Making An Impact …

Abstract

Dear Readers, We proudly look back at the second year of Macromolecular Reaction Engineering, the youngest family member of the Macromolecular Journals: In 2008, MRE has received its first ISI Immediacy Index and directly entered the top 10 by immediacy of all journals publishing original research in polymer science, also promising a very good first Impact Factor (to be announced in June 2009). In our inaugural Editorial we have written “(MRE) provides an independent forum for discussion and dissemination of emerging technologies and scientific advancements in the area of reaction engineering applied to polymerization reactors.” Judging from the polymer science community's response and interest in the newly launched journal over the first two years, it is fair to say that we are on a good way to achieve these aims. Also in response to the growing interest of academic and industrial researchers, as documented by the continuously increasing numbers of submission, 2009 will see a raise from six to nine issue. To ensure the highest quality of published content a very strict selection process is applied: A significant part of submitted articles is rejected already during editorial pre-screening, and only the most interesting contributions then are sent to our referees before a final editorial decision is made. The broad variety of topics recently covered in contributions authored by leading experts is shown in Table 1, presenting those Macromolecular Reaction Engineering articles most often downloaded in 2008 from our online platform Wiley InterScience. Robin A. Hutchinson et al.1 Massimo Morbidelli et al.2 João B. P. Soares et al.3 Michael F. Cunningham et al.4 Jose R. Leiza et al.5 Fouad Teymour et al.6 F. Joseph Schork et al.7 José M. Asua et al.8 Christophe Serra et al.9 Costas Kiparissides et al.10 Macromolecular Reaction Engineering enjoys the company of six sister journals within the family of Macromolecular Journals: Macromolecular Chemistry & Physics is the founding journal with the longest tradition and experience in the field. Today it also covers the work of young talents, presents critical analyses of recent trends, and highlights and emphasizes the importance of breakthrough research results. Macromolecular Rapid Communications celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2009 and has developed into one of the leading journals in polymer science that combines speed and immediate impact with highest-priority results from a truly multidisciplinary range of topics. The other sister journals of MRE are dedicated to more specialized topics, including “Bioscience”, “Theory & Simulations”, and “Materials & Engineering” − all publishing newest and critically selected original research results as well as Reviews and Feature Articles. To name a few more of the recent highlights from these journals: Macromolecular Chemistry & Physics has launched a very successful Special Article Series, dedicated to “New Frontiers in Functional Polymers”, guest-edited by Ben Zhong Tang. The second anniversary that we celebrate in 2009 is the 10th birthday of Macromolecular Materials & Engineering. Macromolecular Theory & Simulations enjoyed a significant increase in Impact Factor to a present value of 1.792, whereas the Impact Factor of Macromolecular Bioscience increased to an all-time high of 2.831. And last but not least, the selected international meetings presented in Macromolecular Symposia include, among other, the ACS conference “MACROMEX” (guest-edited by Krzysztof Matyjaszewski) and the IUPAC symposium on “MacroMolecular Complexes” in Fukuoka (guest-edited by Naoki Toshima). Wiley's Global Polymer Journals program of course does not only include the family of Macromolecular Journals, but also such prestigious titles as Journal of Polymer Science, Part A and B, Polymer International, Plasma Processes & Polymers, and many other top journals (see Figure 1). In 2007, four of the top 10 journals (by Impact Factor) publishing original research have been Wiley Journals: Macromolecular Rapid Communications, Journal of Polymer Science, Part A, Macromolecular Bioscience and Plasma Processes & Polymers. Wiley's World of Polymers. One year ago, in January 2008, Materials Views, the global Wiley Materials Science news section, has been launched. Since then it has been published monthly online and in print (in more than 20 of Wiley-Blackwell's materials and polymer science journals), and since May it is complemented by MaterialsViews.com − the online platform bringing you the most recent news on Materials Science, information about books and journals in the program, and much more (see Figure 2). Interest of readers, users, and featured authors in this new source of information on Materials Science has been growing continuously, and this service will be further expanded throughout 2009 by the inclusion of even more journal titles and daily news. An impression of MaterialsViews.com.