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How Solid State Communications Came Into Being
Solid State Communications 127 (2003) 321–322 www.elsevier.com/locate/ssc
Editorial
How Solid State Communications Came Into Being
In 1956 I was invited by Harvey Brooks to serve as a member of the International Advisory Board of the Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids (JPCS) to be published by Pergamon Press. At the 1958 International Conference on the Physics of Semiconductors that was held in Rochester, NY, I had the pleasure of meeting with Dr E.F. Gross of the Yoffe Institute in Leningrad and with other scientists from the USSR and learning, at first-hand, about their on-going research. It seemed to me that it would be highly desirable to have an international letters journal which would facilitate communication between solid state scientists in different parts of the world by providing more immediate access to their work. As a member the International Advisory Board of JPCS, the thought that this could be accomplished by publishing the letters section of JPCS as a separate journal followed quite naturally. These ideas were communicated to Harvey Brooks, Editor of JPCS, who, in due course, passed them on to Robert Maxwell, the Publisher of Pergamon Press. I learned somewhat later that Maxwell had subsequently initiated a search for a solid state scientist who would serve as the Editor of an international solid state letters journal. Several individuals were approached but, for various reasons, they had declined. My recollections are somewhat hazy about the exact sequence of events which followed, other than that I too was eventually contacted by Maxwell and asked to serve as Editor of the proposed journal. l was obviously interested, but was initially somewhat hesitant because of concerns that had been raised by Frederick Seitz and others in the US, regarding the publication of a scientific journal by a ‘commercial’ publisher. Harvey Brooks had been adversely criticized when JPCS came into being. I supported him wholeheartedly when JPCS was launched, both because JPCS clearly filled a vital need and also because I respected and trusted Harvey’s judgement regarding Maxwell’s commitment to the scientific community. I was not reluctant, per se, to undertake the editorship of a solid state letters journal to be published by Pergamon Press, but wanted first to be sure that the editorial and publication policies would be guided primarily by the needs of the scientific community, and also that the subscription costs would be maintained at reasonable levels. I accepted Maxwell’s invitation to serve as Editor. In consultation with
Harvey Brooks and Pierre Aigrain, I arrived at a number of innovative editorial and publication decisions which have proven highly successful. To emphasize its international character, the journal was to have an International Board of Editors, each Editor having full authority to accept or reject contributions. The Journal was to be called Solid State Communications (SSC) and, to emphasize its connection with JPCS, it was identified as a Supplement to JPCS. Physics Letters, an international journal published by NorthHolland, made its appearance a year before Solid State Communications came into existence. It is rather ironical that D. ter Haar, who was the Editor of Physics Letters sent me a note inviting me to serve as a member of the Advisory Editorial Board, stating: ‘I gather that this (Physics Letters) is really an offshoot from an idea of yours to start a solid state letters journal; from your idea, Seitz approached de Boer with the idea of having a journal covering all of physics and supplementing Physical Review Letters for the rest of the world.’ In a survey around the time of its 25th Anniversary in 1988, Solid State Communications was cited as being second only to Physical Review Letters in the number of references to published articles. For an in-depth bibliometric (citations) analysis of SSC and comparable journals, and a discussion of the impact of SSC, please see the paper by Werner Marx and Manuel Cardona ‘The impact of Solid State Communications in view of the ISI Citation Data’ in this issue. SSC is a truly international journal. It is a ‘short papers’ journal having an international Board of Editors. The members of the Board of Editors are all high caliber ‘working’ scientists whose areas of expertise cover the wide spectrum of condensed matter science. Every member has full authority to accept or reject contributions on the basis of originality, scientific merit and timeliness. At the inception of SSS in 1963 the Board of Editors had 26 members representing 18 countries. At its 25th anniversary in 1988 the number of members was 41. At present the number of members is 36, representing 20 countries. To expedite the processing of their manuscripts, authors are encouraged to submit their papers to a member of the Board of Editors who has expertise in the specific field of their paper. SSC continues to fulfill the ‘aims and scope’ that were stated in the first issue published 40 years ago in June 1963,
0038-1098/03/$ - see front matter q 2003 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. doi:10.1016/S0038-1098(03)00487-3
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E. Burstein / Solid State Communications 127 (2003) 321–322
namely to ‘improve communications among solid state scientists by giving them access to important work just completed’. It also publishes Special Issues covering developments at the Advancing Frontiers of Condensed Matter Science and also Special Issues that contain key papers that were presented at International Symposia and Conferences. List of some of the Special Issues Inelastic light scattering, Proceedings of the 1979 US – Japan Seminar, Santa Monica, CA, USA, vol. 32, number 1, 1979, pp. 22 – 25 Highlights in Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science, vol. 92, numbers 1 – 2, 1994 The Advancing Frontiers of Condensed Matter Science,
* Tel.: þ(215) 898-8160.
vol. 107, number 11, 1998 The Advancing Frontiers of Condensed Matter Science, vol. 117, number 3, 2001 Spin Effects in Mesoscopic Systems, vol. 119, numbers 4 – 5, 25 July 2001 Elias Burstein* Mary Amanda Wood Professor of Physics University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA 19105 USA E-mail address: [email protected]
Editorial
How Solid State Communications Came Into Being
In 1956 I was invited by Harvey Brooks to serve as a member of the International Advisory Board of the Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids (JPCS) to be published by Pergamon Press. At the 1958 International Conference on the Physics of Semiconductors that was held in Rochester, NY, I had the pleasure of meeting with Dr E.F. Gross of the Yoffe Institute in Leningrad and with other scientists from the USSR and learning, at first-hand, about their on-going research. It seemed to me that it would be highly desirable to have an international letters journal which would facilitate communication between solid state scientists in different parts of the world by providing more immediate access to their work. As a member the International Advisory Board of JPCS, the thought that this could be accomplished by publishing the letters section of JPCS as a separate journal followed quite naturally. These ideas were communicated to Harvey Brooks, Editor of JPCS, who, in due course, passed them on to Robert Maxwell, the Publisher of Pergamon Press. I learned somewhat later that Maxwell had subsequently initiated a search for a solid state scientist who would serve as the Editor of an international solid state letters journal. Several individuals were approached but, for various reasons, they had declined. My recollections are somewhat hazy about the exact sequence of events which followed, other than that I too was eventually contacted by Maxwell and asked to serve as Editor of the proposed journal. l was obviously interested, but was initially somewhat hesitant because of concerns that had been raised by Frederick Seitz and others in the US, regarding the publication of a scientific journal by a ‘commercial’ publisher. Harvey Brooks had been adversely criticized when JPCS came into being. I supported him wholeheartedly when JPCS was launched, both because JPCS clearly filled a vital need and also because I respected and trusted Harvey’s judgement regarding Maxwell’s commitment to the scientific community. I was not reluctant, per se, to undertake the editorship of a solid state letters journal to be published by Pergamon Press, but wanted first to be sure that the editorial and publication policies would be guided primarily by the needs of the scientific community, and also that the subscription costs would be maintained at reasonable levels. I accepted Maxwell’s invitation to serve as Editor. In consultation with
Harvey Brooks and Pierre Aigrain, I arrived at a number of innovative editorial and publication decisions which have proven highly successful. To emphasize its international character, the journal was to have an International Board of Editors, each Editor having full authority to accept or reject contributions. The Journal was to be called Solid State Communications (SSC) and, to emphasize its connection with JPCS, it was identified as a Supplement to JPCS. Physics Letters, an international journal published by NorthHolland, made its appearance a year before Solid State Communications came into existence. It is rather ironical that D. ter Haar, who was the Editor of Physics Letters sent me a note inviting me to serve as a member of the Advisory Editorial Board, stating: ‘I gather that this (Physics Letters) is really an offshoot from an idea of yours to start a solid state letters journal; from your idea, Seitz approached de Boer with the idea of having a journal covering all of physics and supplementing Physical Review Letters for the rest of the world.’ In a survey around the time of its 25th Anniversary in 1988, Solid State Communications was cited as being second only to Physical Review Letters in the number of references to published articles. For an in-depth bibliometric (citations) analysis of SSC and comparable journals, and a discussion of the impact of SSC, please see the paper by Werner Marx and Manuel Cardona ‘The impact of Solid State Communications in view of the ISI Citation Data’ in this issue. SSC is a truly international journal. It is a ‘short papers’ journal having an international Board of Editors. The members of the Board of Editors are all high caliber ‘working’ scientists whose areas of expertise cover the wide spectrum of condensed matter science. Every member has full authority to accept or reject contributions on the basis of originality, scientific merit and timeliness. At the inception of SSS in 1963 the Board of Editors had 26 members representing 18 countries. At its 25th anniversary in 1988 the number of members was 41. At present the number of members is 36, representing 20 countries. To expedite the processing of their manuscripts, authors are encouraged to submit their papers to a member of the Board of Editors who has expertise in the specific field of their paper. SSC continues to fulfill the ‘aims and scope’ that were stated in the first issue published 40 years ago in June 1963,
0038-1098/03/$ - see front matter q 2003 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. doi:10.1016/S0038-1098(03)00487-3
322
E. Burstein / Solid State Communications 127 (2003) 321–322
namely to ‘improve communications among solid state scientists by giving them access to important work just completed’. It also publishes Special Issues covering developments at the Advancing Frontiers of Condensed Matter Science and also Special Issues that contain key papers that were presented at International Symposia and Conferences. List of some of the Special Issues Inelastic light scattering, Proceedings of the 1979 US – Japan Seminar, Santa Monica, CA, USA, vol. 32, number 1, 1979, pp. 22 – 25 Highlights in Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science, vol. 92, numbers 1 – 2, 1994 The Advancing Frontiers of Condensed Matter Science,
* Tel.: þ(215) 898-8160.
vol. 107, number 11, 1998 The Advancing Frontiers of Condensed Matter Science, vol. 117, number 3, 2001 Spin Effects in Mesoscopic Systems, vol. 119, numbers 4 – 5, 25 July 2001 Elias Burstein* Mary Amanda Wood Professor of Physics University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA 19105 USA E-mail address: [email protected]