Editorial: Phys. Status Solidi RRL 1/2011

Abstract

Happy 50th anniversary pss, but your youngest family member pss – Rapid Research Letters is turning only four, and the word about its fast track handling service is still being spread throughout the solid state physics community. 18 months after the first Impact Factor release and with submission and publication numbers rising steeply (see Fig. 1), we have arrived at a point where we can put the announcements and advertisements on solid statistical grounds in more detail. Manuscript submissions to pss (RRL) and published Letters since journal launch. pss (RRL) was designed as a double peer-review, rapid publication medium for high-quality content with need for express communication to the community. Submissions enjoy priority editorial handling, and the time to the first editorial decision is kept as brief as possible by the commitment of referees who are reporting on the three-page manuscripts on short notice. The acceptance rate of 25% in 2009 and 2010 is partly due to the fact that we refer good, but less urgent novel results to the regular editorial handling of the sister journals pss (a) and (b) prior to peer review. Along with maintaining a large international referee panel, these choices are a measure to reduce the pressure of urgent review requests on the schedule of busy experts. Purely editorial and/or board decisions are communicated to the authors within a week, but we will concentrate on the statistics for published papers in the following. So let us take all regular submissions that were accepted as RRLs in 2009 and 2010 and look at how concept and organization are faring in every-day reality (Focus Issues excluded, since special projects may differ in handling). Figure 2 shows the time that elapsed between submission and acceptance of a Letter in calendar days, including peer review, editorial decisions, and author revisions if required. We are proud to say that half of the final decisions are reached within a month. In spite of the pronounced rise in submission and publication numbers (Fig. 1) this median is fairly constant over the four years, ranging between 24 and 29 days. Extracting the cases where acceptances did not require any revision we still arrive at a median of only 16 calendar days, in line with our two-week target for outstanding submissions. We note however, that this applied to only 7% of all acceptances in 2009/10, and observe the trend with mixed emotions. After all, the tendency of our reviewers to be more careful and critical about Rapid Research Letter manuscripts reflects the rise in quality expectations and esteem, and seemed particularly pronounced ever since the Impact Factors of 2.15 (June 2009) and 2.56 (current) were released. Taking the time from receipt of the final version of a manuscript (revised, or no revision required) to acceptance as displayed in Fig. 3, the spectacular-looking median of only 2 calendar days reflects the handling at the editorial office rather than the time required for peer review. Number of accepted manuscripts versus days to decision, individual count (red) and accumulated count (green). Number of accepted manuscripts versus days elapsed since receipt of the final manuscript version (revised versions or initially submitted version when no revision was required), individual count (red) and accumulated count (green). Only slightly longer and even more spectacular for all the processing steps included are the times from acceptance to online publication shown in Fig. 4. Number of online-published Letters versus days from acceptance, individual count (red) and accumulated count (green). Once in the hands of the our Technical Editor Heike Höpcke and the electronic publishing department, Letters are copy-edited, typeset, proof-read by the authors, corrected, and published online in final form with issue and page allocation as well as additional material (graphical table of content entry, supporting information) within 5 calendar days median. All data considered, we gladly observe that pss (RRL)'s fast track publication service is indeed working as projected, achieving an excellent combination of speed and quality. And obviously, our capacity for high-quality content with need for express release to the solid state physics community is not nearly reached. Starting with a [email protected] on 'Competing energy scales in high-temperature superconductors: Ultrafast pump–probe studies' by Elbert E. M. Chia et al. in the current issue, pss (RRL) is now also launching a new article type. In line with the journal's dedication to most recent novel results, a [email protected] will summarize progress in particularly active fields over the last three years. Looking forward to great papers in 2011.