Recently, the international publishing giant, Elsevier, issued the certification to Prof Wengang Zhang for high-quality paper "Multivariate adaptive regression splines for analysis of geotechnical engineering systems". Prof Zhang is one of the winners of the Computers and Geotechnics 2019 Outstanding Paper Award, which is now named in honor of the late Prof Scott Sloan.Each year, at most five papers are selected with a significant impact on the field of geotechnical engineering. This impact is based on SCOPUS citations (excluding self-citations) for the previous five years, in conjunction with the opinion of the Editors.
The awarded paper explored the use of a fairly simple nonparametric regression algorithm known as multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS) which has the ability to approximate the relationship between the inputs and outputs, and express the relationship mathematically. The main advantages of MARS are its capacity to produce simple, easy-to-interpret models, its ability to estimate the contributions of the input variables, and its computational efficiency. After its first publication in year 2013, this paper has attracted worldwide attentions and citations. Till now, it has been cited 84 times in SCOPUS database and 73 times via Web of Science. On July 10th, co-editors of Computers and Geotechnics, Prof Hywel Thomas, Prof Vaughan Griffiths, and Prof Caroline Champney told Prof Zhang about this good news via email.
This paper can be referred via link：
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0266352X1200198X
Journal Computers and Geotechnics provides an up-to-date reference for engineers and researchers engaged in computer aided analysis and research in geotechnical engineering. The journal is intended for an expeditious dissemination of advanced computer applications across a broad range of geotechnical topics. It is a world reputable Geotechnical Journal with CiteScore of 3.95, Impact Factor of 3.345, and 5-Year Impact Factor of 3.658.
The late Laureate Professor Scott Sloan was totally dedicated to Computers and Geotechnics and the success of the journal in recent years was a source of considerable satisfaction to him. Prof Sloan was the Director of the University's Centre for Geotechnical and Materials Modelling and also leaded the ARC Centre of Excellence in Geotechnical Science and Engineering. Prof Sloan was a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and Australian Academy of Engineering, Academicians of the Royal Academy of Sciences (FRS) and the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng). He enjoys a high reputation in the world. He has won many international awards including Telford Medal, Desai Medal and Booker Medal. He also won the Centennial Medal awarded by the Australian Prime Minister in 2003 and was the presenter of the 51st Rankine Lecture. More than 200 academic papers have been published in international journals, of which 26 papers have been cited more than 100 times (8 papers have been cited more than 200 times).
