Introducing Huiyun Liu, Editor-in-Chief for Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics

Dear readers,

As I start my tenure as the next Editor-in-Chief for Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics (JPhysD), it is my pleasure to welcome you all as authors, reviewers and readers to this excellent journal and I look forward to working with you over the coming years. JPhysD is a highly reputable journal with a long illustrious history and it is an honour for me to work on this journal.

Before I begin to outline my vision for JPhysD, I would like to thank my predecessor, Juan Ramon Morante. He has led the journal's editorial board over the past few years, during which time the journal has seen a rapid growth in impact, commissioned output and scope and leaves the journal in a very healthy state as he steps down as Editor-in-Chief. I would also like to thank the editorial board for their excellent work in commissioning and reviewing for the journal and it will be an honour to lead the board and serve the broad applied physics community.

The future of applied physics is very bright: it is seeing unprecedented growth in volume and quality of research output. JPhysD, as one of leading journals in applied physics, publishes a range of article types from state-of-the art reviews to high quality original research articles to the highly popular forward-looking Roadmaps written by leaders in their respective fields, reflecting all the various aspects in this developing field.

Over the coming year, I would like to see the journal to develop further in publishing high quality articles by leading authors on the cutting edge of applied physics. So, our principle aim will be to grow to 3 and higher in impact factor and with that become a quartile journal in the JCR applied physics category.

To achieve this aim, first I would like to see the journal increase the quality of the articles it publishes. It is a community-embedded title with a strong editorial board and robust peer review process. I would like to invite people to contribute to the journal in whatever way they feel able to, be it reviewing for the journal, guest editing a special issue or authoring original research articles or topical reviews. There are plenty of reasons to work with us:

• It is a broad scope title encompassing all of applied physics including semiconductor devices and materials, photonics, energy-related materials and devices, biological applications, magnetism, nanoscience and technology, low-temperature plasma and its application, applications of surface and interface science and advanced and quantum materials.
• It has a high impact factor for an applied physics title (2.829) and growing, and is highly visible with over 1.6 million downloads per year.
• We offer a fast but fair and thorough peer review with a median receipt to first decision time of 8 days and average receipt to acceptance of less than 80 days.

Next, crucial to JPhysD's success has been its vigorous commissioning programme. We will continue to maintain this and increase our coverage of the latest developments in applied physics by leaders in their fields. Topics covered so far include neuromorphic computing, phase change memory, nitrogen fixation and perovskite-based optoelectronics, and we will continue to expand our topical review programme to silicon photonics, 2D materials and devices, and interface engineering for nanomaterials and nanodevices.

Finally, a special mention to our Roadmap programme—these articles offer a comprehensive state-of-the-art survey of an entire field of applied physics or technology discussing the current challenges and views on how these might be overcome. Highly popular and very well cited, these articles are useful not only for specialists working in the field, but also serve as introductions for people working in funding agencies and non-specialists wishing to understand more about a field. In the following year, we will be publishing no less than six roadmaps including:

• The 2020 plasma catalysis roadmap led by Annemie Bogaerts and Xin Tu
• The 2020 UV emitter roadmap led by Robert Martin and Tim Wernicke
• The 2020 skyrmionics roadmap led by Christian Pfleiderer
• The 2020 battery technology roadmap led by Jianmin Ma and Yutao Li
• The 2020 magnetism roadmap led by Andreas Berger
• The 2020 photovoltaics roadmap led by Greg Wilson, Mowafak Al-Jassim, Wyatt Metzger

I would like to end this opening editorial with a final thank you to Tom and the JPhysD team for offering me this excellent and exciting opportunity to work on JPhysD and serve the applied physics community.

Huiyun Liu