Soft Matter – the future of soft

“But is it ‘soft’?” is a common question passed around the Soft Matter team in the Editorial Office and, in 2013, we are going to be asking our readership just this question. Soft Matter aims to be the number one journal for all soft matter researchers and to publish the highest quality fundamental research at the interface of biology, chemistry and physics. But what exactly is ‘soft’? The answer to this question usually relates to a researcher's background, for example, whether their view point is that of a chemist, physicist, biologist or materials scientist. In order for us to ensure Soft Matter represents all these researchers, we will be opening up the journal to this debate. If you have an opinion, let us know!

Looking back over the last year, Soft Matter sent representatives to a diverse range of conferences to cover the unique and varied scope of the journal. From more focused GRC conferences, such as ‘Colloidal, Macromolecular and Polyelectrolyte Solutions’, to the broad all-encompassing American Physical Society and Materials Research Society meetings. Look out for us this year at the International Soft Matter Conference in Rome and the GRC meeting on Soft Condensed Matter Physics.

The Editorial team and Editorial Board would like to thank all our guest editors for 2012. We have published a collection of highly topical and inter-disciplinary themed issues (Fig. 1), with more being planned for 2013.

Fig. 1 Themed issues, 2012.

Editorial Board members, Alejandro Rey and Lennart Piculell, stepped down from their positions on the Board this year and we would like to give them our warmest gratitude for their constant positivity and support for the journal. Our thanks also go to the rest of the Editorial Board, Christos Likos, Anna Balazs, Jian Ping Gong, Sam Safran, Jan Vermant, Lei Jiang and Darrin Pochan, who are a welcome source of advice, ideas and dining companions at conferences.

We hope all our readers have had a prosperous 2012 and we wish them a happy holiday season. Please remember to keep in touch in 2013 by following us on Twitter (@softmatter), reading the E-alerts or just checking-in on the blog now and again. Here's to the New Year!

Professor Martien Cohen Stuart, Chair of the Editorial Board

Liz Dunn, Editor

Serin Dabb, Deputy Editor

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