SPE Polymers is the newest member to join our family of SPE archival peer‐reviewed scientific journals (2020)

Our previous three journals were born in three different decades. The oldest of our journals, Polymer Engineering Science, currently in its 60th year of publication, was first published in January 1961 as SPE Transactions by editor Melvyn A. Kohudic, a research chemist. The Journal of Vinyl and Additive Technology was first published as the Journal of Vinyl Technology in 1979 by editor Elliot L. Weinberg, a Fellow of SPE and an industrial research chemist known for his work on tin-stabilized polyvinylchloride. Polymer Composites was born in September 1980 with Roger S. Porter serving as its first editor. I am honored to join this distinguished list of scholars as the first editor of the fourth journal in the family SPE Polymers. Forty years have elapsed since our last journal was started. Why is now the right time to launch a new journal? The publishing world has changed substantially since 1980. Scientists living in China contributed very little to our journals in 1980 but are now one of the largest contributors to our SPE family of journals. Africa and the Middle East, other important locations for contributions to SPE journals, also had almost no contributions in 1980. For those of us like myself who are old enough, I remember making a list throughout the week of papers that I would like to peruse and having to go every Saturday to the library to look for them in the print journals; I have not set foot in the library to look for an article in many years. In keeping with these trends, SPE Polymers will be an online-only publication; the ability to eliminate printing is one reason why this is a good time to start a journal. Open access, that is, articles where the authors own the copyright and are freely available to read, share, and download, is something else that is relatively new and is another reason to start a journal. Finally, and most importantly, most papers submitted to our current three journals, many of good quality, receive reject decisions because of the increased contributions from all over the world. Our intent is to provide a publication home to these high-quality manuscripts that otherwise find places outside the SPE family of journals. So what will SPE Polymers publish? Research articles are solicited in polymer synthesis, structure–property relationships, mathematical modeling of all aspects of polymer science, polymer composites, smart polymers, polymer processing and applications of polymers. You can submit a new manuscript through our ScholarOne site: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/pls2. Review articles are of particular interest; for review articles, please contact me in advance. We welcome special issues; in fact, we already have a special issue planned for mid-2021, entitled “Soft materials for biological and energy applications,” which is part of the Fourth International Conference on Soft Materials to be held virtually later this year. SPE Polymers will only publish high-quality research work; thus, all manuscripts will be subjected to a rigorous peer-review process. We have assembled an excellent Editorial Board to ensure that we maintain quality in all aspects; I encourage you to look at the website for a full list of names of the editorial board. We solicited participation of scholars of the highest quality from all corners of the globe in recognition of the global reach of SPE Polymers. We are committed to publishing your work quickly. We promise a streamlined review process by expert reviewers and a quick turnaround time to first decision. Production quality and speed to Early View will be on par with our other three subscription-based journals. We strongly believe that SPE Polymers will quickly be a high-quality peer-reviewed journal that our readers and authors will look forward to every time an issue is published. I would love to hear from you at bpgrady@ou.edu about a new idea, a proposal for a special issue, or a review article.