Starting from January 1, 2026, Laser and Particle Beams (LPB) will be officially published by Chinese Laser Press (CLP). With restructuring of the editorial board, LPB is poised for a fresh start and aims to further elevate its influence within the international academic community. As a key highlight of the editorial team's debut, we present an interview with Professor Dieter Hoffmann, the Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of LPB.

Question 1: Could you please share your academic background and the path that led you to become the Editor-in-Chief of LPB?

Dieter Hoffmann：

My scientific journey began at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Germany, where I progressed from a young researcher to head of the Plasma Physics Department. Our team dedicated itself to pioneering research on the physics of fusion capsules driven by intense heavy-ion beams. I distinctly remember in 2002, when representatives from Cambridge University Press came specifically to Darmstadt to invite me to take over as Editor-in-Chief of Laser and Particle Beams.

In truth, my research team already had deep connections with LPB before this invitation, having published a series of significant papers in the journal. However, when I received the offer, I had reservations: on one hand, I was at the peak of my research activity and worried about balancing these responsibilities; on the other hand, I lacked experience in journal management. Therefore, I initially declined the opportunity.

Yet the publishing house demonstrated remarkable sincerity, maintaining communication with me throughout the following year. Ultimately, their persistence convinced me to accept the challenge. At the beginning of my tenure, I specifically visited former Editor-in-Chief Professor George Miley in the United States. At that time, the journal still relied entirely on paper submissions, and seeing the offices filled with manuscripts made me realize this work required a professional team.

With assistance from Cambridge University Press, we established an editorial team and secured funding to support participation in international conferences. This point I consider particularly crucial, as an Editor-in-Chief must remain active at the forefront of research, continuously updated on field developments. My first major undertaking as editor-in-chief was organizing a special issue at the Moscow conference on laser-matter interactions. We accepted a large number of conference papers within a short timeframe. We later discovered that conference papers are often less rigorously written than regular journal articles, which does not enhance the journal's impact factor. Therefore, I decided to discontinue publishing standard conference proceedings. While LPB continues to support conferences, we now require all invited submissions to undergo a formal, complete peer-review process.

Notably, in 2012, the journal fully implemented an online submission system, which significantly improved work efficiency. As Editor-in-Chief, I handled numerous submissions daily, with about 50% or 60% requiring decisions at the initial review stage. My experience taught me that if a paper passes preliminary review and enters the peer review process, its chances of acceptance increase substantially. This workflow became my routine for twenty years.

Question 2: As a key contributor to the journal, could you reflect on the evolution and development of LPB over the past 20 years under your leadership as Editor-in-Chief?

Dieter Hoffmann：

Looking back over these two decades, the journal's development has been significant. When I first took over, I genuinely felt the pressure. My predecessors were authoritative scholars in the field, whose decisions carried considerable weight in the academic community. I was entering my forties then, coming from an accelerator research background that differed from traditional laser research institutes. This "cross-disciplinary" background initially presented challenges.

However, this interdisciplinary characteristic ultimately became the journal's strength. It coincided with a period of rapid development in the convergence of accelerator and plasma science, and we captured this trend in time. I placed particular emphasis on interacting with the academic community. At various international conferences, I would introduce LPB's editorial philosophy, invite submissions of excellent papers, while simultaneously emphasizing rigorous review standards.

I recall a particularly representative case: a colleague's significant findings were rejected by another journal because their innovation was deemed too advanced for immediate recognition. After careful evaluation, we processed this paper rapidly through a special review procedure. Today, this paper on the "break-out afterburner" (BOA) is among the most cited in the field of lasers and particles. Many such examples demonstrate our editorial philosophy of maintaining academic standards while preserving flexibility.

Over these twenty years, we have gradually established an efficient review mechanism that has attracted high-quality submissions from diverse fields. Most importantly, we consistently maintained close dialogue with the academic community, allowing scholars to feel that this is truly their platform for exchange. This close connection is the fundamental reason for LPB's sustainable development.