In 2014 several scientists received the Nobel prize for findings in the field of optical technologies. They are the champions among thousands of creative and very engaged scientists. All of them do research, publish and review other researcher’s work. Most of that work is not rewarded with prizes, but it is this patient continuous work that makes prize-worthy research possible. And within the daily scientific business peer review is probably the most hidden part.
But nevertheless, peer review is a corner stone of the scientific process! It acts not only as a constant quality control of a publication, it also provides the author with valuable feedback. And looking at the daily business within a scientific journal it can be said, that in many cases, the comments of the peer reviewers have led to a substantial increase of the paper quality in the revision process. All this would not happen without the careful work of the reviewers.
To give all the reviewers of Advanced Optical Technology a public acknowledgment, we intend to publish the names of all 2014 reviewers in a special address from the publisher in AOT 1/2015. It will quote the names only, no affiliation and in particular, no relation to the articles they commented on. Still, we would like to give you the opportunity to keep your privacy, if needed. Please send us a short notice before Friday 23. January 2015 if you like to be excluded from the list.
Let’s have a short look at the journal stats: The average processing time for a paper from submission to decision in AOT was 49 days. The average time reviewers needed for their work was 13 days (you should assume at least one revision for most papers). That’s marvelous!
There is no Noble prize for peer reviewing, but still, there is much reason to honor the reviewers. And there is much reason to express the cordial gratitude of the editorial team, since there would be no journal without this voluntary service. The work of the reviewers and the feedback from the community is a constant impetus for the editorial team to keep thinking of how we can improve the service and finally, how we can make this journal an even more valuable resource for the optics community.
In the following we publish a list of last years’ reviewers of Advanced Optical Technologies to give them public recognition.
2014 Reviewers in Advanced Optical Technologies
Masato Aketagawa
Ismail Araci
John Ballato
Hartmut Bartelt
Stefan Bäumer
Matthias Beier
Kallol Bhattacharya
Dan Blanco
Joss Bland-Hawthorn
Jan Burke
William Cassarly
Gary Chanan
Jason Chin
Gaoliang Dai
Daniele Dini
Helen Ford
Carsten Gachot
Achim Gandorfer
Ralf Geckeler
Nils Gerhardt
Juan-Carlos Gonzalez
Bill Goodman
Katie Green
Thomas Henkel
Alois Herkommer
Hans-Peter Herzig
Jürgen Jahns
Luke Johnson
Yves Jourlin
Bernd Kleemann
Jürgen Koch
Hans Kreuzer
Marc Krug
Roland Lachmayer
Kafai Lai
Robert Lamb
Christian Larat
Martin Laurenzis
Richard Leach
Gilles Lerondel
Jianzhao Li
Norbert Lindlein
Gerhard Lindner
Shibu Mathew
Atsushi Matsubara
Jerry Meyer
Masaki Michihata
Hiroshi Murata
Cornelius Neumann
Josep Nicolas
Lothar Noethe
Xiaodan Pang
Alessandro Pesatori
Christof Pruss
Andrew Rakich
Roberta Ramponi
Francois Rigaut
Martin Roth
Philippe Roy
Toralf Scharf
Michael Schaub
Paul Schechter
Marc Schnieper
Heinrich Schwenke
Ranjan Sen
Stefan Sinzinger
Ove Steinvall
Andreas Stoehr
Razvan Stoian
Peng Su
Toshikazu Suzuki
Javier Vargas
Reinhard Voelkel
Stefan Welzel
Axel Wiegmann
Ulrike Willer
Sheng-Lih Yeh
Uwe Zeitner
It should be noted that the average time for an AOT review was 13 days in 2014. It helped us to improve the processing time from submission to decision to an average of 49 days. Essentially, this includes the time to find two reviewers, make a review, and find a first decision. In most cases, a revision and a second review plus decision is added.
New plans for 2015
First, we welcome to two new members to our Editorial board: Jan Burke (group leader “Geometrical Metrology”, Bremen Institute of Applied Beam Technology, Bremen, Germany) and Andrew Rakich (European Southern Observatory, Division of Technology, Munich, Germany). Both have done a marvelous job as guest editors for the focus issue on “Optics for Astronomy” and we are very happy to have their engagement secured for the further development of Advanced Optical Technologies.
Then we would like to turn your attention to the topics AOT will focus on in 2015. A list of topics has been fixed and all authors are welcome to submit related papers for the following topics:
Microoptics
Guest editors: Robert Brunner (University of Applied Sciences Jena, Germany), Tasso Sales (RPC Photonics, Inc., Rochester, USA)
Integrated Photonic Devices: Sensors, Materials, Systems
Guest editors: Meint Smit (TU Eindhoven, The Netherlands), Christian Koos (KIT, Karlsruhe, Germany), Peter O’Brien (Tyndall National Institute, Cork, Ireland)
Mikrolithography
Guest editors: Andreas Erdmann (Fraunhofer IISB Erlangen, Germany), Masato Shibuya (Tokyo Polytechnic University, Japan)
Applied Computational Optics
Guest editors: Frank Wyrwoski (FSU Jena, Germany), Jari Turunen (UEF Joensuu, Finland)
Standards
Guest editors: Michael Pfeffer (University of Applied Sciences Ravensburg-Weingarten, Germany), N.N.
It should be mentioned that these topics will be treated as the main content for the respective issues, but as you may already see in this issue, this is by no means a limitation. Beside the focus topics AOT intends to publish papers from all fields of applied optics in a separate section in each issue. Furthermore, we have developed the format of VIEWS papers, where people from the academic community as well as from industry can publish essential information that might not directly match the criteria of scientific publications. These are market reviews, interviews or even individual views on the development of topics relevant to the optics community.
After all, it is a challenge and a great pleasure to develop this publication platform with the optics community in industry and academia. For further improvements we appreciate all kinds of feedback, please do not hesitate to contact us. You may contact us via email, our website www.degruyter.com/aot or through various social media.
We are looking forward to hearing from you!
Yours sincerely,
Andreas Thoss
Publisher
Michael Pfeffer
Editor-in-Chief
About the authors
Andreas Thoss studied physics and received his diploma and PhD degrees from the Free University Berlin in 1995 and 2003, respectively. For both degrees, he did research at the Max-Born-Institute Berlin on the field of ultrashort and ultra-intense laser pulses. From 1996 to 1999, he worked as a development engineer for medical laser systems with Aesculap-Meditec (now ZEISS Meditec) in Jena. In 2003, he joined the international publishing house, John Wiley & Sons. There, he gathered comprehensive experience as publisher, editor, and commissioning editor in the areas of book, journal, and online publishing. Among others, he cofounded the journals, Laser & Photonics Reviews (2007) and the Journal of Biophotonics (2008). Since its foundation in 2010, he manages THOSS Media, where he cofounded Advanced Optical Technologies.
Michael Pfeffer graduated in 1998 at the Institute of Applied Optics at EPFL (Switzerland), obtaining his PhD for a thesis in the field of optical nanotechnology. In 2002, after several years of working in the Swiss optics industry, he was appointed Full Professor of Optics and Engineering in the Department of Physical Engineering of Hochschule Ravensburg-Weingarten, University of Applied Sciences (Germany). Dr. Pfeffer teaches and researches in the field of optics, physical instrument design, and nanotechnology. Currently, he serves as Vice-Rector for Research and International Relations. In 2005, the General Membership Meeting elected him to the Executive Board and CEO for the DGaO Annual Meeting 2006. From 2008 to 2012 he served as President of the German Society of Applied Optics (DGaO). In 2012 he was elected as Secretary of the Board of the European Optical Society (EOS). Dr. Pfeffer is member of the German Physical Society (DPG), the German Society of Engineers (VDI), and the Standards Committee Precision Engineering and Optics of the German Institute of Standardization (DIN).
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