A perspective on 25 years of advances as reported in the Journal of Optics

In this perspective, the Editorial Board of the J. Opt. reflects on the past 25 years of the journal. The advances reported in journal have shaped the progress of diverse fields, from fundamental advances in optics to applications with optics as a key ingredient. The journal’s scope has seen it capture progress in several emergent fields, for instance, structured light covering orbital angular momentum, spatio-temporal solitons, topologies in light, singular optics and nonparaxial light. Reports include advances in optical devices, such as digital micromirror devices, metasurfaces and integrated photonics, as well as novel photonic materials based on nanophotonics. Application-based research includes super-resolution imaging, digital holography and nonlinear optics. We select key papers from across diverse disciplines to showcase the scope of the journal and the impact it has had on the wider community.