I hope everyone’s year is going well! Based on my last year of experiences, I hope 2019 is providing you with: 1) good health, 2) an unparalleled closeness to family and friends, 3) an interesting and productive career progression, and 4) financial success. I think these are close to the right order of priority.

At Applied Optics, as usual, we had a very good year due to your participation, authorship, readership, review activities, and high-quality work. We ended up with about the same number of submissions in 2018 as we had in 2016 and 2017. Prior to 2016, we had significant growth over a period of 4 to 5 years. One of the reasons was the increase in submissions from Asia and, in particular, China. I think submissions are leveling off now and will reach steady state for some time. The number of papers published has also been steady with 1,557 in 2018, almost identical to the previous year (Table 1), with 60% of those published papers coming from Asia and the Pacific Rim. The acceptance rate has been gradually falling but it is in the right ballpark (close to 50%) to ensure a high level of significance and originality.

Table 1. Published Papers in Applied Optics

View Table | View all tables in this article

Another important performance parameter for Applied Optics is the time to publication, which includes the peer review cycle time (Table 2). Lately, authors have been very interested in how quickly Applied Optics can process a paper, provide a review, render a decision, require modifications, and rush a manuscript to production. While we do not attempt to rush a paper through this process at the expense of paper quality, it is sometimes important to authors for a variety of reasons. It can mean that a student will graduate in a certain timeframe, it may be required for a promotion, or an author may want the paper published as support for obtaining a particular position. Whatever the reason, this metric has become more and more important in our digital technology age. Our time to publication is competitive, and we would like to improve upon it as much as possible.

Table 2. Applied Optics Time to Publication (in Days)

View Table | View all tables in this article

Another strong point for the journal is the diversity of its editorial board. Our editors are based in 21 different countries with more than half coming from outside the U.S. Also, the percentage of women on our board is now 18%. This is a good start, but I am committed to finding high quality candidates who will improve the representation of women on the board. I encourage Applied Optics readers to contact me to suggest candidates for future open positions.

Overall, 2018 was an outstanding year. Applied Optics continues to be healthy and to serve the author community as well as the applied optics reader community in ways that are not appropriate for other journals. In a time when there are a huge number of competitor journals entering the market, OSA and Applied Optics maintain the mission of providing a high-quality conduit for applied optics and electro-optics publications to both the reader and author. We continue to protect our legacy as the “go-to” journal of record for applied research in the optics field. Our team of Topical Editors, Deputy Editors, and journal staff are in a good position to ensure continued success for Applied Optics.