When I received my January-February 2013 issue of Ground Water yesterday I noticed that the two words in the journal's title had merged into one. The same thing has happened to the other NGWA journal, now Groundwater Monitoring and Remediation.
The organization is still the National Ground Water Association (NGWA). But look at the close proximity of 'ground' to 'water' in the logo; sure looks like one word to me. It has been that way for years. We know what will happen eventually.
Why the change? I found this explanation on the NGWA WWW site:
The technical publications of the National Ground Water Association, Ground Water® and Ground Water Monitoring & Remediation®, will undergo slight title changes in 2013 as they adopt the
one-word treatment of “groundwater.”
Beginning with the first issues of 2013, the publication titles will read as Groundwater andGroundwater Monitoring & Remediation.
The change comes after confirming that the process will not affect those doing research, online tracking, or the status of the journals in the scientific community.
Prior to the change, NGWA contacted Thomson Reuters and confirmed such a change would not affect indexing in its Thomson Reuters Web of Knowledge (formerly ISI Web of Knowledge) or disrupt issuing an impact factor/journal citation report.
Similarly, the U.S. National Library of Medicine stated the change would not affect indexing in its PubMed database.
Finally, the U.S. ISSN Center confirmed that because the proposed change is so minor that assigning new International Standard Serial Numbers — typically required for a publication name change — would not be necessary.
The NGWA® Board of Directors voted to allow the one-word spelling to appear on the covers of the publications on April 17, 2012.
This move to make the change on the covers follows the decision of the NGWA Board on June 12, 2009 to allow the one-word spelling in journal papers and other content inside the publications.
Coincidentally, the U.S. Geological Survey switched to one-word usage for all of its publishing efforts on March 26, 2009. [Note: see my blog post on the USGS decision; also see my post on the 'one v. two' debate.]
Ground Water is a leading technical publication for groundwater hydrogeologists. Published six times a year, 2012 marked its 50th volume.
Ground Water Monitoring & Remediation is a quarterly publication focusing on the field of groundwater monitoring and cleanup. It will enter its 33rd year in 2013.
“The title changes will be a seamless transition for the thousands of groundwater researchers and practitioners who rely and depend on our journals for content,” said Thad Plumley, NGWA’s director of publishing and knowledge products.
Interesting to note that Dr. Bill Alley, who spearheaded the USGS's switch to the 'one-word' camp (groundwater), is now NGWA's Director of Science and Technology. I am not suggesting there is a connection between Bill's employment and the 'one word' decision.
For the hardy band of hard-core two-worders, NGWA's action is the beginning of the end.
Time to move on, folks.
"By such innovations are languages enriched, when the words are adopted by the multitude, and naturalized by custom." -- Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, author of Don Quixote
JAWRA made the transition in 2009: http://awramedia.org/jawra/2009/03/31/you-say-ground-water-i-say-groundwater/
Posted by: Ken Lanfear | Thursday, 31 January 2013 at 05:52 PM
As a result of overpopulation there is no more space for 'ground water'. Humans took it. And so it goes, little by little...
Posted by: Michael | Thursday, 31 January 2013 at 04:24 PM