A quarter of a century with the International Journal of Forest Engineering

摘要

The 1980s were very active years for the world’s forest harvesting industry. Many new machines and logging systems were being introduced, particularly in North America and Scandinavia. However, the forest engineering community had no dedicated scientific journal in which to report the results of their research, and to disseminate these findings back to the industry. Thanks to the initiative of faculty and staff in the Department of Forest Engineering, University of New Brunswick, Canada, and a dedicated international group of editorial board members, the first issue of the Journal of Forest Engineering was published in July 1989, under the editorship of Jeremy Rickards. Thus, this year is the 25th anniversary of the first international peer-reviewed scientific journal dedicated entirely and solely to forest engineering. The number of contributors and subscribers to the journal expanded rapidly and in 2000 International was added to the title, recognizing subscribers and contributors on all continents. Much has happened during the journal’s first quarter of a century, both in terms of how forest operations are conducted as well as of research focus and the conditions for the researcher’s publishing in the journal. These developments unfold quiteclearly when following the happenings of and the publications in the IJFE. Here we, all five of the editor-in-chiefs during the 25 years, summarize these developments, as well as provide behind-the-scene facts. Naturally we also provide a view on the future of IJFE and on forest engineering research in general.