The Impact Factor of AM has been growing continuously over 30 years, as readership and citation grow. The Editorial Team is very happy with the development, and especially because our journal is multi-/interdisciplinary. Of course, there are strong competitors so there is still much to do.

Research in China has developed tremendously over the last 20 years, especially in areas relevant to energy, sustainability, healthcare, and high-tech. As these are priority areas also for AM the journal team has built a very strong connection to Chinese scientists and this is both fun and good for us all.

All top journals need to have quality and enthusiastic and hard-working global and interdisciplinary editorial teams, and the Advanced team is no different. They enjoy what they do and work hard to provide scientists with an excellent service. I think they have fun working with each other and that gives them an edge.

Open access (and openness) is generally a good thing. But the real question is how publishing services will be paid for in the future, and author-pays open access is only one option. I believe it is important to provide authors and readers with choices which fit their individual requirements, but in the long term, only models that provide reliability, sustainability, quality of service, and equality and fairness will prevail. AM and its sister journals will be offering freedom of choice to the scientific community, so that the scientific record is secured for future generations, and hard work and scientific talent is rewarded in the long term.

China has converted hard work and increasing scientific output into high-quality output. Many Chinese scientists and their institutions can now be counted amongst the best in the world. That is very important for the global economy, and for solving important global challenges facing all nations. I think this strong performance is set to continue, and I am sure that China can help developing countries to play their part in solving the problems.

Much progress has been made and great successes achieved. I imaging that attracting more western students to Chinese universities would be a useful thing to strengthen as science and culture are closely linked and improving western understanding for Chinese culture and performance and friendship will help next generations of scientists to work in harmony together.