JAAS – a growing success

For more than 22 years JAAS has been one of the most comprehensive journals for research on method development for element analysis, speciation and isotope ratio determination for liquids, solids and gases. Today we can see that this field of research has contributed and is continuing to contribute to new insights into a wide variety of different research disciplines and industries, including chemistry, materials science, biology, geology, and archaeology. Process control (for example in water, soil and materials science), quality control (for example for wafers, optics, etc.), and environmental monitoring would not be as efficient as they are without some of the research published in JAAS.

However, it is also true that the core of our atomic spectroscopy research community has matured in recent years. Today's research is reaching out into more interdisciplinary approaches and a number of “domains” published in JAAS have moved into other disciplines, such as biology, medicine and geology. A significant amount of method development is carried out in these fields, on a wide variety of samples, and we have to ensure that this research also becomes part of our journal. Therefore, we invite you to work together with us to make JAAS the central journal for fundamentals in elemental analysis and isotope ratio determinations within all fields of application, where the most recent progress, developments and achievements in plasma-based analytical techniques, micro-beam techniques etc. can be found. The most recent Goldschmidt Conference in Vancouver 2008, the 8th Workshop on Laser Ablation in Prague 2008, and the 4th International Conference on Trace Element Speciation in Biomedical, Nutritional and Environmental Sciences in Munich, 2008 all indicated the need for a joint effort in improving our current analytical techniques. This is a key task for tackling new and challenging problems in high spatial resolution cosmochemistry or geochemistry and similar requirements exist in biology, medicine and materials science. Also in nanotechnology, problems related to toxicity can only be tackled by making use of state of the art elemental analysis.

All of these research fields have a common interest in improvements in sensitivity, development of simultaneous detection capabilities, development of further ionization sources allowing one to access molecular and elemental information, providing understanding of, and reduction of, matrix effects within existing plasma sources, solving problems of mass bias for isotope ratio determinations, exploring new isotope systems or investigating direct solid sampling techniques. Furthermore, quantification in medical and bio-medical applications, including speciation and further improvements in metallomics are of major interest. Success in these research areas will determine the importance of our field of research. To achieve this goal our aim is to extend the focus of JAAS to fields where new applications are introduced or new methods are developed and applied. Consequently, we call upon researchers in all disciplines of applied or fundamental analytical spectrometry research to submit their work to JAAS. JAAS’ successful past is based on your submissions of high-level and high-impact articles. This is also indicated by our high impact factor, which, with your support, we will continue to achieve in the future. Thus, we believe that JAAS will become central to interdisciplinary research in analytical science while also continuing in our well-established research fields.

Editorial Board news

For the last 4 years Gary Hieftje has been Chair of the JAAS Editorial Board and he has put much effort and dedication into ensuring that JAAS continues to be one of the central journals for research and developments in atomic spectroscopy. On behalf of the JAAS community, the Editorial and Advisory Boards we would like to thank Gary for his contribution, both as Chair and as an author.

Plate1 Gary Hieftje

This month also sees some further changes on our Editorial Board. Jim Harnly has retired from the Board, having served as our Editor for the Americas from the launch of the journal in 1986. Our thanks go to Jim for his exceptional contribution to JAAS over the years which has helped to make JAAS the successful journal it is today. In honour of his contributions, the RSC has presented him with a commemorative plate and certificate. With Jim's retirement all of the article handling for JAAS has moved to the Cambridge Office and manuscripts can be submitted as before through our online system, www.rsc.org/resource.

Plate2 Jim Harnly

We are delighted that both Gary and Jim will maintain their close association with JAAS as members of our Advisory Board.

From this month, we have two new Regional Associate Editor positions on our Editorial Board. John Olesik from Ohio State University takes up the role of Regional Associate Editor for the Americas, while Shan Gao from China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, joins the Editorial Board as Regional Associate Editor for China. We welcome both of them to these roles and look forward to working with them during this year.

Plate3 John Olesik

Plate4 Shan Gao

We welcome also our new Board members who joined during 2008, Scott Tanner from the University of Toronto and Chris Harrington, Nottingham Trent University. Chris is the representative of the Atomic Spectrometry Updates Editorial Board.

Plate5 Scott Tanner

In addition during 2008, we welcomed new members to our Advisory Board. Annemie Bogaerts, Jorge Pisonero and Gunda Köllensperger all joined the Board for the first time and we are delighted that Jean-Michel Mermet, a long-time supporter of JAAS, has rejoined the Advisory Board. It has, as always, been a pleasure working with all of our Editorial and Advisory Board members over the past year and we thank them for their contribution to the journal.

Same great ReSourCe – just better!

During 2009 we will release a new version of ReSourCe, our system for online manuscript submission and peer review (www.rsc.org/resource). Already popular with authors and referees, we've listened to your feedback and made further improvements to our service. We're keen to build on your experience of ReSourCe, so if you would you like to help us shape the next release by taking part in beta-testing or by supplying your comments and suggestions please contact mailto:resourcesupport@rsc.org

More papers and greater impact

As we look forward to 2009, RSC Publishing is working with more authors than ever before – 2008 saw the number of authors published in RSC Journals increase by 30%. Meanwhile titles from across the collection recorded impressive rises in impact factors, and the latest immediacy indices confirm the relevance and topicality of research published by the RSC.

RSC Publishing is committed to providing a world-class publishing service and global visibility to its authors and with the number of citations increasing, immediacy and impact factors rising, it is clear to see that JAAS and RSC Publishing are recognised by researchers throughout the world as a key resource to publish and read the very best research.

Your RSC Subscriptions and free content

We know that it can be difficult to keep track of online resources that are available to you. So, we've introduced a special web page to help you to find out exactly what RSC content you can access. This new page is called Your RSC Subscriptions (www.rsc.org/Publishing/your_access.asp) and it lists all products for which your organisation has a current subscription, plus other content which may be available to you, such as the RSC Journals Archive and the RSC eBook collection.

You can also find out about RSC content that is available free – including: research articles that are free for a limited time; news articles in magazines; and free chapters from the RSC eBook Collection. Visit www.rsc.org/Publishing/freeRSCcontent.asp

RSC Books

The RSC eBook Collection has become a world-class electronic resource with licenses being signed to leading institutions across the globe. New content continues to be uploaded regularly and this comprehensive resource now includes over 800 quality titles. Electronic book publications are uploaded within days of print publication, effortlessly disseminating extensive, high-quality, scientific content direct to scientists, libraries, students, teachers and researchers around the world. Please visit www.rsc.org/eBooks for further information or to visit the RSC eBook Collection.

Over 80 new print books will be published in 2009 as our list continues to grow in size and importance in the international market. Keep up-to-date with all the latest cutting edge titles being published by the RSC by visiting www.rsc.org/ej_alert and subscribing to our eAlerts. We send regular information on discount offers, print books and new electronic content throughout the year.

Food: the RSC theme for 2009

In 2009, the theme for RSC public engagement activities will be food; looking at all aspects of the supply chain from field to fork and eventually to waste disposal and recycling. Planned activities include the launch of a major report into securing a sustainable food supply; the publication of a new edition of the ground-breaking book Kitchen Chemistry; lectures and events at the new Chemistry Centre at Burlington House – the world's foremost venue for showcasing chemistry; and Chemistry Week 2009 (7th–15th November), when practicing scientists and science teachers will engage in a week-long festival for the chemical sciences. Please get in touch with us (mailto:food@rsc.org) if you would like to be involved.

New journal announcements: Metallomics

RSC Publishing launches a new journal this month. Metallomics: Integrated biometal science covers the research fields related to metals in biological, clinical and environmental systems. The scientific field of metallomics is receiving great attention as a new frontier in the investigation of trace elements in biology. In responding to the need for a dedicated subject journal for the emerging research community, RSC Publishing anticipates that Metallomics will be a key voice and presence within the field, helping to support and shape its identity. The journal will publish 6 issues this year, increasing to 12 issues in 2010. During 2009 and 2010, the current issue of the journal will be freely available to everyone online and free institutional access to previous issue content will be available following a simple registration process. Visit the website at www.rsc.org/metallomics

Finally – thank you!

On behalf of the Editorial Board and RSC Publishing we thank you for your continued support of JAAS and we wish you a happy and prosperous 2009!

Niamh O'Connor, Editor

Plate6 Niamh O'Connor

Detlef Günther, Chair, Editorial Board

Plate7 Detlef Günther

Prof. Detlef Günther is Associate Professor for Trace Element and Micro Analysis at ETH Zurich and currently Chair of the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences (DCHAB). He received his PhD from the University of Halle-Wittenberg (Germany) in 1990. He had various research positions at the Institute for Plant Biochemistry in Halle (Germany), in the Earth Science Department at Memorial University of Newfoundland (Canada) and at the Institute of Isotope Geology at ETH Zurich (Switzerland) and was appointed as assistant professor at DCHAB at ETH Zurich in 1998. His research interests are focused on fundamental and applied aspects in plasma-based mass spectrometry techniques, ion generation and ion extraction procedures, laser ablation-ICP-MS for elemental and isotope analysis as well as GD-TOFMS and μ-XRF for elemental analysis. In 2002 he received the Ruzicka Award, in 2003 the European Award for Plasma Spectrochemistry and in 2007 he was received the Fresenius Award and the Lester W. Strock award.

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