Welcome to the first issue of Catalysis Science & Technology

We are delighted to introduce you to the inaugural issue of Catalysis Science & Technology. The journal has been launched to meet a demand from the international catalysis communities for a society owned and published journal, with a high reputation for customer service, fairness and timely publication. Catalysis Science & Technology will be a multidisciplinary journal containing a mix of fundamental, applied, experimental and computational work, relevant to both academic and industrial scientists. We invite you to take full advantage of the free access that RSC Publishing has arranged for Catalysis Science & Technology. All articles published this year and in 2012 will be free to access, and will therefore have maximum visibility and be widely promoted.

Submitted manuscripts to Catalysis Science & Technology are handled quickly, fairly and efficiently by the journal's three Associate Editors, Paul Chirik, (Princeton University, USA), Paul Kamer, (University of St. Andrews, UK) and Noritaka Mizuno, (Tokyo University, Japan), who between them cover homogeneous, heterogeneous and biocatalysis. The journal is supported by international Editorial and Advisory Boards, led by the two Editors-in-Chief, Cynthia Friend, (Harvard University, USA) and Piet van Leeuwen, (Institut Català d’Investigació Química, Taragona, Spain), while the Editorial Board members are Kuiling Ding (Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, China), Stan Golunski (Cardiff University, UK), David Jackson (Glasgow University, UK), Deryn Fogg (Ottawa University, Canada) and Johannes de Vries (University of Groningen, The Netherlands). The full list of Advisory Board members, and more information about the members of the Editorial Board can be found on the journal's website: www.rsc.org/catalysis.

The journal is backed by a dedicated team of RSC editors, based at the RSC Editorial Office in Cambridge, UK. RSC Publishing has a strong heritage and reputation for publishing science of the very best quality and has a great track record for new journal launches. We have every confidence that Catalysis Science & Technology will very quickly become a leading journal in the field, publishing high impact, relevant articles for the catalysis community.

Catalysis has become an independent, comprehensive sub-discipline of chemistry in the last two decades. Progress in the three classic directions of catalysis, bio-catalysis, heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysis, has been impressive and new inventions surpass expectations, even those of the experts in the fields. These areas of catalysis all benefit from an intense collaboration between them. For many in academia and the chemical industries catalysis is a key area of research and both contribute to its development, frequently in collaboration. Catalysis is one of the disciplines in which at the end of the road scientists like to have applications in sight. Thus we have a bright future ahead, particularly with the help of the developments of the many supporting sciences—analytic and computational chemistry, spectroscopy. With today's society demanding cheaper medicines and changes in resources for energy, bulk and fine chemicals, the contribution of catalysis to meet these challenges will be indispensable. Catalysis Science & Technology will play a key role in communicating these new developments to the community.

Monthly issues of Catalysis Science & Technology will publish Communications and Full Papers reporting primary research as well as Minireviews and more detailed, Perspective articles, on topics of interest to the catalysis communities, in both online and print versions. We encourage you to sign up to the Catalysis Science & Technology RSS feeds or E-mail alerts, to keep up to date with the articles as they are published, and to check out the journal's blog (http://blogs.rsc.org/cy) for regular posts on topics of interest to the catalysis communities. For details of how to register for free access and to sign up to one of the journals alerting services, please visit the journal platform at: www.rsc.org/catalysis.

We hope you enjoy reading the papers in this first issue of Catalysis Science & Technology and will consider submitting some of your research to the journal. Details of how to submit an article to Catalysis Science & Technology are available on the internet at www.rsc.org/catalysis. We welcome any comments you have about the journal and invite you to contact us at catalysis-rsc@rsc.org. We look forward to seeing your article in Catalysis Science & Technology.

Cynthia Friend, Editor-in-Chief.

Piet van Leeuwen, Editor-in-Chief.

Jamie Humphrey, Managing Editor.

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