Happy New Year from CrystEngComm

I am very pleased and excited to announce in this Editorial the publication of issues in CrystEngComm. This change to the way in which articles in the journal are published will mean that readers of the journal will find it simpler to find articles in the journal, as the format will be similar to the online versions of print journals. CrystEngComm articles will be published in HTML and PDF monthly, in issues, starting with this issue. Communications will be collected together at the beginning of the issue, followed by Full Papers, and the issues will be announced with monthly email alerts. This move to publication of electronic issues reflects the growing strength of the journal, and the increase of the articles (Communications and Full Papers) submitted for publication. We have seen an increase of 40% from 2005 compared to 2004. Articles in CrystEngComm will appear online first as Advance Articles, before being assigned to issues.

In 2005, CrystEngComm retained its number one position as the fastest journal for the publication of crystal engineering with a typical publication time (from receipt to publication) of 65 days for full papers, and 40 days for communications. The Editorial Office and Editorial Board remain committed to publishing the highest quality research in the fastest times.

Retiring members of the Editorial Board Professors Phil Coppens, Juerg Hulliger and Sally Price, and Advisory Board members Professors Harris, Boese, Foxman, Fujita and Mann are thanked for their efforts to develop the journal during the past few years, as well as providing support for the journal. We welcome to the Editorial Office in Cambridge Dr Ian Gray and Dr Niamh O'Connor to the CrystEngComm Editorial Team. Ian has recently joined us as part of the RSC Graduate Trainee scheme, after completing a PhD in main group chemistry. Niamh O'Connor joins the team in the role of Deputy Editor, after spending a year with the RSC working in the Analytical Abstracts Production department. Niamh holds a PhD in organometallic chemistry.

The 2004 impact factors, released by ISI© in June 2005, showed an impressive average increase of over 10% for RSC journals. The impact factor for CrystEngComm was published as 2.585. Calculated annually, ISI impact factors provide an indication of the quality of a journal—they take into account the number of citations in a given year for all the citable documents published within a journal to the preceding two years. It is worth noting that alongside the ACS publications, journals from RSC Publishing have the highest median impact factor among publishers in the chemical sciences. This encouraging statistic demonstrates the recognition and status that researchers place in society published work.

Fig. 1

2005 has seen RSC Publishing invest significantly in technological developments across all of its products. First there was the introduction of the new website in the summer which included a contemporary, fresh look and an enhanced structure for improved and intuitive navigation between relevant, associated content. The improvements to the technological infrastructure have made the site more flexible and efficient, and better equip the RSC to deliver enhanced publishing products and services for its customers in the future. The new look was just the start and towards the end of the year we were pleased to provide further enhancements in the form of RSS feeds and ‘forward linking’ facilities.

RSS, or ‘really simple syndication’, is the latest way to keep up with the research published by the RSC. The new service provides subscribers with alerts as soon as an Advance Article is published in their journal of choice. Journal readers simply need to go to the journal homepage, click on the RSS link, and follow the step-by-step instructions to register for these enhanced alerts. RSS feeds include both the graphical abstract and text from a journal's contents page—i.e. they deliver access to new research straight to a reader’s PC, as soon as it is published! Many feed reader software packages also have the added benefit of remembering what has been read previously, which in turn makes tracking and managing journal browsing more efficient. ‘Forward linking’, the reverse of reference linking, enables readers to link from any RSC published paper to the articles in which it is cited. In essence, it allows researchers to easily track the progression of a concept or discovery since its original publication. With one click of a button (on the ‘search for citing articles’ link) a list of citing articles included in Cross-Ref is presented, complete with DOI links.

At a time when research is becoming increasingly interdisciplinary in nature and the amount of published works continues to grow, it is hoped that the new technology, developed in conjunction with Cross-Ref, will significantly reduce the time spent by researchers searching for information.

These developments demonstrate the investment in publishing products and services over the past year and 2006 will see us enhancing our products further, with improvements to the HTML functionality of all journals and ReSourCe (the author and referee web interface) already underway.

As well as an impressive portfolio of prestigious journals, the RSC has a significant collection of book titles. The first titles in three new series: RSC Biomolecular Sciences; RSC Nanoscience & Nanotechnology Series; and Issues in Toxicology were published in 2005, with further titles due during 2006. Future growth in the books publishing programme is planned, which reflects the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of the chemical sciences.

I would be delighted to hear your comments on CrystEngComm. Please send any comments to the Editor, Jamie Humphrey (crystengcomm@rsc.org)

Have a successful 2006!

Dr Jamie Humphrey, Editor

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