In late July of this year, Thomson Reuters released its Journal Citation Reports (JCR). The JCR provide many evaluation metrics for scholarly journals. The most famous of these is, of course, the Impact Factor. I am pleased to announce to the Advances in Optics and Photonics (AOP) author, reader, and reviewer community that the Journal received an impressive debut Impact Factor of 9.688. Of the 82 journals in Thomson Reuter’s Optics Category, AOP is ranked second by the Impact Factor.

This incredible achievement would not have been possible without the vision and hard work of AOP’s founding editor, Bahaa Saleh. Through his leadership, Bahaa created a valuable home for high-quality, comprehensive review articles and tutorials.

Of course, Impact Factor is only one measure of a scientific journal’s overall influence, as it represents an average statistic during a particular time period. Many AOP articles have received tens and even hundreds of citations and continue to be well-cited years after publication. This is a testament to the lasting value of the individual efforts of our authors and reviewers.

I would particularly like to thank the early authors of AOP, who contributed to its success before knowing it would be one. I would also like to recognize the AOP reviewers. AOP’s long articles require an extensive time commitment from our reviewers, and we are grateful for their efforts. Both the authors and the reviewers provide an invaluable service to the community. The Journal’s remarkable debut Impact Factor is now a visible testament to the value of their contributions to the optics and photonics community. It is my hope that, with the efforts of current Associate Editors and Editorial Staff, AOP will improve further and will become an increasingly valuable asset for the entire optics community.