Increasing our Impact

A 120% increase in Impact Factor, the introduction of XML publishing and Crossref linking, and the launch of a new sister journal Environmental Chemistry were three of the highlights of 2004 for Australian Journal of Chemistry.

The new Impact Factor for Australian Journal of Chemistry is 1.434—more than double the previous figure. Our citation ranking for journals in the category ‘chemistry, multidisciplinary’ has also risen—from 67th to 37th out of 122 journals. Moreover, among general chemistry journals, Australian Journal of Chemistry ranks 9th out of 54 (last year 21st; the top 20 are listed in Table 1). Almost all the chemistry journals in this table are journals of their local chemical societies, and the Impact Factor of Australian Journal of Chemistry has clearly been positively affected by the closer relationships we have developed with our local society, the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI), and our regional community, through the Federation of Asian Chemical Societies (FACS). A glance at our nearest neighbours on Table 1 shows that we are now competitive with several other regional journals, such as Canadian Journal of Chemistry, Bulletin of the Chemical Society of Japan, Chemistry Letters, and Helvetica Chimica Acta. We will be working hard with authors, referees, and the Editorial Advisory Committee over the next few years to ensure that Australian Journal of Chemistry sits higher in this Table, among the regional journals of the UK, USA, and Germany (Chemical Communications, Journal of the American Chemical Society, and Angewandte Chemie and Chemistry – A European Journal, respectively).

Table 1. Multidisciplinary chemistry journals, ranked by Impact Factor^A

To some extent, the increased Impact Factor reflects the dramatically increased number and quality of submissions, which has resulted in the rejection rate increasing from 30% to 50%. We have deliberately selected for papers that our referees believe to be of immediate importance and for papers that contain new ideas. Papers published this year that have attracted a lot of attention are listed below in order of the number of electronic downloads.

• Douglas R. MacFarlane et al. — Ionic Liquids—An Overview — review^[1]

• J. Fraser Stoddart et al. — Meccano on the Nanoscale—A Blueprint for Making Some of the World's Tiniest Machines — review^[2]

• Pall Thordarson et al. — Mimicking the Motion of Life: Catalytically Active Rotaxanes as Processive Enzyme Mimics — current chemistry^[3]

• Guillaume Lessene — Advances in the Negishi Coupling — focus^[4]

• Roger A. Sheldon et al. — Biocatalysis for Sustainable Organic Synthesis — review^[5]

• Hiroyuki Ohno et al. — Design of Ionic Liquids for Electrochemical Applications — rapid comm.^[6]

• Stewart A. Forsyth et al. — Ionic Liquids Based on Imidazolium and Pyrrolidinium Salts of the Tricyanomethanide Anion — rapid comm.^[7]

• Robert D. Singer et al. — Manganese Dioxide Allylic and Benzylic Oxidation Reactions in Ionic Liquids — rapid comm.^[8]

• Janet L. Scott et al. — Thermal Degradation of Ionic Liquids at Elevated Temperatures — rapid comm.^[9]

• Frances Separovic et al. — Metal-Catalyzed Oxidative Damage and Oligomerization of the Amyloid-β Peptide of Alzheimer’s Disease — review^[10]

There have also been technological advances at CSIRO Publishing that go a significant way to ensuring your paper will be found by scientists searching for information in your field. While the Australian Journal of Chemistry has been published online since 1997 in the PDF format, papers are now also published in the XML format. XML can be examined by search engines (like Google) and researchers no longer need to search keywords or author names to find papers in their area. Further, we have also introduced links through Crossref (www.crossref.org), which means that while reading a paper in Australian Journal of Chemistry you can click on a reference and jump straight to that paper, even when it’s in another journal, from another publisher (as long as you are a subscriber to that journal). That is why most journal references are now appended with a digital object identifier (text ‘DOI’ followed by a string of characters). DOIs transform citations into permanent hyperlinks through the Crossref infrastructure that links citations to publishers.

Thirdly, we’re very pleased to announce the launch of Environmental Chemistry as of 1 July 2004. Environmental Chemistry is an interdisciplinary journal publishing the fundamental chemistry behind environmental problems, measurement, and solutions. The scope covers atmospheric chemistry, (bio)geochemistry, marine and freshwater chemistry, polar chemistry, fire chemistry, astrochemistry, soil chemistry, chemical toxicology, and green chemistry. Three issues were published in 2004, and these are freely available online at www.publish.csiro.au/journals/env. The journal has received very strong support so far, as reflected in the high-calibre editorial board, which includes Mario Molina and F. Sherwood Rowland, two of the winners of the 1995 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. The editors of Environmental Chemistry are Richard Hecker and myself, and we can be contacted at publishing.env@csiro.au.

Australian Journal of Chemistry is set to publish more multidisciplinary research in 2005. We will be publishing papers on bioelectroanalytical chemistry, polymers and materials, colloids and biointerfaces, chemoenzymatic synthesis, and biodegradable ionic liquids, among others.

I hope you are pleased by the advances of 2004 at Australian Journal of Chemistry. Sending your best papers this year will ensure that you will be a part of the continuing development in 2005. Happy New Year!

Alison Green

Editor

Australian Journal of Chemistry