From the Editor

Abstract

It has been already four years since I took over as Editor-in-Chief – time passes so quickly! The last few months have been a particular challenge for everyone, but our publishing effort continues uninterrupted, thanks to the tremendous effort of Associate Editors, IET stuff and Reviewers. Special thanks go to Tony Almeida, the Deputy Editor-in-Chief, for his unwavering enthusiasm and dedication. We have a very strong team of 38 Associate Editors from 19 countries on all continents working hard to maintain the smooth running of the reviewing process. I would also like to warmly welcome Jessica Jones, our new Managing Editor, who recently joined the team and has already been very constructive in making future plans. We have a steady and continuously rising stream of submissions resulting in the increasing number of publications, 168 in 2019 to be precise. The main cause for satisfaction and optimism, however, is the growing value of the impact factor. In 2015 it was below 1.0, it is now nearly 2.0, so we are experiencing a very encouraging rising trend. The total citations have nearly quadrupled in the past four years! All these make me very proud to be leading such a successful journal. But there is more to be pleased about. In partnership with Wiley, the IET have taken the decision to convert IET Science, Measurement & Technology from a library/subscriber-pays model to an author-pays Open Access (OA) model, effective from the 2021 volume. The discoverability and visibility of open access work will allow us to promote published content quickly and easily and removes all pay walls for accessing content. We are excited to be a part of the move towards open science and want to ensure that our journal continues to deliver excellent research globally. I would like to wish all contributing authors and readers of SMT a very successful year ahead. Please keep submitting your excellent manuscripts! Jan Sykulski Editor-In-Chief