EDITORIAL pubs.acs.org/ac
A Personal Adieu
F
or me, 1991 was a banner year. In 1991, I began my work as Editor-in-Chief of Analytical Chemistry. I was elected to the National Academy of Science and at the spring American Chemical Society meeting, received the ACS Award in Analytical Chemistry. Any one of these could be a life-changer; collectively they left me incredibly busy, but very happy with my professional life. In fall of 2010, I entered my second half-century as a faculty member at UNC. In fall of 2011, I will have served as Editor-inChief of the journal Analytical Chemistry for 21 years. I have decided that 21 years is an opportune number and thus will step aside as Editor this fall to continue and focus on my teaching and research at UNC. I have love and great optimism for Analytical Chemistry the journal and analytical chemistry the field. Both, no doubt, will continue to change, just as they have continued during my professional life. I made it a practice to read at least the introduction of each paper submitted to Analytical Chemistry as part of the process of assigning it to an appropriate one of the journal’s Associate Editors for consideration. This practice also gave me a moving picture of trends and developments and of the occasional “fad” topics. I estimate that over the years, through 2010, this amounted to looking at something like 36,000 research papers. This was a fantastic continuing education about measurement chemistry. Besides the progress of analytical chemistry the science, there have been enormous changes in the communication and record-keeping systems of the journal (as well as of other ACS journals). In 1991, papers arrived in the Editor’s office (which I moved from the ACS headquarters to Chapel Hill) as envelope packages containing multiple paper copies of the manuscript. The editorial assistant’s office had a large number of file cabinets and incurred a large postal bill! Record-keeping gradually moved to electronic copies, and the “Editorial Management and Tracking System” morphed into what is now known as the “Paragon Plus” system for keeping track of submissions as they progressed through the review process. I feel that the Paragon Plus system has generally served both authors and editors well and manages and sorts a very large volume of manuscript and reviewer information. The journal tries not to send more than one manuscript at a time to any given reviewer, and given that Analytical Chemistry now has a core of 13 Editors, Paragon Plus helps us in that way and in innumerable others. In 1991, Analytical Chemistry’s editors consisted of the Editorin-Chief and three Associate Editors. The Associate Editor corps has grown to 12 at last count (13 counting myself, to whom I assign an equal portion of manuscripts). I consider the Associate Editors as the true heart of a successful journal and made very considered choices. The Associate Editor is the face of expertise and scholarship within the journal process and evaluation, and authors greatly prefer that the individual making a manuscript decision is a scholar at depth. My best criterion for an Associate Editor choice is “this person has started a field or at least has substantially impacted one”. All of Analytical Chemistry’s r 2011 American Chemical Society
Associate Editors fit that mold, and they have been a precious guiding force for the journal over the years. I may write a few more Editorials, but Analytical Chemistry will soon have a new Editor-in-Chief. This Editorial is my fond “Adieu” to Editors, authors, reviewers, and the fine professional staff of editors' offices and of ACS publications. It’s been a great ride.
Published: September 14, 2011 7233
dx.doi.org/10.1021/ac202365b | Anal. Chem. 2011, 83, 7233–7233
