Iranian Polymer Journal 30th anniversary issue

Iranian Polymer Journal is proudly celebrating the 30th year of its publication in 2022. This occasion gives us a splendid opportunity to reflect on IPJ’s accomplishments while building strategies that will ensure its future successes. IPJ publication started in January 1992 and while it was based in Iran Polymer Research Center (currently as Iran Polymer and Petrochemical Institute) but gained vibrant supports by Iranian and international academics in universities as well as industry, either by feeding research papers for publication or participating in editorial review as referee experts.

IPJ Editorial team from its starting volume embodied enthusiastic polymer specialists who were well aware that this English publication had hardly any past experience in Iran. Throughout these 30 years, the editorial team with specialists in different fields of polymer science and technology have included Iranian and international members who have supported IPJ rigorously with full attention to the quality of submitted manuscripts for publication.

Iran Polymer and Petrochemical Institute assumed the publication and distribution tasks from volume 1 to volume 20, while it still maintains a fully equipped editorial office with highly specialized editors to allocate referees and make sure of the novelty of the submissions. Since volume 21 in January 2012, Springer Publisher, as a very prominent world-known publisher, has undertaken IPJ publication and its international developed.

Over many years of publication, IPJ has masterly contributed to polymer science and engineering accompanied by creating a strong scientific platform for a number of researchers all over the world.

These achievements could have only been accomplished with the hard works of enthusiastic collaborators with a deep concern for the advancement of research and the flourishing scientific insight of the young generation. This would have a significant effect on establishing a strong and growing international relationship.

Over the last 30 years, the responsibility of such scientific publication has been held and passed to the next generation by most interested individuals. It could not be gained without the rigorous professional work of the editorial team and respectful reviewers in reviewing, editing, implementation of linguistic revisions from all over the world.

A summary of activity for the journal office between 01-01-2021 and 31-12-2021 has been reported in table format [1].

• 1. Submission statistics

New manuscripts received (by first receipt date)	576
New manuscripts received (by current initial date submitted)	595
Revisions requested	190
Revised manuscripts received	190

• 2. Journal turnaround time

Submission to technical check complete	15
Technical check complete to editor assignment	0.2
Submission to editor assignment	4.8
Submission to reviewer invitation	17.9
Submission to first decision	33.9

• 3. Reviewer invitation statistics reviewer invitation statistics

Total reviewers invited	2642
Agreed to review in the time period	31
Reviewers who completed reviews	928
Declined to review	621
Have not responded to review invitation	65
Uninvited reviewers	501
Terminated reviewers	496

• 4. Reviewer recommendation summary

Reviewer recommendation term	Reviews completed	Frequency of recommendation (%)
Accept as is	308	31.9
Major revisions needed	300	31
Minor revisions needed	237	24.5
Reject	122	12.6
Total reviews completed	967	100

• 5. Journal impact factor trend 2020 [2]

• 6. Journal citation report [2]

The citation of IPJ articles shows a promising increase during the past 4 years.

• 7. Contributions by country/region [2]

Countries or regions that have contributed the most papers to the journal in the most recent 3-year period.

Rank	Country/region	Count	Rank	Country/region	Count
1	Iran	94	22	South Africa	2
2	China Mainland	80	23	Argentina	1
3	India	52	24	Australia	1
4	Pakistan	16	25-	Brunei	1
5	Malaysia	15	26	Bulgaria	1
6	Turkey	9	27-	Cameroon	1
7	Brazil	8	28-	Canada	1
8	Thailand	8	29-	France	1
9	USA	8	30	Germany	1
10	Mexico	6	31	Indonesia	1
11	Russia	5	32	Latvia	1
12	Poland	4	33	Lebanon	1
13	Taiwan	4	34	Lithuania	1
14	Colombia	3	35	Morocco	1
15	Egypt	3	36	Netherlands	1
16	Italy	3	37	Nigeria	1
17	Saudi Arabia	3	38	Norway	1
18	Algeria	2	39	South Korea	1
19	Bahrain	2	40	Spain	1
20	England	2	41	Vietnam	1
21	Romania	2

The reports show that the Iranian Polymer Journal receives articles from more than 60 countries around the globe and has published from more than 40 of them in the last 3 years.

To celebrate journal achievements, the first issue of volume 31 is exclusively devoted to interesting review articles written by some IPJ experts and known authors.

The subjects covered include:

• 1. Self-healing polymers for medical applications in tissue engineering.

• 2. Supercapacitor performances of titanium–polymeric nanocomposite.

• 3. Sound absorbing porous material with a special application of polyurethane foams.

• 4. A recent progress in poly(lactic acid) polymerization, modeling and optimization.

• 5. Oligomerization of higher α-olefins to poly(α-olefins).