Start-of-the-Year Editorials of ChemPubSoc Europe Journals
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Start-of-the-Year Editorials of ChemPubSoc Europe Journals

Author: Vera KoesterORCID iD

Each January, the Editors in Chief of the ChemPubSoc Europe journals publish editorials that look at the highlights of the past year and give an outlook on what is to come. Some excerpts can be found below and more details in the editorials listed at the end of this article.

ChemPubSoc Europe is a partnership of 16 European chemical societies co-owning a family of high-quality chemistry journals and the magazine ChemistryViews.

 

Looking Back on a Successful 2019

International Year of the Periodic Table
As you all may know, 2019 was declared the International Year of the Periodic Table (IYPT2019) by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The ChemPubSoc Europe journals supported this initiative in many ways. To give just two examples:

Chemistry—A European Journal published the “In My Element” series, where they invited their board members to write a short essay on their favorite element. In his editorial, Dr. Haymo Ross summarizes that 19 different elements were covered and carbon was the most frequently described element.

The European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry (EurJIC) published a special issue based on the EuChemS Inorganic Chemistry Conference which was held in Moscow, Russia, the home of Dimitry Mendeleev who discovered the periodic table 150 years ago.

More activities can be found on ChemistryViews’s IYPT2019 overview page.

 

Special Issues/Collections
2019 special issues/collections included EurJIC’s issues on polyoxometalate chemistry, neutron scattering in coordination chemistry, redox catalysis for artificial photosynthesis, and phosphorus chemistry; EurJOC’s issues on organic reaction mechanisms, rotaxanes, and heterocyclic chemistry; ChemCatChem’s issues on women of catalysis and building a new energy economy with catalysis; ChemElectroChem’s issues on organic electrosynthesis, synthetic diamond, bioelectrochemistry, and the Nobel prize; ChemMedChem‘s issues on biopolymers, medicinal chemistry in India, nordic medical chemistry, and medical chemistry in Latin America; ChemPhysChem’s issues on NMR for biosystems, hydrogen energy, on-surface synthesis, solar cells, and electrocatalysis; one on circular economy is planned; ChemPlusChem‘s issues on novel aromatic compounds, and π-conjugated (macro)molecules and their applications; ChemSusChem’s issues on water splitting: from theory to practice and sustainable organic synthesis; ChemistryOpen’s issues on computational chemistry and functional supramolecular systems; Batteries & Supercaps‘ issues on 2D energy storage materials, metal-air batteries, and SEI and interphases.

Anniversaries and New Editors in Chief
From Dr. Kate Lawrence’s editorial, we learn that ChemElectroChem celebrated its 5th birthday. The journal was launched as the 11th ChemPubSoc Europe journal. Today there are 15 journals and ChemistryViews. ChemCatChem celebrated its 10th birthday in 2019.

Two journals saw a change of their Editor in Chief in 2019: Dr. Francesca Novara took over the position of Editor-in-Chief of ChemistryOpen from Dr. Kate Lawrence, and Dr. Jonathan Faiz took over the position for ChemPlusChem from Dr. Marisa Spiniello.

Awards
Many of the journals are pleased to award poster prizes at various conferences. In addition, Dr. Preeti Vashi highlights the 4th EurJIC-Wöhler Young Investigator Award in her editorial. This biannual award honors a young investigator in the field of inorganic chemistry for an excellent scientific publication in which the candidate is a correspondence author. In 2019, it was awarded at the GDCh-Wissenschaftsforum to Crispin Lichtenberg, University of Würzburg, Germany, for his paper on “Double CH Activation of a Masked Cationic Bismuth Amide”.  

Early Career Researchers
The opinion and ideas of the next generation of chemists become increasingly important. ChemPlusChem continued with its popular Early-Career Series. Launched in 2013, it promotes excellent research carried out by early-career researchers who are nominated by the editorial board members to submit a paper to the journal. Otherwise, it is often hard for early career researchers to place their papers in high-quality journals, especially if they are working on a new field.

Dr. Ruben Ragg initiated ChemBioTalents at ChemBioChem with great success. ChemBioTalents is an invited collection of papers by promising young researchers working at the interface of chemistry and biology. EurJOC will pick up this idea and will prominently feature papers from young, outstanding, international, organic chemists throughout the year 2020 as YourJOC Talents papers.

Some Numbers
Looking back in publishing always involves lots of numbers and statistics. To only share very few: With an increase of 50 %, the journals saw new records in usage. Submissions to ChemPubSoc Europe journals have once again increased by approx. 6 % in 2019. ChemistrySelect is the journal that publishes most articles. As Dr. Anne Deveson states, it is also the most international with published papers coming from over 60 different countries worldwide.

Dr. Greta Heydenrych, Dr. Kira Welter, and Dr. Fabian Bebensee wrote about ChemPhysChem. The journal was launched in August 2000 with four articles of authors who contribute to the journals till today. By the end of 2019, ChemPhysChem has published over 6,800 articles in 334 issues, of which 50 are special issues.

Dr. David Smith and Dr. Halgard Staesche are delighted that ChemSusChem has received its highest-ever impact factor of 7,804 in 2019. ChemPlusChem has also received its highest-ever impact factor. ChemistryViews has published a list of all 2018 impact factors of ChemPubSoc Europe journals In July.

Open Access
ChemistryOpen is the first fully open-access society-owned chemistry journal. It published its first issue at the beginning of 2012. The journal saw a 70 % increase in article downloads in 2019 and the highest number of article submissions.

2019 saw many open access discussions. In January, for example, Wiley and Project DEAL signed an agreement that allows authors at more than 700 institutions in Germany to publish their work open access without any direct costs to the author. This agreement was the first of its kind in Germany. 

“We are in the middle of a complex transition phase involving difficult discussions and multiple opinions,” Dr. Francesca Novara, Editor-in-Chief of ChemistryOpen, writes in her editorial. “One thing is certain: there is no going back. The way ahead is all but straightforward, and the details about the implementation of Plan S remain unclear, but one way or another, open access, and more broadly, open science, is here to stay.”

Plan S wants to accelerate a shift from subscription-based journal models and embargo green open access to gold open access. Plan S has been published in September 2018 by a group of public and private research funders from 12 European countries who refer to themselves as cOAlition S. Due to DEAL, all ChemPubSoc Europe journals are Plan S compliant.

Other Activities
The European Journal of Organic Chemistry (EurJOC) established YourJOC – Your Publishing Partner in Organic Chemistry – with various activities, e.g., at conferences and via social media. Dr. Anne Nijs especially thanks the journal’s board member Professor Burkard König, University of Regensburg, Germany, who “championed this endeavor”, as she writes in her editorial.

You can meet all the editors regularly at conferences. In addition, in his editorial in ChemMedChem, Dr. David Peralta describes his engagement in campus visits and talks about the publishing process, scientific writing, science communication, and editorial work as a career.

 

Looking Ahead to 2020

As Dr. Michael Rowan, Editor in Chief of ChemCatChem, puts it in his editorial, “we are open to embracing new technology and we are constantly reviewing the way we do things with a view to improve.” To give a few highlights of the many, many new initiatives described in the editorials:

100 Years of Polymers
The field of macromolecular science celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. The landmark paper on polymerization by Hermann Staudinger, which gave rise to the birth of this field, was published in 1920 in Berichte der deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft. This is a former journal of the German Chemical Society that merged to form EurJIC and EurJOC.

ChemistryViews compiles and updates current information throughout the year on the Polymer100 overview page. You can also follow the hashtag #polymer100 on twitter.

Virtual Symposium
On February 26, EurJOC will hold its first Virtual Symposium. Well-known researchers will talk about their current research projects straight out of their labs. The event is free to join after registration.

Anniversaries
Some of the ChemPubSoc Europe journals celebrate an anniversary this year: ChemistryViews, ChemPubSoc Europe’s science news magazine, celebrates its 10th birthday this year. ChemBioChem and ChemPhysChem celebrate their 20th anniversary. Chemistry—A European Journal, the societies’ flagship publication, celebrates its 25th birthday this year. It was launched on March 31, 1995. On this day in 2020, something new is coming: ChemPubSoc Europe will be unveiling its new identity and strategy for the future. Watch out for upcoming announcements.

During the 8th EuChemS Chemistry Congress, on August 31, 2020, Chemistry—A European Journal will celebrate its anniversary with a special symposium. Editorial board members will present their research showing the breadth of the journal.

The history of the journal is also worth mentioning. How the vision of this first pan-European journal turned into reality and which challenges the project had to master to turn into today’s success is summarized by Dr. Peter Gölitz, the founding editor of the journal, and Dr. Neville Compton, the journal’s Editor in Chief from 2002 to 2017.

We could go on like this, listing more and more activities, as there will be many exciting new things happening this year. However, have a look at the editorials below or our social media accounts, talk to us at conferences or contact us. Last but not least, we are very grateful for the success of the ChemPubSoc Europe journals and give a big thank you to all our society partners, board members, guest editors, authors, referees, readers, and supporters!

List of 2020 Start-of-the-Year Editorials

 

Also of Interest

 

 

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