Editor's Page Cite This: Organometallics 2017, 36, 4339-4340
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Communicating Science Authors may askwhat will constitute a flash communication? We hope the answer takes many forms and captures all of the exciting areas we publish in Organometallics. To help illustrate what we had in mind, we are featuring communications either in this issue or recent issues that feature this spirit. The first examples come from our Editorial Team. For example, Anna Christianson and Francois Gabbai (DOI: 10.1021/acs. organomet.7b00419) report the synthesis and UV−vis absorption spectrum of a chloro-stibaindole complex and the colorimetric response that occurs due to the binding of halide anions, highlighting the exciting reactivity of main-group organometallic compounds. From Erlangen, Germany, Karsten Meyer and his co-workers (DOI: 10.1021/acs.organomet. 7b00590) report the assembly of an unprecedented cyaphide ligand, CP−, in uranium chemistry that was prepared from C− O bond cleavage of the corresponding OCP− anion, demonstrating the exciting reactivity that is observed from some of the heaviest elements on the periodic table. This communication is an excellent example of what we have in mind for this manuscript type. The work is focused principally around the synthesis of a new ligand type, but the compounds have been characterized with the highest level of rigor and thoroughness. Our Associate Editor in China, Shuli You, reports catalytic amidation of N-heteroaryl-substituted ferrocenes using a rhodium(III) complex (DOI: 10.1021/acs. organomet.7b00691), highlighting that our flash communications are by no means limited to synthetic or structural studies. A communication from my laboratory (DOI: 10.1021/acs. organomet.7b00398) focuses on the oxidative addition of H2 with a bis(arylimidazolin-2-ylidene)pyridine iron bis(dinitrogen) complex, and the corresponding hydrogen isotope exchange chemistry with benzene-d6. These findings provide insight into the mechanism of operation of this iron compound in the deuteration and tritiation of pharmaceuticals.1 Examples of flash communications have also been published from our outstanding and international author base. Alexander Pöthig and his co-workers in Munich (DOI: 10.1021/acs. organomet.7b00525) revisited the reaction of K2PdCl4 with triphenylcyclopropenium chloride and ethylene. They discovered that the structure of the product is a Pd6Cl8 cluster capped by μ3-η1:η1:η3-C3Ph3, revising the structure originally reported in 1964.2 This work was recently highlighted in Chemical and Engineering News3 and, while not recognized at the time, represents the first organometallic cluster of palladium. We believe this structural revision and clarification is an ideal illustration of the flash communication concept: a focused and high-impact result that overturns a long-held view in the organometallic chemistry of multimetallic palladium compounds. The flash communication format is also compatible with spectroscopic studies, as evidenced by Thomas Strassner’s contribution describing the synthesis and photophysics of phosphorescent thiozol-2-ylidene iridium(III) complexes (DOI: 10.1021/acs.organomet.7b00421). Interest in this class
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ommunication of results and new insights into our discipline are at the core of scientific publishing. Why else do we write manuscripts other than to disseminate our findings and ideas to the broader community in perpetuity? At Organometallics, like many chemistry journals, the principal manuscript types we receive and publish are communications and articles. Recently, our editorial team has questioned the difference between these manuscript types and asked if these formats best capture the needs of the organometallic chemistry community. The answer was overwhelmingly yes. However, one thing that resonated with both the Associate Editors and Editorial Advisory Board members is the trend across journals to publish longer communications. For many years, communications were limited to two pages. In fact, this was the norm at the start of my independent career in 2001. Gradually, some journals expanded to three pages upon special request, which eventually evolved into the current four-page limit found at most publications, including Organometallics. Some journals even publish communications that are longer. By and large, this has served the broader chemistry community well, and, in some fields, this is the preferred, if not exclusive, means of publication. Because of this standard across disciplines, and the widespread success and adoption of the format, Organometallics will continue to accept and publish four-page communications. The editorial team at Organometallics would also like to rekindle the traditional spirit originally meant for shorter communications. Specifically, we seek to provide a forum to rapidly report an initial finding of interest to our community that will likely be followed up by a more detailed article at a later time. Perhaps authors discovered a new organometallic reaction, obtained an interesting and unprecedented structure, or acquired new data for reinterpretation of a long-held mechanistic principle; we wish to capture this content without the burden of obtaining the necessary data to expand to the four-page communication. We have informally dubbed these submissions “flash communications”, although a new manuscript type is not being formally added within the ACS Paragon Plus environment. We also believe that communications of this type may fill in for the Note, a manuscript classification that was discontinued in 2015. Our editorial team will do our best to fast-track these submissions to get them out and evaluated by reviewers quickly. Authors are encouraged to mention if they believe their submission falls into this manuscript class. Of course, we need you, our dedicated reviewing community, to embrace this concept too. We would appreciate quick turnaround times on requests to review these manuscripts, so please let the handling Editor know if you are unable to meet the short deadlines. Additionally, we hope the reviewing community will embrace this concept and allow authors to rapidly report exciting results without recommending the addition of noncritical experiments and while at the same time maintaining the high standards associated with Organometallics. © 2017 American Chemical Society
Published: November 27, 2017 4339
DOI: 10.1021/acs.organomet.7b00795 Organometallics 2017, 36, 4339−4340
Organometallics
Editor's Page
of compounds has been considerable recently due to their utility in water splitting, photoredox reactions, and lightemitting devices.4,5 O’Hearn and Singer (DOI: 10.1021/acs. organomet.7b00489) report rare examples of N-heterocyclic carbene complexes of copper(II); typically these complexes are in the copper(I) oxidation state. Both new compounds are air stable, and X-ray diffraction studies were used to establish distorted-octahedral and square-pyramidal geometries. In summary, the Editorial team at Organometallics would like to remind our authors and readers that there is a forum for the rapid dissemination of exciting, sometimes brief and focused, results in organometallic chemistry. We believe this communication format will generate high-quality submissions from across the broad spectrum of science published at Organometallics and perhaps will attract new authors and readers to the journal. As always, we thank our reviewers for their dedication and hard work in maintaining the standards of the journal, and we look forward to exciting flashes of new chemistry in the coming months.
Paul J. Chirik
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Department of Chemistry, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, United States
AUTHOR INFORMATION
ORCID
Paul J. Chirik: 0000-0001-8473-2898 Notes
Views expressed in this editorial are those of the author and not necessarily the views of the ACS.
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REFERENCES
(1) Yu, R. P.; Hesk, D.; Rivera, N.; Pelczer, I.; Chirik, P. J. Nature 2016, 529, 195−199. (2) Moiseev, I. I.; Vargaftik, M. N.; Syrkin, Y. K. Izv. Akad. Nauk SSSR, Ser. Khim. 1964, 4, 775−776. (3) Ritter, S. Chem. Eng. News 2017, 95 (37), 9. (4) Teegardin, K.; Day, J. I.; Chan, J.; Weaver, J. Org. Process Res. Dev. 2016, 20, 1156−1163. (5) You, Y.; Nam, W. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2012, 41, 7061−7084.
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DOI: 10.1021/acs.organomet.7b00795 Organometallics 2017, 36, 4339−4340
