Editorial Cite This: ACS Macro Lett. 2018, 7, 105−106
pubs.acs.org/macroletters
Thanks Tim, from ACS Macro Letters! working with both the Macromolecules and Biomacromolecules teams with the goal of serving as the communications platform for both the journals’ communities and providing authors and readers the best possible service and options for promoting their work. A question you may have is what changes should you expect to see in the future? I have been heavily involved with the journal as a Deputy Editor (a position that no longer exists) since the launch of ACS Macro Letters and have worked with Tim in making a number of the strategic decisions. We aim to carry forward Tim’s legacy and continue to keep ACS Macro Letters at the forefront of publishing the top research in the polymer science field. The main goal of the journal is still to be the number one place you turn to for reading about the latest research in polymer science and be the place where you want to publish your best work. Our strategy will be to build on the journal’s initial success by continuing to provide high quality, rapid service to authors, reviewers, and readers alike. I will be the first to admit that we are not perfect, so I always welcome comments and thoughts from the community on how we can continue to serve you better. There are a number of changes that we are working on right now as we transition to becoming an independent journal. ACS Macro Letters will require an independent Editorial Advisory Board (EAB). As our current EAB is joint with Macromolecules, we are working with Marc to find the best way to make this transition. This does give us the opportunity to make changes on how we operate our EAB; more details to come. Also, as you saw from the growth in submission numbers above, the journal is continuing to expand and this means we will need to add more Associate Editors (AEs). This is also something that is in the works and expect to see an announcement of a new ACS Macro Letters AE in the coming months! Another major event that happened in 2017 is the fifth year of our partnership with Macromolecules, Biomacromolecules, and the ACS Division of Polymer Chemistry (POLY) in honoring the contributions of two early career individuals who have made a major impact on the field of polymer science. The 2017 Biomacromolecules/Macromolecules Young Investigator Award recipients were Rachel O’Reilly, University of Warwick (now University of Birmingham), and Richard Hoogenboom, Ghent University. They presented lectures in a joint symposium at the Fall 2017 ACS National Meeting in Washington, DC and received their awards at the ensuing POLY/PMSE Awards reception. Congratulations to them both! We are committed to supporting this award, and so the call for nominations for the 2018 award may be found at http://connect.acspubs.org/lectureship, with a deadline of January 15, 2018. We encourage you to nominate deserving young colleagues. As always, to keep up-to-date with events and goings on with the journal, follow @ACSMacroLett on Twitter.
ell, this is my first solo editorial! As you are no doubt aware by now [and as was announced in last year’s editorial (ACS Macro Lett. 2017, 6 (1), pp 66−67, DOI: 10.1021/acsmacrolett.6b00960)], Prof. Tim Lodge stepped down as the Editor-in-Chief (EIC) of ACS Macro Letters and Macromolecules at the end of 2017. Tim was the driving force behind getting ACS Macro Letters up and running, and his knowledge and experience as an ACS journal editor has been vital to the success of the journal. All the editors at ACS Macro Letters have learned a lot from Tim, and we are eternally grateful for his mentorship. At this point it is worth mentioning a few statistics to give you some measure of how successful the journal has been under Tim’s leadership. This year our Impact Factor (IF) went above 6 to 6.185 (see Figure 1). This represents the first time a nonreview polymer-only journal has obtained an IF > 6. While many may agree that the IF measure is far from perfect, it is still a metric that a lot of authors use when deciding where to publish their papers. It is important to note that, while I mention it here, we do not consider the IF when making decisions on manuscripts. The editorial focus at ACS Macro Letters has always been to publish the best and most innovative papers in polymer science; we set no numbers or goals for our editors outside of this focus. In 2017, for the first time, we received over 1000 manuscript submissions, which is about three times the number of communication submissions Macromolecules received in its last full year of publishing communications (2010). It is clear that ACS Macro Letters has filled a publication gap in the polymer field and has grown rapidly in its first 6 years under Tim’s leadership. So, a really big thank you to Tim! Enjoy all the extra time you now have. With Tim stepping down it was decided that Macromolecules and ACS Macro Letters become independent, which meant that two new EICs were required to fill Tim’s shoes. I am honored to be selected as the new EIC for ACS Macro Letters and excited to see that Prof. Marc Hillmyer (University of Minnesota) has been appointed as the new EIC for Macromolecules. We at ACS Macro Letters look forward to
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Figure 1. Evolution of the Impact Factor of ACS Macro Letters over the years. © 2018 American Chemical Society
Received: December 27, 2017 Published: January 16, 2018 105
DOI: 10.1021/acsmacrolett.7b01003 ACS Macro Lett. 2018, 7, 105−106
ACS Macro Letters
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Editorial
Stuart J. Rowan, Editor-in-Chief AUTHOR INFORMATION
ORCID
Stuart J. Rowan: 0000-0001-8176-0594 Notes
Views expressed in this editorial are those of the author and not necessarily the views of the ACS.
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DOI: 10.1021/acsmacrolett.7b01003 ACS Macro Lett. 2018, 7, 105−106
