From Small Ideas…

…come great achievements. Small has successfully completed its fifth year and continues to go from strength to strength. The growing importance of nano- and microtechnology in science has seen a tremendous increase in publication activities in this field in the past decade. Combined with the fact that the 2008 Impact Factor of Small increased to 6.5, this has led to a staggering increase in the number of submissions to the journal, which has doubled in the past two years. We have to apply rigorous selection criteria to ensure that the very best papers are accepted. I thank my Deputy Editor, Mary Farrell, who has helped me in this difficult task. Our strict peer-review process has helped us to select the top 15% of submissions, which were accepted for publication. This task would not have been possible without the help of our referees, who selflessly offer their time and expertise in the evaluation of the scientific content of the papers. I thank all of our referees for their indispensible contribution to our success. Table 1 lists our Top 50 referees, those who have evaluated the most manuscripts in the course of 2009. I would be remiss not to also thank the hard-working members of our Editorial Advisory Board for their constant support and advice. 2009 saw Small double its frequency to 24 issues, which in itself was no small feat, pardoning the pun. I would like to thank the technical editorial team, especially Erin Arndt, Sophie Ladden, and Lisa Wylie, who oversaw the seamless transition from monthly to fortnightly publication. They not only ensured that twice as many issues continued to appear on schedule, but also cut down the publication time significantly in the process, whilst maintaining the high standards our readers have come to expect. Perhaps the most visible change was our new cover layout and the introduction of an inside cover, which attracted an eye-catching series of creative designs. The covers shown were featured recently in our “Cover of the Year Competition”.1 The cover pictures featured in the 2009 Cover of the Year Competition. As part of our continued innovation and to provide a better service to our readers, I invite you to visit www.MaterialsViews.com, our news service that helps keep you up to date with the latest developments across all areas in materials science. The site provides highlights from Small and all the top Wiley journals in the field. Other useful features include press releases, details on the latest Wiley Materials Science books, interviews, a jobs section, and much more. To reflect the growing importance of China on the world stage of scientific research, www.MaterialsViewsChina.com is the Chinese-language counterpart. You can also stay informed with current updates on the Small research arena on Twitter (http://twitter.com/smalljournal). As we start a new year and a new volume of Small, I hope that our first issue will rouse your interest. Some highlights include a Review by our Board member Francesco Stellacci and his co-author Ayush Verma, who explore the “Effect of Surface Properties on Nanoparticle–Cell Interactions”.1 The attractive cover belongs to the article by Robert Johnson et al., who investigate “The Nature of DNA-Base–Carbon-Nanotube Interactions”.2 The inside cover illustrates the article by Warren Chan (see also Table 1!) and his co-workers on “In vivo Quantum Dot Toxicity Assessment”.3 The Communication by So-Jung Park and co-workers, “Morphological Transitions of Block-Copolymer Bilayers via Nanoparticle Clustering”, is a VIP paper, assessed by all referees as “critically important”.4 I look forward to the exciting progress 2010 brings us in the nanoworld. I thank our readers for their constant support and we will continue to provide you with more exciting material. Last, but certainly not least, I thank our authors, whose hard work and perseverance cannot be sufficiently expressed. I look forward to reading more of your great achievements in the coming year. Jose