In celebration of Soft Matter's fifth birthday, each month we are offering free access to a range of Soft Matter articles. This month's selection for our 'Top 5' series showcases the authors who have published the greatest number of articles in the journal since Soft Matter launched in 2005.  

In a close run competition we have not five but eight authors vying for the Top 5 slots. In joint first place are Helmuth Mohwald of the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, and Ulrich S Schubert from the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena. They are followed closely in third position by new Soft Matter Editorial Board Chair, Martien A Cohen Stuart from the University of Wageningen. Anna C Balazs, University of Pittsburgh and new Soft Matter Editorial Board member, is in fourth place; while the number 5 slot is shared by 4 authors: Andreas Fery (University of Bayreuth), Jian Xu (Chinese Acadamy of Science), Jean-Claude Voegel (University of Strasbourg) and Pierre Schaaf (CNRS).  

Why not submit your next article to Soft Matter now? Publishing work from the top authors in the field, Soft Matter is the Number One journal for both impact and immediacy.  

The following articles, all authored by our most published 'Top 5', are FREE to download for one month from 28th July 2009 - click on the titles to read more.