Author: Richard Blythe
EPL is a respected non-profit journal that publishes letters at the frontiers of physics. On May 22nd 2025, its editorial board convened at the headquarters of the European Physical Society (EPS) in Mulhouse, France, to share their experience of handling manuscripts and discuss the journal’s strategic direction.
The meeting opened with Anne Pawsey, EPS Secretary General, explaining the society’s scientific responsibility for EPL. Uniquely it is owned by multiple national physical societies through the EPL Association. Petra Rudolf, chair of the Association, set out how the societies work together to ensure financial stabiity, independence from commercial interests, and deliver benefits to the participating societies.
As the day progressed, discussions covered many topics, ranging from the meticulous process of securing prompt, high-quality reviews to broader questions of maintaining trust in the scientific literature in an ever-changing technological and political context. Several key themes emerged that demonstrate how EPL is poised to meet these challenges.
A key strength is that the editorial board, led by Richard Blythe as Editor-in-Chief, is composed entirely of practising researchers drawn from all fields of physics and across the globe. Alongside their individual subject expertise, board members bring their own experiences and expectations they have of how a journal should serve both authors and reviewers. They discussed how to support authors and each other to ensure manuscripts reach high standards, and learnt how to be vigilant to recent trends that threaten the integrity of the scientific record.
Perhaps the biggest difference between EPL now and when it was founded 40 years ago is the transition from print to online publication, and with it the shift towards open-access publishing. Whilst the principle that scientific research outputs should be shared freely for the benefit of humanity is sound, this model is vulnerable to commercial exploitation. The editorial board showed strong commitment to the EPL’s values as a community-led journal, ensuring that they will continue be upheld as the conduct of research and its relationship with wider society evolves.
Although no-one knows what the next 40 years will bring, either in terms of scientific discoveries or how they will be reviewed and communicated, we look forward to EPL maintaining a high-quality service to authors, reviewers and readers. We thank everyone who has played a part in this over the past four decades, especially the EPS editorial staff for their hard work in making a complex board meeting run just as smoothly as the editorial process itself.
