Two-year growth of Deep Underground Science and Engineering: A perspective

Abstract

Deep Underground Science and Engineering (DUSE) launched its first issue in September 2022 as a quarterly journal. So far, it has published 106 articles with nine issues and online early view. The volume of received manuscripts increases by 50% each year and over 200 manuscripts were received by 28th of November 2024. In the early period, DUSE authorship came from five countries and now reaches 29 countries. DUSE articles have been downloaded over 97 000 times by readers from 170 countries/regions. It is indeed encouraging to note that DUSE has been admitted to different indices, including ESCI (August 2024), EI (March 2024), Scopus (July 2023), and DOAJ (May 2023). Its CiteScore in Scopus was 2.2 in 2023 and increased to 5.1 at the mid-November 2024. Its first impact factor from the Web of Science will be available in 2025. DUSE is growing to be a rapidly recognized international journal by readers in deep underground research and practice.

DUSE is making its best efforts to trace and shape a full-chain deep underground science and engineering through its six directions. Direction 1: Exploration and extraction of geo-resources. The geo-resources refer to minerals, energy sources, and water. DUSE makes efforts to streamline research studies in geo-resources from the initial geological analysis of source location, geo-resource volume estimation, and hot sweat point identification. These processes involve geology, geophysics, rock mechanics, and related material science and technology. After the identification of geo-resources, the next step is to extract these geo-resources from (deep) ground. This step involves engineering science and technology, such as rock mechanics, hydraulic fracturing technology, blasting, and so on. The key outcome is the extraction of these identified geo-sources from the deep ground with technical feasibility and economic benefit. Direction 2: Energy extraction and storage. Deep underground has abundant fuel matter, which was generated through long-term geological actions. Deep underground also has abundant space for the storage of energy and materials. This direction involves branches of engineering science, such as petroleum, engineering science and technology, material science, and environment science. Direction 3: Underground infrastructures. This direction focuses on the excavation and utilization of underground spaces, such as cavern construction, tunneling, and other pore space use. Direction 4: Geo-environments and waste geological disposal, which deals with the solutions to environmental problems in deep underground. The environmental problems have two types: The first one refers to the environmental problems induced by the exploitation of underground resources. The second one refers to the utilization of underground space (including pore space) to solve the environmental problems that are difficult to tackle on the ground surface, such as geological disposal of nuclear waste, carbon dioxide, and so on. Direction 5: Research and testing space in deep underground. This direction is important to certain fundamental research on earth science but projects or productions along this direction are few. Direction 6: Plan, design, and construction technology for underground space and engineering. This direction basically supports the above-mentioned five directions through the creative implementation of engineering activities in a safe and economical way. This direction emphasizes innovative technology for testing, planning, design, and construction in deep underground. Therefore, DUSE focuses on an integrated solution strategy from the view of multi-disciplinary interactions.

The efforts from DUSE to cover the six directions are on their way. So far, DUSE has published 106 technical articles (comprising research and review articles), of which 68 articles were published in electronic form and hardcopy volume and 38 articles were published online early view. These articles have already covered all six directions but the share in each direction is uneven. It is noted that some articles may involve several directions. Direction 1 has 56 articles with a share of 39.72%. Direction 2 has 16 articles with a share of 11.35%. Direction 3 has published 26 articles with a share of 18.44%. Direction 4 only has three articles with a share of 2.13%. Direction 5 has six articles with a share of 4.26%, and direction 6 has 34 articles with a share of 24.11%. These indicate that the top three shares are direction 1 for exploration and extraction of geo-resources, direction 3 for underground infrastructures, and direction 6 for engineering technology.

The DUSE makes its efforts to attract high-quality manuscripts in particular research areas by organizing special issues. Up to now, DUSE has organized 10 special issues, which are ➀ disaster evolution in deep underground (DEDU), ➁ mineral resources from deep-sea—science and engineering, ➂ multi-physical coupling process in deep underground space development and operation, ➃ planning and development of underground space and infrastructure for sustainable and livable cities, ➄ groundwater and stability in deep mining, ➅ machine learning and big data in deep underground engineering, ➆ geothermal energy, ➇ theory and technology of geological safety for contemporary subsurface activities, ➈ advances of interdisciplinary studies on deep underground space, and ➉ underground large-scale energy storage technologies in the context of carbon neutrality. These special issues help DUSE to attract high-quality manuscripts in these particular research areas. For example, the special issue of geothermal energy is to highlight the challenges in the exploration and extraction of geothermal energy, such as the initial high cost and difficulties in heat extraction from deep underground. It focuses on new geothermal extraction systems, new theories, new technology, new applications of the latest techniques such as artificial intelligence, and potential environmental effects. DUSE will continuously invite the experts as guest editors to organize special issues on hot research topics or explore future research trends. This would enable DUSE to advance the frontiers of present and future deep underground hot research topics.

At this moment, let us recall the targets set for DUSE growth. As stated in our editorial of the inaugural issue, the mission of DUSE is to report the latest innovations and forefront research achievements in deep underground science and engineering. DUSE aims to gather important revolutionary technologies and theoretical breakthroughs and to provide high-level academic exchange platforms for global researchers in the field of deep underground science and engineering. It is to provide researchers worldwide the opportunities to keep abreast of the latest developments in deep underground. To achieve these DUSE targets, the editorial board members (Editorial Board and Early Career Editorial Board) and the editorial office have collaborated closely in the last 2 years. We can be proud that DUSE has achieved certain key targets including admissions to well-established databases within a short time. DUSE hopes to achieve higher targets in the near future.

The Editors wish to acknowledge the significant contributions of the editorial board members, editorial office, sponsors, and publisher (John Wiley and Sons). Special thanks to Professor Guoqing Zhou and Dr. Ting Li from China University of Mining and Technology. They keenly grasped the frontier of the deep underground science discipline and launched DUSE through the integration of all feasible resources. They gave their lead and full support in launching the journal and helping it achieve rapid development during the last 2 years of journal publishing. Without their efforts, DUSE would not have reached its present position within such a short time. The support from the authors of the articles and readers in the last 2 years is gratefully appreciated. The Editorial Board and Editorial Office look forward to receiving your strong support and contributions. DUSE is your journal and targets a respected and truly international communication forum for deep underground research and practice. DUSE can only grow up with the continuous strong support from the international deep underground community. Here, the Editors sincerely invite you to join the Deep Underground community as an editorial board member or/and an author. Let us streamline DUSE and fill the research gaps in science and technology. We have confidence that the development of DUSE will surely lead to the advancement of deep underground science and engineering, promoting the formation and growth of the discipline of deep underground science.