Advances in Optics and Photonics (AOP) is OSA’s first journal of reviews and tutorials. While review articles appear occasionally in OSA journals, particularly in feature and focus issues, AOP is designed to capture the most significant advances in optics and photonics by publishing exclusively in-depth state-of-the-art reviews and serious peer-reviewed tutorials. Quality is assured by OSA’s outstanding network of subject-matter experts, distinguished topical editors, and superb peer-review infrastructure. The scope of the journal is as broad as the field itself, covering both basic and applied topics in all aspects of optics and photonics, including materials, devices, and systems. The readership is expected to be students, researchers, scientists, engineers, and professionals wishing to keep up with the rapid progress in optics and photonics by reading overviews and summaries of new concepts and emerging technologies.

As an online journal, AOP articles have internal navigational links and external reference linking, as well as multimedia enhancements. Text and graphics of all articles are copy edited with an ultimate goal of improving readability and maximizing educational value. Another feature of AOP will be peer-reviewed Letters To The Editor. Some of these contributions are expected to provide material supplementing published reviews or tutorials. A link will be added to the original article so that future readers see supplementary material or comments pertaining to the article, all in one place. The intent is not to create a “Wikipedia,” but rather to make reviews more comprehensive by filling gaps in a published article with peer-reviewed supplementary material that is deemed by the reviewers to be significant.

The idea of AOP emerged at meetings of the OSA Publications Council and the Long Term Planning Strategic Committee, and was enthusiastically supported by the OSA editors and volunteers at forums such as the OSA annual Leadership Conference. The OSA Board of Directors readily endorsed the concept and envisioned AOP as an effective medium for advancing both education and research in optics and photonics. In this spirit, all AOP tutorials will be open access (free introductory access to review articles will be provided for a limited time following the journal launch). An advisory council of world-renowned leaders is providing a pool of expertise for the selection of topics and authors, and for setting new directions for the emerging journal. Thanks to the enormous effort of the OSA outstanding publications staff, the new journal has now become a reality, and this inaugural issue is published on time and is meeting OSA’s high standards of production quality and reliability. Two or three additional issues are expected this year and a quarterly publication rate is expected in future years. As in other OSA journals, each article will be published immediately upon its completion and will be assigned to the next issue.

This inaugural issue of AOP has four papers. Two reviews deal with optical wires: R. M. Osgood et al. review the nonlinear optical properties and applications of Si wires, and G. Brambilla et al. review the fabrication and applications of microwires and nanowires. The third paper is a review by Q. Zhan of cylindrical vector beams, including their generation, manipulation, and applications. A tutorial by J. Hu and C. R. Menyuk covers leaky modes in slab waveguides, comparing different computational methods for assessing their properties. Articles in the pipeline for future issues include a review by I. A. Walmsley and C. Dorrer of methods for characterization of ultrashort pulses, a review by G. Li of state-of-the-art technology for coherent optical communication systems based on digital signal processing, and a review by S M. Barnett and S. Croke of quantum state discrimination.

While AOP publishes only invited papers, we will consider unsolicited proposals outlining possible reviews or tutorials and, if the proposal is deemed to fit the objectives and standards of AOP, encourage the preparation and submission of manuscripts. During the past year, we received a few manuscripts that were deemed to be more suitable for submission to other OSA journals, which publish contributed papers instead of reviews or tutorials.

As founding editor, I am very pleased with the strong interest in AOP expressed by colleagues in the optics and photonics community and with the willingness of many busy authors to contribute to the nascent journal. It is not easy to write a comprehensive long review or tutorial, but the value of such a contribution can be enormous. Citations of excellent reviews sometimes exceed those of any of the original papers that helped create a new area. I invite authors, readers, and reviewers to continue to send me their comments, suggestions, or questions. The feedback I have received from many colleagues has been most helpful in the launching of AOP.

Bahaa Saleh