Editorial 2000

Abstract

The last two years, since I took over the Editorship, have certainly been very busy and challenging for Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics. We have been fortunate to have a dynamic and committed Editorial Board, and we have had stimulating and fruitful discussions on how to take the journal forward into the next century. The recently established Editors' Fairs - the latest was held in Bath in August 1999 - have led to improved communication among the Board Members, and also with other Editorial Boards and with the staff of IOPP. The outcome of all these discussions is a re-affirmation of our aim for Journal of Physics G to provide a strong forum for theoreticians and experimentalists in particle physics, nuclear physics and particle astrophysics, from all over the world. Over the last two years, we have demonstrated our commitment to this aim through the publication of many highly recognized articles, topical reviews and letters, as well as one or two special issues per year. These have covered such diverse topical themes as strangeness and quark matter, nuclear structure far off stability and HERA phenomenology. We intend to continue this strong programme in the coming year, with issues covering collider physics at HERA and the present situation on the AUGER experiment. We would welcome your suggestions and contributions as readers and authors on our progress so far - why not contact us to let us know your thoughts on our special issues, or indeed anything else about the journal and its progress. You can contact the journal at jphysg@ioppublishing.co.uk. Our most recent innovation is the launch of a new article type: the Research Note (see the advertisement in this issue). Research Notes have been launched in direct response to the concerns in the experimental community about the publishing records of younger individuals working within large collaborations. Journal of Physics G now offers such authors the opportunity to publish, both in print and electronically, their own contributions to both instrumentation and physics analysis of large detector systems. Of course, both the authors and the collaborations keep the right to circulate this information non-commercially, e.g. on the Web. Our aim here is to act to meet a real need of the large collaborations in the fields we cover, and we believe firmly that our initiative will be widely welcomed. We intend to work hard to make this a valuable new addition to the journal in the coming year. On other fronts, the journal continues to be at the forefront of publishing technology. The online journal is still free-of-charge to all institutional subscribers, and now has a full-text seven-year archive of material. In 1999, the journal received over 12,000 accesses to the current volume alone. Electronic submissions and refereeing continue apace, and the journal now accepts multimedia additions to articles (e.g. simulations, videos, colour prints, interactive programs, etc) free of charge for the online version. As always, you can find the online journal at http://www.iop.org/Journals/jg. The successful development of the journal could not have been achieved without the tireless efforts of Sarah Quin and her team at IOP Publishing and, as always, the support of the authors and Board Members of Journal of Physics G. I encourage us all to continue to work together just as effectively to cement the progress of our non-commercial, professional society publishing in the years to come! Horst Stöcker Honorary Editor