A knowledge-based society as fostered by the EU Lisbon Strategy plan actually requires a society-based knowledge, a knowledge with deep roots in the society. Scientific research is traditionally performed in hardly accessible academic institutions or in jealously protected industrial laboratories. There is a growing need for research activity to become a living part of society, to be perceived as a service bringing long-term benefits and a better quality of life.
EPL has still a modest impact factor [IF], only occasionally above 3 in connection with high-temperature and iron-based superconductors. This is too low when compared with the high quality of most EPL papers. It is fair to say that the IF does not really measure the impact of a journal but rather its visibility. The impact of a journal is measured by the scientific progress that has resulted from its papers, e.g., by the number of papers, which led to a Nobel Prize. Today visibility is nevertheless something a journal cannot do without, due to the growing background noise of hundreds of journals, often insignificant. It is the lack of visibility which leaves many remarkable papers written by…