Soft Matter remains at the top of its field with an impact factor of 4.70, according to newly-released ISI citation data.

This impressive impact factor represents a rise of more than 7% over the 2006 value and clearly reinforces Soft Matter's position as the best journal where biologists, colloid scientists, physicists, polymer scientists, chemical engineers, chemists, and materials scientists can present work for interdisciplinary inspiration.

The impact factor is a measure of the number of times an "average article" in a journal has been cited in a particular year. The impact factor for 2007 is calculated from the total number of citations given in 2007 to articles published in 2005 and 2006, divided by the number of articles published in 2005 and 2006. 

Soft Matter also continues to have highest immediacy index in the soft matter field with this year's value at 0.784.   

The immediacy index is a measure of how topical and urgent the papers published by a journal are. It is calculated by dividing the number of citations to articles published in a given year by the number of articles published in that year.

The immediacy index is useful in comparing how quickly journals are cited. Because it is a per-article average, the immediacy index tends to discount the advantage of larger journals over smaller ones. For comparing journals specializing in cutting-edge research, the immediacy index can provide a useful perspective.

We would like to thank all our authors, referees and readers for their support since Soft Matter was launched in June 2005.