Happy New Year

Editorial Board news

During the summer of 2006 the photobiology section Editor-in-Chief, Janet Bornman, took up a position as Professor and Director of the International Global Change Institute at the University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand and consequently as of 1 September the Deputy-Editor-in-Chief, Santi Nonell, took over much of the running of the photobiology part up to the end of December 2006. We would like to thank Janet for her contribution to the development of the journal during her editorship, and her continued commitment to Photochemical & Photobiological Sciences. We would also like to thank Santi Nonell for his excellent and efficient handling of the photobiology papers and for ensuring a smooth transition during this time. We now welcome the new photobiology Editor-in-Chief, Rex Tyrrell from the University of Bath, to the team from the beginning of this year.

We also welcome three new members onto the Editorial Board: Dario Bassani, Jochen Mattay and Masako Sasaki; and would like to thank our departing board members, Jean Krutmann, Helge Lemmetyinen and Wolfgang Rettig for their time and engagement whilst on the Board.

The journal's presence in Asia and Oceania continues to grow under the guidance of the Editor-in-Asia, Pill-Soon Song. In November 2006 the journal presence was further promoted at the 3rd Asia and Oceania Conference on Photobiology, which was held in Beijing (http://www.aosp2006.org.cn/), organized by the Asian & Oceania Society for Photobiology (AOSP) and also attended by representatives from the Korean Society of Photoscience (KSP), our two affiliated members of the journal.

Content

During 2006 we published a total of 134 papers distributed in the form of 19 perspectives, 107 regular papers, 2 technical notes, and 6 rapid communications. Photochemical & Photobiological Sciences is a global journal for photochemistry and photobiology, as evidenced by the wide geographical distribution of our authorship: 42% of manuscripts come from Europe, 18% from America, 35% from Asia, and 5% from the rest of the world.

We also published a number of special issues that have been very popular with our readers, and we are planning further special issues for this year, starting next month with the UNEP Assessment on environmental effects of ozone depletion and its interactions with climate change. Special issues published in 2006 included ‘Photodamage of the skin’ (Photochem. Photobiol. Sci., 2006, 5(2), 145–264) guest edited by Franz Trautinger followed by the issue on ‘Proton transfer in biological systems' (Photochem. Photobiol. Sci., 2006, 5(6), 521–640) guest edited by Thomas Gensch, Joachim Heberle and Cristiano Viappiani. A special issue in honour of the late George Hammond (Photochem. Photobiol. Sci., 2006, 5(10), 857–984), with contributions from some of his former co-workers, was guest edited by Richard Weiss and Carl Wamser. The December issue (Photochem. Photobiol. Sci., 2006, 5(12), 1089–1192) was a themed issue on fullerenes, which was guest edited by Giorgio Orlandi. The full list of special issues can be found at http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/pp/specialissues.asp

In December 2006 we launched a perspectives series on ‘Time-resolved methods in biophysics’, which is being guest edited by Thomas Gensch and Cristiano Viappiani. There are a number of further contributions in this series scheduled for this year and these articles will be grouped together on the Photochemical & Photobiological Sciences homepage. The complete list of perspectives can be viewed at http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/pp/PPSPerspectives.asp

None of the above would have been possible without the anonymous, but essential, contribution of our referees, who devote precious time and effort to ensure that the high scientific standards of the journal are met by each manuscript. We cannot over emphasise how much their involvement is appreciated. We are also indebted to our great team of Associate Editors, who make it possible that all areas of photochemistry and photobiology are well represented in Photochemical & Photobiological Sciences.

Impact factor and immediacy index

The 2005 impact factors, released by ISI® in June 2006, showed an impressive increase for Photochemical & Photobiological Sciences to 2.117. In only two years, the impact factor has increased by more than 50%, and, on average, each manuscript published in Photochemical & Photobiological Sciences since its launch in 2002 has been cited 3.85 times (source: ISI®). 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.

RSC Open Science

Authors publishing in RSC journals now have the option of paying a fee in exchange for making their accepted 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 retrospectively apply 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

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 Photochemical & Photobiological Sciences homepage.

Subscribers to Photochemical & Photobiological Sciences 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

These developments demonstrate the investment in publishing products and services over the past year and 2007 will see us enhancing our products further.

Changes and developments to 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.

Online readers of Chemical Biology can also view a contents listing of all chemical biology articles published across RSC journals, making it the best place to find both news and research for those in the field.

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

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 Photochemical & Photobiological Sciences or any other RSC journal, join 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

On behalf of the PPS Editorial team we would like to thank you for your continued support of Photochemical & Photobiological Sciences and hope we will have the opportunity to meet many of our readers during the conferences we will be attending during the year.

Janet F. Bornman

Editor-in-Chief, photobiology

F. C. De Schryver

Editor-in-Chief, photochemistry

Sarah Ruthven

Editor, RSC

Photochemical & Photobiological Sciences profilesProfessor Rex Tyrrell, the new Editor-in-Chief, photobiology

Professor Rex Tyrrell is a professor of molecular biology and the director of research at the Department of Pharmacy and Pharmacology at the University of Bath, UK. His research interests are in the cellular and molecular biology of ultraviolet radiation—pathways of damage and defence. He has a particular interest in the activation of gene expression by UV radiation and other stress agents and the physiological/pathological consequences, using a range of techniques in molecular and cellular biology and biochemistry. Rex is the local organizer for the 12th Congress of the European Society for Photobiology to be held in Bath this September.

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