Editorial – ‘Bigger and Better’

It is with great pleasure that we look back on 2007 as another very successful year. The journal has continued to grow and this year, for the first time, over 100 reviews have been published. In fact, the total growth since last year has been a staggering 52%. It is difficult to believe that only five years ago the journal published a total of 36 reviews in just six issues. Since then the frequency has doubled, the number of reviews published has almost quadrupled and the impact factor has risen by almost 50%. This growth has been facilitated by, amongst other things, the popular introduction of both critical reviews and a selection of thematic issues on exciting and cutting edge topics. Both of these developments will continue to play a major role in the journal moving forward into 2008 and beyond.

Content

In 2007, Chem Soc Rev continued to commission and publish articles from both world leaders as well as emerging investigators. Particular author highlights included Sam Danishefsky (Chem. Soc. Rev., 2007, 36, 1207), Kim Janda (Chem. Soc. Rev., 2007, 36, 458), Fraser Stoddart (Chem. Soc. Rev., 2007, 36, 77 and Chem. Soc. Rev., 2007, 36, 1705), Dan Nocera (Chem. Soc. Rev., 2007, 36, 579), Atsuhiro Osuka (Chem. Soc. Rev., 2007, 36, 831) as well as emerging investigators such as John Moses (Chem. Soc. Rev., 2007, 36, 1249), Lee Cronin (Chem. Soc. Rev., 2007, 36, 105) and Leonard MacGillivray (Chem. Soc. Rev., 2007, 36, 1239). Of course this list is far from exhaustive and we would like to thank all our authors for their excellent contributions throughout 2007.

Fig. 1 Chem Soc Rev covers from leading authors in 2007.

Following on from Professor Jim Naismith's RSC Award article in 2006, the journal published a review by Dr Charlotte Williams, Imperial College London, the RSC's 2005 Medola medal winner, on the topic of ‘synthesis of functionalized biodegradable polyesters’. It was also pleasing that the more general social interest reviews continued with articles by Professor Heinz Berke entitled, ‘The invention of blue and purple pigments in ancient times’ in the first issue of 2007 and more recently in issue 10, a review by Professor Marc Aucouturier on ‘The surface of cultural heritage artefacts: physicochemical investigations for their knowledge and their conservation.’ These reviews were both highlighted as Instant Insight articles in the RSC magazine Chemical Science and a further 16 reviews have also been featured in the magazines Chemical Science, Chemical Technology and Chemical Biology in this way.

In 2007 Chem Soc Rev also had its first fast breaking paper in the Thomson Essential Science Indicators. Professor Chao-Jun Li's review entitled, ‘Organic chemistry in water’ (see Fig. 2) was highlighted in February 2007, one year after publication, as the ISI Fast Breaking paper for Chemistry. This review continues to be very popular and is currently the most cited review published in Chem Soc Rev in 2006†. ISI fast breaking papers are highlighted as having the largest percentage increase in citations in their respective fields from one bimonthly update to the next. These represent very recent scientific contributions that are just beginning to attract the attention of the scientific community.

Fig. 2 Photograph of Professor Chao-Jun Li, MacGill University, and graphical abstract entry from his 2006 Chem Soc Rev review highlighted as a fast breaking paper in Thomson Essential Science Indicators in February 2007.

Most accessed

Table 1 shows the top 10 most accessed articles in 2007. As in 2006, it is particularly pleasing to see two social interest reviews continuing to be well accessed almost two years after publication. We are also delighted to see the inclusion of three recent thematic issue articles, including the highlight article authored by Professor Jean-Marie Lehn, the 1987 joint Nobel Prize winner. More generally, the list of subject areas is again varied with topics including supramolecular chemistry, nanotechnology and green chemistry. Most exciting, however, is the inclusion of reviews only published in the summer of 2007 by Mercedes Crego-Carma et al. and John Moses and Adam Moorehouse, covering superhydrophobic surfaces and click chemistry. Their inclusion highlights the timeliness of the topics published within Chem Soc Rev with both articles already being cited.

Table 1 Top 10 most accessed reviews in Chem Soc Rev in 2007^a

Title	Author	Citation
a Correct as of November 13th.
Biochemistry of human skin—our brain on the outside	Desmond J. Tobin	Chem. Soc. Rev., 2006, 35, 52–67
Advances in chemistry applied to forensic science	David F. Rendle	Chem. Soc. Rev., 2005, 34, 1021
What do we need for a superhydrophobic surface? A review on the recent progress in the preparation of superhydrophobic surfaces	Xue-Mei Li, David Reinhoudt and Mercedes Crego-Calama	Chem. Soc. Rev., 2007, 36, 1350
From supramolecular chemistry towards constitutional dynamic chemistry and adaptive chemistry	Jean-Marie Lehn	Chem. Soc. Rev., 2007, 36, 151
Surface-enhanced Raman scattering	Alan Campion and Patanjali Kambhampati	Chem. Soc. Rev., 1998, 27, 241–250
The growing applications of click chemistry	John E. Moses and Adam D. Moorhouse	Chem. Soc. Rev., 2007, 36, 1249
Calixarene-based multivalent ligands	R. Ungaro et al.	Chem. Soc. Rev., 2007, 36, 254
Organic chemistry in water	Chao-Jun Li and Liang Chen	Chem. Soc. Rev., 2006, 35, 68
Synthetic, self-assembly ABCD nanoparticles; a structural paradigm for viable synthetic non-viral vectors	Kostas Kostarelos and Andrew D. Miller	Chem. Soc. Rev., 2005, 34, 970
Recent progress on nanovehicles	James M. Tour et al.	Chem. Soc. Rev., 2006, 35, 1043

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Impact factor (IF)

In 2007 the impact factor of Chem Soc Rev is an impressive 13.69 (Thomson ISI^®, 2006) placing the journal 3rd in the ISI multidisciplinary category. We believe that the inclusion of further cutting edge thematic issues and the continuing growth in the number of published reviews will help to further increase the journal's impact factor in the coming years.

Themes

In 2007, Chem Soc Rev continued its impressive schedule of publishing world class thematic issues. Following the publication in 2006 of theme issues covering lanthanides in medicine, high pressure chemistry and nanostructured assemblies it was vital that the 2007 thematic issues were of a similar quality and equalled the excellent standards previously achieved. We hope you agree that this challenge was completed successfully.

In February, the supramolecular anniversary issue, guest edited by editorial board member Professor Philip Gale, was published to celebrate 20 years since the award of the Nobel Prize to Professors Charles Pedersen, Donald Cram and Jean-Marie Lehn, but also to commemorate 40 years since Pedersen's first publication on crown ether chemistry. The issue featured an array of world leaders contributing a mixture of both tutorial and critical reviews, as well as a highlight from Professor Jean-Marie Lehn looking forward to what the future may hold for the discipline. The issue was a landmark in size with 25 articles published, the most ever featured in a single issue of Chem Soc Rev. To further highlight the topical nature of the issue many of the reviews were very highly accessed with several featured in the monthly top 10. Furthermore several of the reviews are now amongst the most highly cited in 2007.

In July, the second of three theme issues covering organometallics in heterocyclic synthesis was published. Edited by editorial board members Professors Carsten Bolm and Huw Davies, the issue brought together a group of internationally respected researchers from both industry and academia to cover this exciting topic which impacts on areas such as medicinal chemistry and crop protection chemistry.

Most recently in December, the final theme issue on the topic of liquid crystals was published. Edited by Professor John Goodby, University of York, the issue contained 11 review articles covering a variety of topics from synthesis to simulation and liquid crystal engineering.

Details about the theme issue topics for 2008 are given later in this editorial.

Editorial board

At this time of year we would like to thank those editorial board members who are finishing their terms of office for their hard work and dedication. Without their input the journal would not have undergone such rapid growth in both size and impact factor over the last five years. Thanks this year are therefore extended to Professor George Marston and Dr John de Mello. New editorial board members are currently being identified, so visit the Chem Soc Rev website for future announcements.

Advisory board

The Chem Soc Rev advisory board was appointed some three years ago, around the time of the move to 12 issues. With the journal continuing to grow rapidly it is timely that the current advisory board membership grows comparably, with new appointments made to reflect this growth. We therefore thank the 7 outgoing members for their efforts in supporting the journal and welcome 16 new members as detailed in Table 2.

Table 2 New appointments for the Chem Soc Rev advisory board

Sunggak Kim Kaist, Korea	Peter Roesky Berlin, Germany	Uday Maitra Bangalore, India	Rint Sijbesma Eindhoven, Netherlands
Carlos Barbas III Scripps, USA	Johannes Messinger MPI, Germany	Ulrich Wiesner Cornell, USA	Steve Loeb Windsor, Canada
Kai Johnsson Laussanne, Switzerland	Albert Philipse Utrecht, Netherlands	Song Gao Beijing, China	Hiroyuki Furuta Fukuoka, Japan
Cameron Kepert Sydney, Australia	Shunichi Fukuzumi Osaka, Japan	Peter K Ho Singapore	David Amabilino Bellaterra, Spain

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The new advisory board members will work alongside the existing members to raise the profile and awareness of the journal in both their research discipline and country.

Looking forward to 2008

Plans for 2008 are now firmly underway and it promises to be even bigger and more successful than previous years. The journal will continue to grow with more reviews and topical thematic issues than ever before.

The 2008 thematic issues topics have been chosen to cover subjects which are cutting edge and also interdisciplinary in nature so as to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. In late spring, Professors Duncan Graham (University of Strathclyde) and Roy Goodacre (Manchester University) will guest edit a theme issue on the topic of SERs. In the summer, Professors Matthias Brust (Liverpool University), Hubert Schmidbaur (Technical University of Munich) and Graham Hutchings (Cardiff University) will jointly guest edit an issue dedicated to the exciting topic of gold: materials, catalysis and chemistry. Finally for 2008, we will publish a theme issue looking at the chemistry–biology interface. This issue, edited by editorial board member Dr David Spring, is particularly exciting as it will contain reviews from both new emerging investigators as well as more established researchers. A smaller part issue, guest edited by editorial board member Professor George Marston, will also be published on the topic of gas-phase kinetics. We hope you agree that the topics selected for 2008 offer an exciting mix of interdisciplinary research ideal for the readership of Chem Soc Rev.

Next year will also see the launch of Chem Soc Rev web themes. These will profile and bring together content published throughout the year in the journal on specifically defined topics. These living review collections will also contain editorials and offer a more flexible alternative to the well known thematic issues. Please check the Chem Soc Rev website regularly (www.rsc.org/chemsocrev) for announcements of forthcoming themes.

RSC wide publishing developments

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 – www.projectprospect.org has examples of enhanced articles, feedback from the scientific community, plus the latest news.

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: www.rsc.org/ees

Following feedback from journal readers a number of changes have been introduced across all RSC Journals. The Chem Soc Rev 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.

For authors, the RSC Journal templates have been revised and updated to assist submission in a format similar to the journal layout. The guidelines for the use of colour in RSC Journals will be relaxed during 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 the journals, colour will be introduced at no cost in both the pdf and html versions.

‘Chem Soc Rev 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 www.rsc.org/ebooks

Scientists from all four corners of the globe can take advantage of free first chapter downloads and from January 2008, Chem Soc Rev will regularly highlight a book specifically for our readers through our ‘Chem Soc Rev book of choice’ scheme. More information is available on the Chem Soc Rev website.

25% Book discount for RSC authors, editors and referees

If you would like to buy a print copy of the ‘Chem Soc Rev 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 www.rsc.org/shop

In summary

We hope you agree that 2007 has been a very successful year with many milestones reached such as publishing ‘over 100 reviews’ and ‘the largest thematic issue’. With our plans for the journal for 2008 and your support we will continue to improve and build on our achievements. On this note, we once again would like to thank all the authors and referees who have contributed to the journal in 2007 and we hope that 2008 will continue to meet the high expectations of our readership.

Professor Wilhelm Huck, Chair, Chemical Society Reviews

Dr Robert D. Eagling, Editor, Chemical Society Reviews

November 2007

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Footnote

† Correct as of November 13th through ISI Web of Knowledge.

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