A decade of success

Welcome to the first issue in the 10th volume of PCCP! This 10th anniversary milestone is an ideal opportunity to simultaneously look back on the achievements of the past, reflect on and celebrate the considerable successes currently enjoyed by PCCP, and also to look forward and set the scene for some of the developments happening in the months to come.

Turning first to the history of PCCP, we are delighted that the two former Chairs of the PCCP Editorial Board, Professors Mike Ashfold and Jürgen Troe, have together written a brief “historical view” about the formation of the journal a decade ago, and how they have seen it progress in the intervening years. Mike and Jürgen have both made a huge and ongoing contribution to PCCP for which we are very grateful, and we hope you enjoy their reflections.

PCCP—reflections on the first 10 years

January 2008 marks another milestone in the history of Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (PCCP)—the start of volume 10—and provides an opportune moment to reflect on its many achievements to date.

PCCP was founded as a collaboration between the four national learned chemistry societies representing Germany, Italy, The Netherlands and the UK. Many other national societies quickly joined the project, and today the number stands at 14. There was much activity in 1998 to prepare for the launch of the journal, including an initial “working party” of the inaugural Editorial and Ownership Boards of PCCP in Cambridge, UK on 27 May 1998, under the direction of the first Editor Rosemary Whitelock. The first submissions to the journal started arriving in July 1998, with papers starting to be accepted shortly afterwards, in time to appear in the January 1999 launch print issue of PCCP.

• The first paper published in PCCP was “Zero-point energy constraints in RRKM and non-RRKM molecules” (DOI: 10.1039/a808024k), by Drew A. McCormack and Kieran F. Lim.

• To the end of 2007, there have been 264 issues of PCCP, comprising a total of over 50 000 printed pages.

•PCCP’s most prolific author is Professor Robert Schlögl (Berlin), with 29 PCCP publications to his name to date.

• There have been well over 50 000 cites to PCCP articles since the launch of the journal.

•PCCP’s most cited paper was published in 2001: “Molecular states of water in room temperature ionic liquids” (DOI: 10.1039/b106900d) by Sergei Kazarian et al.

• There have been three Editors of PCCP (Rosemary Whitelock, Susan Weatherby and Philip Earis).

Mike Ashfold and Jürgen Troe—who between them chaired PCCP Editorial Board for the first seven years of the journal—look back and reflect on the early days of PCCP…

“We recall the anxieties of senior colleagues in the run up to launch, not least because of the consequent cessation of two historic, national titles—Faraday Transactions and Berichte der Bunsen-Gesellschaft—each carrying the name of an iconic scientist. However the timing was so obviously right; this was a project that had to be attempted.

The concept of a pan-European journal of physical chemistry and chemical physics, owned by the learned societies of the member states, had support from scientists throughout Europe and beyond. Support was no guarantee of automatic success, however. Would the new journal, with no history or reputation, and starting with no impact factor at launch, gain the support of colleagues? Would senior colleagues submit sufficient of their best work to give PCCP the necessary critical mass and momentum? Would young, up-and-coming scientists ‘gamble’ and back an emerging journal by submitting manuscripts—before the brand name was established?

With the benefit of hindsight, it is obvious that many of these worries were unnecessary, but the current success of PCCP has not come about purely by chance. Support from many senior scientists, both within and beyond Europe, in the early years was vital (and continues to be greatly appreciated!) Their support and contributions helped define the standard of the journal from day one, and showed the way to the much wider community of scientists—junior and senior, and from all around the world—who now regard PCCP as one of the preferred ‘homes’ for their work.

Academic support would have meant little, however, if the publishing side of the activity had not been at least as strong. Editorial Board members played their role, promoting the journal by word of mouth, helping in the soliciting of high quality review articles and themed issues, and impressing upon the RSC the benefits of offering authors free colour and the importance of minimizing times to publication. Talking is easy; successful delivery of these ambitions and of the journal itself is first and foremost the responsibility of the PCCP team at RSC Cambridge. Personnel within that group have changed, and responsibilities have shifted, during the lifetime of PCCP, but the commitment to excellence has been unwavering and the success of their efforts is clear for all to see. PCCP continues to attract increasing submissions (the most recent volume is the biggest yet), it now publishes 48 issues per year, offers the fastest times to publication in its class (despite each published paper being rigorously refereed by a minimum of two reviewers), and has the highest official ISI Immediacy Index in its class and a high and fast-growing impact factor (currently 2.89).

We both derive pleasure, and satisfaction, from the very evident success of PCCP, and look forward to the journal’s continued growth and prosperity.”

Mike Ashfold

Jürgen Troe

Plate1 The former Chairs of the PCCP Editorial Board: Jürgen Troe (left) and Mike Ashfold (right).

Commitment to quality

As Mike and Jürgen mention, standing from the 10th anniversary “vantage-point” today there are very many positives to highlight since the launch of the journal. PCCP is now truly an international journal, with our authors, readers and referees all reflecting the multi-national nature of science today. There are now 14 learned and professional societies in the PCCP partnership, and the support of the Owner Societies helps the journal to thrive. The move to weekly publication has been a great success, and as we will mention our leading and renowned times to publication are down yet again, whilst our Impact Factor is at a record high, and our long-standing commitment to publish only the best research continues.

The journal’s profile has arguably never been higher, helped by factors such as the recent introduction of PCCP poster-prizes, our popular and varied themed issues, the dedicated support and advice of our Editorial and Advisory Boards, the professional service given by the Editorial Office, and the technological developments that enhance the reading experience. PCCP’s high profile is perhaps reflected in the level of submissions to the journal—these have continued to show a sustained rise over the past year, continuing a long-term trend. Indeed, we fully anticipate that the 10th volume of PCCP will be the biggest yet.

Fig. 1 The changing designs of PCCP; evolving journal cover-designs from 2002, 2004 and 2007.

Perspectives

One of PCCP’s great strengths is that it is and always has been a dynamic journal, changing to reflect and meet the needs of the large research community it serves. Regular re-evaluations of all aspects of Editorial policies, guidelines and procedures are necessary and are carried out to keep the journal topical, relevant and best-placed to meet the desires of our authors and readers. With this in mind the Editorial Board have modified the journal’s author guidelines and article-types over the past year, as well as further tightening the acceptance criteria and refereeing procedure to ensure that only the highest quality work in the fields of physical chemistry and chemical physics is published. As detailed in our May 2007 Editorial (DOI: 10.1039/b707172h), we have introduced the “PCCP Perspective” as a new review-style article, where authors can present a state-of-the-art review from their authoritative viewpoint, critically analysing a topic of current interest. We have already published a number of excellent Perspective Articles, covering subjects from biomacromolecules (DOI: 10.1039/b704781a) to molecular machines (DOI: 10.1039/b708995c), from nanotubes (DOI: 10.1039/b707936m) to new nonlinear spectroscopies (DOI: 10.1039/b704566m). We look forward to many further Perspectives in 2008, and I hope you enjoyed reading the three in this issue by Craig Taatjes (DOI: 10.1039/b713460F), Juan Bisquert (DOI: 10.1039/b709316k) and Jon Marangos (DOI: 10.1039/b714126m).

Please do make yourself aware of our latest author guidelines and ethical guidelines; the latest versions are of course on our website, http://www.rsc.org/pccp. All suggestions for future Perspectives are most welcome; please do send your suggestions to pccp@rsc.org

Impact factors

We were naturally very pleased when the latest citation data released by Thomson ISI in June 2007 revealed that PCCP’s Impact Factor has enjoyed another big rise of 15%, increasing to its highest ever value of 2.9 (Fig. 2). This is a reflection of the excellent research published in the journal, and reinforces PCCP’s position as the journal of choice for publishing cutting-edge research of the highest quality in physical chemistry, chemical physics and biophysical chemistry. Of course, we would like to thank all PCCP authors whose support has made this happen. Further increases in the Impact Factor are anticipated in the near future.

Fig. 2 The increase in PCCP’s impact factor since the launch of the journal.

We are also delighted to announce that PCCP’s official Immediacy Index has also risen to 0.866—again a new high. For the third consecutive year this is the highest value for any journal that publishes primary research in the fields of physical chemistry and chemical physics. The Immediacy Index is a measure of how topical and urgent the papers published by a journal are, and is calculated by dividing the number of citations to articles published in a given year by the number of articles published in that year.

Themed issues

Of course, a major change to the journal since its launch has been the move in 2006 to weekly publication of issues, reflecting the growth and success of PCCP. Through this weekly publication we continue to enjoy the flexibility for publishing high-quality themed issues whilst maintaining an appropriate balance between themed issues and ‘regular’ issues of the journal.

In the spring of 2007 we published a very well-received series of themed issues on Alternative Fuel Technologies. Guest edited by Joachim Maier, Dirk Guldi and Adriano Zecchina, this series featured a mix of the latest original research and authoritative reviews from leading international groups on arguably the key problem facing the world today: the efficient conversion and storage of energy. The papers published had high visibility, including some being featured in the international press.

Further successful 2007 themed issues were published on gas phase kinetics, heterogeneous catalysis, spectroscopic probes of molecular recognition and colloidal particles at liquid interfaces (Fig. 3). We thank all the Guest Editors for their time and help in bringing these issues to fruition.

Fig. 3 Some of the striking PCCP themed issue covers from 2007.

Weekly publication has also enabled us to publish smaller, focussed themed issues in key topical areas. Recent examples include our themed issues on spectroscopic probes of molecular recognition, and colloidal particles at liquid interfaces, both of which have made a big impression in the relevant communities. Please do check our website (http://www.rsc.org/pccp) or sign up to our RSS feeds to keep up-to-date with the latest research.

As you might expect, there are several further exciting PCCP themed issues that will be published in the coming months, covering the whole range of the journal’s wide scope. Any further ideas for focussed themed issues you may have are of course very welcome—please do send suggestions to pccp@rsc.org.

PCCP prizes

PCCP proudly awarded sponsored prizes at a variety of scientific meetings in 2007, rewarding some excellent and cutting edge new research. Three PCCP Prizes for Outstanding Achievement of a Young Scientist in Physical Chemistry and Chemical Physics were awarded at the Chemical Society of Japan meeting in March 2007 (see Fig. 4). Additional Poster Prizes were awarded at a variety of conferences throughout the year, on subjects ranging from molecular dynamics to catalysis, from nanoscience to electrified interfaces, from gas phase kinetics to THz spectroscopy. We offer our congratulations to all the winners of these prizes, and look forward to seeing their winning research in the journal soon.

Fig. 4 PCCP Prize Winners Dr Mizoki Tada, Dr Yuichi Negishi and Dr Yasuteru Shigeta being presented with the certificates by RSC President Professor Jim Feast.

We are planning to award further special “10th anniversary”PCCP poster prizes at select key conferences over the course of 2008—further details will be on our website—http://www.rsc.org/pccp—in due course. And of course, PCCP Editorial staff continue to attend a number of conferences around the world, to keep fully aware of the latest scientific developments and to meet our authors, readers and referees. If PCCP is represented at a conference you’re attending please do take the time to come and say “hello”.

Editorial board changes

We are delighted to welcome Professor Modesto Orozco (Barcelona) as a new member of the Editorial Board from 2008; he brings very valuable experience from his biophysical molecular modelling research. A full profile of Modesto will appear in a subsequent issue. Professor Yasuhiro Iwasawa is also taking additional responsibilities on the Board in the new role of Regional Editor for Japan, and we look forward to a fruitful collaboration that will promote the journal in this key country.

It also gives us pleasure to extend a sincere welcome to five new members of our Advisory Board—Professors Carlos Otero Arean, Vincenzo Barone, Shuming Nie, Michel Orrit and Xueming Yang. We would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate Professor Gerhard Ertl, former member of the Board and long-standing PCCP author (e.g. DOI: 10.1039/b411467a), who was recently awarded the Nobel prize in chemistry for his pioneering surface science research.

Full details of the PCCP Honorary, Editorial and Advisory Boards can be found on our website, http://www.rsc.org/pccp.

Times to publication

At PCCP we understand that fast publication is important to researchers, particularly in competitive fields. PCCP has long been recognised as the journal of choice for fast publication of cutting-edge research, and we’re delighted that a recent analysis of physical chemistry journals has confirmed that PCCP is still by far the quickest journal in the field (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5 Median times to first publication in a citable form for all papers published in March 2007 issues of physical chemistry journals.

We pride ourselves on our professional service, and rapid turnaround is achieved without compromising the very rigorous peer review that our authors and readers expect from a premier journal: each paper accepted for publication receives at least two referee reports from international experts in the field.

Award-winning technology and enhanced HTML articles

Launched in February 2007, RSC Project Prospect has had an exceptional first year. Bringing science alive via enhanced HTML articles in RSC journals, the project delivers: hyperlinked compound information (including downloadable structures) in text; links to IUPAC Gold Book terms; ontology terms linked to definitions and related articles; plus RSS feeds that include structured subject and compound information, enabling at-a-glance identification of relevant articles. As the only publisher able to offer these enhancements, we were delighted to be awarded the 2007 ALPSP/Charlesworth Award for Publishing Innovation, where judges described RSC Prospect articles as “delightfully simple to use … benefits to authors and readers are immediately obvious.” Around 1400 articles have now been published with enhanced HTML—to see for yourself, look out for the RSC Prospect icon on our website. Further developments to the project will be announced in 2008. Many of you have already told us how impressed you are with the project—http://www.projectprospect.org has examples of enhanced articles, feedback from the scientific community, plus the latest news.

Following further feedback from journal readers a number of changes have been introduced across all RSC journals. The PCCP homepage now contains the contents list for the current issue, delivering the content you want to see as soon as you arrive at the site. Graphical abstracts are included as standard, allowing you to browse content much more conveniently. A more prominent and easy-to-use search box also makes finding published research much more intuitive. Advance Articles will soon also be available in pdf format.

New templates and colour policy

For authors, the PCCP journal template has been revised and updated to assist submission in a format similar to the journal layout. The guidelines for the use of free colour in the printed versions of PCCP and indeed all journals published by the RSC will be relaxed in 2008, and the decision on the free use of colour will be based on whether the use of colour enhances the scientific understanding of the figure (the old policy required the colour to be essential). In addition, for the online version of articles, colour will be provided at no cost in both the pdf and html versions.

Energy & Environmental Science

RSC Publishing will be launching a new journal in summer 2008. Energy & Environmental Science will cover all aspects of the chemical sciences relating to energy conversion and storage, and environmental science. Visit the website for the latest news: http://www.rsc.org/ees

‘PCCP book of choice’ scheme

Launched in Spring 2007, the RSC eBook Collection offers scientists across the globe online access to a prestigious and wide ranging portfolio of chemical science books which span 40 years of research and opinion.

The RSC eBook Collection is testament to RSC’s publishing innovation as well as the high quality of the content contained in our books. With further technical developments and new 2008 content being uploaded throughout the year the RSC eBook Collection is set to become a key resource. To search the Collection or for further information visit http://www.rsc.org/ebooks

Scientists from all four corners of the globe are taking advantage of the free first chapter downloads and from January 2008, PCCP will regularly highlight a book specifically for our readers through our ‘PCCP book of choice’ scheme. More information is available on the PCCP website. If you would like to buy a print copy of the ‘PCCP book of choice’ or other titles from the RSC, and you are an RSC author, editor or referee you can enjoy a special 25% discount on your book purchase. You can redeem this offer online through the RSC Online Shop. To find out how to claim your exclusive discount, visit http://www.rsc.org/shop

Exciting times

We are greatly looking forward to continuing success over the coming months and years, and we would like to take this opportunity to reiterate our warmest thanks to everyone who has supported the journal in its first decade—to all our authors, referees, readers, and current and former Board members alike. We continue to always welcome comments, suggestions and feedback; do please send any thoughts to E-mail: pccp@rsc.org.

With best wishes for the New Year,

Bert Weckhuysen

Chair, PCCP Editorial Board

Philip Earis

Editor

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