Dr. Ingo Dierking Appointed Section Editor-in-Chief of Section "Soft Matter" in Materials

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Ingo Dierking has been appointed Editor-in-Chief of the Section "Soft Matter" in Materials (ISSN: 1996-1944).

Dr. Ingo Dierking received his Ph.D. in 1995 from the University of Clausthal in Germany. After employment at the IBM TJ Watson Research Center in the US, working on electronic paper, he joined Chalmers University in Gothenburg, Sweden, as a Humboldt fellow. There, he was appointed docent, before joining the University of Darmstadt in Germany as a lecturer for several years and eventually moving to the University of Manchester in 2002, where he is a Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor at the Department of Physics & Astronomy. Dr. Ingo Dierking has published more than 150 scientific papers, as well as several books on the topic of liquid crystal research. He is the 2009 awardee of the Hilsum medal of the British Liquid Crystal Society (BLCS), the 2016 winner of the Samsung Mid-Career Award for Research Excellence of the International Liquid Crystal Society (ILCS) and the 2021 awardee of the Gray medal. Ingo Dierking is the editor of Liquid Crystals Today, the current President of the ILCS and a former Chair of the BLCS. His current research interests are broadly focused on soft-matter systems, with an emphasis on liquid crystals, and LC-based composites with polymers and nanoparticles.

The following is a Q&A with Dr. Ingo Dierking, who shared his vision for the Section, in addition to his views on the research area and Open Access publishing:

1. What appealed to you about the journal that made you want to take the role as its Section Editor-in-Chief?

The journal has a relatively wide scope and is appealing to a broad audience. It offers the possibility to obtain an overview of research topics one would not necessarily look for, for example, a soft matter physicist is exposed to nanomaterial research in the same issue of the journal and might run across an interesting title when looking through the table of contents. Similarly, as a Section editor with a background in liquid crystals, one is exposed to publications from the fields of polymers, colloids, or biological materials, which might enhance one’s own research.

2. What does the future of this field of research look like?

This is of course a question which is very different for each individual, so I would like to talk about this with my specific view and expertise on liquid crystals. The current research in liquid crystals as being applied in screens is slowly decreasing because there has already been so much research in this area that significant improvements from the side of materials are not needed anymore commercially. The future could lie in 3D screens or holography for screen-related technologies, and also in augmented reality applications. The applications in other areas are now being explored, such as drug delivery, biosensors, gas sensors and adaptive (micro)optics. From a fundamental point of view, different areas of soft matter could increasingly overlap, leading to a broader understanding of the field and the potential for further and largely different applications, especially through the exploitation of self-assembly and self-organization.

3. You have run several successful Special Issues, what did you find important to their success?

The activity and engagement of the Guest Editor are essential. I tend to send personalized emails to the authors I want to invite and to see participate in a special issue. Mass emailing does not attract me personally to submit, so that is what I try to avoid. On the other hand, receiving personalized emails from the GE makes me more likely to consider contributing, so this is what I do when I am a GE. Furthermore, a good and interesting choice of topic, which sets itself apart from those of other issues and journals, might also help.

4. What factors are important to you when selecting a journal to submit to?

In my opinion, the impact factor has become an overrated metric to judge the quality of research. Of course, as a researcher, one should have an interest in publishing quality research. For this, it is essential that a journal has a good review process in place. And of course, the impact factor in many cases allows us to distinguish quality research, but this has to be taken with a pinch of salt, as impact, for example, also depends on the size of the research field, etc. Personally, I believe that the primary question for an author should be: Who is my target audience for a particular research paper? Is it the science community, the soft matter community or the liquid crystal community? Who would I really want to read this paper? – of course, also with an eye on the impact.

5. What do you think of the development of Open Access in the publishing field?

There are certain risks with the concept of Open Access publishing, like predatory journals publishing every submission simply for the sake of maximizing profits. As such, a robust review process might be easier to implement for other publishers, although, of course, most of these, in the end, also publish for profit. The positive side is, of course, that OA publishing reaches a potentially much larger audience, also colleagues who might otherwise not have access to the literature. And of course, there are the funding agencies who often demand Open Access publishing. I believe that OA is a good concept for research publishing, as long as thorough peer review is ensured, costs are controllable, and it is ensured that excellent research is published independent of the financial situation of the authors. Lack of funds should not be a reason for the rejection of good research.

We wish Dr. Ingo Dierking every success in his new position, and we look forward to his contributions to the journal.