Exploring toward a Broader Space: The Upcoming New Voyage of <i>Aggregate</i>

Developing a top-notch journal is a great yet challenging voyage. To sail steadily and speedily toward the ultimate destination, the ship of Aggregate needs a compass and an engine. The compass is the original aspiration of publishing high-quality research accomplishments on aggregate science, and the engine is the enthusiastic support from the scientific community, including the authors, reviewers, readers, and editorial board members. In the past four years, Aggregate enjoyed a successful takeoff followed by high-speed sailing. Now it has arrived at the transition point of the next-stage shipping line, where we should summarize the previous performance and envision the upcoming new voyage toward a broader space. In 2024, Aggregate received the 2nd Journal Impact Factor (JIF) of 13.9, maintaining a Q1 ranking in three categories: “Chemistry, Multidisciplinary”, “Chemistry, Physical”, and “Materials Science, Multidisciplinary” based on the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) 2024 published by Clarivate Analytics. For the first time, Aggregate received a CiteScoreTM of 17.4, ranking top 5% and 6% in the categories of “Chemistry: Chemistry (Miscellaneous)” and “Materials Science, Materials Chemistry,” respectively. Besides the impressive journal metrics mentioned above, 2024 is a year of rapid expansion for Aggregate in terms of a significant increase in the numbers of manuscript submissions and paper publications, a broader scope of the journal, a stronger editorial board team, and a wider range of authors and reviewers (Figure 1). So proud to say that the “compass” is upgraded, and the “engine” is further empowered! To date, Aggregate has received manuscript submissions from international authors in 38 countries/regions. In 2024, Aggregate has published 185 papers until November 13, 2024 (Figure 1A). Considering the continuous increase in the number of published papers, we have decided to shift Aggregate from the current bimonthly journal to a monthly journal from 2025. To maintain high quality with increased quantity, we will set a higher standard for prescreening, while keeping our tradition of fast and fair peer review. In the past 12 months, the acceptance rate has gradually dropped and the average times from the submission to the first and final decisions have been shortened to 12 and 25 days, respectively. Aggregate aims to grow into a comprehensive and multidisciplinary journal in the area of aggregate science, covering significant advancements and innovative breakthroughs in a wide range of research fields, including chemistry, materials science, physics, engineering, nanotechnology, biology, life science, and so on. Aggregate encourages paradigm shift in research philosophy and promotes the study of complex systems and processes at higher structural hierarchy across disciplinary boundaries. We emphasize that all the studies beyond the level of single molecules or ions are within the scope of Aggregate. There are encouraging signs that the publications in Aggregate have become more multidisciplinary with great diversity according to the Citation Topics Micro from Web of Science (Figure 1B), covering research topics such as organic/inorganic/biological aggregates [1-3], supramolecular assembly [4], functional polymers [5], stimulus-responsive materials [6], optoelectronics and photovoltaics [7], theranostics and healthcare [8], and so forth. Aggregate continues to attract outstanding researchers all over the world to serve as editorial board members and to provide scientific advices on the operation of the journal (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal/26924560/homepage/editorial-board). In 2024, 21 distinguished scholars from Asia, Europe, and North America have joined our Editorial Board (48 in total), along with 14 new Advisory Board members (54 in total) and 32 new Next-Generation Board members (60 in total; Figure 1C). In 2024, 77% of the editorial board members of Aggregate have been ranked as “Top 2% Scientists” of the year, according to the “Stanford University Top 2% Scientists List 2024” (https://top2percentscientists.com/stanford-elsevier-top-scientists-list-2024/). This reflects the research strength and international visibility of the editorial board team of our journal. In 2024, an onsite editorial board meeting was held in Guangzhou and two online editorial board meetings were conducted to address the current publishing issues and to set new goals for the next-phase development. Aggregate values the community of our authors and reviewers, whose rigorous scientific spirit of exploration has laid a solid foundation for the quality of the papers. As the journal's influence expands, more authors and reviewers have become familiar and engaged with Aggregate (Figure 1D). Noteworthily, to manifest our strong will to nurture young researchers and inspire the vast population of graduate students, we have planned a series of activities for young investigators. We look forward to injecting vitality into the journal's growth from the research aspiration and exploratory enthusiasm of the younger generation. In the coming year, the voyage of Aggregate is about to enter its fifth year. The rapid development of this journal is attributed to the high-quality publications contributed by our authors and the relentless effort and support from our reviewers, readers, and editorial board members. At the end of 2024, please allow me, on behalf of the Aggregate editorial office, to express our sincere gratitude to all the people who have supported and helped us. As long as we continue our combined efforts, I am confident in a successful and bright future voyage of Aggregate for the coming year and beyond! The author declares no conflicts of interest.