Dalton Transactions at the Inorganic Interface

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Abstract

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

In the January 2004 Editorial,¹ we stressed that inorganic papers at the interface with other disciplines, such as biological, medical, organic, physical and materials sciences, all have a home in Dalton Transactions, and this very much has been the case for Dalton Transactions over the past year. Excellent examples are papers from the areas of biological inorganic and bioinorganic chemistry, such as the Dalton Perspective by Brown and Kozlowski, Biological inorganic and bioinorganic chemistry of neurodegeneration based on prion and Alzheimer diseases² and the Dalton Communication, Unusual photophysical switching in a Ru(II) diimine DNA probe caused by amide functionalisation, by O'Donoghue, Kelly and Kruger,³ both papers really demonstrating the importance of inorganic chemistry in modern medicine and biology.

The strength of the biological inorganic and bioinorganic chemistry content of the journal was confirmed over the summer when the Editorial Office received notification of the decision made by the National Institute of Health to include Dalton Transactions in MEDLINE.⁴ This was an important and substantial development for the journal, as papers published since January 2004 are now included in the database, and so brought to the attention of those working in all areas of biological research.

In October 2004, we published a special issue on the theme of ‘Ionic and Electronic Properties of Solids’,⁵ containing Perspectives and Full Papers arising from the seventh Dalton Discussion meeting, a very successful meeting held in St Andrews, United Kingdom. As explained in the Editorial by Professor Peter Bruce,⁶ there is a real richness in the chemical, electronic and magnetic properties of transition metal solids, and the Discussion meeting gave the delegates the opportunity to discuss and discover more about this fascinating area of inorganic chemistry.

Papers that are published in Dalton Transactions are considered for featuring in the RSC's publication, Chemical Science, a monthly news supplement which aims to draw together the best research papers published in RSC journals. Naturally enough, many Dalton Transactions papers have been featured and highlighted to a wide audience. Dalton Transactions readers have the benefit of receiving Chemical Science bound in the print version of the journal, helping them to remain up-to-date with developments from all areas of chemical science research. We fully expect to see more Dalton Transactions papers featured in Chemical Science in 2005, and its new sister supplement, Chemical Technology. More details about Chemical Science and Chemical Technology can be found on the websites www.rsc.org/chemicalscience and www.rsc.org/chemicaltechnology

In 2004 the online service for RSC authors and referees improved further, with the launch of ReSourCe (www.rsc.org/resource). This new service provides Dalton Transactions referees with an opportunity to consult their full review history with RSC journals (not just Dalton Transactions), update their details to ensure they are sent only the most appropriate articles to peer-review, and even see the outcome of the peer-review process for articles that they have reviewed for RSC journals. Dalton Transactions authors can, amongst other features, keep track of submitted articles in real time, simply by consulting their information on ReSourCe. The development and launch of ReSourCe demonstrate one of the ways in which RSC works to provide the best publishing service for the chemical science research community.⁷

The RSC has also developed additional 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.⁸

We are very pleased to be able to say that Dalton Transactions retains its Number One position as the fastest journal for inorganic chemistry. Fig. 1 shows a comparison of publication times for Dalton Transactions compared to other inorganic chemistry journals. The Editorial Board and Editorial Office remain committed to publishing the highest quality work in the fastest times. We are also committed to publishing papers from authors all over the world. The international spread of authors (with contributions from 40 countries), is illustrated in Fig. 2 and shows that Dalton Transactions is a truly international journal for inorganic chemists

Fig. 1 Publication Times of Inorganic Chemistry Journals.

Fig. 2 Geographical composition of Dalton Transactions' author base.

We thank retiring members of the Dalton Editorial Board, Richard Catlow, Matthias Driess, Judith Howard and Luet Wong, and Kimoon Kim from the Advisory Editorial Board, for their efforts to develop the journal during the past few years, as well as for providing years of support for the journal during their periods of office. We welcome in January 2005 six new members of the Advisory Board: Andréja Bakac, Iowa State University USA, Lisa Berreau, Utah State University USA, Penny Brothers, University of Auckland, New Zealand, Christine McKenzie, University of Odense, Denmark, Ebbe Nordlander, Lund University, Sweden, Hans Toftlund, University of Odense, Denmark.

And finally, you will have noticed the first new development for 2005: the striking new look for Dalton Transactions. The new, modern, cover design will enhance the impact of the featured cover artwork, and produce a more eye-catching journal, while the colour graphic abstracts in the contents list enhance the browsing of each issue. The Editorial Board and Editorial Office feel very much that Dalton Transactions is the inorganic chemistry journal for the international inorganic chemistry community publishing papers at the interface of inorganic chemistry and other important disciplines. The future development of the journal will depend on what you, the Dalton Transactions reader and author, want from the journal. Please send any suggestions to the Editorial Office (E-mail: E-mail: dalton@rsc.org)

Have a Happy and Successful 2005!

 

Jamie Humphrey

Managing Editor

 

Paul Walton

Chair, Dalton Transactions Editorial Board

References

1. J. S. Humphrey and P. H. Walton, Dalton Trans., 2004, E1.
2. D. R. Brown and H. Kozlowski, Dalton Trans., 2004, 1907.
3. K. A. O'Donoghue, J. M. Kelly and P. E. Kruger, Dalton Trans., 2004, 13.
4. J. S. Humphrey and P. H. Walton, Dalton Trans., 2004, E3.
5. Dalton Trans., 2004, 2977–3152.
6. P. G. Bruce, Dalton Trans., 2004, E4.
7. J. S. Humphrey, Dalton Trans., 2004, E11.
8. 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. Biol. Chem., 2004, 3067.

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