Sailing with young investigators on a sea of stars

On this night, I am sailing on a sea of stars to lands that are far Time flies! Unwittingly, Aggregate is approaching its second anniversary. For a young researcher, two years mean that his/her independent scientific journey has just begun. But for Aggregate, the second anniversary is its maturity's turning point. After two-year growth, Aggregate will reap its first impact factor (IF). A nice IF will positively affect a journal's future development, leading to broader exposure to the scientific research community. This year, we learned from the experience of the last year and made a great effort to overcome the negative impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. We are happy to see that the journal has reached a new height in terms of publishing high-quality papers (Scheme 1). In 2022, Aggregate published 6 issues with 85 articles, including research papers, review articles, editorials, highlights, and interviews, among which two themed issues, Photovoltaics and Nanoscience, are dedicated to Professors Yongfang Li and Paul S. Weiss, respectively. The articles published in Aggregate have been well cited: up to 30 Nov. 2022, the average number of citations of the articles published in Aggregate exceeded 16. After two-year development, Aggregate is going to have its first IF in mid-2023. Currently, its real-time IF is >16. This is a great milestone in our journey toward success in scientific publication. The development of Aggregate is in the fast lane. After being included in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) last year, Aggregate obtained its first Journal Citation Report (JCR) in the mid of this year. In the 2022 JCR released by Clarivate Analytics, Aggregate was ranked Q1 in three categories: Chemistry, Multidisciplinary; Chemistry, Physical; and Materials Science, Multidisciplinary (Figure 1), indicating that it has been well received and recognized by the research community. To bring the cutting-edge research of aggregate science to the public and to keep close communication with our readers, the research papers published in Aggregate have been routinely promoted by social media, including Twitter (@AggregateOA) and WeChat (@Aggregate_2020). Onsite and online events have been organized regularly. We have hosted 3 online global webinars this year, with hot research topics covering soft matter, electroluminescence, and protein science. In addition to the international webinars, 6 domestic webinars were held in different cities or regions in China. The 2nd Aggregate X Angewandte (A2) Forum was incorporated into the program of the 5th International Symposium on Aggregation-Induced Emission (AIE5) held in Shenzhen on August 12–14, 2022, which was again, just like the 1st A2 Forum, a great success. These events have attracted thousands of audiences from all over the world. Furthermore, to honor the eminent scholars in the research field of aggregate science, the Aggregate Award was established and sponsored by Aggregate. At the opening ceremony of the AIE5 meeting, the 1st Aggregate Award was conferred on Professor Bin Liu of the National University of Singapore for her outstanding contributions to the area of AIE research. On the occasion of its coming-of-age ceremony, Aggregate extends sincere invitations to young scientists. Young talents are of great importance to the future advancement of scientific research, and special attention should be paid to support their growth. Aggregology is a vast expanse of virgin land, with much waiting to be explored. Young investigators are more open-minded and more likely to conduct creative research and have a high potential to make scientific breakthroughs. Aggregate is committed to cultivating young investigators, offering them high-quality services and fair peer reviews. We aim to publish innovative cutting-edge scientific research, especially by young investigators. Herein, we present to our readers the 1st Emerging Investigators Special Issue. In this special issue, young stars from China, Japan, Singapore, and USA report their research accomplishments and share their perspectives on some hot topics, including responsive supramolecular polymers (X. Yan), gold nanoclusters (M. Zhou), interfacial photocrosslinking (Y. Kitayama), alloy nanoparticles (S. M. Kozlov), gas separation (X. Zou), protein homeostasis (Y. Liu), drug/gene delivery (X. He), organic photovoltaics (H. Sun; Y. Tamai), clusteroluminescence (H. Zhang), organic luminogens (J. Wang), oil-in-oil emulsion (S. Shi), bioinspired materials (J. Yu), carbon dots (S. Lu) and biological condensates (B. Zhang). Young people are the hope of the future, and young investigators are the future of research journals. Aggregate, as a young journal, will grow with young investigators; we will do everything to promote young researchers. As the famous saying in the field of AIE research goes: “Together We Shine, United We Soar!” Let's work together and strive to make Aggregate an excellent platform for scientific publication. We are sailing with young investigators on a sea of stars to lands that are far…