pss Rapid Research Letters – the fastest peer‐reviewed publication medium in solid state physics
Authors: Stutzmann Martin 
Published: November 2006

It's time to celebrate! The entire team of physica status solidi joins in congratulating Wiley on behalf of the 200th anniversary of our publishing house in 2007. It has been a pleasure for us to be part of the Wiley family since 1996 (yet another anniversary…), and we very much appreciate the continued support as well as the constructive and stimulating spirit which has allowed pss to grow and to improve during the last decade. The most recent example is the completion of the pss backfiles, which now makes more than 40 years of solid state science on more than 300 000 pages published in pss available to you on the internet. See for yourself at www.interscience.wiley.com/backfiles/physics. This has been a huge endeavour indeed, which would have been impossible without the backing and the infrastructure of a major publisher. We all look forward to even brighter times in the future and wish Wiley success and also the necessary luck for the next 100 years!

The second cause for celebration is the start of the pss Rapid Research Letters as an independent journal and, thus, as the fourth member of the pss family, now accessible under www.pss‐rapid.com. The Rapid Research Letters have evolved from the former Rapid Research Notes established in 1996 and have been streamlined to meet today's need for fast publication without compromising on the quality of a transparent and strict peer review process. This has been achieved by a consistently managed priority handling of submitted manuscripts, making use of all possibilities of electronic communication. As a result, the Rapid Research Letter section of pss has enjoyed a more than average growth and also a significantly higher impact in the last couple of years compared to the other pss journals. Thus, the Editors and Publishers of pss have decided to launch the Letter section of pss as a new journal, in order to provide even better service and a higher visibility in the future. In particular, pss‐RRL will be listed and evaluated in the ISI Web of Science from the start.

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Numbers of submitted manuscripts and published Rapid Research Notes/Letters in pss per year

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Geographical origin of authors of published Rapid Research Letters in 2005/06

The main asset of the pss Rapid Research Letters has been the still unchallenged speed in publication. On the average, only two weeks are needed between the electronic submission of a manuscript and its online publication on Wiley InterScience. Within these two weeks, all manuscripts are first evaluated by the Editors, peer‐reviewed by at least two, in many cases even three independent referees, and finally revised for final publication by the authors and the Editorial Office. The fact that this approach to scientific quality control really works is demonstrated by the high inofficial impact factor of the Rapid Research Letters of 2.8 in the year 2004, and also by a high average rejection rate of 60%.

In order to ensure that this tight schedule can also be maintained in the future, the Managing Editor of pss, Stefan Hildebrandt, and his editorial team work closely together with the Editor‐in‐Chief and the newly established Editorial Board of pss‐RRL on a daily basis. In addition to the current Regional Editors of pss (Martin Brandt, Garching; Shuit‐Tong Lee, Hong Kong; Pablo Ordejσn, Barcelona; Michael S. Shur, Troy; and John I. B. Wilson, Edinburgh), Elvira Fortunato (Lisbon), John Robertson (Cambridge), James S. Speck (Santa Barbara), and Christian Thomsen (Berlin) have joined the Editorial Board of pss‐RRL in order to ensure a high level of scientific quality and a broad competence in current hot topics of solid state physics and materials science. More detailed vitae of the members of the Editorial Board will be published in one of the next issues of pss‐RRL.

The particular advantages offered by the Rapid Research Letters of pss have already been recognized by active scientists in solid state physics from all over the world. This is reflected by the very balanced submission of letters from different continents and regions, as shown by the pie chart.

We at physica status solidi will work hard to guarantee our high standards in international balance, broad coverage of all aspects of solid state physics, scientific quality, fast publication, and fairness of peer review also for the years to come! So be sure to visit our homepage at www.pss‐rapid.com or www.pss‐rrl.com to have a personal look at the coming issues of the new Rapid Research Letters. We will make all efforts to treat your next submission with the same priority as the more than 1000 letters submitted so far!

Garching, October 2006

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Martin Stutzmann, Editor‐in‐Chief of physica status solidi since 1995, is a Director of the Walter Schottky Institute and Chair for Experimental Semiconductor Physics at Munich University of Technology. His main scientific interests concern semiconductor heterostructures and devices for bioelectronics, sensors, spintronics, and photovoltaics.

This Editorial is not included in the printed version of phys. stat. sol. (b) 243, No. 15 (2006).