As we celebrate Optics Letters’ 40th anniversary, I’d like to take a moment to highlight the major achievements of our Journal, which began in 1977 and became one of the world’s most prestigious journals in optics and photonics. In our 40 years of success, the Journal has regularly published groundbreaking research and maintained rigorous peer review standards. In its history, OL has received more than 62,000 submissions, amassing over 120,000 reviews, leading to more than 30,000 published papers and nearly 100,000 pages.

To kick off the commemoration of OL’s 40th anniversary, we launched an anniversary website that includes a list of the Journal’s most-cited papers, links to historical editorials from OL and Optics and Photonics News articles, recognition of every editor who has ever served on the editorial board, and special Editor’s Pick Collections of articles that have had particular impact in key areas of research. Coming soon are editorials by former Editors-in-Chief sharing stories and achievements from their tenures.

I believe that a journal’s quality depends upon the quality of its editors. Our outstanding Deputy Editors (DEs) and carefully selected Topical Editors (TEs) are top researchers from around the world, who are key to maintaining and improving OL’s standards and reputation. Currently, OL has three DEs and 55 TEs. We have broadened the geographical diversity of the editorial board by recruiting TEs from Asia, South America, and Russia. We are very proud of our median in-review time, 42 days, and total time to publication of 66 days, which are the result of the hard work of our dedicated TEs, reviewers, and support staff at OSA. Last year we added a new role of Feature Editor to oversee the selection of articles for Spotlight on Optics and Editor’s Pick, which draw attention to some of the most interesting work in the Journal.

OL is among the top-ranked journals in the Optics category of the Journal Citation Reports, with a 2015 Impact Factor of 3.040. Due to the growth in submissions, our TEs have been focused on maintaining the high standards for OL; however, this is also balanced with fulfilling our mission to support the greater optics and photonics community. I would be happy to see submissions and the Impact Factor increase in future years.

OL is known for rapid dissemination of the latest research Letters in optical science and technology. Publication criteria include newsworthiness to a substantial part of the optics community (novelty) and the benefit of rapid publication to the research of others. In September 2014, the DEs and I wrote an editorial titled “Acceptance criteria and editorial procedures for Optics Letters,” [1] which explained that OL requires two positive reviews in order to accept a paper for publication and that it does not accept papers that need major revisions. Unfortunately, this editorial might have given the impression that the acceptance criteria are more stringent than they are in reality. I want to make it clear that a single negative review does not result in automatic rejection of a paper. An OL TE may accept a paper based on one review that provides sound arguments for publication, despite weak or incomplete comments from the second reviewer with the opposite opinion. When there are conflicting reviews, the TE can either seek an additional review or the TE can provide one, based on his or her expert opinion. Papers that lack sufficient novelty and do not warrant rapid dissemination will generally be rejected by OL; however, the Journal is open to considering potentially controversial or unconventional papers. Such papers can become seminal work that might open new areas of research or revolutionize the way we understand science and technology.

As we look to the future during this 40th anniversary celebration, I am confident that OL will continue to serve the optics and photonics community by attracting high-quality research results. We welcome your contributions!