The newest Journal Citation Reports (JCR) were published on July 29, 2013 by the Science and Scholarly Research Division of Thomson Reuters. The Impact Factor (IF) of Journal of Arid Land (JAL) sponsored by Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, reached up to 0.793 in 2013. It increased by 75.1% compared with that of 2012. Meanwhile, the journal rank in the category of environmental sciences in JCR goes ahead 20. The recent progress of JAL in attaining a higher Impact Factor indicates an improvement in academic level and quality, and internationalization.

The editors of JAL insist on the internationalization for journal management, and all the manuscripts of JAL were rigorously peer-reviewed. After cooperation with Springer in 2013, the time for publication was shortened, the academic quality and international impact increased quickly. JAL will play more important role in the international communication on arid region’s researches between China and the world.