Welcome to the online world of physica status solidi
Authors: Hildebrandt Stefan 
Published: December 2009

Dear readers,

Over the last decade we have observed a further strong shift from traditional journal print publication to online retrieval of scientific information. The overwhelming majority of access to scientific papers, estimated to be more than 90%, is nowadays done through download of article PDFs from the internet. This trend is clearly reflected by a strong increase in Web usage also for pss (c), with growth rates well above 20–30% over the last six years (see figure). As a result, today more than 11.000 articles published in pss (c) are downloaded every month from Wiley InterScience (www.pss‐c.com).

Since pss (c) is mainly a conference series which publishes presentations ranging from large international meetings to specialized workshops and symposia, this reveals without doubt that the impact of the journal reaches much beyond the actual conference communities. The inclusion of pss (c) in the Conference Proceedings Citation Index‐Science (CPCI‐S) of Thomson Reuters, which has been seamlessly integrated into ISI Web of Science and also provides citation information, has considerably improved discoverability of pss (c) articles more recently. Similarly, the journal is being indexed by other major databases such as Scopus, INSPEC, or Google Scholar, so that its visibility has now achieved almost the same level as that of the other pss journals.

Despite of this clear move from print to online, some conference organizers still request the delivery of printed pss proceedings, although here a (somewhat slower) trend towards more convenient electronic media (CD‐ROM, online‐only) is likewise obvious. It should be investigated whether those hardcopy proceedings editions actually still serve their established purpose. Are they actively and frequently used as a reference of the most recent developments in the field which have been reported at the conference or workshop, or do even their recipients prefer to access most articles online instead? The latter would turn the proceedings print volumes rather into nice souvenirs on the shelf, which may best serve as a proof of the conference attendance, the authors' own article contributions in the volume included.

pss (c), with a size of about 3000 pages per year has been delivered to our subscribers as part of the pss (a) and/or pss (b) package at no additional or separate subscription costs. In view of the recent developments and trends, we have therefore decided to publish the regular journal exclusively online from 2010. This will also support Wiley's policy to reduce the global carbon footprint through savings of paper, printing, and shipping. We will, of course, continue to offer electronic access to the proceedings articles to the conference participants, either through Wiley InterScience or via special CD‐ROM, CD‐R or DVD editions. As an additional option, the production of digitally printed soft‐ or hardbound proceedings volumes can be agreed with those conference organizers who prefer the paper version also in the future.

Eight years after the launch of pss (c), with more than 80 journal issues and 6000 articles published, our concept of strictly peer‐reviewed, high‐quality and speedy publication of conference contributions has revealed to be quite successful. This is being proved by the ever‐increasing number of publication inquiries we receive, which forces us to an even stricter selection of projects to be contracted. We are therefore confident that we will be able to continue this endeavour and hope that you will put the same trust in us as in the past years (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)