Soft Matter 10 years on – Progress and future directions
Reflecting on success
As Soft Matter marks its 10 year anniversary, it seems an appropriate time to reflect upon the progress the journal has made in the last decade. When the journal was launched it was intended to be the first dedicated forum for the interdisciplinary soft matter community; a natural home for soft matter scientists who transcend the traditional boundaries between chemistry, physics, biology, materials science and engineering. In bringing together these previously diffuse communities, the journal aimed not only to encourage communication and discussion, but also to foster the growth of soft matter science as an active research area in its own right. It is fair to say that, reflecting here in 2015, the journal has made large strides towards becoming the platform envisaged by the original Editorial team.We have published almost 7000 articles since launching, spanning a diverse array of topics, including bulk soft matter assemblies, soft nanotechnology and self-assembly, the biological aspects of soft matter, interactions at surfaces and interfaces, and modelling and simulation of soft matter. However, despite an increasing volume of papers, quality has remained high; the 2013 Journal Impact Factor was calculated as 4.151. We believe the journal now sits as the primary source of papers providing new, fundamental physical and chemical insights into soft matter.
We are fortunate to have an Editorial board full of widely respected and vastly experienced soft matter scientists. The journal owes its progress to the dedicated work of these Editors, past and present, and, crucially, to the many authors who have submitted their work, the readers who loyally follow the journal, and the referees who freely give up their time to assess papers. We thank you all for being a part of Soft Matter and look forward to continued collaboration.
Last year
2014 was another eventful year for the journal with a number of initiatives taking place.The Soft Matter Lectureship
The 6th annual Soft Matter lectureship, which honours an earlier career scientist who has made a remarkable contribution to the field, was awarded to Dr Eric Dufresne (Yale University), who has conducted some very exciting research in experimental soft matter physics, with emphases on colloids, capillarity and cell biology. Eric and his colleagues subsequently published an informative Tutorial Review on ‘Traction force microscopy in physics and biology’ in the journal. We would like to thank everybody who nominated a candidate for the Soft Matter Lectureship – the high calibre of the nominees made the selection process quite a challenge for our Editorial Board.Themed issues
One way in which we try to bring together different areas of the multidisciplinary Soft Matter community is through themed issues, which showcase new and exciting areas. We published three themed issues in 2014: ‘Interfacial Dynamics in Foams and Emulsions’, guest edited by Anniina Salonen, Wiebke Drenckhan and Emmanuelle Rio (Université Paris Sud, France); ‘Proteins, cells, and tissues in patterned environments’, guest edited by Ulrich Schwarz (Heidelberg University), Celeste Nelson (Princeton University) and Pascal Silberzan (CNRS, Paris, France); and ‘Reconfigurable soft matter’, guest edited by Anna Balazs (University of Pittsburgh, USA) and Joanna Aizenberg (Harvard University, USA).Personnel changes
Last year we welcomed Kathleen Stebe (University of Pennsylvania, USA) and Paul Janmey (University of Pennsylvania, USA) as Associate Editors. Kate's primary research interests are in non-equilibrium interfaces, while Paul specialises in the mechanics of biological soft matter. We are very pleased to have these excellent and experienced scientists on board and are already gaining from their input into the journal. In the Cambridge Editorial office, there were also some changes, with Nicola Wise taking over from Liz Dunn as Executive Editor and Pete Livermore joining the team as Deputy Editor. Both Nicola and Pete look forward to meeting as many authors and reviewers as possible at upcoming meetings and symposia in 2015 – please do come and say hello!Looking forward
The key item on the agenda for 2015 is the 10 Year anniversary. We will have a web themed collection of commissioned articles showcasing some of the very best research in the field of soft matter. We will also be celebrating the journal's anniversary at various conferences, so please look out for more information regarding dates and locations. We will have two further web themed collections this year: one on ‘Droplet Dynamics and Manipulation’, guest edited by Duyang Zang (Northwestern Polytechnical University) and another entitled ‘Design, fabrication and self-assembly of anisotropic or patchy particles’, guest edited by Prof Rachel O'Reilly (Warwick), Marjolein Dijkstra (Utrecht), Serge Ravaine (Bordeaux), and Etienne Duguet (Bordeaux), in conjunction with a symposium at the e-MRS meeting.We believe that this year will mark the beginning of an even more successful next 10 years for Soft Matter, and look forward to working with you all to make this happen!
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