Happy New Year from PCCP!

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Abstract

Happy New Year to all PCCP readers! We hope that the past year has been successful and enjoyable, and wish you well in 2005.

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Going from strength to strength

One year ago in our January 2004 editorial¹ we reported that submissions to the journal were at an all-time high, whilst times to publication were at an all-time low. We are delighted to announce that these trends have continued over the past year. Submissions continue at a record level, rising by over 15% in 2004 (Fig. 1). Particularly encouraging is the number of Communications received, which has more than doubled over the past 12 months. PCCP recognises that many authors attach great value to the rapid publication of their work, and Communications are given the highest priority at every stage of the publication process. PCCP is therefore the ideal place to publish urgent new work. Indeed, one of the Communications featured in this issue² was published on the web less than three weeks after it was received: our fastest ever paper! See Fig. 2 to see how our times to publication compare with other journals.

Fig. 1 Rolling annual submissions for (a) papers and (b) communications.

Fig. 2 Comparison of median receipt to print-publication times for all Communications/Letters published in each journal during the period 1 January–30 June 2004.

With the ever-increasing number of papers received, PCCP is now more conscious than ever that we can publish only the very best of the work submitted. As detailed in our August editorial,³ we would like to remind authors and referees that the Editorial Board encourages authors to submit, and referees to recommend, only the best work for publication in PCCP.

Biophysical content and MEDLINE

Biophysical chemistry is an exciting and rapidly expanding area of physical chemistry, and biophysical papers are an important part of PCCP. We were fortunate to have two excellent biophysical special issues in 2004; see Fig. 3. Biophysical papers published in PCCP are additionally available in the RSC’s Chemical Biology Virtual Journal (http://www.rsc.org/chembiolvj), making them easily accessible to both the physical chemistry and chemical biology communities. Access to research articles is free of charge for one month after their publication in an issue of the virtual journal. In recognition of the high biophysical chemistry content in PCCP we are delighted to announce that PCCP has recently been selected by the US National Library of Medicine for inclusion in Index Medicus/MEDLINE, thereby increasing its visibility to the biophysical and biological communities.

Fig. 3 Special issue covers featuring biophysical work. Bioactive molecules in the gas phase (2004, pp. 2543–2890), and Biophysical studies of Photosystem II and related model studies (2004, pp. 4733–4912)

Soft Matter

From June 2005 PCCP readers will have free access to the online version of the RSC’s new interdisciplinary journal, Soft Matter. This will be a high quality journal publishing research into soft materials, including complex fluids, with a particular focus on the interface between chemistry and physics. It will provide a forum for the communication of the generic science underpinning the properties and applications of soft matter. Please see http://www.softmatter.org/ for further details.

New design

Readers will notice that we have modified the section headings of the journal to better reflect current trends in physical chemistry. We have also introduced some exciting design changes to the journal. The front cover has been redesigned and, in common with the other leading RSC journals, all papers will now feature graphical abstracts in the contents list to enhance the browsing of each issue.

Editorial board changes

Four PCCP Editorial Board Members (Professors Kajimoto, Riande, Tomasi and Ulstrup) completed their terms of office at the end of 2004, and receive our warmest thanks for their substantial contributions to the success of the journal. We welcome Professor Yasuhiro Iwasawa to the Editorial Board from 2005—his profile is included at the end of this editorial. It also gives us great pleasure to welcome eight new members to our Advisory Board, Professors Arunan, Hartland, Jiang, Matsumoto, Schettino, Schiffrin, Seki and Zemb, bringing a wealth of experience from different countries and areas of research. Full details of the PCCP Editorial and Advisory Boards can be found on our website, www.rsc.org/pccp

Owner societies

We are very happy to announce that the Turkish Chemical Society has joined the Ownership Board of PCCP, taking the number of societies in the partnership to fourteen. PCCP thrives in part due to the professional chemical societies which own and support it, a list of which can be found on the inside front cover of the journal. Any financial surplus is used exclusively for the benefit of the scientific community, enabling the owner societies to provide enhanced professional services to their membership.

Experimental data checker

PCCP aims to be at the forefront of electronic developments, so we can continue to provide a highly efficient and professional publishing service to the scientific community.

With this in mind, the RSC has strived to develop tools to help authors with the publication process. A recent collaboration with the Unilever Centre for Molecular Science Informatics (at the University of Cambridge, UK) has resulted in the launch of the Experimental Data Checker—a java applet which analyses experimental data. Its aim is to provide helpful information which an author can use to improve a paper, a referee can use to check a paper and a reader can use to analyse a paper. A detailed study of this has been published in Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry.⁴

ReSourCe

We would like to remind authors and referees of the recently-launched ReSourCe service (www.rsc.org/resource), which was announced earlier this year.⁵ ReSourCe provides user-friendly, rapid integrated access to all the services needed by an author and/or referee for all RSC journals through a single login and web site. Authors can use ReSourCe to submit manuscripts and track manuscript progress, view their publishing history and download proofs and free PDF reprints. Referees can use ReSourCe to download articles sent for review, upload referee reports, view their refereeing history and update research interest information. Feedback on the ReSourCe site and suggestions for improvement are very welcome; please contact resource@rsc.org

 

Finally, we would like to thank all authors, referees and readers for their continuing support of PCCP. As always, we intend that future developments within the journal should reflect the aims and aspirations of our authors and our readers so, if you have any suggestions as to how we might improve further, please send them to the Editorial Office, pccp@rsc.org

Have a happy and successful 2005!

Mike Ashfold, Chairman, Editorial Board

Susan Appleyard, Managing Editor

Philip Earis, Deputy Editor

References

1. M. Ashfold and S. Appleyard, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2004, 6, E1.
2. I. Compagnon, J. Bakker, G. Meijer, J. Oomens and G. von Helden, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2005, 7 10.1039/b417204c.
3. M. Ashfold and S. Appleyard, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2004, 6, E9.
4. S. E. Adams, J. M. Goodman, R. J. Kidd, A. D. McNaught, P. Murray-Rust, F. R. Norton, J. A. Townsend and C. A. Waudby, Org. Biomol. Chem., 2004, 2, 3067.
5. S. Appleyard, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2004, 6, E13.
6. K. Fukui, S. Takakusagi, R. Tero, M. Aizawa, Y. Namai and Y. Iwasawa, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2003, 5, 5349.
7. T. Kusakari, T. Sasaki and Y. Iwasawa, Chem. Commun., 2004, 992.
8. M. Tada, M. Shimamoto, T. Sasaki and Y. Iwasawa, Chem. Commun., 2004, 2562.
9. M. Tada, T. Taniike, L. M. Kantam and Y. Iwasawa, Chem. Commun., 2004, 2562.

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