Water Cycle

Water Cycle is an interdisciplinary open access journal published by KeAi since 2020 that covers water cycles and the emerging concept of water meta-cycles, spanning water quality and quantity, treatment and reuse, and water policy, with a 2025 Journal Impact Factor of 7.9 and a rank of 8 of 132 in water resources《水循环》（Water Cycle）是（KeAi）自 2020 年起出版的多学科开放获取期刊，覆盖水循环以及新兴的「水元循环」概念，涉及水质与水量、处理与回用、水政策等方面，2025 年影响因子为 7.9，在水资源类 132 种期刊中列第 8 位。

Scope

• The journal examines water cycles at scales from the global and regional to the watershed, urban, industrial and micro-environment levels该刊考察从全球、区域到流域、城市、工业与微环境等不同尺度的水循环。
• It treats water cycles along several dimensions, namely water quality, water quantity, water ecology, water signatures and the water environment该刊从水质、水量、水生态、水特征与水环境等维度处理水循环问题。
• Natural, engineered, social and process cycles are all within scope自然循环、工程循环、社会循环与过程循环均属收稿范围。
• Water conservation in agricultural, industrial, domestic and municipal applications is a core topic农业、工业、生活与市政用水中的节水是该刊的核心选题。
• Water treatment, recycling and reuse are covered for wastewater, industrial effluent, drinking water, reclaimed water, rainwater, seawater, mine water and brackish water水处理、再生与回用覆盖废水、工业废水、饮用水、再生水、雨水、海水、矿井水与苦咸水。
• The journal addresses the water-environment-ecosystem nexus and the water-waste-soil-atmosphere nexus, including how water cycles interact with element, material and energy flows该刊关注水—环境—生态系统关联以及水—废物—土壤—大气关联，包括水循环与元素、物质和能量流动的相互作用。
• Water system analysis, water policy and water management, and the coordination between water conservation and reuse, complete the scope水系统分析、水政策与水管理，以及节水与回用之间的协同，共同构成该刊范围。

History

• The journal was launched in 2020, and its first volume carried an inaugural message from the editor-in-chief together with a programmatic article on the water cycle concept该刊于 2020 年创刊，第 1 卷刊出主编创刊致辞以及一篇阐述水循环概念的开篇文章。
• It is published by KeAi, the Beijing-based joint venture in scientific publishing, and is distributed through ScienceDirect该刊由总部位于北京的科技出版合资机构（KeAi）出版，并通过（ScienceDirect）平台发行。
• The journal is fully open access, so every article is free to read and reuse该刊为完全开放获取期刊，所有文章均可免费阅读与再利用。
• The founding editorial argued that attention is shifting from the traditional natural circulation to a water meta-cycle in which water interacts with ecology, biology, chemistry, hydraulics and information创刊论述提出，研究重心正从传统的自然循环转向「水元循环」，即水与生态、生物、化学、水力及信息之间的多重互动。
• Impact factors were 8.7 in 2024 and 7.9 in 2025影响因子为 2024 年 8.7、2025 年 7.9。
• In 2025 the journal ranked 8th of 132 in water resources at the 94.3rd percentile while indexed in the Emerging Sources Citation Index2025 年该刊在水资源类 132 种期刊中列第 8 位，百分位 94.3，其时收录于（Emerging Sources Citation Index）。

Editors

• The editor-in-chief is Hong-Ying Hu of the School of Environment at Tsinghua University in Beijing主编为北京清华大学环境学院的 Hong-Ying Hu。
• Seven associate editors-in-chief share the handling of manuscripts, among them Heng Liang of Harbin Institute of Technology, Guangli Liu of Sun Yat-Sen University and How Yong Ng of Beijing Normal University七位副主编分担稿件处理，其中包括（Harbin Institute of Technology）的 Heng Liang、（Sun Yat-Sen University）的 Guangli Liu 与（Beijing Normal University）的 How Yong Ng。
• The other associate editors-in-chief are Jianhua Wang of the China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Mohammad Valipour of Metropolitan State University of Denver, Qianyuan Wu of Tsinghua University's Shenzhen graduate school and Xinmin Zhan of the University of Galway其余副主编为（China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research）的 Jianhua Wang、（Metropolitan State University of Denver）的 Mohammad Valipour、（Tsinghua University）深圳研究生院的 Qianyuan Wu 与（University of Galway）的 Xinmin Zhan。
• An advisory board includes Hiroaki Tanaka of Kyoto University, Slawomir W. Hermanowicz of the University of California, Berkeley, Ian Thompson of Oxford University and Jun Xia of Wuhan University顾问委员会包括（Kyoto University）的 Hiroaki Tanaka、（University of California Berkeley）的 Slawomir W. Hermanowicz、（Oxford University）的 Ian Thompson 与（Wuhan University）的 Jun Xia。
• Handling editors are drawn from institutions in China, Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, Belgium, Denmark, Mexico, Colombia, Portugal and Poland责任编辑来自中国、日本、美国、英国、澳大利亚、爱尔兰、比利时、丹麦、墨西哥、哥伦比亚、葡萄牙与波兰等国的机构。