《開放存取光聲學雜志》(PACS)的目的是發表在快速發展的光聲學(光聲學)和熱聲學領域的原創研究和綜述，利用光和電磁激發的聲學和熱現象來可視化和表征各種材料和生物組織，包括生物體。雖然光譜和光熱的一些應用已經達到了成熟的狀態，但其他許多研究方向也經歷了爆炸式的增長，尤其是生物醫學光聲學，目前被認為是增長最快的生物成像方式。大量的調查主題清楚地表明，這個領域已經為基礎研究和應用研究開發了廣泛的工具。激光技術、超聲檢測方法、逆理論和快速重建算法的發展為這一巨大的進展提供了有力的支持。這一進展還受到大量未得到滿足的生物學和醫學需求的推動，這些需求可以通過光聲學(光聲學)方法的獨特對比機制來解決。這些包括血管系統的臨床前研究和臨床成像，組織和疾病生理學，藥物療效和治療監測，光學解剖學和分子成像使用熒光色素，色素團和納米顆粒。相應的應用范圍涵蓋了生物學和醫學成像的整個領域，包括癌癥、心血管疾病、神經成像、眼科或免疫學成像、糖尿病和肥胖癥、細胞轉運應用以及許多其他生物學功能。光聲學和熱聲學的多學科性質也體現在化學和納米技術的不斷發展上，從納米顆粒和有機染料到靶向試劑和基因表達標記，各種新型對比材料和試劑不斷得到發展。

The aim of the open access Photoacoustics journal (PACS) is to publish original research and review contributions within the fast growing field of photoacoustics (optoacoustics) and thermoacoustics, which exploits optically and electromagnetically excited acoustical and thermal phenomena for visualization and characterization of a variety of materials and biological tissues, including living organisms. While some of the spectroscopic and photothermal applications have reached a mature state, many other research directions experience an explosive growth, in particular biomedical photoacoustics, which is currently considered the fastest growing bio-imaging modality. The wealth of investigated topics clearly indicates that this field has developed a broad range of tools for fundamental and applied research. The enormous recent progress is greatly supported by the advances in laser technologies, ultrasound detection approaches, development of inverse theory and fast reconstruction algorithms. This progress is also driven by a large number of unmet biological and medical needs that can be addressed by the unique contrast mechanisms available to photoacoustic (optoacoustic) methods. These include pre-clinical research and clinical imaging of vasculature, tissue and disease physiology, drug efficacy and treatment monitoring, optical anatomy and molecular imaging employing fluorochromes, chromophores and nanoparticles. Correspondingly applications span the entire range of biological and medical imaging including cancer, cardiovascular diseases, neuroimaging, ophthalmology or imaging in immunology, diabetes and obesity, cell trafficking application and a multitude of other biological functions. The multi-disciplinarily nature of photoacoustics and thermoacoustics is also evinced by the growing contribution from chemistry and nanotechnology where a multitude of novel contrast materials and agents have been constantly developed, from nanoparticles and organic dyes, to targeted agents and genetically expressed markers.