Ifor Samuel (left), Peter Skabara (centre) and Karl Ziemelis (right) share their insights into publishing in a workshop at the ERPOS 2017 conference in St Andrews.
Ifor Samuel (left), Peter Skabara (centre) and Karl Ziemelis (right) share their insights into publishing in a workshop at the ERPOS 2017 conference in St Andrews.

The 14th International Conference on Electrical and Related Properties of Organic Solids was held in St
Andrews (Scotland, UK) from July 9th to 13th.  It brought leading researchers on organic electronic and optoelectronic materials from 5 continents together to present the latest advances in organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), solar cells, photonics and underpinning photophysics and electrical properties.  A highlight of the conference was a publishing workshop sponsored by Elsevier.  

Three editors from different publishing groups introduced their journals and gave tips on how to get published – Ifor Samuel (Conference Co-Chair and Editor-in-Chief for Elsevier’s Synthetic Metals), Peter Skabara (Deputy Editor-in-Chief for RSC’s Journal of Materials Chemistry C) and Karl Ziemelis (Chief Physical Sciences Editor, Nature).  A recurring theme was that a good paper needs to have a clear message that is clearly explained, set in context and supported by the data.  Other tips included thinking about the audience for your work, and how to write an introductory paragraph.  A substantial part of the session was devoted to a question and answer session giving insights into the peer review and decision making process. 

The first ERPOS was in 1974 making it the longest running organic electronics conference series, and a natural forum for Synthetic Metals which started in 1979 making it the first journal devoted to the field of organic electronics.  In a world of OLED mobile phones and televisions, it was exciting to reflect on how far the field has come and see that it has much further to go.

Please click the following link to learn more about the journal Synthetic Metals.