Editorial pubs.acs.org/cm
2012: A Banner Year for Chemistry of Materials Just Accepted Web page are not the final scientific version of record; the ASAP (As Soon As Publishable) article (which has been technically edited and formatted) represents the final scientific article of record. The Just Accepted version is removed from the Web site upon publication of the ASAP article, and the ASAP article has the same DOI as the Just Accepted manuscript. The DOI remains constant to ensure that citations to Just Accepted manuscripts link to the final scientific article of record when it becomes available. Another popular feature of our journal is the yearly publication of a Special Issue. Following the 2010 Special Issue on “Materials Chemistry of Energy Conversion” and the 2011 Special Issue on “π-Functional Materials”, fellow editors Frank Caruso and Mike Ward were joined in 2012 by Patrick Stayton from the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Washington in gathering a Special Issue on “Materials for Biological Applications”. This issue highlighted how much advances in materials chemistry form the foundation for developments in research areas spanning the physical, life, and engineering sciences and the biological fields. In a couple of months, our readers will discover the 2013 Special Issue on “Synthetic and Mechanistic Advances in Nanocrystal Growth” organized by fellow editors Bill Buhro, Susan Kauzlarich, Frank Caruso, and Mike Ward, with the help of guest-editors Benoit Dubertret (CNRS-Paris), Haitao Liu (University of Pittsburgh), Jonathan Owen (Columbia University), Jennifer Hollingsworth (LANL Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies), Delia Milliron (LBNL Molecular Foundry), and Emily Weiss (Northwestern University). We were also very pleased last year to recognize, on our Web site and at the Editorial Board Meeting at the ACS Spring meeting in San Diego, the authors of the six Chemistry of Materials manuscripts that have now received more than 1000 citations! These include two publications from the group of Galen Stucky (Huo, Q.S.; Margolese, D.I.; Ciesla, U.; Demuth, D.G.; Feng, P.Y.; Gier, T.E.; Sieger, P.; Firouzi, A.; Chmelka, B.F.; Schueth, F.; Stucky, G.D. Organization of organic molecules with inorganic molecular species into nanocomposite biphase arrays. Chem. Mater. 1994, 6 (8), 1176−1191; and Huo, Q.S.; Margolese, D.I.; Stucky, G.D. Surfactant control of phases in the synthesis of mesoporous silica-based materials. Chem. Mater. 1996, 8 (5), 1147−1160) and publications from the groups of Vicki Colvin (Jiang, P.; Bertone, J.F.; Hwang, K.S.; Colvin, V.L. Single-crystal colloidal multilayers of controlled thickness. Chem. Mater. 1999, 11 (8), 2132− 2140), Mostafa El-Sayed (Nikoobakht, B; El-Sayed, M.A. Preparation and growth mechanism of gold nanorods (NRs) using seed-mediated growth method. Chem. Mater. 2003, 15 (10), 1957−1962), Xiaogang Peng (“Experimental determination of the extinction coefficient of CdTe, CdSe, and CdS nanocrystals”; Yu WW; Qu LH; Guo WZ; Peng XG; Chem. Mater. 2003, 15 (14) 2854−2860), and Mike McGehee (Coakley K. M.; McGehee, M.D. Conjugated polymer
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wenty-twelve will be remembered as an outstanding year for Chemistry of Materials and we owe a big “Thank You” to our authors, reviewers, and readers! Last year indeed marked new records in terms of submissions, citations, and impact and served as a wonderful springboard for our journal’s 25th volume, of which you are reading the first issue. After a 5% jump in submissions between 2010 and 2011, last year witnessed another increase by >8%. The worldwide reach of Chemistry of Materials is confirmed by the diversity in the origin of the manuscripts. A significant portion of the published articles come from Asia with P.R. China, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, India, and Singapore contributing a quarter of the published articles, the United States and Canada accounting for more than one-third of published articles, and European Union countries for one-third. Although the large number of submitted manuscripts presents challenges for the editors and the editorial staff, it also provides a tremendous opportunity. Because our intent is to keep the yearly total number of published articles roughly constant, this means that our journal can continue to increase its level of selectivity and publish only manuscripts that represent a significant advance in the field of materials chemistry and are therefore likely to appeal to our broad audience. It is also remarkable to note that, in the vast majority of instances, a manuscript is thoroughly evaluated by at least two, and often three, editors before a decision is made to either send it out for review or to return it to the authors. In this way, we ensure that the time and efforts requested on the part of our reviewers is devoted only to manuscripts of high potential interest. In instances where a manuscript is deemed to lack broad significance and is returned to the authors, it allows them to consider alternatives for publication in a timely manner. This rigor in the reviewing process is undoubtedly a substantial part of the increase in our journal’s impact factor, which has now surpassed 7 (to be precise, 7.286, up 13.8% from 6.400 the previous year), and in the number of citations, which reached nearly 70 000 for 2011 (2011 Journal Citation Reports Science Edition, Thomson Reuters 2012). Twenty-twelve also marked the first full year in which our journal adopted a more vibrant look by including colorful headers and our new beautiful blue and red logo, and our authors have been offered the possibility of having their Just Accepted manuscripts (JAMs) appearing online within 24 h, and often within a few minutes of the acceptance decision made by an editor (see http://pubs.acs.org/toc/cmatex/0/ja). The Just Accepted service has proven enormously popular with our authors, as over the past year some 95% of them have taken advantage of the opportunity. Just Accepted is an opt-in author benefit where Chemistry of Materials posts just accepted, unredacted manuscripts as a service to the research community in order to expedite the dissemination of scientific information as soon as possible after acceptance. Just Accepted manuscripts appear in full as PDF documents accompanied by an HTML abstract. They are accessible to all readers and citable by their DOI (Digital Object Identifier). The manuscripts posted on the © 2013 American Chemical Society
Published: January 8, 2013 1
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Chemistry of Materials
Editorial
photovoltaic cells. Chem. Mater. 2004, 16 (23), 4533−4542). Our congratulations to all these authors! We seize this opportunity to thank again all of our reviewers as well as the members of our Editorial Advisory Board (EAB), who play such a critical role in maintaining the quality of our journal. We wish in particular to recognize Rigoberto Advincula (Houston), Joanna Aizenberg (Harvard), Alexander Katz (Berkeley), Holger Kleinke (Waterloo), Gerald Meyer (Johns Hopkins), Helmuth Moehwald (MPI for Colloid & Interfaces), Matthew Rosseinsky (Liverpool), Li-Jun Wan (Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences), and Dongyuan Zhao (Fudan), who are leaving our EAB after having served two three-year terms. We extend a warm welcome to the nine new EAB members who have just started a three-year term: Philippe Dubois (Mons), Lara Estroff (Cornell), John Evans (Durham), Shiv Halasyamani (Houston), Andrew Holmes (Melbourne), Susan Latturner (Florida State), Wenbin Lin (North Carolina), Molly Stevens (Imperial College), and Vivian Yam (Hong Kong). It is important to underline that our EAB includes more than 20% participation by women. Finally, because this is the first issue of volume 25 of our journal, it means that in just a year from now, Chemistry of Materials turns twenty-five! Stay tuned all along this year for more information on the events that will celebrate the journal’s quarter century. Have a great materials chemistry year!
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Jean-Luc Bredas, Editor AUTHOR INFORMATION
Notes
Views expressed in this editorial are those of the author and not necessarily the views of the ACS.
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