Editorial: phys. stat. sol. (a) 203/1
Authors: Stutzmann Martin 
Published: January 2006

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

on behalf of the Publishers, the Editorial Office, and the Editors of physica status solidi we wish you all the best for the coming year 2006! It is our sincere hope that your personal and professional experience with our journal has been a positive one and that you will continue to choose physica status solidi for the publication of your scientific findings in solid state physics also in the future.

In doing so, you will be in increasingly good company! As a matter of fact, 2005 has been a year of exceptional growth in the number of manuscripts submitted to physica status solidi. Thus, the number of Original Papers which have reached our Editorial Office in Berlin has increased by as much as 30% compared to the long term average over the last ten years. For the Rapid Research Letter section, the corresponding increase has been even more impressive: more than +100% just in the last two years. We view this development as a confirmation of our longstanding efforts to ensure a timely publication service of high scientific quality. One relevant indicator for the high scientific standards expected from articles which are submitted for publication in physica status solidi is the average acceptance rate, which currently is less than 40%. This rate has continuously decreased from a value of about 60% ten years ago and bears witness to our efforts to strive for quality rather than quantity.

Also, physica status solidi has been able to continue its long tradition as a truly international journal, despite of the strong competition in an established field such as solid state physics. In 2005, submitted papers have originated almost equally from the Americas, Europe, and Asia, with a clearly growing contribution from China, India, and Japan. We are actively working together with our international Editorial Boards and the Regional Editors to maintain a reasonable balance among papers from different parts of the world. The increasing international visibility of physica status solidi is impressively documented by the ever rising numbers of article downloads via the internet: on the average, each of the 2000 articles published annually in physica status solidi is presently accessed about 100 times via the www.

Finally, let me mention some other recent developments, which are not so directly visible from the outside. Thus, a new all electronic publishing system has become operative in our Berlin Editorial Office in 2005, which allows a more efficient and timely handling of manuscripts from submission to publication (www.manuscriptXpress.com) and is particularly valuable for the editing of conference proceedings (conferences.wiley‐vch.de). In addition, the functionality of the journal within the Wiley InterScience website has been enhanced by new features such as Citation Tracking. Together with the ongoing digitization of all physica status solidi issues since the 1960s, which is expected to be complete in 2006, this makes the physica status solidi homepage at Wiley InterScience a very valuable tool for literature search in solid state physics, past and present. Try it out at www.interscience.wiley.com!

All of us from physica status solidi would like to convey to you our very best wishes for good health and success in the coming year 2006!