CrystEngComm – all bases covered

This year CrystEngComm increases its publication frequency to 48 issues per year. This weekly publication reflects the significant growth of the journal over the past 3 years. In 2012, CrystEngComm published close to 1200 articles, making it the largest journal in its field – with a large scope to match.

CrystEngComm is the home for all aspects of crystal engineering: from designing supramolecular synthons and coordination polymers to nanocrystalline materials and crystal growth mechanisms (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1 CrystEngComm front covers. Left to right: In situ growth and density-functional-theory study of polarity-dependent homo-epitaxial ZnO microwires (issue 2), Exploring Ag⋯H–B interactions in coordination polymers: silver–alkanedinitrile networks with cobalt carbaborane anions (issue 10), Modelling nanoscale cubic ZnS morphology and thermodynamic stability under sulphur-rich conditions (issue 22), Isostructural organic binary-host frameworks with tunable and diversely decorated inclusion cavities (issue 23).

The 2012 top downloaded CrystEngComm Highlight articles (Table 1) present a flavour of the topics published in the journal, complementing the breadth of primary research published as Communications and Full Papers. This year, we will be extending our repertoire of article types by introducing “How To” Highlights and Tutorial Highlights to accompany the traditional Highlight article. The “How To” Highlight will contain informative guidelines on how to perform a new technique relevant to the field of crystal engineering, whilst the Tutorial Highlight is an educational review for broad readership appeal – from students to experienced researchers.

Table 1 Top downloaded Highlight articles of 2012

Coordination polymers, metal–organic frameworks and the need for terminology guidelines	10.1039/c2ce06488j
S. R. Batten, N. R. Champness, X.-M. Chen, J. Garcia-Martinez, S. Kitagawa, L. Öhrström, M. O'Keeffe, M. P. Suh and J. Reedijk
Porous organic molecular materials	10.1039/c2ce06457j
J. Tian, P. K. Thallapally and B. P. McGrail
The role of mechanochemistry and supramolecular design in the development of pharmaceutical materials	10.1039/c2ce06582g
A. Delori, T. Friščić and W. Jones
Discovery, development, and functionalization of Zr(IV)-based metal–organic frameworks	10.1039/c2ce06491j
M. Kim and S. M. Cohen
Recent advances in porphyrinic metal–organic frameworks: materials design, synthetic strategies, and emerging applications	10.1039/c2ce06692k
B. J. Burnett, P. M. Barron and W. Choe
Some thoughts about the single crystal growth of small molecules	10.1039/c1ce05624g
B. Spingler, S. Schnidrig, T. Todorova and F. Wild
Tuning crystal-phase and shape of Fe2O3 nanoparticles for catalytic applications	10.1039/c2ce25109d
X. Mou, X. Wei, Y. Li and W. Shen
Ionic liquids as crystallisation media for inorganic materials	10.1039/c2ce25166c
E. Ahmed, J. Breternitz, M. F. Groh and M. Ruck
Pharmaceutical crystallography: is there a devil in the details?	10.1039/c2ce06662a
A. D. Bond
Progress in lead-based ferroelectric and antiferroelectric single crystals: composition modification, crystal growth and properties	10.1039/c2ce06430h
N. Luo, Y. Li, Z. Xia and Q. Li

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CrystEngComm's wide scope is also mirrored in our themed issues and collections. Last year we published issues focusing on Crystal Engineering and Crystallography in the Pharmaceutical Industry (guest edited by Magali Hickey, Örn Almarsson and Matthew Peterson), Postsynthetic Modification of Coordination Networks (guest edited by Andrew Burrows and Seth Cohen), Crystal Engineering with Ionic Liquids (guest edited by Mark Muldoon, Peter Nockemann and M. Cristina Lagunas), Nanocrystals (guest edited by Shu-Hong Yu, Leonard MacGillivray and Christoph Janiak), and a New Talent: Americas issue showcasing high quality work from emerging researchers (guest edited by Christer Aakeröy). We already have an assortment of themed issues planned for next year so keep an eye out for articles in halogen bonding, covalent organic frameworks and crystallographic NMR. We always welcome more suggestions for themed topics so please email the Editorial Office with your ideas to mailto:crystengcomm-rsc@rsc.org.

With such an extensive range of topics, it's not surprising that CrystEngComm's readership continues to rise whilst attracting growing numbers of authors from across the globe. In line with our dedicated customer service, CrystEngComm is pleased to provide authors with a choice of Editorial Offices according to their preference. Last year, we were delighted to appoint Rahul Banerjee from CSIR–National Chemical Laboratory, Pune in India to join our team of Associate Editors. Rahul's research is strongly focused in metal–organic frameworks, adding to the CrystEngComm Associate Editors' extensive pool of expertise.

Plate1 CrystEngComm Associate Editor, Rahul Banerjee

CrystEngComm is ever grateful for its continued support from Editorial Board members, guest editors, authors and referees. It is with thanks to their guidance and loyalty that CrystEngComm can continue to serve the crystal engineering community through its high impact publishing. Email us at the Editorial Office (mailto:crystengcomm-rsc@rsc.org) to let us know what you think – and to find out what CrystEngComm is up to, follow us on Twitter (www.twitter.com/CrystEngComm) and the CrystEngComm blog (http://blogs.rsc.org/ce).

A Happy New Year from all of us at CrystEngComm.

Plate2 Jamie Humphrey, Editor and Fiona McKenzie, Deputy Editor, CrystEngComm

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