Dear Editorial Board Members,

It is my pleasure to share with you the end of year publication report for AIMS Environmental Science. The data clearly indicate a three consecutive year growth of our journal in both the quantity and the quality of manuscripts. Here are some highlights for year 2016: We received a new record of 121 manuscript submissions, with a diverse set of authorships from more than 18 countries or regions (Figure 1). Out of those submissions, 54 manuscripts were accepted for publications, with a rejection rate of 42.5%. This high rejection rate is a good indication of a rigorous peer-review process in place for our journal. In the past year, the articles of our journal had been read and downloaded 11, 215 times, and the top read article received more than 1800 hits. In addition, our journal has been indexed in Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI). Emerging Sources Citation Index is a new edition of Web of Science which launched in November 2015. It will make our journal more discoverable and citable in Web of Science. We have also applied for indexing by SCOPUS and EI in 2016, and will get the evaluation result back in 2017.

Currently, we have 101 editorial board members from more than 11 countries or regions. We plan to renew the Editorial Board in early 2017. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the board members for their dedication and contribution to the journal. Especially, I would like to thank special issue editors. In 2016, five special issues were assembled on such topics as urban greening for low carbon cities, pollution and chemicals in the environment, applications of remote sensing and geographic information systems in environmental monitoring, advanced technologies for air pollution control, and metal contamination in the environment. Those special issues together with independent submissions cover a diverse set of technical topics. In 2017, I would encourage the board members to continue their effort to develop more special issues for the journal.

Our goals for 2017 are to (1) reduce the processing time of a manuscript from average 98 days to 70 days; (2) increase paper citations by soliciting and advertising high quality reviews and special issues; and (3) move to bi-monthly publishing. I am looking forward to continuing working with you to make the AIMS Environmental Science become a high-impact scientific journal.

Yifeng Wang, Ph.D.

Editor in Chief, AIMS Environmental Science

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