Citation
Wilson, H.C. (2011), "Editorial", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 20 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2011.07320aaa.002
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2011, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Editorial
Article Type: Editorial From: Disaster Prevention and Management, Volume 20, Issue 1
After 20 years as editor of the DPM it is time to say goodbye!
Twenty years of disasters is enough for anyone; 20 years of floods, hurricanes, fires, tsunami, tidal waves, earthquakes and volcanoes, and that is only the natural disasters! I must have read over 1,000 papers and approved several hundred for publication, and rejected or advised revisions on a few hundred more, but now I have run out of steam!
To say it has been fun would put the wrong context on the material, but I have made friends with dozens of authors worldwide – I will leave it up to Emerald to work out how many individual authors have passed through the journal – but it is quite a few I can assure you.
It has been a privilege to have first sight of new major concepts, new budding authors, new research ideas, the practitioner experiences – from the quite brilliant to the downright ludicrous! To travel to many countries to talk with their disaster response practitioners and victims of disasters. To hear their harrowing stories and stories of heroic deeds was an honour indeed. There are many brave and courageous people in this world and I would love to believe that I would have done the same but honestly I doubt it – but you never know.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Emerald, as it is now known, for having the courage to undertake the publication of a rather esoteric journal, which, to all purposes, had a very limited market within Europe, never mind worldwide. DPM has grown quite a reputation in the field and I am sure that will continue under the new editor, who, by the way, was a frequent author for the journal.
I hope that two procedures that I was always keen to uphold – that the DPM remains apolitical, and that it maintains its interest in developing new authors, especially those from the practitioner cadre – will continue.
I leave, not with a heavy heart, but a joyous spirit, knowing that those who come after me will take good care of the world and its inhabitants – they are real-life unsung heroes.
H.C. Wilson