The international journal of refractory metals and hard materials – Present state, future and retrospective view

Since the ICSHM 6 in Lanzarote it has become a tradition that the ICSHM-Proceedings are first published as Special Issues of IJRMHM and subsequently as respective Proceedings Volumes. It seems therefore, justified to present a short account of the present status of IJRMHM, its history and future perspectives. The most essential features as well as its scope will be shortly outlined. IJRMHM-management of manuscripts has become fully electronic with the advent of the Elsevier Editorial System in 2005. Respective advantages will be discussed.The flow of papers has increased considerably and this has made necessary an enlargement of the Editorial Board. It is also in this connection that Prof. Ivi Smid of Penn State University (USA) has been appointed Assistant Editor in 2007.One can have a very critical view of the impact factor (IF) as a measure of journal quality but a constant rise of the IF over the last five years from 0.43 to 1.09 should be a safe indicator for the rising popularity of the journal. Further information on time resolved geographic breakdown of published articles, publication speed, Science Direct usage, rejection rate, etc. should give an impression of the further development and complete the characterization of the present state of the journal.