Editorial

The past year

Following an eventful 2004, Chem Soc Rev continued to flourish and prosper in 2005. The journal expanded successfully again, this time from 9 to 12 issues, with the number of reviews published increasing by 26%. This increase in frequency ensures that Chem Soc Rev is read on a monthly basis, further increasing its visibility and maintaining its position as one of the leading review journals in the chemical sciences. It is pleasing to note that critical reviews, launched in 2004, are growing in popularity and they now make up about one sixth of the journal’s content.

The Chem Soc Rev impact factor, released in June, revealed another pleasing improvement, with an overall increase from 9.6 to 10.8, emphasizing its position as the third most highly cited general chemistry journal. Fig. 1 charts the trend in impact factor over the last 5 years in comparison with the two main competitor journals, Chemical Reviews and Accounts of Chemical Research. In particular, the graph demonstrates that Chem Soc Rev’s continued recent progress and development has closed the gap with Accounts of Chemical Research. RSC journals overall showed an impressive average increase in impact factor of over 10%.

Fig. 1 Comparison of ISI^® impact factor.

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 citeable documents published within a journal in the preceding two years. It is worth noting that journals from RSC Publishing, alongside the ACS Publications, have the highest median impact factor among publishers in the chemical sciences (Fig. 2). This encouraging statistic demonstrates the recognition and status that researchers place in RSC published work.

Fig. 2 Median impact factor in seven ISI core chemistry categories.

The reviews published in Chem Soc Rev continued to be of the highest quality in 2005, covering a variety of subjects across the chemical sciences. A particular highlight was David Spring’s tutorial review, ‘Chemical genetics to chemical genomics: small molecules offer big insights’ (Chem. Soc. Rev., 2005, 34, 472), which was featured in the RSC publication Chemical Science. Other highlights included José Barluenga’s review on ‘Coupling reactions of zirconocene complexes and heterosubstituted alkenes’ (Chem. Soc. Rev., 2005, 34, 762) and Carolyn Bertozzi’s review of ‘Synthetic glycopeptides and glycoproteins as tools for biology and therapeutic agents’ (Chem. Soc. Rev., 2005, 34, 58). Later reviews by Andrew Miller (Chem. Soc. Rev., 2005, 34, 970) and David Rendle (Chem. Soc. Rev., 2005, 34, 1021) were both featured in Chemical Technology, promoting the excellent content of Chem Soc Rev to a wide audience.

In 2005, Chem Soc Rev published a ‘social interest’ review by Madeleine Joullié on the development of novel ninhydrin analogues as forensic chemistry reagents, used to develop fingerprints on porous surfaces (Chem. Soc. Rev., 2005, 34, 408). Future reviews looking at areas of wider interest include: ‘Biochemistry of the skin: our brain on the outside’, and ‘Automotive fuels and internal combustion engines: a chemical perspective’, each scheduled for early 2006.

Following the success of the crystallography themed issue in 2004, two further themed issues were published in 2005, each commissioned by members of the Editorial Board. Issue 3 included a collection of reviews on the theme of functional polymers edited by Wilhelm Huck, University of Cambridge. The issue contained reviews from key authors such as Marc Hillmyer (University of Minnesota, USA), Cameron Alexander (University of Nottingham, UK) and Marcus Weck (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA). Issue 11 featured a collection of reviews on lasers brought together by George Marston, University of Reading.

It is appropriate to thank the Editorial Board for their continued efforts in commissioning high quality content for the journal. We are delighted to welcome both Professor Huw Davies (SUNY, Buffalo) and Dr Philip Gale (University of Southampton) to the Editorial Board. Professor Huw Davies will assist in raising the profile of the journal in North America. We are also pleased that Professor Chris Orvig, Professor Carsten Bolm, Professor Luisa de Cola, Dr George Marston and Professor Wilhelm Huck have agreed to serve a second term on the Editorial Board. This year we say farewell to Professor Bertrand Castro and Professor Anne Dell and thank them for their support. We look forward however to their continued input as members of the International Advisory Board, where they are joined by Professor Dirk Guldi (University of Erlangen).

Looking to the future

Plans are now in place to ensure that Chem Soc Rev in 2006 will build on the success of previous years. Once again we will be looking to increase the number of reviews published in Chem Soc Rev by a further 16%, whilst maintaining the quality expected by our readership. Working with the Editorial Board, we will be aiming to increase the number of commissions from both leading and young academics located in countries such as USA, Canada, Japan and Australia.

In 2006 we shall also continue to publish themed issues in topical areas which cut across several disciplines. Among those planned are issues on nanostructured assemblies, lanthanides in medicine and high pressure science, so keep a look out for further details.

We will also be looking to further evolve the Editorial Board with appointments to strengthen and develop the journal in subjects such as physical chemistry, analytical chemistry and chemical biology.

Developments at the RSC

Technological advances

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 feeds

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

‘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 through 2006 further product developments will occur, with improvements to the HTML functionality of all journals and ReSourCe (the author and referee web interface) already underway.

Chemical Biology in RSC publishing

January 2006 sees the launch of another exciting new supplement from the RSC: Chemical Biology. A companion publication of Chemical Science and Chemical Technology, it draws together coverage from RSC publications and provides succinct accounts of the latest chemical biology research. It will appear monthly as a free print supplement in a number of RSC journals, and is also available free online.

Chemical biology content published in Chem Soc Rev is already highlighted in the Chemical Biology Virtual Journal. The portal, which was launched in 2002 in recognition of the significant amount of chemical biology material published across RSC journals, enables interested readers to readily access relevant items. All chemical biology articles and related papers published in RSC journals are drawn together online every two weeks, with a selection of the primary literature free to access for a month.

Not forgetting books publishing

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.

In summary, 2005 has been an excellent year for Chem Soc Rev, with the journal continuing to develop, publishing the highest quality reviews from leading international authorities. Looking forward, 2006 promises to be even better, so we hope you enjoy reading future issues. Our goal is to make Chem Soc Rev the review journal of choice in general chemistry—and we look forward to your support.

David Parker – Chair

Robert Eagling – Editor

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