Editorial - ACS Publications - American Chemical Society

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0 Copyright 1990 American Chemical Society

JANUARY, 1990 VOLUME 6, NUMBER 1

Editorial Editorials have not been frequent in this journalwhich is as it should be. I have made a practice, however, of writing one for the first issue of each year, and each time there has been something to say. The first editorial, of January 1985, remarked on how Langmuir was founded and what its goals would be, and why. Exerpts from that editorial follow: A Journal Is Born

...The name Langmuir was not chosen lightly.

It conveys with one word the intent that this journal should bring together all the many areas of surface and colloid chemistry: solid surfaces in ultra-high vacuum, including surface spectroscopy and structural studies; chemistry and electrochemistryat welldefined interfaces;heterogeneous catalpis; all aspects of liquid-liquid and liquid-vapor interfaces; and the great domain of dispersed systems. The approach may be theoretical or experimental. Studies of practical importance are appropriate, the emphasis to be on fundamental science. The name Langmuir expresses this catholocity more truly than could any multiword title. and

...why should (Langmuir) have so broad a scope? Part of the answer is that we are attempting to provide a unifying influence to counter the proliferation of specialized journals in surface/colloid chemistry... There is another mission to Langmuir. I t is to give notice that surface/colloid chemistry is a broad, important, and established field that merits recognition as such. Langmuir has in a sense now come of age. With this issue it moves from bimonthly to monthly publication, having doubled its initial size. We can all be pleased with the growth and acceptance that this change reflects. Many thanks go to the Associate Editors for their unwavering devotion, to past and present Editorial Advisory Board members for their help and advice, to the staff of the Journals Division of the ACS for their efficient professionalism, and to secretary Kay Siu without whose loyal

help this office could not have functioned. It is the authors and reviewers, however, to whom major tribute should go: to authors for their good papers and to reviewers for their dedication to seeing that high quality be required. [Of the hundreds of manuscripts handled by me this past year, only four received unqualified approval from the reviewers-some degree of revision was asked of all other eventually accepted submissions. The rare, privileged authors received a little in-house symbol of recognition.] A very special reason for this writing is that it is the last editorial from this Editor. Having reached the age of being Emeritus, I did not ask for a further 5-year appointment. The experience has been both demanding and enormously rewarding in nonmaterial ways, but a job had been accomplished, and partly for personal reasons I felt that it would be better for a new hand to take over. To return to the opening paragraph, the exerpts from the 1985editorial were not chosen at random. I do believe that the scope of Langmuir should remain broad; no particular field of surface and colloid chemistry should be favored or denigrated. As may be imagined, resistance to this concept can be detected; authors become accustomed to their more specialized publication venues and also may tend to remain within parochial circles, each with its own priesthood. I have made a major effort to welcome authors from all the designated areas, in part by emphasizing the breadth of Langmuir through the Associate Editors, through appointments to the Editorial Advisory Board, through contacts with symposia chairmen and with the Division of Colloid and Surface Chemistry, and through invitations to individual established scientists, including Langmuir Lecture Award recipients. I am convinced that one of the continuing, very important tasks of the new Editor will be not just to maintain but steadily to strengthen the role of Langmuir as a central, definitive journal. I wish him well. The Editor has departed-welcome to the Editor! Note Added in Proof (December 17, 1989). Professor William A. Steele of The Pennsylvania State University will be the new Editor. The choice is an outstanding one, and I wish Bill all the success in the world. Arthur W. Adamson December 4, 1989