Soft Matter

Carol StanierEditor, Soft Matter & Journal of Materials Chemistry

- where hard science gets soft and squishy

Introduction to soft matter

•What?

•Where from?

•Soft Matter – the journal

•Information resources

•Importance

Quantitatively:

D~1

Qualitatively:

Soft and squishy

What is soft matter?

What is soft matter?

•Image from http://www.eu-softcomp.net/

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1991/index.html

Interdisciplinarity

engineers

chemists

materials scientists

physicists

biologistsbiophysicists

physical chemists

organic

chemists

surface scientists

bioengineers

chemical

engineers

theoretical

physicists

theoretical

chemists

Why a new journal?

•43,000 members

•Interest groups

•Advancing the chemical sciences

Why a new journal?

RSC member feedback

Nowhere to publish on certain areas

Some overlap with physicsDifferent disciplines publishing in different places but on the same topics

Why a new journal?

•43,000 members

•Interest groups

•Advancing the chemical sciences

Soft Matter – from the RSC

• Bulk soft matter

• Nanotechnology

• Biological

• Surfaces & interfaces

• Building blocks

• Theory

Soft Matter – from the RSC

• Published with

Journal of Materials Chemistry• Free to subscribers of:

Web accesses

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

January February March April May June July

Use and citations

On water repellency

M. Callies and D. Quéré,

Soft Matter, 2005, 1, 55 – 61.

Cited 11 times

From our readership….

“I am interested in this journal, which has two specific merits: it promises to give good coverage of chemistry; it is the product of a not-for-profit organization. My hope for the future is that the soft matter communities can be united…..”

Professor Pierre-Gilles de Gennes,

College de France

From our readership….

You are undertaking a commendable endeavour in launching an interdisciplinary journal at the interface between physics, chemistry, materials science and biological physics.”

Dr Christos Likos, University of Düsseldorf, Germany

From our readership….

“A journal in this field has been missing.”

Professor Ulrich Wiesner,

Cornell University, USA

Information resources

•Journals

•Books

•Societies & Networks

Resources - journals

No other single journal combines all aspects of Soft Matter

Resources - books

Resources - societies

Conferences

• ACS

• MRS

• International Soft Matter Conference 2007• Nanoparticles: New Opportunities and

Challenges for Colloid Scientists• SoftNano

Significance of Soft Matter

•Interdisciplinarity•Home for community•Top academics•Not-for-profit publisher

Significance of Soft Matter

•Speed

•Color

Soft Matter goes solo

•Tested

•Community accepted

•Evidence

•Package A and A+