Photon Science : A Comprehensive and Adaptive Hub for Facility Science and Techniques

Recommendations I n today's scientific fields, unprecedented numbers of papers are published every day, and new journals spring up across many scientific publishers.Questions arise about what the uniqueness of this new journal is, why we launch it within the American Chemical Society (ACS) Publications framework, and what the goals and vision of Photon Science are.I hope to provide my personal perspectives on these questions through this Editorial.The launch of Photon Science aims to establish a comprehensive platform dedicated to all aspects of scientific discoveries and technical developments based on large-scale characterization techniques using photon, neutron, and electron sources.While photon and neutron sources are typically based on large-scale facilities, we see close associations between these facilities and electron-based characterizations, such as electron microscopy, across many aspects�from instrumentation innovations (e.g., optics and detectors) to big data processing and analysis.Studies in these areas offer mutual benefits among techniques based on photon, neutron, and electron sources, which are central components of Photon Science.Beyond technical developments, such associations are also emphasized in scientific studies through complementary information provided by electron microscopy and imaging techniques at photon and neutron facilities.Therefore, Photon Science focuses on facility science and techniques while also covering scientific discoveries and methodological innovations based on photon, neutron, and electron sources.The last three decades have witnessed rapid progress in modern facility science.Many fundamental principles for probing real-space structures and momentum-space electronic states have been developed and verified, serving as a solid foundation for today's applications of large-scale facilities in studies of chemical transformations, materials discovery, and biological systems.Most of these developments in fundamental principles were communicated through conventional physics journals, which still play a critical role in advancing facility science today.At the same time, scientific facilities have experienced a surge in usage to address societal concerns related to energy, technology, and healthcare.This trend is evident in the widespread adoption of characterizations based on photon, neutron, and electron sources across a growing body of literature and major breakthroughs, including many Nobel Prize-winning works.Photon Science, within the ACS publication platform, emphasizes research and developments in these fields to directly meet societal needs.