2018 Best Paper Award announced by International Journal of Masonry Research and Innovation

The International Journal of Masonry Research and Innovation has established an annual award for the best paper published in each respective year.

The best paper has been selected using a new formula for the 2018 competition, with the aim of increasing the involvement of the editorial board members in the procedure. An online voting system was set up, allowing each board member to express his/her vote for one paper published by IJMRI in 2018. Associate Editors and the Editor in Chief were allowed to express two and three votes respectively (or multiple votes for the same paper). The best paper was then awarded by the Editor in Chief according to the results of this online voting system. In order to avoid bias, each paper was labelled with the following alphanumeric string: 3_N_ppp, where "3" represents the volume, "N" the issue and "ppp" the page number of the first page of the paper.

For 2018, twenty papers were eligible for competing, and 32 votes (including the multiple choices of Associate Editors and the Editor in Chief) were received. The first three places were as follows:

• 1st place and winner (8 votes): Fernando Magdalena Layos, Julián García Muñoz (2018). Approaches to strongly local phenomena in dry masonry structures, Vol. 3(2), pp. 155-173. DOI: 10.1504/IJMRI.2018.092460
• 2nd place (7 votes): Maurizio Angelillo, Antonio Fortunato, Antonio Gesualdo, Antonino Iannuzzo, Giulio Zuccaro (2018). Rigid block models for masonry structures, Vol. 3(4), pp. 349-368. DOI: 10.1504/IJMRI.2018.095701
• 3rd place (6 votes): Marialuisa Mongelli, Irene Bellagamba, Francesco Iannone, Giovanni Bracco (2018). From 2D digital imaging to finite element analysis using the ENEAGRID high performance computing infrastructure for the preservation of historical masonry structures, Vol. 3(3), pp. 324-347.DOI: 10.1504/IJMRI.2018.093492

The editors and board congratulate the authors for their significant contributions to state-of-the-art research on masonry. They should be very proud of their achievements in a very competitive pool.

The 1st place winners will receive an online subscription to IJMRI's 2018 volume and a certificate.

A sample issue collecting the papers ranked in the top three plus the following papers selected by the Editor (based also on the final ranking) is now available for the readers free of charge:

• Els Verstrynge, Dionys Van Gemert (2018). Creep failure of two historical masonry towers: analysis from material to structure, Vol. 3(1), pp. 50-71. DOI: 10.1504/IJMRI.2018.089056
• Maria E. Stavroulaki, Georgios A. Drosopoulos, Efstathia Tavlopoulou, Nikos Skoutelis, Georgios E. Stavroulakis (2018). Investigation of the structural behaviour of a masonry castle by considering the actual damage, Vol. 3(1), pp. 1-33. DOI: 10.1504/IJMRI.2018.089046
• Julian Ajith Thamboo, Manicka Dhanasekar (2018). Effect of concrete block height variation to the shear bond strength of thin layer mortared masonry, Vol. 3(2), pp. 174-193. DOI: 10.1504/IJMRI.2018.092461

This sample issue showcases the range and quality of the content provided by the International Journal of Masonry Research and Innovation.