In one of my previous editorial notes I promised that the positive developments of the Journal of Natural Language Engineering (JNLE) would be a continuous and common practice. I am proud to report that I have been able to keep this promise. JNLE has enjoyed another very successful year. The impact factor of the journal increased for the second consecutive year, with the journal listed both among the Linguistics and Computer Science categories. From 2016 onwards, JNLE is offering six 160-page issues per year, which by far exceeds the four 96-page issues from less than 10 years ago!
There are many exciting developments from 2016 which I would like to share. We are continuing to receive a record number of submissions. While most of them focus on original, unpublished research, we also welcome survey papers which provide an overview of a specific area of Natural Language Processing.
I am delighted to highlight the open access Robert Dale’s Industry Watch column. Robert’s fascinating material and writing style have always been attractive to our readers. It is not only his unique and easy-to-read style that appeals to a wide audience – it is also the careful selection of highly popular topics which bridge the gap between academia and industry.
I am equally delighted to announce the new Emerging Trends column, set up in order to present new important developments which have been gaining traction in recent years, as well as cutting-edge developments in the field which have the potential to achieve high impact. Another excellent piece of news is that Ken Church, whom most of you certainly know, kindly agreed to be in charge of this column.
We shall continue encouraging the submissions of surveys and also plan to publish one special issue per year. In addition to the regular biennial calls for special issues, we are also considering outstanding proposals at any time on a case-by-case basis. The book reviews will also be returning soon.
I am profoundly indebted to Patrick McCartan, Publishing Director, and Brian Stone, Editor for Social Science and Humanities Journals at Cambridge University Press (CUP), for their unreserved support. I am also grateful to Caela Moffet, Production Editor, for her being so efficient as well as to Claire Wash, CUP Marketing Executive, for promoting the journal.
I would like to welcome Diana Maynard as the new Book Editor and thank my fellow editors and all members of the Editorial Board for their assistance. Last but not least, I would like to say a big ‘thank you’ to my editorial assistants who deserve only praise and the kindest of words for their quality work, dedication and commitment: Shiva Taslimipoor, Rut Gutiérrez Florido, Sara Može, Ivelina Nikolova and April Harper.
I shall conclude with a personal pledge to make sure that the journal goes from strength to strength, always offering high-quality, interesting and diverse content to the research community.
