Editorial

Another great year for NPR

NPR’s successful first year as a monthly publication has passed extremely quickly, and we would particularly like to thank our authors, whose articles have maintained the extremely high standard of the journal by providing insight into natural product chemistry, biosynthesis and pharmacology amongst other topics. The dynamic and hard-working editorial board have ensured an impressive 5–6 reviews per issue, and we plan to further increase the number of published articles over the next year.

Themed issues

2009 saw another informative themed issue published in NPR. Focussing on the impact of genomics on all areas of natural product science, the issue was edited by four members of the editorial board – Brad Moore, Kira Weissman, Jörn Piel and Russell Cox. In the line-up for 2010 are a themed issue on metal trafficking, edited by board member Emma Raven and guest editor Nigel Robinson, and a themed issue on synthesis edited by board members Andreas Kirschning and Andy Phillips.

IUPAC symposium

Members of the NPR board were involved in organising a symposium on Natural Products at the IUPAC Congress in Glasgow in August. The symposium had four plenary speakers, Jon Clardy from Harvard Medical School who spoke on insect–microbe interactions, Wilfred van der Donk from the University of Illinois who discussed lantibiotic biosynthesis, Christian Hertweck from the Leibniz Institute, Jena, who covered exploration of cryptic microbial pathways, and finally Sheryl Tsai from the University of California, Irvine, who talked about the cyclisation specificity of polyketide synthases. The meeting was very successful, with a varied programme of contributed presentations and over 80 attendees.

Lecture award

Congratulations go to David O’Hagan, University of St Andrews, who was the recipient of the 2009 NPR lecture award. David’s work on the discovery and mechanism of the unique fluorination enzymes from Streptomyces cattleya was recognised by the selection committee. The award was presented to David at the Zing Conference on Natural Products in Antigua by Professor Chris Willis, the conference Chair. The recipient of the 2010 lecture award will be announced early in the year.

New Editorial Board members

In 2009 we welcomed two new members to the editorial board. David Jakeman from Dalhousie University took up the carbohydrate brief, and has been active in acquiring a range of reviews in this area. Stefan Schulz joined us from the Technical University of Braunschweig, and covers the area of terrestrial chemical ecology with a focus on pheromones and signalling between organisms.

RSC Publishing news

High-impact publishing

Publication of the 2008 Impact Factors, calculated by ISI, once again brought good news for authors and readers of RSC journals. Nearly all the RSC journals increased in impact factor, immediacy index and article influence, with an impressive average impact factor increase of 8.2%. Overall, the average impact factor for the RSC portfolio now stands at 4.7, equal to that of the ACS collection.

RSC journals feature in the top 10 rankings (by impact factor and immediacy index) in 6 of the 7 core chemistry categories as listed on ISI. Also, of the top 100 chemistry journals, ranked by impact factor, 15 are from RSC Publishing. NPR’s 2008 impact factor of 7.45 maintained our position as one of the leading journals in the field of natural products and bioorganic chemistry.

2009 also saw a 75% increase in the number of articles published in RSC journals compared to 2007 – so not only are our impact factors leading the way in the chemical sciences, but there are a wider variety of articles available for you to choose from.

Rising e-alert popularity

2009 saw the launch of the new RSC journal e-alerts; in 2010 we are hoping to see a continued rise in their popularity. The e-alerts are packed with information and links enabling readers to easily view content as soon as it’s published, helping them to stay abreast of journal content. The new e-alert registration system has been designed so readers can manage their own subscriptions, tailoring the information they receive and giving them the freedom to unsubscribe at any point. You can find out more information online: www.rsc.org/alerts

New integrated content delivery platform

RSC Publishing is proud to announce the launch of our powerful new website that supports multiple content types. Powered by the industry’s leading MarkLogic Server, and benefiting from interactive browsing offered by our enhanced html mark-up technology, the platform delivers exceptionally fast and precise results. Users can now search 165 years of world-class RSC-hosted content including 20 000 book chapters, 300 000 journal articles and 450 000 database records from a single, simple search. Designed around readers’ preferences (identified from a detailed and ongoing user-interview process), our user-friendly platform offers faster browsing, intelligent searching, consistent user experience irrespective of content type sought, and simpler more intuitive navigation. We’ll be releasing even more exciting functionality later in the year. Please tell us what you think at rscpublishing@rsc.org

ChemSpider

Last year RSC acquired ChemSpider, the richest single source of structure-based chemistry information freely available online, with fast searching of over 21.5 million chemical structures. Alongside the powerful database, the ChemSpider development team brings well over 40 years of additional cheminformatics experience to the RSC, including chemistry document markup capable of finding chemical names, converting them to chemical structures and linking to online resources. Integration of this technology with the RSC’s existing award-winning enhanced html mark-up technology, RSC Prospect, will lead to substantial enhancements in semantic enrichment for the chemical sciences. Find out more at www.chemspider.com

New for 2010: The RSC eBook Subject Collections

In response to readers’ needs and testament to the innovation of RSC Publishing, we are pleased to announce the launch of new RSC eBook Subject Collections. The nine new RSC eBook Subject Collections, including a Tutorial Chemistry Texts and Paperbacks package, deliver the high-quality content contained in our books into subject specialist packages. With new content being uploaded throughout the year, the new RSC eBook Subject Collections are set to become another key, premier resource. To find out more, please visit www.rsc.org/ebooks

Chemical Science

This new flagship journal will launch in mid-2010, and will publish findings of exceptional significance from across all the chemical sciences. Editor-in-Chief David MacMillan of Princeton leads a dynamic international team of Associate Editors responsible for the scientific development of the journal. Free institutional online access to the entire 2010 and 2011 content of Chemical Science will be automatically provided to all existing customers. Keep in touch with the latest news at www.rsc.org/chemicalscience

...and on a related note

RSC is pleased to announce a significant new global symposia series supporting the launch of the Chemical Science. The International Symposia on Advancing the Chemical Sciences (ISACS) meetings will be held on three continents, over three sequential weeks, focusing on distinct subject areas. More information can be found at: www.rsc.org/isacs

RSC Publishing will launch a new journal this year – MedChemComm will focus on medicinal chemistry research, including new studies related to biologically active chemical or biochemical entities that can act as pharmacological agents with therapeutic potential or relevance. It will be the official journal of the European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry (EFMC), 6 issues being published this year, increasing to 12 issues in 2011. Visit the website at www.rsc.org/medchemcomm

Free access available for all new RSC journals

Free institutional online access is available for all our newest journals. Access is managed by institution and IP address, and is provided following a simple registration process. Make sure you and your colleagues don’t miss out on the free access by filling in the registration form: www.rsc.org/free_access_registration

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