Issues related to food, water and energy are the three most important challenges in the 21st century, due to exponential population growth, rapid urban development and climate change. There is a nexus between food, water and energy, and they are intrinsically linked and are affected by the change in climate. Currently there is a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly due to human activities. Climate change will affect human societies and the natural environment resulting in economic, social and environmental consequences. Better management of water resources will ensure that quality water is available for people, industry, agriculture, livestock, and biodiversity despite climate change. Journal of Water and Climate Change is unique in being dedicated to addressing these issues, and publishing innovative research papers which are useful for both researchers and practitioners. Within this context, the scope of the journal covers all aspects of water science, technology, management and innovation in response to climate change, with emphasis on reduction of energy usage. Papers in the journal are related to the analysis of impacts, mitigation and adaptation due to climate change on water resources, as are regional studies which clearly demonstrate the use of innovative methods and techniques which bring new knowledge to those regions.

The journal started in 2010 with a broad focus on water resources, water technology and engineering, and regulatory and managerial issues related to water and climate change. From humble beginnings with five editors and about 20 papers published in 2010, the journal now has grown to publish in excess of 50 papers a year in four issues. The impact factor of the journal is on an upward trajectory and is currently 1.254.

We are making every effort to continually improve the quality of the journal working with our authors, reviewers, team of editors, International Advisory Board, and editorial and publishing staff, and to make the journal the premier journal dealing with issues, challenges and solutions related to water and climate change. Recent efforts include increasing the number of editors to a team of Editor-in-Chief and 12 editors with expertise in various areas of water and climate change, refining the scope of the journal to include water-food-energy nexus, biodiversity conservation and ecosystems, detection and attribution of climate change, and urban planning including climate and water sensitive cities among several other new themes, creating an Invited Review Paper series with at least one such paper in every issue of the journal written by experts in the field, and increased social media campaigns about the journal and its papers. The journal also publishes Special Issues on dedicated themes within the scope of the journal, papers mainly sourced from relevant international conferences which are original in content and not published elsewhere, and rigorously peer-reviewed. The journal receives more than 400 papers per year currently with an acceptance rate of 32%. Science and technology related to climate change is advancing rapidly and so is the impact of climate change on water and natural environment with direct and indirect social, environmental and economic costs, which needs to be considered in the journal.

In addition to the efforts of the Editorial Board, we need the support of authors and reviewers in improving the quality of the journal. The support from authors includes organising the paper in the correct format according to the Instructions to Authors published on the journal's homepage, carefully proof-reading the paper to ensure language and grammar are correct, and ensuring the paper is within the scope. It is also important for authors to address reviewer comments carefully so that the reviewers and the handling editor can see easily and clearly how the authors addressed the reviewers’ concerns. These suggestions will make sure that papers are of good quality and improve the likelihood of acceptance as quickly as possible. The current turn-around times for first review and final decision on papers are 47 and 80 days respectively. Our goal is reduce these by about 10 days within the next 2 years.

Reviewers play an extremely important role in the journal, and are generous in contributing their time to review papers, providing timely and quality reviews. We have a pool of 2,639 reviewers with expertise in different aspects of water and climate change research. The reviewers currently take about 20 days for the first review and we hope to reduce this time by 5 days within the next 2 years.

So our vision for the journal is to continually improve the quality of the journal, increase its impact factor, increase the full text downloads, and to make it the premier journal addressing issues, challenges and solutions related to water and climate change. We welcome suggestions from our authors and reviewers both current and potential for continued improvement to the quality of the journal. We endeavour to act on your suggestions.

© 2020 The Authors
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