I am both honored and humbled to be the next Editor-in-Chief of Structural Dynamics, as the journal begins its eighth year of publication, here in 2021. I have deep respect for the founding Editor, Majed Chergui, who conceived the journal's mission, built an excellent team of associate editors and board members, and helped the journal achieve great things. Structural Dynamics has become a well cited journal with an international readership and authorship base. Under Majed's leadership, the journal has reached strong Journal Impact Factors (3.216 in 2019) and has ranked highly in Clarivate Analytics' Journal Citation Report (ranked 9th in the Physics, Atomic, Molecular and Chemical category).
I am excited to work with the team to continue to grow and strengthen Structural Dynamics. I will endeavor to maintain the high standards for review that have helped the journal develop the level of quality it has reached today, keep its processing time as short as possible, being respectful of reviewers and authors' time, and working to promote the journal. In the coming months, we will begin exploring new strategic initiatives for the journal, including prioritizing the journal's engagement with early career researchers, and partnering with large-scale facilities to help support their specialized publication needs. I also look to you, our community, for other ways the journal can support you, in your work. Whether it be ideas for a timely special topic issue, your interest in publishing a perspective or review article, or just general feedback on the journal, I look forward to hearing from you and opportunities to work with you.
The mission of the journal will continue to be to provide an open access forum for the community of scientists working on the development, implementation, and use of new tools for determining static and time-evolving structures. The community we aim to serve includes scientists working on structural dynamics in atomic and molecular physics, biophysics, condensed matter physics, chemistry, and materials science that often use similar experimental and theoretical tools, such as synchrotrons, lasers ranging from x-ray to IR wavelengths, intense electron pulses, computational simulations, and quantum mechanical calculations. Structural Dynamics is co-published by AIP Publishing and the American Crystallographic Association,1 and thus we also seek to support this partnership through various activities including continuing to publish the Transactions series from their annual meeting2 and provide a publication3 discount for members to publish in the journal.
If you are reading this editorial, you are likely interested in the output and progress of Structural Dynamics. The future vision is ambitious, but together we can make Structural Dynamics the first choice for authors to submit their high-impact research to, by continuing to grow the reputation of the journal for researchers across biology, chemistry, physics, and materials science disciplines. This will be a team effort, not just with the associate editors, board members, and AIP Publishing staff but with you, the community as well. Please reach out to me or any member of the team with any questions, feedback, or opportunities for engagement with the journal. You can always reach me at StructuralDynamics@aip.org. I look forward to your participation as an author, reviewer, or reader!
