Name: Dr. Martin Lutz
Affiliation: Structural Biochemistry, Bijvoet Centre for Biomolecular Research, Faculty of Science, Utrecht University, Universiteitsweg 99, 3584 CG Utrecht, the Netherlands
Interests: hydrogen bonding; twinning; organometallic complexes; coordination complexes; X-ray crystal structure

The following is a short Q&A with Dr. Martin Lutz, who shared his vision for the journal with us, as well as his views of the research area and open access publishing:

What appealed to you about the journal that made you want to take on the role of Section Editor-in-Chief?
The most important point for me is accessibility. The journal is easily accessible for authors with few technical restrictions. Moreover, it is accessible for readers through the open access concept.

What is your vision for the journal?
The journal should offer a publishing platform representing the diversity of crystals research. Hopefully, this will encourage communication between the different branches of this research field. The quality of the papers should be central, as well as that of pre-publication and post-publication.

What does the future of this field of research field look like?
The future influence of artificial intelligence on the field will be huge. The research field needs to establish checks to take advantage of this rather new approach, and at the same time avoid the disadvantages. This viewpoint holds true for the research field itself and for the publication pipeline.

What do you think of the development of open access in the publishing field?
My home country is a member of the European Union and open access is, consequently, part of its policy. In my opinion, quality control is today already more important than the licensing/payment model.

We wish Dr. Martin Lutz every success in his new position, and we look forward to his contributions to the journal.