Editorial

As you all may have noticed by now, changes have been introduced in the conformation of the editorial team of the Latin American Journal of Sedimentology and Basin Analysis (LAJSBA). Since March 2009 we have been appointed as the Editor (Gonzalo Veiga) and Associate Editor (Alfonsina Tripaldi) for this journal. We would like to thank the Board of the Asociación Argentina de Sedimentología (AAS) for honouring us with this task and it is a great commitment for us to continue with the great job that previous editors have done in producing this publication. Both of us have some experience in running this journal as we have been Associate Editors of the former AAS revista at different times, but the mission of being responsible for the production of this journal, that for the past 15 years has become a recognised means for publishing sedimentolgy-related research for Latin American specialists is challenging and stimulating.
First of all we would like to thank the preceding Editor, Gerardo M.E. Perillo and the Associate Editors, Luis Buatois, Dilce Rossetti and Oscar López- Gamundí. We think that we will all agree in that they have done an excellent job in running the journal for the past six years. Also the outstanding work by the Editorial Secretary, Diana Cuadrado, has to be recognised and all of us, that during this time have published in the journal, will remember her efficient and timely job. It has to be said that we found a healthy and active journal when we took charge of the Editorial Committee and it is all part of the great effort that they put during this time. It is also worth noticing that a good part of the production of this issue has to be thanked to their previous effort. In an impeccable decision, the AAS Board has decided to retain their experience and therefore the former Editor and Associate Editors have been appointed as part of the journal's Editorial Board. They will join a group of active and renowned colleagues spanning from different areas of Sedimentology and related disciplines that will assist the Editorial Committee in the decision-making process related to different aspects of the journal production.
The production of a quality journal is not easy and a lot of help is needed from the scientific community to fulfil this task. The editorial process is just a part of it and nothing will be possible without the contribution of the authors. We extend our invitation to all the Latin American community and international researchers to publish their results in the LAJSBA, also helping the promotion of the journal by extending this invitation to your colleagues. We are still a relatively small journal and the fact that after 15 years we are publishing 2 issues per year is because we haven't attained a constant manuscript flow to help us take the leap to increase the periodicity. This could only be accomplished with the community's commitment and the serious belief that this is the right place to publish their results, and from here we will do our best to convince them that it is a correct decision. It is also worth noticing that LAJSBA publishes not only research articles, but also short notes and book reviews and of course we encourage our colleagues to also bear in mind these formats when considering contributions to be published in LAJSBA.
Of course there are also the reviewers as a crucial part of the publishing process. We would like to extend our earnest thanks to all the colleagues that unselfishly dedicated some of their time through these years to the reviewing process. Regarding this, we would like to broaden the community's commitment for timely and rigorous revisions, fundamental in the production of a quality journal that could be proudly presented to the international audience.
New times have come for scientific journals, not only in the Earth Sciences field, with indexing, online presence and delay times in final access to accepted material as the most important issues that affect the authors' decision when submitting a manuscript to a journal. Needles to say that we will continue the efforts in that respect undertaking the necessary actions that we think will contribute to the production of a quality journal.
First and most importantly we, as the editorial team, together with authors and reviewers, will put all the effort in guaranteeing the scientific quality and relevance of published articles. This is the milestone from which all other initiatives can be performed and if this fails, all the hard work that could be done will prove ineffective.
Also actions have been engaged to provide online access to published material in LAJSBA and the precursor AAS revista. Following the example of many Latin American scientific journals the AAS Board has decided to provide free access to published issues of LAJSBA through SciELO (Scientific Electronic Library Online). This decision also implies indexing services that are included in the addition of the journal to this online platform and will help promoting the journal on the international community, increasing references to published articles in LAJSBA. There are some costs attached to this decision and the risk of losing subscribers as the material will be available free of charge. However, both the AAS Board and this Editorial Committee consider that this is the correct decision for promoting scientific research in developing countries and that we will continue to receive the collaboration of the Latin American researchers for supporting the AAS and, with that, the publishing of the paper version of the Journal. Moreover, we encourage them to actively participate in the AAS activities, as a way of building and fortifying the Latin American sedimentological community.
We are also actively working on building a refurbished web site for the journal as the platform from which it is presented to the community. This is part of a larger and more ambitious aspiration that it is to implement an online editorial system that could handle all the steps of the publishing process through the web site, as an essential way to facilitate the work of authors, reviewers and editors. We are working on putting into service an Open Source system and, of course, a lot of help and patience are going to be needed from users until it finally gets going.
So, exciting and challenging times are ahead and we do hope we can be up to this new task. We will do our best, always respecting the foundational spirit of the AAS revista/LAJSBA, to provide the Latin American community with a journal that it could be proud of. As you may have noticed by now, we are expecting a great deal of help from all of you as we are positive that it is not just the editorial team, but the community in itself the true architect of scientific journals.

Gonzalo D. Veiga
Editor

Alfonsina Tripaldi
Associate Editor