Particle Advances

Abstract

While the journal Particle & Particle Systems Characterization is entering its 33rd volume, the relaunched and restructured Particle is just about to enter its 4th year of publication. This is a point that provided much confusion for our authors in the initial years after the relaunch at the start of 2013. However, in the intervening period, the journal has evolved into an increasingly attractive option in which to publish cutting-edge, particle-related research across the broad field of materials science. With no shortage of journals, both well-established and new, for authors to choose from in which to disseminate their original research results to their peers, we are grateful that they entrust their work to us. Earlier this year we highlighted a number of original articles that have been highly accessed and a number of overview, review-type articles that have caught the attention of the community. These articles are free for you to read, please follow the links provided on our news portal Materials Views http://www.materialsviews.com/best-of-particle-enjoy-free-access/. Particle belongs to the Advanced Materials journal family (see Figure 1). Selected articles from all journals in the portfolio can be accessed here http://www.emagcloud.com/wiley/AdvancedFamilyBooklet2/index.html. I often feel rather privileged as an editor, as we are among the first people that get to read exciting research discoveries before the articles make it to press and in doing so to a larger readership. However, I have to acknowledge at this stage the excellent work that our expert reviewers do, which enables a stringent evaluation process, ensuring that only the highest quality articles make it into a published issue. I am also indebted to our most active Editorial Advisory Board members who, through their involvement and enthusiastic engagement, have provided enormous support to Particle since the board was established at the start of 2013. The impact factor of a journal is a metric that is well known to our authors and readers. Without wanting to dwell on this number, or the interpretation of it, I can mention that Particle received its first partial impact factor in 2015. To clarify, the partial impact factor is calculated by counting the number of times articles published in 2012 and 2013 were cited in Thompson Reuters ISI Web of Science indexed journals in 2014. The impact factor of 3.081 shows strong growth in the first year since the relaunch, an increase of 474% on the journal prior to relaunch. It has to be acknowledged that this is in part due to the change in focus pre and post relaunch; while the prior focus was on the fields of industrial chemistry and engineering, the new focus of the journal is on materials science. However, this new impact factor also shows that the articles we have published since the start of 2013 are widely read and are of relevance to researchers working in many areas of materials science. Particle will receive its first impact factor (based on two years of post-relaunch citation) in June 2016, which will report further strong growth. In the editorial office our main focus going forward is to keep the quality of published work at a high level. In planning for 2016 are a number of topical special issues on catalytic micro- and nanoparticles, energy materials, advanced particle characterization techniques, and on nanocrystals and their emerging applications, among others. We welcome suggestions for further projects and are contactable on the address [email protected] Also, I invite you to connect with me on LinkedIn, should you use this professional network, where I regularly provide access to selected articles from the most recently published journal issues.