Looking Forward (2014)

As we enter 2014, we look forward to another 25 years of Advanced Materials. It's an exciting time for us, celebrating our 25th anniversary, and contemplating the future. We enter our 2nd 25 years with a strong position in materials science publication, remaining dedicated to publishing high-quality original research and reviews. The editorial office has also been taking on an increasingly global representation. We now have an editorial presence in the USA and in China, as well as in Germany, which will contribute to us being able to serve the needs of the scientific community across the world much more easily. In 2013, around 880 manuscripts were published in the 48 issues; we will have received nearly 6000 submissions by the end of December. Our impact factor stands at 14.829, and has been increasing steadily over the last few years. At this time, it's appropriate to highlight some of our special issues, our most downloaded articles, and some of our covers from 2013. We published five special issues in 2013, on “Gated Systems for Multifunctional Optoelectronic Devices” (issue 3), “Organic Electronics” (issue 13) and “Organic and Hybrid Materials for Flexible Electronics” (issue 31), as well as special issues dedicated to the “10th Anniversary of the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology of China” (issue 28) and “Materials Research at Fudan University” (issue 37). Some of the most-downloaded articles from over the last year are shown in Table 1. The standard of cover artwork from the community has also been outstanding; Figure 1 shows a selection of the striking front covers featured in 2013. You will have already noticed our AM25 celebrations with a special series of invited reviews and progress reports from some of the best regarded names in the research community. Issue 36 kicked off the series, with work on “Understanding the Lithiation of Silicon and Other Alloying Anodes for Lithium-Ion Batteries” (DOI: 10.1002/adma.201301795), Colloidal Quantum Dot Materials and Devices: A Quarter-Century of Advances (DOI: 10.1002/adma.201301947), Engineering Hydrogels for Biofabrication (DOI: 10.1002/adma.201302042), and Dynamic Interfaces for Responsive Encapsulation Systems (DOI: 10.1002/adma.201302142), and this series has continued throughout the year. In this dedicated issue, we highlight recent advances in such diverse fields as light-sensitive materials for solar cells, hydrogels and soft matter, artificial nanocrystals and nanocomposites inspired from biological materials, and carbon nanotubes/graphene, again from luminaries in their fields. We will be continuing this series into 2014, with over 40 articles to be published in total. 2013 has seen some technological changes behind the scenes at Advanced Materials, which will contribute to streamlining the article submission, reviewing, and publication process. Our new article management system came online in August. The system represents a great step forward in the handling of your manuscripts, and will contribute to quick and efficient processing. There have also been developments in how you can access our articles: the new Advanced Materials app is available for download, for free, for the iPad. The app offers the ability to access manuscripts in Advanced Materials in the Wiley Online Library on the go; the table of contents material is available free, as is online open content. You can also take out a personal subscription for $99 to access the entire content of Advanced Materials on the Wiley Online Library. If you're already using the app, we'd welcome any feedback! There are more developments on the way, so keep an eye out for new announcements! One of these advances, due for launch in 2014 is the Anywhere Article. The Anywhere Article will provide an enhanced reading experience of html content online, with a focus on portability and readability, helping to center your attention on the article itself. In the coming year, we are launching a new member of the Advanced Materials family, Advanced Materials Interfaces (ADMI). We are pleased to be able to offer another focused addition to the family, which compliments the interdisciplinary nature of Advanced Materials itself, and one which is launched as a stand-alone journal, not having previously been a section in AM. ADMI has already been positively embraced by the community, having been open for submissions since August. It's an online journal, publishing six electronic issues a year, with the first issue due for publication in February; you will find some articles already online in Early View. We look forward to a positive ADMI future. In other news from the Advanced Materials family, Advanced Healthcare Materials, which is starting its 3rd volume, will receive its first impact factor in June. Advanced Energy Materials received its first impact factor this last year, at 10.043, a value that we expect to increase in the coming years. The strength of the initial impact factor is a testament to the high-quality work of those who have contributed. Advanced Optical Materials (ADOM) is now one year old. It has quickly been accepted by the community, evidenced by high manuscript submission numbers: in the first year, ADOM had the privilege of choice and only accepted the top 30% of submissions for publication. The summer of 2013 saw some changes to the Editorial Advisory Board of Advanced Materials. We would like to take this opportunity to once again thank all our Advisory Board members, present and past, for their contribution through the last 25 years, and also introduce Joanna Aizenberg, Katsuhiro Ariga, Zhenan Bao, Jillian Buriak, Xiadong Chen, Xinliang Feng, Georges Hadziioannou, Wei Huang, Jörg Lahann, Jennifer Lewis, Lynn Loo, Cefe López, and Molly Stevens, who joined us this year; we are very pleased to welcome them, and look forward to their contribution in helping define the next 25 years. To close, we look forward to going from strength to strength in the next 25 years, continuing to develop our partnership with the research community at the leading edge of scientific communication. It is not unfair to say that key to the continued success of Advanced Materials is our relationship with you, the authors, reviewers, and readers, alongside our commitment to quality, fairness, and rapid publication. We're travelling this journey together. Here's to the next 25 years!