Happy New Year from ChemComm

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Abstract

Welcome to the first issue of ChemComm for 2007. In this Editorial we reflect on yet another exciting year for ChemComm and look at the future developments in RSC Publishing.

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Introduction

2006 has proved to be another successful year of publishing for ChemComm. The journal has gone from strength to strength and 2007 is shaping up to be another excellent year.

One of the main highlights of 2006 for ChemComm was the significant increase in Impact Factor and in 2007 we hope to further increase the journal's impact and standing. Also in 2007 a major development for our online readers will be the enhanced HTML version of articles which will make the science “come alive”. Read on to find out more!

Impact factors and immediacy index

We are delighted to announce that ChemComm's impact factor has increased to 4.43. This is a 10% increase on the 2004 impact factor and coincides with the journal going weekly and the 40th year of publication.

The 2005 impact factors, released by ISI^® in June 2006, showed an impressive average increase of over 10% for RSC Journals. 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.

Fig. 1 A selection of ChemComm covers from 2006.

**NEW Supplementary Information**

ChemComm is fully committed to providing the community with the most reliable and well-documented synthetic methods in the chemical literature. It is important that fully convincing evidence for the homogeneity and identity of all compounds claimed as new is provided. To this end, we have recently updated the ChemComm Guidelines for Authors found at http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/ReSourCe/AuthorGuidelines/JournalPolicy/CC/index.asp with details of the standards and information required for the characterisation of new compounds. We urge all of our authors and referees to familiarise themselves with these new important guidelines.

Editorial Board changes

We sincerely thank Professor Barbara Imperiali for her contributions as Associate Editor for Chemical Biology as she retires from her position. We also express our gratitude to Professor Donald Hilvert, Professor Dermot O'Hare and Professor Hans-Ulrich Blaser who are retiring from their positions as Scientific Editors and members of the Editorial Board.

We are pleased to welcome Professors Penny Brothers, Jillian Buriak, Ben Feringa, Peter Kündig, Keiji Maruoka and Nick Turner to the Editorial Board in 2007. We very much look forward to working with all our new board members in the coming year.

ChemComm in the news

ChemComm is fully committed to publicising the most topical and newsworthy of its articles and 2006 has seen a marked increase in the visibility of our hot articles. Each hot article selected is now highlighted on our homepage as a news item as soon as the Advance Article is published (Fig. 2) and regular e-mail alerts containing details of the articles are sent to journalists. This has led to a number of articles being picked up by the wider press as well as in the RSC's own Chemical Supplements and Chemistry World.

Fig. 2 The ChemComm homepage with hot articles highlighted.

Changes and developments in Chemical Science, Chemical Technology and Chemical Biology and news of Chemistry World

Showcasing hot science from RSC Journals in Chemical Science, Chemical Technology and Chemical Biology has proved very popular with readers and authors alike. In fact, the free supplements have become so successful that from January 2007, all issues will be eight pages (in print), contain new article types and come complete with a fresh new look for the front page. Supplementary material will also be available online.

Meanwhile Chemistry World, the RSC's award-winning magazine, launched two new web features at the end of 2006. The Chemistry World Blog is an interactive forum for news, discussion and opinion, looking at the science hitting the headlines. The Chemistry World Podcast interviews high profile scientists about the latest and hottest topics in science, and is free to download at www.rsc.org/chemistryworld

Technological innovation

2006 has seen RSC Publishing invest significantly in technological developments across all of its products. Introduced last year, RSS feeds, or ‘really simple syndication’, have proved extremely popular with our readers. Subscribers receive alerts as soon as an Advance Article is published in their journal of choice, providing both the graphical abstract and text from a journal's contents page. You can subscribe via the ChemComm homepage.

Subscribers to ChemComm will now link from journals' contents lists straight through to the HTML view of selected articles, in just one quick step. Here you can download references to citation managers (such as EndNote, Ref Manager, ProCite and BibTex), sign up for RSS feeds, search for citing articles (otherwise known as ‘forward linking’), print the article with just one click and send the article to a friend or colleague.

From 2007, authors publishing in RSC journals will see their science “come alive” thanks to an exciting new project pioneered by the RSC. Enhanced HTML in RSC articles will allow chemical and biological compounds mentioned in the text to be identified; by clicking on the compound readers will be able to obtain further information about that compound, including a downloadable structure plus a list of relevant subject areas. The RSC is the first publisher to utilise the International Chemical Identifier (InChI) (a digital equivalent of the IUPAC name for any particular covalent compound where structures are expressed in terms of five layers of information – connectivity, tautomeric, isotopic, stereochemical, and electronic) for a project of this type and scope. The technology will be used to enhance RSS alerts so that future news feeds can include chemical structures and other enhanced information. RSC Publishing intends to evolve this project to match author and reader needs, so tell us what you think: we welcome your feedback on this new functionality and will incorporate your ideas to develop the service further. Find out more at www.rsc.org/sciencecomealive

RSC prizes and awards

In 2006, RSC Publishing awarded more than 20 prizes and sponsored lectureships to high-profile researchers. The recipients gained financial support to present and discuss their work at events throughout the world, in recognition of their research achievements. More than £15,000 (or $30,000) was granted to the recipients, in total, to cover travel expenses to sponsored lectureships in countries such as China, Japan, the USA and the UK. ChemComm plans to sponsor two lectures at major international conferences in 2007.

Molecular BioSystems now in MEDLINE

Molecular BioSystems continues to strengthen its position and has had an excellent year. From bioanalytical and high throughput techniques, microarrays and chip-based microfluidic technologies, to proteomics and biomarkers, the journal focuses on the interface between chemistry, the -omic sciences and systems biology. The journal is now indexed in MEDLINE, thus improving visibility in the community. Subscribers to ChemComm in 2007 will continue to receive free online access to Molecular BioSystems at www.molecularbiosystems.org

RSC Open Science

Authors publishing in RSC Journals now have the option of paying a fee in exchange for making their accepted communication, research paper or review article openly available to all via the web, with RSC Open Science. The scheme is only made available to authors once their papers have been accepted for publication, following the normal rigorous peer-review procedures (RSC Open Science operates in parallel with the normal publication route, which remains free to authors). Authors who have published their work in RSC Journals are also able to apply retrospectively for their work to be included in the scheme. Further information can be found at www.rsc.org/openscience

What our authors say

We are always happy to receive feedback from authors, especially if it helps us to further improve the publishing experience. Because we believe that RSC Publishing offers the best service of any scientific publisher, we have published a selection of the comments we have received from authors from around the globe – take a look at www.rsc.org/authorquotes

Nanoscience from RSC Publishing

ChemComm is committed to publishing high-quality papers on nanoscience – due to the interdisciplinary nature of the subject other RSC Journals and Books also include related content. This wealth of nano material has now been brought together in one convenient webpage, which is regularly updated with the latest research and books from RSC Publishing. Visit: www.rsc.org/publishing/journals/nanoscience/

Not just journals ...

As well as an impressive portfolio of prestigious journals, the RSC has a wide selection of products for anyone with an interest in the chemical sciences. Visit the shop at www.rsc.org/shop to browse over 400 book titles, subscribe to or purchase an individual article from ChemComm or any other RSC Journal, take out or renew RSC membership, or register to attend a conference or training event.

In addition, RSC Publishing is pleased to announce the launch of the RSC eBook Collection. RSC Books are now available online and can be easily downloaded as either chapters or books. The collection is fully searchable and also integrated with RSC Journal content. To search the collection or for further information, visit www.rsc.org/ebooks

Final remarks

As you can see, 2007 promises to be another exciting year for ChemComm and RSC Publishing as a whole. ChemComm is still leading the way for weekly journals publishing communications on important developments in the chemical sciences. As ever, we are delighted to be renowned as the fastest publisher of articles drawn from all the world's major areas of chemical research.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our authors, referees and readers for their continued support. On behalf of the Editorial Board and Editorial Staff at the RSC, we would like to wish you a happy and successful 2007.

Roeland Nolte

Chairman, ChemComm Editorial Board

Sarah Thomas

Editor, ChemComm

Kathryn Sear

Deputy Editor, ChemComm

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