Springer team, led by Marc Strauss, is eager to help with our outreach efforts and bring more visibility to the journal. Springer also is working toward making the submission process as efficient as possible. I am confident it will be a smooth transition. Questions regarding submissions can be emailed to Strauss at Marc.Strauss@springer.com.

Second, we are planning to organize a number of topical special issues on timely research problems. One is titled “JABES Special Issue on Climate Change and Health.” Guest editors are Roger Peng of The Johns Hopkins University (rpeng@jhsph.edu) and Bo Li of Purdue University (boli@purdue.edu).

For this issue, we are soliciting papers covering a wide spectrum of areas related to both climate change and health. Papers addressing statistical issues related to climate modeling, modeling of risk factors or environmental exposures, or assessment of health effects of climate-sensitive factors are welcome. We are particularly interested in papers that directly link these different areas. The submission deadline for this special issue is November 30.

Another special issue, titled “Computer Models and Spatial Statistics for Environmental Sciences,” will focus on statistical methods that use complex computer models to address environmental problems. We especially encourage papers with applications to agricultural and biological sciences for this issue. The submission deadline is April 30. Guest editors for this issue are Brian Reich of North Carolina State University (reich@stat.ncsu.edu) and Murali Haran of Penn State (mharan@stat.psu.edu).

If you would like to contribute to either issue, email the guest editors.

Third, Sudipto Banarjee, a member of the JABES editorial board, has organized an invited session for JSM 2011. This session, sponsored by ENAR, presents the work of Alan Gelfand of Duke University, Andrew Finley of Michigan State University, and Bruno Sanso of the University of California, Santa Cruz, among others.

Last (but not least), we hope to have the new JABES cover ready soon. It is waiting for final approval, and I cannot wait to share it with you.

One of my priorities as editor is to seek quality papers and allow JABES to distinguish itself. Quality, for me, is defined in terms of the papers’ contribution to and impact on the statistical and subject matter fields. I think it is important to provide the most appropriate statistical tools to solve important and well-defined scientific problems. Thus, I seek innovation in statistical methods that help advance our field.

However, I do not wish to introduce unnecessarily “sophisticated” papers that discuss impractical statistical approaches. It is my priority to publish the most appropriate statistical methods to address important problems in the agricultural, biological, and environmental sciences. This includes human health problems when there is a clearly motivated environmental connection.

I very much welcome comments and look forward to continued interaction with you over the coming years.