Cahn became editor of the new "Journal of Nuclear Materials" in 1959. He was offered the editorship of the first journal in the field, the "Journal of Materials Science", in 1964 literally en route between Bangor and Sussex Universities. This was the start of a spectacular burgeoning of the scientific editing work that was to be the trademark of his later years. He says in his memoirs that he regarded the years he devoted to creating this journal as the most important single editorial role he played. He later also acted as an editor of the Journal of Materials Research from 1985 and established a new journal, Intermetallics [http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/423924/description#description], in 1992.