What the future holds for the Netherlands Journal of Geosciences

My first year as Editor-in-Chief of the Netherlands Journal of Geosciences / Geologie en Mijnbouw turned out to be a steep learning curve which showed me all the facets this task brings. It has been a productive year, though. A total of 49 papers were published in three regular and two special issues. The special issues, on the Meuse Valley and on Seismicity of the Groningen Gas Field, were well received and contain papers authored by members of academic and applied institutions, including universities, consultants, advisory institutions, provinces, energy operators and regulatory authorities. This once again proves that thematic issues are a great strength of the Journal and it is good to notice that the Journal has become a medium for a broad geoscientific research community.

Editorial

This special issue of the Netherlands Journal of Geosciences / Geologie en Mijnbouw contains research papers offering important new insights into aspects of the occurrence of gas-production-induced seismicity in Groningen, the Netherlands. The issue is a ‘work in progress’ and provides a snapshot of our knowledge at the end of 2016, which is when most of the contributions were written.

Editorial

This special issue of the Netherlands Journal of Geosciences / Geologie en Mijnbouw contains the proceedings of the Conference on the Economic Geology of Suriname, held on 16 January 2015 in The Hague, the Netherlands, to honour Dr Eddie Jharap (Fig. 1), founder and former Chief Executive Officer of Staatsolie, Suriname. At this conference the President of the Royal Netherlands Geological and Mining Society (KNGMG), Drs Lucia van Geuns, awarded him the prestigious Van Waterschoot van der Gracht Medal, the highest honour available to an earth scientist in the Netherlands. Dr Jharap expressed his gratitude in a warm and humble speech which highlighted both his strong personal motivation to contribute to the development of Suriname, and his astonishing accomplishments since the 1980s in founding and developing Staatsolie.

Editorial

Last year, 2015, was a good year for the Netherlands Journal of Geosciences. We maintained a steady inflow of high-quality manuscripts and published many interesting papers. We started with a special issue on Mosasaurs, and ended with a special issue on the evolution of the Vecht and Amstel rivers, illustrating the diversity of topics covered by our journal. This year we plan to publish a special issue on (Dutch) planetary geology! The prospects are that 2016 will also be fruitful year for NJG. We start with a thick issue focused on geochemistry, and there are three additional special issues under construction. We will have quite a number of regular papers as well. Their number is steadily increasing, but we would like to have more. Possibly, the next NAC congress (Dutch geoscientific meeting) in April will stimulate submission of new publications.