70 Years of Macromolecular Chemistry and Physics – Past, Present and Future

Abstract

Dear Readers, To start in the past: we are happy and proud to be able to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the mother journal of the Macromolecular Journals family in 2013. As many of you might know, the journal was launched in 1943 under its original name “Die Makromolekulare Chemie” by one of the pioneers in polymer science, Herrmann Staudinger, whose work and scientific achievements were recognized in 1953 with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The history of Macromolecular Chemistry and Physics (the name fully adopted in the mid-1990s) and its sister journals has been presented in detail on previous occasions. Therefore, for the purpose of the present Editorial it should suffice to refer interested readers to our comprehensive Essay (DOI: 10.1002/macp.200290078), written in 2003 by Rolf Mülhaupt and Ingrid Meisel on the occasion of the journal's 60th anniversary. Back to the present, the long established reputation of Macromolecular Chemistry and Physics as one of the leading and most recognized titles in the field of general polymer science results in a much higher number of submissions than that which can possibly be published. Therefore, we need to apply strict selection criteria and at present only less than a third of all submitted contributions can be accepted. Some examples of work published throughout 2012 that attracted the highest interest with our readership are collected in Table 1. As you can see, these publications not only were contributed by a wide range of well-known authors from different fields and institutions, but they also cover a wide variety of topics: from recent original work and a critical investigation of current trends in the area of self-healing materials, all the way to carbon nanoribbons and functional carbon materials, as well as synthetic work using click chemistry or ATRP and block copolymer systems - to name only a few examples. Give a brief outlook into the future: we will not only continue to publish invited Talent Articles, Trend Articles, and the special series on functional polymers (guest-edited by Wai-Yeung Wong and Ben Zhong Tang), but we have also planned a special issue on “Shape-Memory Effects in Polymers”, guest-edited by Andreas Lendlein, for summer 2013. Today, however, it is my great pleasure to present the Special Anniversary Issue of Macromolecular Chemistry and Physics, dedicated to the journal's 70th birthday in 2013. All of the articles of the issue have been authored by members of the Macromolecular Journal's executive advisory board, and these contributions present original work by some of the leading experts in polymer science as well as several thought-provoking, personal views on recent developments in the field. We hope and trust that you will enjoy reading these fascinating publications! Of course, I cannot close this Editorial without thanking those people indispensable for Macromolecular Chemistry and Physics: our authors for their fascinating research and interest in the journal, as well as our referees for helping us to identify the best articles. Last but not least, I thank the members of the advisory boards for their encouraging support, and would like to welcome Shiyong Liu (University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China) and Sabine Ludwigs (University of Stuttgart, Germany), who very recently accepted the invitation to join the international advisory board of Macromolecular Chemistry and Physics.