Editorial pubs.acs.org/acscatalysis
A Busy Year for ACS Catalysis
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to 59% in 2015. Compared to other journals that publish in all areas of catalysis (biocatalysis, molecular catalysis, and heterogeneous catalysis), no other title has a higher fraction of papers in the combined areas of molecular catalysis and biocatalysis. ACS Catalysis continues to strive to represent the best research in all areas of catalysis. The journal highlighted research in theory and computational in catalysis with a highly successful virtual special issue (VSI) published in April, featuring 48 papers, covering a breadth of topics in catalysis.1 In July, we also released a virtual special issue (VSI) highlighting catalysis in Singapore, a small nation with a rich concentration of scientists and engineers working in the field.2 For the first time, we also teamed with other ACS journals to create ACS Select virtual issues (VIs). In September, we released a VI, partnering with Organometallics, on first-row transition-metal complexes.3 Then, in October, we joined forces with the Journal of the American Chemical Society, the Journal of Organic Chemistry, and Organic Letters to highlight recent work in organocatalysis published in the four journals.4 These two VIs further attest to the broad impact that ACS Catalysis has in molecular catalytic chemistry. The Thomson Reuters Journal Citation Report (JCR) Impact Factors (IFs) were released for 2014 in late June 2015. ACS Catalysis achieved an IF of 9.312, which is a significant jump from the prior year. For the second year in a row, this makes ACS Catalysis the top comprehensive catalysis journal, covering all areas of catalysis, globally. ACS Catalysis is also the highest impact journal in the ACS portfolio for molecular synthetic chemistry, after the Journal of the American Chemical Society. The 2015 ACS Catalysis Lectureship for the Advancement of Catalytic Science was awarded to Dr. Daniel DuBois and Dr. Morris Bullock, who lead the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Hydrogen Catalysis Team, for their significant advances in molecular electrocatalysis. A symposium at the Fall ACS National Meeting in Boston, MA, celebrated the team’s
udging by the number of submissions to the journal in 2015, the interest of the global catalysis science community in publishing in ACS Catalysis continues to grow rapidly. Submissions of new papers to the journal in 2015 have been high enough to warrant the addition of five new Associate Editors over the past 12 months, with Paolo Fornasiero (University of Trieste) joining the team in early 2015 and Jingguang Chen (Columbia University, Brookhaven National Laboratory) at the start of 2016, both covering heterogeneous catalysis. Takashi Ooi (Nagoya University) and Sukbok Chang (KAIST) were also added in 2015 as Associate Editors to handle submissions focusing on different aspects of organic synthesis. Odile Eisenstein (Université de Montpellier) joined the editorial team as well, focusing on theory and computation in molecular and biocatalytic systems. This brings the editorial team to 12 editors, six in the USA and six elsewhere (three in Asia, three in Europe), demonstrating the global reach of the journal. A graphical overview of the topical editorial coverage is given in Figure 1. ACS Catalysis published 831 papers in 2015, excluding editorials, additions and corrections, and related matter. This will make ACS Catalysis the largest catalysis journal publishing original research, with the journal accounting for roughly 15% of papers in catalysis journals. Over the coming months, the journal will continue to tighten its standards for review, targeting only the top 10% of papers in catalysis. Among the 831 papers, the journal published 58 Reviews, Perspectives, and Viewpoints, accounting for only 7% of the total papers published. As before, the journal’s primary focus remains publishing new, original research. The array of papers published in 2015 saw an increase in the fraction of papers addressing aspects of molecular catalysis (33%, vs 29% in 2014), necessitating the addition of new editors in this area (see above). In parallel, the fraction of papers in biocatalysis held steady at 8%, while the percentage of papers related to heterogeneous catalysis declined modestly, from 63% in 2014
Figure 1. Distribution of editorial coverage areas. For topics without specified specialization, editor assignments are made based on the primary areas. Published: December 18, 2015 © 2015 American Chemical Society
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DOI: 10.1021/acscatal.5b02816 ACS Catal. 2016, 6, 458−459
ACS Catalysis
Editorial
achievement. The selection of the 2016 Lectureship will be announced soon. For insight into the selection process, see the recent editorial describing the procedures used.5 Our annual rotation of members on the editorial advisory board (EAB) saw eight board members complete their terms. Andreas Bommarius, Frances Arnold, Koichi Eguchi and Wenbin Lin have been on the EAB since the journal’s inception. Both collectively and individually, they played a crucial role in helping to shape the direction of the journal. Several other EAB members rotated off the board as they became editors at ACS Catalysis (Takashi Ooi, Odile Eisenstein, Sukbok Chang) or elsewhere (Laurel Schafer, Organometallics). Nine new EAB members were appointed, expanding the journal’s topical coverage areas and the journal’s geographic footprint: Abhishek Dey (Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science), Aditya Bhan (University of Minnesota), Karen Wilson (Aston University), Ye Wang (Xiamen University), Will Medlin (University of Colorado), Umit Ozkan (The Ohio State University), Carme Rovira Virgili (Barcelona), Hak-Sung Kim (KAIST), and Yong-Gui Zhou (Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics). The EAB now includes 34 chemists and engineers working in 12 countries. After a year of development and further expansion of the journal, I expect that, in the coming year, the journal will grow more modestly, as the editorial team institutes a significant tightening of editorial standards. This recalibration will require authors, referees, and editors to work together to select the top 10% of papers in catalysis for publication in ACS Catalysis, the preeminent comprehensive catalysis journal.
Christopher W. Jones, Editor-in-Chief
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Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, United States
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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(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)
REFERENCES http://pubs.acs.org/page/accacs/vi/theory-computation.html. http://pubs.acs.org/page/accacs/vi/singapore. http://pubs.acs.org/page/vi/2015/tm_complexes. http://pubs.acs.org/page/vi/organocatalysis. Jones, C. W.; Williams, R. M. ACS Catal. 2015, 5, 6185−6186.
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DOI: 10.1021/acscatal.5b02816 ACS Catal. 2016, 6, 458−459
