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Ringing in the New

2006; Wiley; Volume: 7; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1002/cbic.200500486

1439-7633

Peter Gölitz, Lobat Doostdar, Lisa Abel,

Genetics, Bioinformatics, and Biomedical Research

There are a lot of changes going on around ChemBioChem. January 2006 sees the arrival of the first issue of our sister journal ChemMedChem (see http://www.ChemMedChem.org). It is produced by Wiley-VCH in conjunction with the Società Chimica Italiana (SCI), the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh) and the other member societies of EUChemSoc. ChemMedChem takes over from Il Farmaco, which ceased publication in December 2005. We aim to produce it to the same high standard as all the publications in the family of European Chemistry journals, not least ChemBioChem and ChemPhysChem. Indeed, the feedback on the articles that have already appeared on-line in EarlyView is quite encouraging. Most manuscripts so far have come from Italy (22 %), the USA (20 %) and Germany (17 %).1 In order to avoid overlap, papers that cover aspects of the drug-discovery process that were previously accepted at ChemBioChem will now be passed to ChemMedChem. Manuscripts that report results that have some relevance for drug discovery in addition to other aspects are certainly still within the scope of ChemBioChem. In this way, we shall endeavour to provide two journals that complement each other and give our readers a comprehensive view of the whole spectrum of research at the crossroads of biology, chemistry and medicine. Of course, it is not just Wiley-VCH who are continuing to expand their journal portfolio at the life science–chemistry interface. There are new and forthcoming journals from the Royal Society of Chemistry (Molecular BioSystems), Nature Publishing Group (Nature Chemical Biology) and the American Chemical Society (ACS Chemical Biology). Competition is as healthy in publishing as it is elsewhere and it has been a driving force in the past to improve our service for readers and authors. The latest such service is “Citation Tracking” or “Forward Linking”, which went live last October. This function allows an author to see who is citing his manuscripts, and readers can easily find related articles. In general, a researcher can view a list of other articles that have cited the article that they are currently reading. (But please don't look for this feature when you read an EarlyView article, it's not a means to look into the future!) Forward Linking thus enables a reader to find more recent articles related to the same subject. To make this feature more valuable, Wiley got together with CrossRef and other publishers to expand the forward-linking capability to cover content from all CrossRef members (who include all major publishers). When a user in Wiley InterScience clicks on the “Citation Tracking” link they will be presented with a screen that lists any articles in the CrossRef Forward Linking database that have cited the article. Articles that are available on Wiley InterScience are listed at the top of the page, with citations from other publisher sites listed second. Just like a regular CrossRef link, you must have a licence to view the full text of any content linked via the Citation Tracking page. In 2005 ChemBioChem received more than 500 manuscripts, compared with 450 in 2004 (>10 %). They came from 36 different countries, although 78 % of the manuscripts came from only ten countries (Figure 1). We published 35 % more pages (2366 up from 1738 in 2004, 2), and this has brought down our publication times; which we expect to decrease further in 2006. Throughout the last year the number of full-text downloads—electronic usage figures are today's currency in publishing—has increased by about 37 %. The Top 10 downloads for the first half of 2005 can be seen in Table 1. As usual, our Reviews proved to be especially popular. Distribution of manuscripts received from the top ten submitting countries. Growth of ChemBioChem in terms of page numbers (bars) and manuscripts submitted (line). Type[a] Title Main author R Molecular Machines for Protein Degradation M. Groll R High-Throughput Screening for Kinase Inhibitors U. Bömer C Small-Molecule Kinase-Inhibitor Target Assessment K. M. Shokat R The Target Discovery Process U. Egner R Protein-Detecting Microarrays: Current Accomplishments and Requirements H. Mihara F Imaging Activation of Two Ras Isoforms Simultaneously in a Single Cell P. I. H. Bastiaens S A New Chemical Probe for Proteomics of Carbohydrate-Binding Proteins R. J. Pieters CR From RNAi to Epigenomes: How RNA Rules The World E. Westhof M Intramers and Aptamers: Applications in Protein-Function Analyses and Potential for Drug Screening M. Famulok C Protein Chemistry on the Surface of Living Cells K. Johnsson We recently contacted the members of our Editorial Advisory Board to ask how they feel about the coverage of ChemBioChem, and those who answered reassured us as to the content of the journal. With regard to the future, the journal's content will demonstrate that chemical biology has its origin in chemistry (and, after all, ChemBioChem is an offspring of Angewandte Chemie). Chemistry provides important methods and, not to forget, the molecules to probe biological questions. ChemBioChem will continue to emphasize the interface between organic/inorganic chemistry and the biological world, such as biosynthesis and biomineralisation. It will contain structural biology and biophysical papers especially when they promise insight into molecular interactions (protein–protein, protein–oligonucleotides, small molecule–biomacromolecules etc.); it will cover the modern frontier of nanobiotechnology, and we shall not miss out on papers that report the unexpected on the life science–chemistry interface. We shall not lose our chemistry imprint and aim at making the journal as attractive as possible for a wide readership of chemists and biologists. We shall also continue to publish occasional special issues. Following on from those published last year on the “EMBO Young Investigator Program Symposium”, “Kinases in Drug Discovery” and “Biomolecular NMR Spectroscopy”, there is one planned for this year, based on the “The Interface of Chemistry and Biology” symposium at last month's PacifiChem conference in Hawaii. Finally, we thank all our authors, referees and especially our Editorial Board members for their contributions to the journal in the past, and we look forward to further successful collaborations in the future. 1 P.S. Apropos “all change”: mid-2006 will also see the launch of Chemistry—An Asian Journal (http://www.chemasianj.org). The contribution to all scientific journals from Asian laboratories and Asian scientists working elsewhere in the world continues to grow year after year, and the “Asian Journal” will reflect this. Like its European counterpart Chemistry—A European Journal, it will cover all aspects of chemistry, including interdisciplinary topics, predominantly in the form of Full Papers, but also in Focus Reviews. It bodes well for the future of Chemistry—An Asian Journal that Nobel laureate Ryoji Noyori has agreed to be the Founding Chairman of the Editorial Board. Manuscripts are welcome from all over the world, not just Asia, as Chemistry—An Asian Journal will be a truly international enterprise.