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ACS - Journal of Environmental Quality Editorial Board (ACS324.1)

2014 Annual Report


ACS324.1 JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY EDITORIAL BOARD - 2014 Annual Report

 

The JEQ Editorial Board Meeting was held on Wed. Nov. 6, 2013, from 10 am to 12 at the Long Beach Convention Center.

 

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Managing Editor's Report—Ann Edahl

Production

A summary of papers published, total pages, and article length for 2014 compared with previous volumes is presented in Table 1.

Table 1. Summary of papers published in JEQ.

Contribution

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

Reviews and Analyses

1

6

0

8

3

6

Technical Reports

148

168

141

128

179

225

Environmental Issues

0

5

0

1

4

2

Short Communications

6

10

3

6

4

7

Special Sections

57

6

63

63

30

9

Letters/Replies

0

1

0

0

5

3

Book Reviews

2

6

3

9

11

20

Total pages

2129

1909

2033

1998

2215

2480

 

Average length per article

Reviews and Analyses

20.0

13.8

0

11.9

12.0

16

Technical Reports

10.1

9.5

10

9.3

9.9

9.7

Environmental Issues

10.2

0

9

8

12

Short Communications

7.3

6.6

6.3

5.5

5.5

6.2

Special Sections

10.0

9.2

9.5

9.0

9.8

11

 

Submissions

 

Table 2. Submissions report.

Year

U.S. submissions

International submissions

Total

% International

2014

191

255

446†

57.2%

2013

232

298

530

56.2%

2012

234

270

504

53.6%

2011

219

258

477

54.1%

2010

255

297

552

53.8%

2009

251

267

518

51.5%

2008

260

274

534

51.3%

† Year to date.

 

Online Usage Statistics

 

Table 3. Online usage statistics for ASA, CSSA, SSSA journals in 2014 (January–October).

 

Abstract

Full text HTML

PDF

Total Downloads

Agronomy Journal

614,108

90,119

347,947

438,066

Crop Science

660,542

129,619

362,404

492,023

Journal of Environmental Quality

508,074

111,425

241,280

352,705

Soil Science Society of America Journal

889,313

82,380

431,374

513,754

Vadose Zone Journal

98,212

37,268

50,378

87,646

The Plant Genome

19,782

51,176

34,068

85,244

Journal of Plant Registrations

18,987

10,573

8,750

19,323

Natural Sciences Education

11,425

8,230

7,043

15,273

Soil Horizons

4,880

31,859

7,879

39,738

Books

128,217

 

Science Communications

Beginning April 1, JEQ, VZJ, and SSSAJ took part in a pilot program appointing a Communications Editor whose role is to identify accepted papers that could be used to develop stories on our societies’ Websites.  A total of 79 papers from nine society journals were highlighted in some way between April 1 and the beginning of October 2014. Of these 79 papers, 23 came from JEQ and were covered either as a news release, as a Web feature, or in CSA News or Crops and Soils magazines; 14 of these articles were articles recommended by JEQ’s Communications Editor. Headquarters staff will recommend to the Editors in Chief of ASA, CSSA, and SSSA at the annual meeting to make this a permanent position for all of our main journals beginning in 2015.

 

Dataset Papers

In 2014, JEQ published dataset papers as part of the special section Long-Term Agro-Hydrological Research in UWR Experimental Watersheds. Dataset papers make up a portion of another in-progress special section, Long-term Agro-Ecosystem Research in the Central Mississippi River Basin. One of the papers in this section describes two datasets that as of yet do not have a permanent home in a permanent repository.  So that the datasets linked to this data paper have a home, and to allow us to accept future datasets connected to data papers, ACSESS is in the process of setting up hosting services for datasets.

 

ACSESS will assign DOIs to the datasets, ensuring that they include necessary metadata to aid in discovery, and store them in the digital library for long-term preservation. These datasets will be open access, using the CC-BY-NC license. To cover costs going on, there will be a fee for these services. As part of this initiative, headquarters staff Ann Edahl and Rebecca Funck, with input from Ed Gregorich, drafted author guidelines for datasets that are linked to data papers. With input from the JEQ TEs, Ed Gregorich also drafted guidelines for reviewers of data papers and the linked datasets, with the understanding that the data paper may become a new paper type for JEQ. This is an ongoing process, and we hope to have these working documents online the first part of 2015.

 

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Director of Publications ReportBill Cook

 

Publications Update – Continuing innovation in the Publications area for 2014

  • This is my first report as Director of Publications, replacing Mark Mandelbaum, who passed away in August after 3 years at the helm.  Pubs staff is grateful for the time Mark spent helping the Societies launch the Digital Library and beginning the process of direct sales to our customers.
  • Digital Library: In 2015, we anticipate the Digital Library will generate over $1 million in both Member and nonmember subscriptions across the three societies. Over 1600 Society members and 790 academic institutions now subscribe. Year to Date, for calendar year 2014, there have been over 2 million journal article downloads, and over 197,000 book/chapter downloads. For 2014 Staff signed a 3-year, $650K agreement ($217K/year) with a consortium of universities in Mexico and a 3-year, $800K contract with a consortium of universities in China. Consortia license agreements have also been signed in Australia and South Africa. Both of these deals are opt-in consortia, meaning member institutions may choose to subscribe to our offer based on their specific library needs. To date, 9 institutions in Australia have renewed their subscription through this deal and we will know by January 2015 the number of institutions subscribing in South Africa.  Similar large deals are currently being discussed with Brazil, Turkey and Israel. In 2014, we added new options for nonmember institutions to subscribe or purchase content from the Societies for Libraries that face tough decisions trying to accommodate the research needs of all of their patrons. We completed the digitization of back issues of Soil Horizons, which will soon be loaded into the Digital Library, and enhanced certain functions such as searching and semantic tagging.
  • This summer we completed agreements with sales agents in Europe and North America to provide representation for all our content to academic, government and corporate libraries.  We now have representatives across the globe working on our behalf to retain and upgrade existing customers and to identify, train and sell to new customers.
  • For three years, we have provided production services for the Journal of Animal Science and Animal Frontiers.  Late this year we will complete the migration of their content, including all back issues, to the DL, adding approximately 26,000 articles to the DL.  ASAS will continue to sell print and electronic version of JAS and Animal Frontiers from their own site.
  • Digital Magazine:  This year, we established an editorial board for Crops & Soils magazine, made up of ASA members and CCAs, representing a mix of industry and university experts. According to a survey we conducted in 2013, readers asked for more in depth, region-specific articles. The board has decided to try a regional approach for 2015, where in each issue, we highlight issues relevant to one or two regions across the U.S. and Canada. Also, this year, starting with the November issue, we have upgraded the magazine app (available in iTunes, Google, and Amazon stores) to be designed specifically for tablets and smart phones. The digital version, which ASA members now receive as part of their membership benefit, allows for embedded videos, more interactivity, and a better reading experience. See www.agronomy.org/publications/crops-and-soils
  • Books: The books program has been revitalized, and as a result, the number of books in development has increased dramatically, with 17 books scheduled to begin production in 2015. The Books program is looking to publish high-quality books in all areas of soils, crops, and agronomy, appealing to all audiences, from K-12 through graduate studies, practical/CCAs, and other channels
  • Plant Management Network: Beginning January 2014, we took ownership of the three journals that had previously been published by the American Phytopathological Society under the brand “Plant Management Network”. These journals are: Applied Turfgrass Management, Forage & Grazinglands, and Crop Management.  These journals were added to our Digital Library, and in 2015, they will be consolidated into a single publication Crop, Forage & Turfgrass Management.
  • Data Sets:  We anticipate a new type of manuscripts will be available to authors beginning in 2015.  ACSESS will assign DOIs to the datasets, ensuring that they include the necessary metadata to aid in discovery, and store them in the digital library, or an alternate repository for large sets, for long-term preservation. Author guidelines and guidelines for reviewers of data papers and the linked datasets are under review and we plan to have these working documents online by the beginning of 2015.
  •  

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Editor’s Report – Ed Gregorich

 

Editorial Board Update

Rory Maguire and Enzo Lombi completed their second term as Technical Editors on Dec. 31, 2014. They will be replaced by Peter Kleinman and Ganga Hettiarachchi. Rory and Enzo worked hard to provide good oversight and rigorous evaluations of manuscripts during their tenure as Technical Editors and I thank them for their service to the journal.

 

Below are the names of the Associate Editors who have completed their terms in 2014. I thank them for their diligence and careful oversight of manuscript reviews. They conducted comprehensive and solid reviews – I am particularly grateful for the time, energy and commitment they provided to help produce a high-quality journal.

 

C. Plaza

H. Li

P-A. Jacinthe

H.A. Torbert

R. Malone

C. Stamm

G. Toor

D.R. Smith

A. Delgado

R. Stehouwer

J. Arocena

A. Tye

C. Grant

B. Robinson

P.E. Holm

D.I. Kaplan

 

Submissions and acceptance rate of manuscripts submitted to JEQ (2009-2014)

Number of manuscripts submitted

Acceptance rate

2014: 551

2014: 39%

2013: 531

2013: 35%

2012: 504

2012: 37%

2011: 482

2011: 42%

2010: 549

2010: 39%

2009: 517

2009: 38%

 

Average review times of JEQ manuscripts (2009-2014)

Measure

----------------------- Year -------------------------

 

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

 

-------- Average Number of Days --------

Editor to TE

0.6

0.8

0.5

0.5

0.6

0.3

TE to AE

4.8

2.4

3.0

3.3

2.4

1.9

AE assign reviewer

19.4

17.2

16.7

16.8

16.1

14.8

Days with reviewer

30.8

31.7

31.4

33.8

24.0

25.3

Days to release*

54.4

52.5

61.0

59.5

46.2

42.4

First recommendation of revision*

76.1

73.5

72.9

71.5

71.2

70.0

Days in revision

36.9

30.4

30.1

26.8

30.6

30.8

Days to final decision*

98.6

91.7

94.3

88.0

84.0

80.0

* Calculated from date manuscript received by Editor to the date measure taken.

 

Summary of papers by category to show trends in current topics

Number of technical papers published in each subject matter category (2009-2014). Papers in parentheses are number of papers submitted.

 

Category

Vol 43

2014

Vol 42

2013

Vol 41

2012

Vol 40

2011

Vol 39

2010

Vol 38

2009

Reviews

1(10)

6(12)

0(8)

8(7)

3(18)

 

Environmental Issues

0(39)

5(22)

0(8)

1(6)

4(13)

 

Special Collections

56(67)

6(42)

63(43)

63(95)

30(107)

 

Short Communications

5(23)

11(24)

3(23)

6(10)

3(25)

 

Atmospheric Pollutants and Trace Gases

11(60)

24(40)

17(43)

21(41)

14(46)

18(38)

Biodegradation and Bioremediation

3(24)

4(17)

3(10)

6(7)

5(17)

7(17)

Ecological Risk Assessment

1(0)

1(7)

3(5)

1(6)

5(4)

3(6)

Ecosystem Restoration

0(0)

6(9)

2(10)

3(7)

2(9)

8(7)

Environmental Microbiology

4(16)

4(22)

3(23)

0(6)

 

 

Environmental Models, Modules, and Datasets

7(24)

9(18)

3(9)

0(2)

 

 

Ground Water Quality

6(12)

9(19)

13(22)

5(30)

13(19)

8(23)

Heavy Metals in the Environment

17(59)

18(54)

10(42)

12(34)

14(39)

16(56)

Landscape and Watershed Processes

10(21)

8(30)

3(24)

8(16)

15(20)

12(28)

Organic Compounds in the Environment

8(46)

20(49)

22(54)

13(38)

17(41)

18(33)

Plant and Environment Interactions

5(26)

10(22)

4(17)

1(16)

5(14)

8(22)

Remote Sensing & Environmental Degradation

0(3)

0(1)

0(8)

0(3)

2(2)

4(14)

Surface Water Quality

19(90)

17(51)

21(51)

29(64)

43(84)

44(82)

Urban Pollutants

2(10)

7(12)

5(19)

3(10)

0(7)

 

Vadose Zone Processes and Chemical Transport

1(13)

5(10)

6(11)

4(16)

11(20)

9(27)

Waste Management

15(52)

19(50)

17(52)

19(51)

25(55)

31(61)

Wetlands and Aquatic Processes

5(23)

8(19)

9(14)

3(15)

8(9)

9(21)

 

JEQ Impact Factor (2003-2013)

Year

Total Cites

(rank)

Impact Factor

(rank)

No. Citable Items (rank)

2003

7815 (11)

1.682 (28)

266 (14)

2004

7937 (12

1.617 (33)

255 (15)

2005

8939 (12)

2.121 (24)

238 (18)

2006

9829 (11)

2.272 (29 of 144)

252 (19)

2007

2008

 

11128(17)

2.331 (34 of 160)

2.098 (49 of 163)

206

285

2009

2010

12391 (17)

12002 (18)

2.291 (55 of 179)

2.236 (56 of 193)

248 (28)

218 (33)

2011

12526 (18)

2.324 (61 of 200)

204

2012

12430 (21)

2.353 (69 of 209)

205

2013

12744 (21)

2.345* (76 of 215)

195 (49)

 

5-year IF is 2.694 (73rd)

 

Special Collections of Papers in JEQ (2009-2014)

2014: 5 with 56 papers

2013: 1 with 6 papers

2012: 5 with 63 papers

2011: 6 with 63 papers

2010: 4 with 30 papers

2009: 1 with 9 papers

 

Future (8 special collections currently under review [3 near completion] and 2 confirmed proposed special collections):

 

 

Special Collections of Papers Published in 2014:

1) Applications of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) (Phil Gassman, Raghavan Srinivasan, and Ali Sadeghi). Jan-Feb 2014 (23 papers)

2) Sustainable Use of FGD (Flue Gas Desulfurization) Gypsum in Agricultural Systems (Dexter Watts and Warren Dick). Jan-Feb 2014 (10 papers)

3) Livestock GRACENet (Rob Dungan) July-Aug 2014 (13 papers)

4) Long-term Agro-Hydrological Research in Upper Washita River Experimental Watersheds, Oklahoma, USA (Jean Steiner) July-Aug 2014 (11 papers)

Expected in 2015:

1) Long-term Agro-ecosystem Research in the Central Mississippi River Basin, USA (John Sadler)

2) Phosphorus Fate, Management and Modeling in Artificially Drained Systems (Peter Kleinman, Doug Smith, and Carl Bolster)

3) Improving Nitrogen Use Efficiency in Crop and Livestock Production Systems: Existing Technical, Economic, and Social Impediments and Future Opportunities (Charles Rice, Eric Davidson, and Emma Suddick)

4) The Conowingo Reservoir (Carl Cerco)

5) Microbial Transport and Fate in the Subsurface (Scott Bradford, Thomas Harter and Jack Schijven)

6) The Urban Forest and Ecosystem Services: Tree, Street and City Scale (Stephen Livesley, Carlo Calfapietra, and Greg McPherson)

7) Soil in the City (Kuldip Kumar and Lakhwinder Hundal)

8) Critical Issues of Radionuclide Behavior in Soils and Remediation (Brenda Howard, Hirofumi Tsukada)

Expected in 2016:

1) Poorly Understood Aspects of Soil N Cycling and their Potential to Control Reactive N Losses from Natural and Managed Ecosystems (Rod Venterea)

2) Application of Proximal Sensors to Environmental Quality Problems (Dennis Corwin)

 

JEQ author survey results

2014 Survey Results from accepted papers (n=73 (61)).  2013 survey results are in parentheses.

Query

Strongly agree

Agree

Disagree

Strongly disagree

 

----- % of responses -----

My manuscript was edited in a timely fashion

56 (60)

42 (38)

3 (2)

0 (0)

The reviewers were technically competent

52 (51)

47 (47)

1 (2)

0 (0)

The reviewers’ comments were helpful

62 (56)

38 (44)

0 (0)

0 (0)

The reviewers’ comments were respectful

67 (64)

30 (33)

3 (3)

0 (0)

The AE or TE provided clear instructions for revisions

81 (82)

18 (18)

1 (0)

0 (0)

Quality of editing was comparable to non-society journals

54 (51)

42 (44)

3 (3)

1 (2)

Manuscript Central accommodated the review process

57 (52)

39 (43)

4 (5)

0 (0)

Would you recommend JEQ to a colleague?  97% Yes; 3% No

Membership of corresponding authors: ASA 18%; CSSA  8%; SSSA  31%; Non-member  66%

 

 

2014 Survey Results from rejected papers (n=10(9)).  2013 survey results are in parentheses.

Query

Strongly agree

Agree

Disagree

Strongly disagree

 

----- % of responses -----

My manuscript was edited in a timely fashion

50 (44)

20 (22)

20 (22)

10 (12)

The reviewers were technically competent

 20 (22)

60 (67)

20 (11)

0 (0)

The reviewers’ comments were helpful

40 (44)

20 (22)

30 (22)

10 (12)

The reviewers’ comments were respectful

20 (22)

70 (67)

10 (11)

0 (0)

The AE or TE provided clear instructions for revisions

50 (56)

20 (11)

20 (22)

10 (11)

Quality of editing was comparable to non-society journals

33(38)

45 (38)

11 (12)

11 (12)

Manuscript Tracker accommodated the review process

50 (57)

50 (43)

0 (0)

0 (0)

Would you recommend JEQ to a colleague?  90% Yes; 10% No

Membership of corresponding authors: ASA 10%; CSSA 0%; SSSA 20%; Non-member 80%

 

JEQ Policy Regarding Novelty

Some questions were asked at the JEQ editorial board meeting regarding JEQ’s policy on scientific novelty as a reason for the release of a manuscript. The approach to evaluate and define scientific novelty was developed last year and is as follows:

The burden of the evaluation of scientific novelty rests first with the AE, then the TE, and finally with the Editor.  The greatest burden is with the AE because they should be more knowledgeable about the manuscript's subject matter since it is likely to be close to their area of expertise. Reviewers are used as sources of information for judging novelty, but the AE is not required to make their evaluation based on the average novelty ranking of the reviewers.  The AE decides if there is ample substantiation from the reviewer(s) and from their own knowledge of the literature to support the claim that the research is not sufficiently novel for consideration for potential publication. Cited literature is the best means of determining whether a paper is novel or not. Therefore a manuscript should not be released solely for the reason of lack of novelty unless a published paper or textbook can be cited to substantiate the lack of novelty.

It is the author's responsibility to make known to the reader the novelty of their work, what knowledge gap is filled by their research and the implications of their findings, so the significance of the research can be easily evaluated by reviewers, editors, and readers.  A manuscript can be released for the failure to convey this information to the reader - however, this can be handled without releasing the manuscript and by instructing the author that the significance of their research needs to be more clearly conveyed in a revised manuscript.

Some redundancy in science is valuable as a means of verifying the results of previous studies.  The level of redundancy that is acceptable rests with the AE, TE, and the Editor, with the final evaluation left for the Editor to decide based on the recommendations of the AE and TE.  When evaluating the scieintific novelty of a manuscript, a rule-of-thumb is to ask yourself if you would cite this paper.  If you would cite it, then it likely contains sufficient novelty to meet JEQ standards of making a significant contribution to our knowledge and understanding of environmental quality and processes.

 

Headquarters Staff

Contacts: Ann Edahl, managing editor (aedahl@sciencesocieties.org), Bill Cook, director of publications (bcook@sciencesocieties.org), Meg Ipsen, editorial assistant (mipsen@sciencesocieties.org),  Brett Holte, submissions manager (bholte@sciencesocieties.org), Tricia Newell (tnewell@sciencesocieties.org), publications marketing coordinator.

 

Acknowledgments

The success of JEQ in producing important and timely scientific articles is due to the conscientious and diligent efforts of the JEQ Technical Editors, Associate Editors, and ASA-CSSA-SSSA staff.  The Editor and Managing Editor thank the members of the JEQ Editorial Board and ASA-CSSA-SSSA staff for their efforts in maintaining rigorous standards for evaluating, reviewing and editing manuscripts.

 

Ed Gregorich, Editor

Ann Edahl, Managing Editor

Journal of Environmental Qulity

Items Requiring Board Attention:

Members of the Committee:

Ellen Bergfeld (Member, Ex Officio)
Mark Mandelbaum (Member, Ex Officio)
Andrew Sharpley (SSSA Editor-in-Chief)
Warren Dick (ASA Editor-in-Chief)
E. Charles Brummer (CSSA Editor-in-Chief)
Edward Gregorich (JEQ Editor)
Scott Bradford (JEQ Technical Editor)
Robert Dungan (JEQ Technical Editor)
Enzo Lombi (JEQ Technical Editor)
Rory Maguire (JEQ Technical Editor)
Tsutomu Ohno (JEQ Technical Editor)
Rodney Venterea (JEQ Technical Editor)
Barbara Amon (JEQ Associate Editor)
Joselito Arocena (JEQ Associate Editor)
Jake Beaulieu (JEQ Associate Editor)
Carl Bolster (JEQ Associate Editor)
Thomas Borch (JEQ Associate Editor)
John Brooks (JEQ Associate Editor)
Barbara Cade-Menun (JEQ Associate Editor)
Carlo Calfapietra (JEQ Associate Editor)
Benny Chefetz (JEQ Associate Editor)
Alex Chow (JEQ Associate Editor)
Kimberly Cook (JEQ Associate Editor)
Stephen Del Grosso (JEQ Associate Editor)
Paul DeLaune (JEQ Associate Editor)
Antonio Delgado (JEQ Associate Editor)
Kari Dunfield (JEQ Associate Editor)
Zachary Easton (JEQ Associate Editor)
Jan Willem Foppen (JEQ Associate Editor)
Keith Goyne (JEQ Associate Editor)
Markus Grafe (JEQ Associate Editor)
Cynthia Grant (JEQ Associate Editor)
Alexandria Graves (JEQ Associate Editor)
Cole Green (JEQ Associate Editor)
Thomas Harter (JEQ Associate Editor)
Peter Holm (JEQ Associate Editor)
Qingguo Huang (JEQ Associate Editor)
Lakhwinder Hundal (JEQ Associate Editor)
Patrick Inglett (JEQ Associate Editor)
James Ippolito (JEQ Associate Editor)
Pierre-Andre Jacinthe (JEQ Associate Editor)
Jaehak Jeong (JEQ Associate Editor)
Daniel Kaplan (JEQ Associate Editor)
Gerwin Koopmans (JEQ Associate Editor)
April Leytem (JEQ Associate Editor)
Hui Li (JEQ Associate Editor)
John Lory (JEQ Associate Editor)
Qingli Ma (JEQ Associate Editor)
Robert Malone (JEQ Associate Editor)
Laure Mamy (JEQ Associate Editor)
Richard Muirhead (JEQ Associate Editor)
Benedict Okeke (JEQ Associate Editor)
Patryk Oleszczuk (JEQ Associate Editor)
Ying Ouyang (JEQ Associate Editor)
Soren Petersen (JEQ Associate Editor)
Rebecca Phillips (JEQ Associate Editor)
Joseph Pignatello (JEQ Associate Editor)
Cesar Plaza (JEQ Associate Editor)
Tracy Punshon (JEQ Associate Editor)
Mark Reiter (JEQ Associate Editor)
Brett Robinson (JEQ Associate Editor)
Geraldine Sarret (JEQ Associate Editor)
Amy Shober (JEQ Associate Editor)
Todd Skaggs (JEQ Associate Editor)
Douglas Smith (JEQ Associate Editor)
Michelle Soupir (JEQ Associate Editor)
Kurt Spokas (JEQ Associate Editor)
Raghavan Srinivasan (JEQ Associate Editor)
Christian Stamm (JEQ Associate Editor)
Richard Stehouwer (JEQ Associate Editor)
Marc Stutter (JEQ Associate Editor)
Richard Todd (JEQ Associate Editor)
Gurpal Toor (JEQ Associate Editor)
H. Allen Torbert (JEQ Associate Editor)
Amy Townsend-Small (JEQ Associate Editor)
Andrew Tye (JEQ Associate Editor)
Rota Wagai (JEQ Associate Editor)
Claudia Wagner-Riddle (JEQ Associate Editor)
Kang Xia (JEQ Associate Editor)
Scott Young (JEQ Associate Editor)
Hailin Zhang (JEQ Associate Editor)
Tiequan Zhang (JEQ Associate Editor)
Wei Zheng (JEQ Associate Editor)
Ann Edahl (JEQ Journal Manager)

Attachment:

pdf of report

Prepared By:

Gregorich, Edward G.