Meet the Editors | Interview with Prof. Dr. Philippe Lambin - Section EiC of “Nanotechnology and Applied Nanosciences”

1. Please give a brief introduction of yourself to the readers.

Emeritus full professor, having spent most of his career in teaching courses on theoretical physics and developing research activities in computational solid-state physics and theoretical nanoscience.

2. What attracted you to scientific editing? Additionally, could you please share the experience of your first editorial position?

Scientific editing is a nice opportunity to follow what is going on in a given field. It is also a way to help the scientific community by bringing in one’s own experience. This position may become difficult when it is required to take a position between contradicting reviewer reports. Dealing with plagiarism is another difficult issue, however fortunately rare.

3. How do you achieve a balance between research, policy, and practice, and the various professional communities?

Working more on the fundamental side than on the applied side of sciences, I do not have a conflict between my own research and editing duties. In any case, a good balance can be achieved by just being honest with oneself.

4. What kind of research are you looking forward to publishing? Which research topics do you think are of particular interest to the research community at present?

All questions related to societal issues are of particular interest. Sustainability of the environment, energy saving, material and device recycling, etc. are of utmost importance. These topics should receive special attention not only from scientists but also from the editorial board of scientific journals, including those devoted to humanities.

5. What advice would you offer to a beginning editor on a journal?

To pay attention to the referee’s reports. Some can be unfair, some can be fair. Fortunately, there are very good reports, which make the job easier.

6. Applied Sciences is an Open Access journal. How do you think Open Access impacts authors?

Open Access is becoming more and more an obligation. The positive impact for the authors is the rapid dissemination of their work. A side effect is money, with the long-term drawback that only researchers from rich institutions will publish in Open Access.