Special Issue: “q-Series and Related Topics in Special Functions and Analytic Number Theory”—Foreword

It is indeed a fairly common practice for scientific research journals and scientific research periodicals to publish special issues as well as conference proceedings. Quite frequently, these special issues are devoted exclusively to specific topics and/or are dedicated respectfully to commemorate the celebrated works of renowned research scientists. The following Special Issue: “q-Series and Related Topics in Special Functions and Analytic Number Theory” (see [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8] below) is an outcome of the ongoing importance and popularity of such topics as Basic (or q-) Series and Basic (or q-) Polynomials.

Basic (or q-) series and basic (or q-) polynomials are known to occur frequently in many diverse fields of mathematical, physical and statistical sciences. The recent overwhelming contributions toward the Rogers-Ramanujan, Jacobi’s Triple-Product and Macdonald Identities, Mock Theta Functions, Rogers-Ramanujan Continued Fractions, and so on, together with the recent developments involving such basic (or q-) functions of Analytic Number Theory as (for example) the q-Zeta and related q-functions, cannot be over-emphasized. Thus, naturally, it was rightly thought that the publication of a Special Issue of the MDPI Open-Access journal, Axioms, featuring invited articles in these and other related areas of the mathematical, physical and statistical sciences—especially in the year 2012 in which the world celebrated the 125th birth anniversary of Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887–1920)—would be a rather welcome and important event.

Finally, on my own behalf, as well as on behalf of the Members of the Editorial Board of Axioms, I am exceedingly delighted to thank all of the participating authors and the learned referees for their invaluable contributions toward the remarkable success of this Special Issue. I do also greatly appreciate the editorial help and assistance provided so very efficiently and so very co-operatively by Ms. Chelly Cheng and her many colleagues and associates in the Editorial Office of the MDPI Open-Access journal, Axioms.