This year marks the 20-year anniversary of Vadose Zone Journal and we are currently publishing Volume 20 of the journal. In fall 2002, the inaugural issue of Vadose Zone Journal was published. The journal was established by Rien van Genuchten based on the recognition of the increasing importance of the vadose zone and the need for a multi- and interdisciplinary outlet of research related to the vadose zone. The vadose zone (i.e., the zone between the soil surface and the groundwater), and the associated near-surface atmosphere, including the biosphere, have long been the research focus of soil scientists, hydrologists, geochemists, geophysicists, biologists, environmental scientists, and engineers, but the research was published in various disciplinary journals. Vadose Zone Journal provided a common outlet for all these research activities, including interdisciplinary and, more recently, transdisciplinary research.

A unique aspect of Vadose Zone Journal is that the journal is open for both disciplinary and inter- and transdisciplinary research and, at the same time, accommodates both fundamental and applied research. Common to all these categories, however, is the journal's scientific rigor and focus on hypothesis driven research, aiming at advancing the understanding of vadose zone processes.

To make research more easily accessible to the scientific community, Vadose Zone Journal has often published special sections on emerging topics, where multiple articles with a common theme are collected and synthesized by guest editors. This type of article collection is now common to many other journals as well. Very successful are also the category of “Update” papers, brief reviews on important research topics. The journal also implemented a paper category “Reproducible Research,” designed to allow authors to publish data and metadata, along with a brief description of the data.

Another important feature of the journal is that we categorize papers into focus topics, like hydrogeophysics, evapotranspiration, preferential flow, hydrological observatories, permafrost and cold vadose zone, remote sensing, soil hydraulic properties, soil sensors, and rhizosphere processes, which allows readers to quickly find relevant papers on a given topic.

Vadose Zone Journal was, since its inception, a visionary journal. Not only because of its multi- and interdisciplinary nature, but also because it was one of the first journals at that time that was published in an entirely electronic format. Abandoning a physical journal hardcopy 20 years ago was a radical step, but today we see more and more journals that are only published electronically, and electronic publication is now the norm for new journals.

Vadose Zone Journal was led by Rien van Genuchten as a single Editor in the first few years, and as the journal grew, the editor position was expanded to include an Editor and three Co-editors. Under the leadership of the successive Editors, Jan Hopmans, Dani Or, Michael Young, and Harry Vereecken, the journal continued to blossom and grow in reputation as one of the prime journals in vadose zone research.

In 2018, Vadose Zone Journal again made an avant-garde move by changing from the subscription format to open access only. Open access makes the published articles available to everyone to read for free, but comes with the additional costs of article publication charges (APC) to be paid by the authors themselves. Vadose Zone Journal articles are now published under Gold Open Access with two licensing options: CC-BY and CC BY-NC-ND. This change has come along with the Plan S Initiative, which requires scientists and researchers who benefit from state-funded research organizations and institutions to publish their work in open repositories or in journals that are available to all by 2021.

Another milestone occurred in 2020, when Vadose Zone Journal and its publisher, the Soil Science Society of America, entered a partnership with Wiley, who took over typesetting and journal production. As a nonprofit and a professional society journal, Vadose Zone Journal relies on the support not only of the society members, but also of the wider scientific community, particularly in the current competitive market of open access journals and the conglomeration of large number of scientific journals by few large commercial publishers.

New aspects of Vadose Zone Journal include a podcast hosted by Abby Morrison, where recent ASA–CSSA–SSSA articles are discussed with authors in a personal setting, and video summaries of articles, initiated by Associate Editor Naftali Lazarovitch, where authors present their paper in form of a short video presentation. These multimedia forms of scientific communication are available of the journal website, and they enhance the traditional journal format.

A hallmark of Vadose Zone Journal is its strong editorial board, with dedicated associate editors who handle the review process of the individual papers. Vadose Zone Journal has a rigorous review process, which is reflected in the journal's reputation. The journal lives from its authors, reviewers, and associate editors, all of which contribute their time, effort, and expertise to make the journal a prime journal in vadose zone research. We extend a special thank you to our authors, reviewers, associate editors, and the staff in the editorial office at headquarters in Madison, WI, all of whom contributed and contribute to the excellence of the journal.

今年是Vadose Zone 期刊20 周年，我们目前正在出版该期刊的第 20 卷。2002 年秋季，Vadose Zone 杂志创刊号出版。该杂志由 Rien van Genuchten 创立，其基础是对包气带日益重要的认识以及对与包气带相关的多学科和跨学科研究出口的需求。包气带（即土壤表面和地下水之间的区域）以及相关的近地表大气，包括生物圈，长期以来一直是土壤科学家、水文学家、地球化学家、地球物理学家、生物学家、环境科学家、和工程师，但这项研究发表在各种学科期刊上。Vadose Zone Journal为所有这些研究活动提供了一个共同的出路，包括跨学科和最近的跨学科研究。

Vadose Zone Journal 的一个独特之处在于，该期刊对学科、跨学科和跨学科研究开放，同时容纳基础研究和应用研究。然而，所有这些类别的共同点是该期刊的科学严谨性和对假设驱动研究的关注，旨在促进对包气带过程的理解。

为了让科学界更容易获得研究成果，Vadose Zone Journal经常就新兴主题发表特别版块，其中多篇具有共同主题的文章由客座编辑收集和合成。这种类型的文章集现在在许多其他期刊中也很常见。非常成功的还有“更新”论文类别，对重要研究主题的简要评论。该期刊还实施了“可重复研究”的论文类别，旨在允许作者发布数据和元数据，以及对数据的简要描述。

该期刊的另一个重要特点是我们将论文分类为重点主题，如水文地球物理学、蒸散、优先流、水文观测站、多年冻土和冷包气带、遥感、土壤水力特性、土壤传感器和根际过程，让读者能够快速找到关于给定主题的相关论文。

Vadose Zone Journal从一开始就是一个有远见的期刊。不仅因为它的多学科和跨学科性质，还因为它是当时最早以完全电子格式出版的期刊之一。20年前放弃实体期刊硬拷贝是一个激进的步骤，但今天我们看到越来越多的期刊只以电子方式出版，而现在电子出版已成为新期刊的常态。

Vadose Zone Journal在最初几年由 Rien van Genuchten 作为单一编辑领导，随着期刊的发展，编辑职位扩大到包括一名编辑和三名联合编辑。在历任编辑 Jan Hopmans、Dani Or、Michael Young 和 Harry Vereecken 的领导下，该期刊继续蓬勃发展，并成为包气带研究领域的主要期刊之一。

2018年，Vadose Zone Journal再次前卫，从订阅方式转变为仅开放获取。开放获取使每个人都可以免费阅读已发表的文章，但伴随着由作者自己支付的文章出版费 (APC) 的额外费用。Vadose Zone 期刊文章现在在 Gold Open Access 下发布，有两个许可选项：CC-BY 和 CC BY-NC-ND。这一变化伴随着 Plan S 计划而来，该计划要求从国家资助的研究组织和机构中受益的科学家和研究人员在 2021 年之前在开放存储库或向所有人开放的期刊上发表他们的工作。

另一个里程碑发生在 2020 年，当时Vadose Zone Journal及其出版商美国土壤科学协会与负责排版和期刊制作的 Wiley 建立了合作伙伴关系。作为非营利性和专业性的社会期刊，Vadose Zone Journal 不仅依赖于学会成员的支持，而且还依赖于更广泛的科学界的支持，尤其是在当前竞争激烈的开放获取期刊市场和大量科学期刊的聚集中由少数大型商业出版商提供。

Vadose Zone Journal 的新方面包括由 Abby Morrison 主持的播客，在该播客中与作者在个人环境中讨论了最近的 ASA-CSSA-SSSA 文章，以及由副主编 Naftali Lazarovitch 发起的文章视频摘要，作者在其中介绍了他们的论文短视频演示的形式。这些多媒体形式的科学传播可从期刊网站获得，它们增强了传统期刊格式。

Vadose Zone Journal 的一个标志是其强大的编辑委员会，其中有专门的副编辑负责处理个别论文的审查过程。Vadose Zone Journal有严格的审稿流程，这体现在该期刊的声誉上。该杂志的作者、审稿人和副主编贡献了他们的时间、精力和专业知识，使该杂志成为渗流区研究的主要期刊。我们特别感谢我们的作者、审稿人、副主编和威斯康星州麦迪逊总部编辑办公室的工作人员，他们为期刊的卓越贡献和贡献。