The Board Symposium onAdvances in Bridge EngineeringProceed Smoothly

A symposium for the board of directors ofAdvances in Bridge Engineeringwas successfully held at Southwest Jiaotong University (SWJTU) and chaired by Professor Li Yadong, chairman of the board, in the afternoon of December 5, 2020. Professor Song Jirong, former Director of Journal Center of SWJTU; Professor Li Hengchao, current Director of the Journal Center; Hu Yingkui, Deputy Editor-in-Chief ofJournal of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Professor Li Yongle, Editor-in-Chief ofAdvances in Bridge Engineeringand the Executive Editor Associate Professor Wang Bin; Xiong Guobin, Chairman of Sichuan Road and Bridge Group Co. Ltd. and its Deputy General Manager Huang Yanqing; Mao Weiqi, Deputy Chief Engineer of China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group Co. Ltd.; Chen Lie, Deputy Chief Engineer of China Railway Eryuan Engineering Group Co., Ltd.; Peng Yuancheng, Deputy Chief Engineer of CCCC Second Highway Survey and Design Institute Co., Ltd.; Yan Aiguo, Chief Engineer of the Bridge Design and Research Institute of China Railway Siyuan Survey and Design Group Co., Ltd.; Zheng Xufeng, Chief Engineer of the Bridge Design and Research Institute of Sichuan Highway Planning Survey and Design Research Institute Co. Ltd.; Peng Xumin, Chief Engineer of State Key Laboratory of Bridge Structural Health and Safety; Hu Shouzeng, Deputy General Manager of Science and Technology Management Department of CCCC Second Harbor Engineering Company Ltd. and Jin Cang, Deputy General Manager of Engineering Design and Research Institute of CCCC Second Highway Engineering Co., Ltd. attended the symposium.

Chairman Li Yadong introduced the significance of the establishing of the journal, the composition of the editorial board, the characteristics and development strategies, and detailed the significance of the creation of the board, its composition and the directors’ rights and interests. The board is composed of the key representative organizations with good performance and reputation in the bridge industry, who are capable of committing to the scientific and technological progress of the industry and actively participating in the activities of the board. The board members have the following rights and interests. ① As a co-organizer ofAdvances in Bridge Engineering, to assist in organizing academic conferences and other activities; ② to recommend papers for publication in journals of different levels, including international English journals, EI-indexed Chinese journals, and Chinese core journals; ③ to sign the organization’s name in the Chinese excerpt of each paper which is viewed about 100,000 times a year; ④ to post the annual progress online through official accounts of the Department of Bridges and the journals; ⑤ to be given the annual bound volumes of this journal and the annual progress compilation of bridges organized by the Department of Bridges, and other materials.

Editor-in-Chief Li Yongle reported on the latest progress of the journal, involving manuscript solicitation, manuscript processing, a series of special issues, and promotion and publicity. By the end of November, more than 50 articles were submitted by researchers from China, the US, Australia, Japan, the UK, Netherlands, India, Pakistan, Malaysia and other countries and regions. The first paper was published in July 2020, and 17 papers have been accepted for publication in the past six months, with an average processing time of three months for manuscripts. We have developed a series of special issues in cooperation with experts and scholars from the University of California, Berkeley, University at Buffalo, McMaster University in Canada, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Tsinghua University, Tongji University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Qingdao University of Technology, and Guangdong University of Technology. In addition, a great many promotional activities have been carried out, such as visits and exchanges by the faculty of Department of Bridges, academic conferences as well as promotions through emails and official accounts of WeChat.

During the seminar, the China Railway Siyuan Survey and Design Group Co., Ltd., China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group Co., Ltd., and Sichuan Road and Bridge Group Co., Ltd. were selected as deputy chairman members. The leaders and experts of the participating organizations had extensive discussions and made specific suggestions on the operation strategy of the journal, and unanimously expressed their full support for the development ofAdvances in Bridge Engineering.

Advances in Bridge Engineeringis an international academic journal in English founded and sponsored by SWJTU, as well as published and distributed worldwide by Springer Nature Group, with the Editorial Board and the Board of Directors guiding the construction and development of the journal. This journal aims to be an international platform to showcase the latest advances in Chinese bridge engineering academics and technology, and a crucial way for China’s bridge engineering community to share and exchange their latest achievements with their peers around the world.