Computational magnetics is the senior branch of computational electromagnetics, predating all other branches of this field and certainly possessing the largest published literature of any. Despite its maturity, computational magnetics continues to develop vigorously, spawning new application areas as well as new methods in a prolific stream. The papers in this special issue bear witness to its diversity and novelty.
The response to our initial call for papers was particularly good and reflects the continuing interest in the subject. As a result twelve papers have been accepted for publication in this special issue. The coverage of topics is pleasingly broad and the geographical spread of contributors very encouraging, demonstrating that there is activity in computational magnetics all over the world. We also hope that we have achieved a good balance of reviews of the field and new material. Most of the current trends in the field are represented; these include integral formulations, optimization, adaptive solvers, edge elements and usage of differential forms, as well as new formulations for solving and post-processing and special applications. We believe therefore that this special issue represents the state of the art in computational magnetics.