Read the Whole Issue!

After 61 years as a printed publication, Groundwater became fully digital in 2024, with no published hard copies, and the same has happened with most other scientific journals. Digital publishing has many advantages, including lower cost, rapid dissemination, easy storage, and digital searching. But something is lost when readers now download and view one article at a time (as several colleagues have told me they do) rather than discovering an entire issue. At Groundwater we still compile and publish six issues a year, and while research papers remain the core of each one, the issues also contain editorials, book reviews, case studies, methods briefs, media spotlights, technology features, and history articles that will broaden anyone's hydrogeologic knowledge. When I was a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison over 40 years ago, scientific journals were only available in physical paper copies. Research for my dissertation or for class assignments entailed visiting the library and pulling out full copies of journals for the relevant articles, and the references in these often directed me to other hard copies of Groundwater (or Ground Water, as it was spelled then). Browsing these issues, I discovered a treasure trove of interesting information on hydrogeologic topics that I previously hadn't thought or learned much about. Here were provocative editorials, discussions, field methods, the latest research, case studies, hydrogeologic histories, and more. This browsing gave me a broad vision of the scope of groundwater science and exposure to new and evolving ideas that weren't currently being covered in my classes or textbooks. It also made me familiar with the names and institutions of scientists and practitioners doing the latest work both in and outside my immediate field of interest. What's more, I saw numerous examples of good presentation styles, organization, and figure and table layouts. Looking back, this casual browsing helped make me a more rounded hydrogeologist as well as a better writer. Sadly, browsing journals this way is now far less common, though, at least in the case of Groundwater, much easier than in the past. Individual papers are usually available on Groundwater's Early View website (https://ngwa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/17456584/0/0) several weeks before each issue release, but by compiling these papers into bimonthly issues we add value to the overall Groundwater package. Even though Groundwater is no longer printed, as Editor-in-Chief one of my jobs is still to select and order the articles for each collection. I like to lead off and end issues with shorter and lighter articles that are still interesting and pertinent – items like book reviews, media spotlights, and historical notes before and after the meaty research and technical papers. Each issue also includes a section of Society News, highlighting people and events of interest to our readers. In this way Groundwater continues to resemble traditional printed magazines and journals. These features help set Groundwater apart from other water resources journals. So I urge you—go to Groundwater's website (https://ngwa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/17456584/current) and browse the current and past issues. There you will find the table of contents and all the articles. You might not read them all completely, but I assure you that you will find something interesting. And, educators, encourage your students to do this; expose them to the broad and fascinating world of hydrogeology outside of their immediate research interests. The author does not have any conflicts of interest or financial disclosures to report. Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.