EPL in an eventful environment

Europhysics Letters was cofounded in 1986 by 17 European learned societies, and merged the two existing Letter journals Lettere al Nuovo Cimento – published by the Società Italiana di Fisica (SIF) – and the Journal de Physique Lettres, from the Société Françcaise de Physique (SFP). The original idea was to create a real European Letter journal competitive with Physical Review Letters of the American Physical Society. The major scientific force behind EPL is the European Physical Society (EPS) that celebrated its 50th anniversary only last year in Geneva. The publication of Europhysics Letters, re-baptized EPL in 2007 to emphasize its global impact, is a joint venture of the publishing houses of three physical societies: the Institute of Physics (IOP), the SIF, and the SFP.