Editorial

Validation-by-competition has arrived. Collaboration and incubation are next. This appears be the breakout year. I've mentioned previously the electronic publishing plans and projects of the Institute of Physics in the U.K., of the American Acoustical Society and of the American Physical Society. As of July 1, 2000, all of them will have in operation free-standing, all-electronic, peer-reviewed journals. The New Journal of Physics, Acoustic Research Letters Online, and Special Topics - Accelerators and Beams, respectively, are the names of these competitors of Optics Express. They go by the acronyms NJP, ARLO and STAB.