Editorial

I am informing our readers, with much regret, that on Jan. 14 2011 the Steering Committee of the Croatian Physical Society brought an abrupt decision to close down the only scientific journals of physics in Croatia,Fizika A and Fizika B, taking effect the same day. The decision put the editors of the journals in a rather difficult position because many manuscripts were in the process of evaluation, some were accepted but not typeset, etc. The mandate of the editors was extended to allow for the completion of vols. 19 of the journals before the end of May 2011. The editors decided to extend the evaluation procedure and acceptance of manuscripts for publication until mid February 2011. Consequently, vol. 19 (2010) includes also some articles that were accepted in 2011. The typesetting and placement of the accepted articles online was finished by the end of May 2011. Fizika A joined some other journals which formed the new journal EPJ-Plus.

The main reason for the closing down of the journals are the financial problems which were caused by the world financial crisis. Unfortunately, this occurs after 65 years of publishing in Croatia of original scientific work in physics by authors from most countries in the world.

In the summer of 1945, right after the end of the II World War, at the time of poverty and political strains, the Section of Mathematics and Physics of the Croatian Society of Natural Sciences in Zagreb founded the joint journal of mathematics, physics and astronomy with the title Glasnik matematički, fizički i astronomski. The editors were professors of the Faculty of Science and Mathematics of the Zagreb University: Đ. Kurepa (1945-1950), S. Bilinski (1951-1954), S. Bilinski and Z. Janković (1955-1958), S. Bilinski and P. Papić (1959-1962) and S. Mardešić (1963-1965). In the following 20 years, the journal published 20 volumes, one every year.

The Section of Mathematics and Physics founded in 1949 its own Society. The new Society of Mathematics and Physics decided in 1965 to dedicate the journal Glasnik matematički, fizički i astronomski to mathematics only, under the name Glasnik matematički (still appearing regularly), and also accepted the proposal of the physicists that a new journal dedicated to the original scientific articles in physics be founded under the title Fizika, but as a journal of all six republics of the former Yugoslavia. The agreement among the physical societies of the six republics took some time, so the first volume of the new journal appeared in 1968. The editor was A. Moljk (Ljubljana) and technical editor M. Kasumović (Zagreb).

The European Physical Society (EPS), founded in 1968, approved in 1969 that the new journal Fizika bears the EPS logo and insignia "Europhysics Journal". In a general revision, EPS repealed the right to several journals, including Fizika. Later, K. Ilakovac, as editor of the journals Fizika A and Fizika B, regained the right in 1999, so the two journals bear the EPS logo and insignia "Europhysics Journal" from 2000 on.

After M. Kasumović resigned as technical editor, new editors, editorial board and council were elected in 1978. The editor became G. Alaga and technical editor V. Šips. The new leadership greatly improved the journal Fizika, both in quality of the published articles and in technical appearance. G. Alaga made contacts in many scientific centres, mostly through his personal acquaintances. So a considerable number of manuscripts was submitted from well known centres of physical research in the world. Unfortunately, G. Alaga died in the summer of 1988, the journal Fizika was without an editor for almost three years, and V. Šips (technical editor) ran the journal.

In the summer of 1991, K. Ilakovac was appointed as editor of Fizika. At the time, the war in Croatia started. That and the following years were very difficult times in Croatia. At the time and for several more years, the communications via electronic mail were in its infancy. We did have electronic mail since 1992, but many authors and referees did not, or were not used to it. So for several years the communications with authors and referees were by conventional mail. But in Croatia, because of the war, postal communications, especially airmail, were rather slow and unreliable. In spite of the difficulties, the publishing went on schedule.

K. Ilakovac proposed to the Croatian Physical Society splitting of the journal Fizika into two journals, Fizika A and Fizika B. This was accepted in the autumn of 1991, and first volumes of the two journals were vol. 1 (1992). In 1994 a switch from classical typesetting (casting in lead) was changed to typesetting in LaTex in computers. At first the figures were mounted photograhs, but soon either scanning of figures received on paper, or computer files of figures were used with their inclusion in the LaTex files. Although for a number of years complete computer files of articles were prepared, the files of the figures could not be kept because of the small capacity of memories available at the time. That changed in 1996 when computers with larger hard discs were acquired, so all volumes published since 1996 are online (http://fizika.phy.hr) with free access. Some of the previous articles are also online, but without figures. We hope, all volumes since 1992 will be completed soon.

As the editor of Fizika and subsequently of Fizika A and Fizika B, and my co-editors and other collaborators, too, for over 20 years, after much work and efforts, huge number of working hours, many actions with the aim of many improvements, find it very disappointing that a sorrowful destiny struck our journals.

K. Ilakovac