Thirtieth Anniversary Issue

The very first issue of Liquid Crystals appeared in February 1986, representing the culmination of a year of intense effort by the founding Editors, Geoffrey Luckhurst and Ed Samulski (Figure 1), and the publishers Taylor & Francis. I was a second year PhD student under Geoffrey’s supervision at that time, and clearly remember him proudly showing that inaugural issue to his research group. Little could I imagine then that 30 years and almost 6000 papers later, I would be writing the Preface for this Thirtieth Anniversary Issue.

Figure 1. (Colour online) Ed Samulski and Geoffrey Luckhurst planning the launch of Liquid Crystals (Cambridge, 1985).

Geoffrey and Ed recounted the key events leading up to the founding of the Journal in their Preface to the Twentieth Anniversary Issue [1]. Initially Geoffrey took the idea of a journal devoted to liquid crystals to the publishers Taylor & Francis for whom he had served as an Editor of Molecular Physics from 1977 to 1982. This proposal was discussed and reviewed by Michael Dawes (Director of Journal Publishing, Taylor & Francis), Alan Leadbetter (Associate Director of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory) and Geoffrey towards the end of 1984. It was quickly recognised that the Journal would need a North American Editor and Ed Samulski was recruited. George Gray was also included in these early discussions, later to become an Editor of the Journal himself. The style of the Journal was based on that of Molecular Physics, and in developing the Journal’s stylistic identity Eric Hulley played a pivotal role. More details of this period were recently recalled by Geoffrey in the Obituary he wrote for Tony Selvey [2]. The Journal has published a number of obituaries over the years but this one is unique in being the only one for a non-scientist. Tony had only recently been appointed Managing Director of Taylor & Francis when the discussions surrounding Liquid Crystals began. Gordon and Breach Science Publishers, the publishers at the time of a competing journal, Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals, raised a legal challenge to the introduction and promotion of the new journal Liquid Crystals. During this tense period, the first issues of Liquid Crystals appeared. The dispute finally reached the Supreme Court of the State of New York before the claims by Gordon and Breach were eventually dismissed. Without Tony’s steadfast support throughout this ordeal, it is highly unlikely that the Journal or for that matter the Editors, as Geoffrey recalls, would have survived.

In the intervening years the Journal has had surprisingly few Editors. George Gray succeeded Geoffrey in 1992, and two years later, Noel Clark replaced Ed Samulski. In 2000, I became Editor Designate [3], succeeding George in 2002 and becoming sole Editor in 2007. In the early years, the UK Editor was supported by an Assistant Editor, first myself (1988–1989), then Karl Heeks (1990), Ian Fletcher (1990–1993) and finally Andrew Blatch (1993–1997). Each Editor has on many occasions acknowledged the hugely important role played by the international Editorial Board in the development and growth of the Journal both in its formative years, and indeed ever since. There have been 122 members of the Board over the past 30 years, but how many of us turn to the inside cover of the Journal to see who they are? Each Board member has brought a fresh perspective to the Journal ensuring that it has never stagnated but instead has continued to evolve meeting the needs of the community it serves. In recognition of the invaluable role played by the Board over the past 30 years, Table 1 lists all 122 members together with their terms of office.

Table 1. The Editorial Board members during the first 30 years of Liquid Crystals.

Abe, A. (1988–94)	Kitzerow, H.-S. (2010–13)	Ramaswamy, S. (1991–95)
Asada, T. (1988–93)	Kléman, M. (1986–90)	Raynes, E.P. (1990–94)
Barbero, G. (2010–)	Kremer, F. (1995–99)	Rey, A.D. (2014–)
Bayle, J.-P. (1999–06)	Kumar, Sandeep (2010–)	Ringsdorf, H. (1986–92)
Blanca Ros. M (2014–)	Kumar, Satyen. (1999–09)	Rosenblatt, C.X. (1996–09)
Bobrovsky, A. (2006–13)	Lagerwall, S.T. (1996–06)	Ross, P. (1996–98)
Bos, P.J. (1997–01)	Laschat, S. (2014–)	Sadashiva, K. (2006–09)
Brand, H. (1997–06)	Lavrentovich, O.D. (2010–)	Serrano, J.L. (2006–09)
Bronnikov, S. (2014–)	Leadbetter, A.J. (1986–91)	Sambles, J.R. (1992–00)
Charvolin, J. (1986–91)	Lee, S.H. (2014–)	Samulski, E.T. (1994–95)
Cladis, P.E.R. (1986–93)	Lei, L. (Lui Lam)(1986–90)	Shashidhar, R. (1986–91)
Clark, M.G. (1986–90)	Lemieux, R.P. (2010–13)	Scherowsky, G. (1992–95)
Clark, N.A. (1986–93; 2007–)	Leslie, F.M. (1986–91)	Shen, Y.R. (1990–94)
Coles, H.J. (1994–03)	Levelut, A.M. (1990–94)	Seddon, J.M. (1995–99)
Čopič, M. (2006–09)	Lindblom, G. (1986–90)	Shibaev, V.P. (1986–91; 1999–2003)
Crawford, G. (1996–00)	Litster, J.D. (1986–87)	Shimizu, Y. (2003–)
Dabrowski, R. (2006–09)	Longa, L. (1990–94, 1999–06)	Sigaud, G. (1995–99)
Demus, D. (1986–93)	Lucchetti, L. (2003–09)	Stegemeyer, H. (1986–92)
Deschenaux, R. (2003–09)	Luckhurst, G.R. (1992–98; 2003–)	Strigazzi, A. (1997–06)
Doane, J.W. (1988–94)	Luz, Z. (1991–95)	Takezoe, H. (1993–97; 2006–13)
Donnio, B. (2010–13)	Madhusudana, N.V. (1996–06)	Thoen, J. (1995–99)
Freidzon, Ya. S. (1991–95)	Malthête, J. (1993–95)	Tiddy, G.J.T. (1986–92)
Fukuda, A. (1988–93; 1997–02)	Marcelis, A.T.M. (2006–)	Tschierske, C. (2000–06)
Garland, C.W. (1991–95)	Martins, A.F. (1990–03)	Uchida, T. (1986–90)
Gasparoux, H. (1986–90)	Matsunaga, Y. (1993–97)	Usol’tseva, N. (2000–06)
Gelbart, W.M. (1986–91)	Mori, A. (2001–09)	Vij, J.K. (1998–09)
Giroud-Godquin, A.M. (1991–95)	Moscicki, J.K. (1995–99)	Walba, D.M. (1996–03)
Gleeson, H.F. (2001–09)	Mottram, N.J. (2014–)	Wang, X.J. (1992–95)
Glogarova, M. (2001–06)	Muševič, I. (2014–)	Wang, L. (2010–13)
Goodby, J.W. (1989–94; 2006–)	Nicoletta, F.P. (2010–13)	Weissflog (2006–)
Górecka, E. (2014–)	Noël, C. (1986–93)	Wingen, R. (1996–00)
Gottarelli, G. (1991–95)	Nordio, P.L. (1993–97)	Wróbel, S. (2010–13)
Gray, G.W. (2003–2013)	Nguyen, H.T. (1999–03)	Wu, S.T. (2010–)
Hashim, R. (2014–)	Osipov, M.A. (2010–13)	Yang, H. (2014–)
Janik, J.A. (1986–90)	Patel, J.S. (1993–97)	Yoshizawa, A. (2010–)
de Jeu, W.H. (1986–92)	Photinos, D.J. (1995–09)	Zannoni, C. (1986–91)
Jones, C. (2000–06)	Picken, S. (2006–)	Zentel, R. (1992–00)
Kato, T. (2000–06)	Pindak, R. (1991–09)	Zhang, R. (1999–06)
Kats, E.I. (1990–94)	Pleiner, H. (1993–97)	Zimmermann, H. (1991–95)
Keller, P. (1995–99)	Praefcke, K. (1990–01)	Žumer, S. (2010–2013)
Kelly, S.M. (1993–01)	Prost, J. (1988–92)

The Journal has undergone four transformations over its 30 year history. It began life modelled on Molecular Physics (Figure 2(a)) undergoing its first change in 1995 (Figure 2(b)) to provide a larger area page size [4]. At the same time, the Journal’s strap line was changed from an international journal in the field of anisotropic fluids to an international journal of science and technology to emphasise clearly the importance of applications-based papers to the Journal [4]. Subsequent changes made in 1999 (Figure 2(c)) and 2007 (Figure 2(d)) allowed the journal to change the cover each month and highlight the striking nature of our science. In 1989, the Journal was endorsed by the European Physical Society and this endorsement has appeared on its cover ever since. The internal layout of the journal was redesigned in 2016 to reflect developments in publishing, enhance the version of the record and better meet the needs of today’s scholarly community [5]. This year also saw an increase in the frequency of the Journal to 15 issues per year with a commensurate increase in the number of printed pages.

Figure 2. (Colour online) The changing faces of Liquid Crystals. (a) 1986–94; (b) 1995–98; (c) 1999–2006; (d) 2007–to date.

The Journal has published relatively few Special Issues over the past 30 years and these are listed along with their Guest Editors in Table 2. In deciding to publish both the proceedings of the Eighth Specialized Colloque Ampère in 1988, and a year later, the Proceedings of the Twelfth International Liquid Crystal Conference held in Freiburg, Germany which celebrated the centenary of the discovery of liquid crystals, Geoffrey and Ed were acutely aware of the common perception that the quality of science and technology appearing in such proceedings falls below that achieved by regular issues. To counter this view, they stressed that these Special Issues, including Invited Articles, were to be thoroughly refereed ensuring that the high standards of the Journal were maintained [6,7]. Furthermore, it was imperative that these Special Issues did not impede the publication of regular contributed articles and to ensure this, the Journal was expanded from 6 to 12 issues [6]. This very much set the tone for how all subsequent Special Issues have been handled, and consequently, each one has significantly enhanced the Journal’s profile and reputation. Following the publication of the Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Liquid Crystal Conference held in Pisa, Italy, the Editors and the Editorial Board decided that the Journal would no longer publish complete conference proceedings both to ensure the quality of the Journal would be maintained at the highest possible standards, and that publication times would meet, whenever possible, authors’ expectations [8]. Last year saw the publication of the Commemorative Issue dedicated to George W Gray, CBE, FRS with John Goodby as Guest Editor. This issue combined articles describing new science, with papers describing collaborative works involving George and personal reminisces of meetings and friendships with him [9]. In many ways, it is a wholly unique issue and one which has been warmly received by the community. It reflects not only George’s enormous impact on liquid crystals, but also the key role he played in the development and growth of the Journal.

Table 2. Liquid Crystals: the special issues.

Special issue		Guest editors
Proceedings of the Eighth Specialized Colloque Ampère	1988 3 (6/7)	Martins, A.F.
Proceedings of the Twelfth International Liquid Crystal Conference	1989 5 (1–6)	Schneider, F. Stegemeyer, H.
Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Liquid Crystal Conference	1993 14 (1–6)	Chiellini, E. Veracini, C.A.
Liquid crystals. Present, past and future. Symposium held in honour of George W. Gray, FRS	1998 24 (1)	–
A chemical physics approach to liquid crystals: a symposium held in honour of Geoffrey Luckhurst	2005 32 (11/12)	Bates, M.A.
20th Anniversary Issue	2006 33 (11/12)	Luckhurst, G.R. Samulski, E.T.
A collection of invited articles from the 22nd International Liquid Crystal Conference	2009 36 (6/7)	–
Special issue dedicated to Pierre-Gilles de Gennes	2009 36 (10/11)	–
Commemorative issue dedicated to Alfred Saupe	2010 37 (6/7)	Luckhurst, G.R.
Liquid crystals that affected the World	2011 38 (11/12)	Goodby, J.W.
Festschrift for Noel A. Clark	2013 40 (12)	Walba, D.M.
A collection of invited articles from the 24th International Liquid Crystal Conference	2014 41 (3)	–
Commemorative issue dedicated to George W Gray, CBE, FRS	2015 42 (5/6)	Goodby, J.W.
Thirtieth Anniversary Issue	2016 43 (13–15)	–

A gap indicates that the issue did not have a Guest Editor.

To celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the journal, the founding Editors were tasked with selecting 20 of the most influential papers published by Liquid Crystals [1]. These papers were republished alongside commentaries written by the authors, which placed their work in a human context and described its impact on the field. As a guide, Geoffrey and Ed used a citation analysis to make the first cut of the 4000 papers that had been published over those twenty years. They then moderated this pre-selection in order to ensure a balance between the various areas of our field, given that we all know that the number of citations can differ greatly between different areas, and also to reflect the quality and timeliness of the work. To mark the thirtieth anniversary, I have asked the much simpler question – what are the most cited articles in the Journal’s history? Clearly many of these will have been published early in the life of the journal and to allow for this, Tables 3–5 list the 10 most cited articles in each of the three decades in which Liquid Crystals has been published. I have made no attempt to scale the total citations received according to the year of publication and so it may be expected that the analysis will favour papers published in the early years of each of the three decades although this is not always the case. Perhaps a surprising feature is that of the 30 articles listed, 13 were published in Special Issues reflecting the rigorous approach taken with these issues and put in place by Geoffrey and Ed. Indeed, the two most cited articles were both published as part of the Proceedings of the Twelfth International Liquid Crystal Conference. It is also interesting to note that the very first paper published by the Journal, an invited article by Horst Stegemeyer and his colleagues describing experimental studies on blue phases features amongst these most highly cited articles. This was clearly a perceptive choice for an opener by the founding Editors! Looking through these 30 articles all areas of our field are represented from applications, through theory and modelling, physical and structural characterisation to synthesis. This reflects the highly multidisciplinary nature of our subject, and Liquid Crystals remains the only journal devoted solely to publishing all aspects of liquid crystal science and technology. It is also interesting to note that almost three quarters of these highly cited papers include members of our international Editorial Board emphasising both the strong support that the Journal receives from the Board, as well as the high quality of the Board Members.

Table 3. The 10 most cited papers published in Liquid Crystals in the period 1986–1995 listed in chronological order of publication.

Year	Authors	Title	Ref.
1986	Stegemeyer H, Blümel T, Hiltrop K, Onusseit H, Porsch F	Thermodynamic, structural and morphological studies on liquid-crystalline blue phases	[10]
1989	Demus D	Plenary lecture – 100 years of liquid-crystal chemistry: thermotropic liquid crystals with conventional and unconventional molecular structure	[11]
1989	Wu BG, Erdmann JH, Doane JW	Response-times and voltages for pdlc light shutters.	[12]
1990	Luckhurst GR, Stephens RA, Phippen RW	Computer simulation studies of anisotropic systems. XIX. Mesophases formed by the Gay-Berne model mesogen	[13]
1992	Date RW, Imrie CT, Luckhurst GR, Seddon JM	Smectogenic dimeric liquid crystals. The preparation and properties of the α,ω-bis(4-n-alkylanilinebenzylidine-4ʹ-oxy)alkanes	[14]
1993	Chandrasekhar S	Discotic liquid crystals – a brief review	[15]
1993	Boden N, Borner RC, Bushby RJ, Cammidge AN, Jesudason MV	The synthesis of triphenylene-based discotic mesogens – new and improved routes	[16]
1994	Kitzerow HS	Polymer-dispersed liquid crystals – from the nematic curvilinear aligned phase to ferroelectric-films	[17]
1994	Revol JF, Godbout L, Dong XM, Gray DG, Chanzy H, Maret G	Chiral nematic suspensions of cellulose crystallites – phase-separation and magnetic-field orientation	[18]
1994	Attard GS, Date RW, Imrie CT, Luckhurst GR, Roskilly SJ, Seddon JM, Taylor L	Nonsymmetrical dimeric liquid crystals. The preparation and properties of the α-(4-cyanobiphenyl-4ʹ-yloxy)-ω-(4-n-alkylanilinebenzylidene-4ʹ-oxy)alkanes	[19]

Table 4. The 10 most cited papers published in Liquid Crystals in the period 1996–2005 listed in chronological order of publication.

Year	Authors	Title	Ref.
1996	Ponomarenko SA, Rebrov EA, Bobrovsky AY, Boiko NI, Muzafarov AM, Shibaev VP	Liquid crystalline carbosilane dendrimers: First generation.	[20]
1996	Bouteiller L, LeBarny P	Polymer-dispersed liquid crystals: Preparation, operation and application	[21]
1998	Levelut AM, Clerc M	Structural investigations on ‘smectic D’ and related mesophases	[22]
1998	Lavrentovich OD	Topological defects in dispersed liquid crystals, or words and worlds around liquid crystal drops	[23]
1999	Pelzl G, Diele S, Jakli A, Lischka C, Wirth I, Weissflog W	Helical superstructures in a novel smectic mesophase formed by achiral banana-shaped molecules	[24]
1999	Pelzl G, Diele S, Grande S, Jakli A, Lischka C, Kresse H, Schmalfuss H, Wirth I, Weissflog W	Structural and electro-optical investigations of the smectic phase of chlorine-substituted banana-shaped compounds	[25]
2000	Dingemans TJ, Samulski ET	Non-linear boomerang-shaped liquid crystals derived from 2,5-bis (p-hydroxyphenyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazole	[26]
2001	Paleos CM, Tsiourvas D	Supramolecular hydrogen-bonded liquid crystals	[27]
2004	Kumar S	Recent developments in the chemistry of triphenylene-based discotic liquid crystals	[28]
2005	Kumar S	Triphenylene-based discotic liquid crystal dimers, oligomers and polymers	[29]

Table 5. The 10 most cited papers published in Liquid Crystals in the period 2006–2016 listed in chronological order of publication.

Year	Authors	Title	Ref.
2006	Cristiano R, Vieira AA, Ely F, Gallardo H	Synthesis and characterization of luminescent hockey stick-shaped liquid crystalline compounds	[30]
2009	Goodby JW, Saez IM, Cowling SJ, Gasowska JS, MacDonald RA, Sia S, Watson P, Toyne KJ, Hird M, Lewis RA, Lee SE, Vaschenko V	Molecular complexity and the control of self-organising processes	[31]
2009	Xianyu H, Wu S-T, Lin C-L	Dual frequency liquid crystals: a review	[32]
2009	Imrie CT, Henderson PA, Yeap G-Y	Liquid crystal oligomers: going beyond dimers	[33]
2009	Ravnik M, Zumer S	Landau-de Gennes modelling of nematic liquid crystal colloids	[34]
2010	Donaldson T, Staesche H, Lu ZB, Henderson PA, Achard MF, Imrie CT	Symmetric and non-symmetric chiral liquid crystal dimers	[35]
2011	Goodby JW	The nanoscale engineering of nematic liquid crystals for displays	[36]
2011	Henderson PA, Imrie CT	Methylene-linked liquid crystal dimers and the twist-bend nematic phase	[37]
2011	Bushby RJ, Kawata K.	Liquid crystals that affected the world: discotic liquid crystals	[38]
2011	Hird M	Ferroelectricity in liquid crystals-materials, properties and applications	[39]

The most recent innovation regarding the Journal came in 2009, when the Publishers contacted me to discuss the possibility of introducing a prize for the best paper published each year in Liquid Crystals [46]. I thought this was a wonderful idea, and one which would provide a real stimulus to our community. The prize needed a name, and we could think of none more fitting than the Luckhurst–Samulski Prize, not only in honour of their roles in founding the Journal but also for their outstanding contributions to liquid crystal science. Many years earlier, George had compiled a list of what he considered 16 of the best published papers from January 1993 to June 1994 and he found making this selection difficult [47]. Somehow choosing just one paper from the 200 or so published each year was clearly going to be a challenging and daunting task! To ensure a thorough and rigorous appraisal of the published articles each year, the selection process for the Prize begins with the referees, who as part of the refereeing process can flag papers they consider worthy of consideration. These suggestions are then brought to the attention of the Selection Committee which comprises the Editor and the Editorial Board. The Selection Committee is tasked with drawing up a long list of nominations giving due consideration to but not constrained in any way by the referees’ suggestions. Each member of the Selection Committee can nominate as many, or as few, papers as they feel appropriate. The papers receiving most nominations form the shortlist and each member of the Selection Committee votes for which paper they believe to be best. Of course, any member of the Selection Committee having a shortlisted paper is excluded from the final stage of the selection process. The Luckhurst–Samulski Prize has now been awarded on seven occasions and the Prize winners are listed in Table 6. This list comprises a highly a diverse range of papers and reflects the strongly multidisciplinary nature of our field. The Luckhurst–Samulski Prize has rapidly become a major prize in the field of liquid crystals and its annual presentation is normally held at either the International Liquid Crystal Conference or the European Conference on Liquid Crystals.

Turning now to this Special Issue celebrating the Thirtieth Anniversary of Liquid Crystals. At the Editorial Board meeting held at the 2015 ECLC in Manchester, it was unanimously agreed that we should mark this significant anniversary of the Journal by publishing a special issue. As noted earlier, to celebrate the 20th anniversary, we reprinted a collection of the highest cited articles published in the first twenty years alongside new commentaries written by their authors. It may be argued that, in some ways, this was a retrospective view for the Journal to have taken. To contrast with this approach, it was decided to mark the thirtieth anniversary by taking a forward look by inviting the next generation of liquid crystal researchers to contribute articles. Thus, it was agreed that the special issue would consist of 30 invited articles each written by an early career researcher. As can be seen, these papers describe original research, constitute a review or in many cases, a combination of the two. The key aspect, however, is that the early career researcher is the senior author of the contribution. These 30 Invited Articles encompass all areas of liquid crystal science and technology ranging from synthesis, through characterisation, modelling and theory to applications. I have attempted to group them thematically although as you will see many cut across such theme boundaries. We have already recalled that the very first paper published in Liquid Crystals described the blue phase, and it seemed wholly fitting that the first group of articles in this thirtieth anniversary should do likewise.

Table 6. The winners of the Luckhurst–Samulski Prize.

Year	Authors	Title	Ref.
2009	Goodby JW, Saez IM, Cowling SJ, Gasowska JS, MacDonald RA, Sia S, Watson P, Toyne KJ, Hird M, Lewis RA, Lee S-E, Vaschenko V	Molecular complexity and the control of self-organising processes	[31]
2010	Jakli A	Electro-mechanical effects in liquid crystals	[40]
2011	Skarabot M, Lokar Z, Gabrijelcic K, Wilkes D, Musevic I	Atomic force microscope based method of measuring short cholesteric pitch in liquid crystals	[41]
2012	Picken SJ, Dingemans TJ, Madsen LA, Francescangeli O, Samulski ET	Uniaxial to biaxial nematic phase transition in a bent-core thermotropic liquid crystal by polarising microscopy	[42]
2013	Pieranski P, Yang B, Burtz LJ, Camu A, Simonetti F	Generation of umbilics by magnets and flows	[43]
2014	Takezoe H, Araoka, F	Polar columnar liquid crystals	[44]
2015	Alshomrany A, Clark NA	Fisheye lens conoscopy	[45]

It is all too easy to overlook the role played by the publisher in the success of a journal. Geoffrey had worked closely with Taylor & Francis for a number of years as Editor of Molecular Physics. He knew them to be a publisher with a long tradition of service to and collaboration with the scientific community, and viewed them as a natural choice for Liquid Crystals. We have already seen the involvement of Tony Selvey, Michael Dawes and Eric Hulley in the embryonic years of the Journal. To this list I must add Colin Bulpitt who many of you will know through his attendance at conferences, and who has provided me with invaluable support throughout my term as Editor. Taylor & Francis continue to be enthusiastic supporters of our community. Not only do they publish Liquid Crystals, Liquid Crystals Today, and since 2001, and in a delicious twist of irony, Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals, but have also provided sponsorship for the Luckhurst–Samulski Prize and generous support for numerous conferences and symposia. Furthermore, 2013 saw them launch the new journal, Liquid Crystals Reviews edited by Oleg Lavrentovich [48].

What does the future hold? We live in metrics-driven times in which high impact factors are often taken as a measure of assured quality. This viewpoint can be, and is debated at length, but realistically to attract the best work in our field the Journal must have a high impact factor. In this respect, the Journal’s performance has never been stronger. We have seen a significant and sustained improvement in the impact factor over a number of years. A second measure of the Journal’s health is that 2016 has seen a record number of submissions and at a time when there has never been a greater multitude of journals for authors to chose from. This success reflects the high esteem in which Liquid Crystals is held by our community but raises challenges, albeit welcome ones, for everybody associated with the Journal. How do we ensure the rapid publication of papers so important to authors? This is by no means a new challenge, and in their first anniversary editorial the founding Editors and the Publishers stressed their commitment to reducing publication times ‘while maintaining the highest standards’ [49]. Indeed, this has been an on-going theme, George commenting in 1995 that publication times are key to the Journal’s success while again ensuring the highest possible standards [4]. Clearly, these sentiments remain as true today as they were then. As authors we all want our work to be published as rapidly as possible but of course this is subject to constraints. The Journal relies not only on the prompt action of referees who play a key role in helping authors to improve their papers, but also on the authors themselves in implementing these changes. In turn, the Publishers are committed to reducing the time taken to prepare manuscripts for publication post acceptance, but this also relies on a rapid turn around of the proofs by the authors. We will continue to strive to make publication times as short as possible but never at the expense of the high standards the community has come to expect and demand from Liquid Crystals. In short, the outlook for Liquid Crystals is particularly strong.

Liquid Crystals began with Geoffrey’s vision of a journal devoted solely to liquid crystals and from it has emerged a well-established, internationally highly respected journal. Undoubtedly it has been, and continues to be a major success. It provides a valued service to our community and in turn, receives excellent support from it. My thanks must be extended to the international Editorial Board, to the authors who submit their work, to the referees who give of their time freely and ensure our high standards are maintained, to the Publishers but most of all to the readers without whom a Journal ceases to exist. I can think of no more apt way to finish this Preface but to quote from the founding Editors’ very first editorial ‘this is a burgeoning field of interdisciplinary endeavour and now is an exciting time to be involved in liquid crystal research’ [50]. Have truer words ever been written?

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.