Small History, Big Future

A spunky little journal publishing monthly issues on the new but incredibly hot topic of nanoscience and technology. That was Small, in 2005. At the time of its launch, only a handful of journals had started to show an interest in nanoscience, and most of them focused on a particular research area. There was nothing offering a truly broad scope to capture the full, growing readership of this necessarily interdisciplinary concept. “It seems odd,” wrote Professor Chad Mirkin of Northwestern University in the inaugural editorial, “given the breadth of this field and the tremendous level of interest in it, that a journal does not exist to attract some of the best pieces of work”. Fast forward to 2020: Small has covered a lot of ground over its first 15 years. A rising star in the Advanced journal family, it received a 2018 JCR impact factor of 10.856, cementing its reputation as a top forum for both experimental and theoretical research at the nano-, meso-, and microscales and demonstrating the importance of multidisciplinary studies, with many of its papers poised at the interface of materials science, chemistry, physics, engineering, medicine, and biology. Small has also developed as a brand in its own right, now accompanied by its young but exceptionally successful sister journal, Small Methods (www.small-methods.com), with hopes to expand this new family in the near future. Recent launches in the Advanced journal family have seen it branch out from materials science into other research areas of growing importance: Advanced Theory and Simulations (www.advtheorysimul.com) and Advanced Quantum Technologies (www.advquantumtech.com) are about to enter their third year of publication and the brand new, fully open access Advanced Intelligent Systems published its first issue on systems that combine hard (robotics, self-assembly) and soft intelligence (AI, machine learning) in May 2019. As Chad Mirkin's editorial indicated, staying at the forefront of new research areas and developing technologies is what scientific publishing is all about. The concept of nanoscience is still growing, entering new fields and finding new applications. Small and its sister journals thank you for the trust that you show and the value that you place in them, demonstrated not only by Small's impact factor but in the community that has grown up around this journal. We also want to thank our readers and contributors – whether in the role of author, reviewer, or editorial board member – for sharing your time, your research, your wisdom and expertise, all of which has helped to develop Small into such a strong and successful platform for high-quality nanoscience and technology. Here's to the next 15 years.