The Optical Society (OSA) announced it will launch a new journal devoted to optical materials, called Optical Materials Express (OME). OME will launch in spring 2011 with bi-monthly issues, joining OSA's portfolio of 14 peer-reviewed optics journals. The editor-in-chief is David Hagan, associate dean for academic programs and professor of optics and physics at CREOL, The College of Optics & Photonics at the University of Central Florida. Optical Materials Express will primarily emphasize advances in novel optical materials, their properties, modeling, synthesis and fabrication techniques; how such materials contribute to novel optical behavior; and how they enable new or improved optical devices. The subject matter will cover a full range of topics in optical materials, including, but not limited to: artificially engineered structures, biomaterials, detector materials, optical storage media, materials for integrated optics, nonlinear optical materials, laser materials, metamaterials, nanomaterials, organics and polymers, soft materials, IR materials and materials for fiber optics. "No rapid-publication, open-access journal with this scope exists in the field," said Hagan. "OME will provide an exclusive publishing venue for researchers in the optics and materials science communities who are working on the synthesis, processing and characterization of materials for applications in optics and photonics." Many features of the new journal will mirror those of the OSA publication, Optics Express, including rapid, online open-access publication and availability of free color figures, movies, animations, and live reference links. Submissions to OME will be accepted beginning this fall. Guidelines for authors, manuscript templates and submission instructions will be posted online this summer. "Both the fields of optics and materials science have experienced rapid growth in recent years," said OSA President James C. Wyant. "With the launch of OME, OSA will be able to expand its global reach into new areas as part of its overall mission to disseminate knowledge of optics and photonics worldwide." For more information, visit: www.osa.org