Abstract
With effect from August 2004 the journal Nanotechnology will discontinue the `Letters to the Editor' section. The increase in publication speed achieved for all articles now means that letters have no advantage. Fully electronic publication processes including electronic submission, refereeing and proofing, ensure that all papers are processed with minimum delay and are published as soon as they are ready. The journal will continue to publish high-quality original research papers, reviews and tutorials, as well as papers on the ethical and societal implications of nanotechnology at the discretion of the Editorial Board.
All submitted papers will undergo a pre-selection procedure for suitability by the Editors of the journal. If a paper is accepted for consideration by the journal it will be sent to independent experts in the field for peer review. To speed up the publication process, we encourage authors to suggest five independent experts in their field as potential referees and supply their title, name, affiliation and e-mail address. The Editors of the journal may use these names at their discretion. Authors may also request that certain people are not to be used as referees.
Papers of special interest will be given the utmost priority and on acceptance will be publicized further through worldwide press releases and reviews on the Institute of Physics website and on nanotechweb.org.
As a service to authors and to the international physics community, and as part of our commitment to give authors' work as much visibility as possible, all papers are freely available online for 30 days from their electronic publication date. This means open access for citations to everyone in the world. We will also send an electronic offprint of your published paper to ten colleagues of your choice, giving your article an increased chance of being cited quickly.
In the meantime, we are pleased to announce an increase in the Impact Factor of the journal in 2003 to 2.304, which means that Nanotechnology is now ranked as one of the top 10 journals in the world in the Applied Physics category. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our authors and referees for their contribution to the journal ensuring its growing quality and impact, and we welcome new papers in all areas of theory and experiment of nanoscale science and technology. For guidelines on how to submit your paper please visit the journal's home page www.iop.org/journals/nano.