Marking the 50th Anniversary of JJAP
This is the first issue of volume 51—the 50th or golden anniversary of the Japanese Journal of Applied Physics (JJAP). It was in July 1962 that the first issue of volume 1 was published, which contained 12 articles (eight regular papers and four short notes) over 69 pages; the entire JJAP volume 1 consisted of 68 articles over 366 pages. Since then, the journal has contributed to the advancement and dissemination of knowledge in all fields of applied physics, on the basis of the editorial policy of publishing articles dealing with the applications of physical principles as well as those concerning the understanding of physics with specific applications in mind.
The growth of the journal over these 50 years has been significant: the last JJAP volume (Vol. 50, 2011) contained 1788 articles over 8318 pages, meaning that the annual number of articles and page count have increased more than tenfold over these 50 years. The growth of the journal has been fueled not only by the research and development of modern technologies, such as semiconductor devices including very large scale integration (VLSI) technology, lasers, photonic devices, superconductors, and magnetic recording, but also by research and development in other diverse areas such as plasma physics and particle accelerators. The growth in recent years has also been fueled by research and development in nanoscale science and technology, applied bioscience, and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS).
The letters section “JJAP Letters” was launched in January 1980 (Vol. 19) to meet the increasing demand for the rapid dissemination of new and important results. A new format was then given to the letters section in January 1982 (Vol. 21) to enable even more rapid and efficient dissemination of results, and the journal appeared in a new format consisting of Parts 1 and 2, which were bound separately. "JJAP Part 1" contained regular papers and short notes, while “JJAP Part 2” contained letters. Notably, the growth of Part 2 was phenomenal from 1986 (Vol. 25) to 1987 (Vol. 26), mainly due to new findings on high-temperature superconductors; the number of articles in Part 2 in 1987 was 725, more than twice that in 1986. Moreover, a new section "Express Letters" was introduced in Part 2 in April 1998 (Vol. 37) to further highlight articles expected to have significant impact on applied physics and/or technology and worthy of immediate publication. Then, in January 2008 (Vol. 47), Part 2 (Letters and Express Letters) was relaunched as Applied Physics Express (APEX), a letters-based journal and a sister journal of JJAP, for the further rapid dissemination of new, high-impact results and findings in the fields of applied physics. The last APEX volume (Vol. 4, 2011) contained 428 articles over 1260 pages.
Nowadays, JJAP consists of “Regular Issues” and “Special Issues”. The former are published online daily and in print monthly, and contain regular papers, rapid communications, brief notes, and review papers; in some cases, a special section entitled “Selected Topics in Applied Physics (STAP)” is contained therein, to highlight specific topics in applied physics and to feature rapidly developing current trends in selected research areas. In addition, at least several Special Issues are published every year, which feature articles originating from selected international conferences.
The journal continues to publish work in all fields of applied physics, including a number of interesting, fast moving, and also newly developing areas. We hope to continue to serve as one of the major international journals in the fields of applied physics. We thank all the authors, readers, reviewers, and editors who have contributed to the journal, and we look forward to working with you over the next 50 years.
