NJC: Looking back… looking forward

Looking back

An interdisciplinary chemistry journal

It has been one year since NJC re-oriented its editorial line to place an emphasis on interdisciplinary research, to provide chemists working at the interfaces with other disciplines a place to publish their findings. The articles we publish offer new directions in chemistry and in other fields.

A selection of the articles published in 2011, reflecting this focus, demonstrate the contributions of chemistry to archeology, textile science, medicine, toxicology, materials for energy, the environment and electronics, the origins of life, safeguarding the environment, analytical applications, and chemical engineering. At the time this editorial was written, ACS Noteworthy Chemistry had highlighted three NJC papers this year, a rather good percentage of our published content (Z. Y. Liu et al., New J. Chem., 2011, 35, 137–140; R. Haddoub et al., New J. Chem., 2011, 35, 1351–1354; O. Plietzsch et al., New J. Chem., 2011, 35, 1577–1581).

Focus reviews

The first Focus mini-review, which give a focused look at topics of high current interest, was published one year ago. The 7 Focuses published in 2011 proved to be popular, generally amongst NJC's Top 10 most downloaded articles each month. They will continue to appear on a regular basis in NJC, along with the longer Perspective reviews.

Themed issues

Two themed issues were published in 2011 (Fig. 1). The June issue featured a collection of 24 articles and reviews dedicated to the synthesis, properties, modeling and processing of smart molecular materials (http://pubs.rsc.org/en/journals/journalissues/nj#!issueid=nj035006&type=current). The October issue comprised of 56 contributions was officially presented to Didier Astruc during the International Symposium on Coordination Chemistry and Molecular Materials held in Bordeaux (http://pubs.rsc.org/en/journals/journalissues/nj#!issueid=nj035010&type=current).

Fig. 1 Covers of the June and October 2011 themed issues.

NJC symposium

The 1st NJC Symposium, held in Strasbourg last April, was one of the highlights of 2011 (http://blogs.rsc.org/nj/2011/02/17/2011-njc-symposium-new-directions-in-chemistry/). Eight of the board members (Fig. 2) presented their research, showcasing the diversity of the coverage of NJC: enzymes in synthesis, corrosion inhibitors, binding of harmful f-elements, nucleic acids as biological inhibitors, molecular machines, crystal forms, reaction mechanisms, organic solids.

Fig. 2 NJC board members in Strasbourg. Front row: Fabrizia Grepioni, Barbara Nawrot, Helen Hailes, Odile Eisenstein. Back row: Wais Hosseini (co-Editor-in-Chief), Jerry Atwood (co-Editor-in-Chief), Peter Junk (Associate Editor), Michael Scott (Associate Editor).

Conferences

NJC editors and board members attended many conferences in 2011, to meet chemists, promote NJC to them, and support the community of chemists. We were present in one way or another at 25 conferences in 2011, with financial support to many of them (Fig. 3), for a total of almost 9000 €. This included the sponsorship of the 4 young plenary speakers at the XIX EuCheMS Conference on Organometallic Chemistry and NJC Poster Prizes (see http://www.njc.cnrs.fr/spip.php?article20&lang=en) to 8 young chemists.

Fig. 3 Logos of some of the conferences that NJC sponsored in 2011.

New faces

Dr Eva Balentova joined the Montpellier editorial office (Fig. 4) as Deputy Editor last summer. Eva has a background in organic and natural product synthesis, gained during her research career in Slovakia, Finland, Spain and France. Cynthia Challencin now works part-time as our publishing assistant, while she studies for her Masters in translation. Dr Ling Peng, a CNRS researcher in the interdisciplinary Center on Nanoscience in Marseille, is the third assistant editor (Fig. 5) on the NJC team. Her research interests are centred on dendrimers for biological and medical applications.

Fig. 4 Montpellier office staff: Denise Parent (Editor), Eva Balentova (Deputy Editor), Cynthia Challencin (Publishing Assistant).

Fig. 5 Assistant editors Yannick Guari, Ling Peng and Laurent Vial, attached to the Montpellier office.

These three ladies join assistant editors Drs Yannick Guari (materials chemistry) and Laurent Vial (organic and supramolecular chemistry), and NJC editor Dr Denise Parent (physical chemistry) in the Montpellier office.

Another “newcomer” is Dr Jamie Humphrey, the new RSC Editor of NJC (though he served in this capacity once before). He is seconded by Dr Ruth Doherty and Mr Matthew Cude in the Cambridge office.

You can read biographies of the entire NJC team on our CNRS website (http://www.njc.cnrs.fr/spip.php?article16&lang=en).

Editorial board

Two members (Fig. 6) were welcomed onto the Editorial Board in 2011: organic photochemist Jarugu Narasimha Moorthy from India and American vanadium chemist Debbie Crans.

Fig. 6 NJC Board members Jaruga Narasimha Moorthy, Debbie Crans and Jiannian Yao (appointed in 2010).

Polish biochemist Barbara Nawrot has completed two terms on the board and thus has stepped down at the end of 2011. We warmly thank her for her enthusiastic support of NJC, notably as guest editor of a 2010 themed issue on biophosphates.

Looking forward

NJC symposium

Following the success of the first edition, we are hard at work on the organisation of the 2nd NJC Symposium. But shhhh… it's still a secret until all of the details are finalised. Keep an eye on the NJC blog (http://blogs.rsc.org/nj/) to find out more in the coming months.

Conferences

In the meantime, NJC is a sponsor of the 7th International Symposium on Macrocyclic and Supramolecular Chemistry, which will be held in January in Dunedin, New Zealand.

Themed issue

In February we will publish the Dendrimers II themed issue, guest edited by former Editor-in-Chief Jean-Pierre Majoral. The issue will contain about 30 reviews and articles by world experts on dendrimers, with a focus on biomedical applications. Look for it soon!

 

Looking forward by looking further—beyond the traditional boundaries—NJC presents chemistry as the central science.

 

Wais Hosseini and Jerry Atwood

Editors-in-Chief

Denise Parent (CNRS) and Jamie Humphrey (RSC Publishing)

Editors

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RSC conferences and events 2012

The RSC organises a broad range of conferences and events to promote the advancement of the chemical sciences. Please visit the website for the most up to date listing: www.rsc.org/events

The major scientific meetings planned for 2012 include:

Challenges in organic chemistry and chemical biology (ISACS7), 12–15 June 2012, Edinburgh, UK, www.rsc.org/isacs7

Challenges in inorganic and materials chemistry (ISACS8), 19–22 July 2012, Toronto, Canada, www.rsc.org/isacs8

Challenges in nanoscience (ISACS9), 31 August–3 September 2012, Xiamen, China, www.rsc.org/isacs9

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