On behalf of the Editorial Board, we welcome our readers to Geotechnical Research, one of the first gold open access journals for geotechnical engineering, by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE). Like most of the other open access journals, the author/s has/have to pay a publication charge for publishing in Geotechnical Research; however, it maximises the impact of publications in a wide range of topics, allowing an unlimited article length, which is often required for fundamental and elaborate research outputs in geotechnical engineering. Geotechnical Research also offers a range of discounts for disadvantaged groups of researchers, particularly researchers from International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) countries. Such a discount policy aims to partially eliminate an economic barrier for disseminating research output from developing countries. Despite this, we have seen a steady increase in contributions from around the world, particularly the regions of Asia Pacific, the Arabian Peninsula, Europe and North America.