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Fifteen Years and Counting L
ast month, I completed my 15th year as Editor-in-Chief of Analytical Chemistry, and I decided to devote this Editorial to discussing what has changed in that time. Some things, importantly, have not changed—and I hope will not. Our Editors, who are engaged in top-notch personal scholarship, appreciate where the research frontiers lie and know what constitutes a high-quality research manuscript. That appreciation, combined with a constant striving for fairness and courtesy to our author community, is an unchanging part of our equation for maintaining high standards in accepting papers. Another constant has been the positive role of our reviewers, who observe equally high standards when commenting on submitted papers. The Editors’ gratitude for our reviewers’ efforts has not lessened. These characteristics continue to enhance the regard that the community of measurement scientists has for our journal as a prime place to publish. But if nothing varied, life would be dull; analytical chemistry is exciting because it changes. Over the years, we have seen numerous advances—some evolutionary, some revolutionary—in the research in our field. For example, in 1991, a title that included “sensors” caught attention; today, the word has been so overused and misused that it is no longer an effective search term, even though superb sensor work continues. MS has experienced both revolution and evolution: revolution in the form of new ion sources (e.g., electrospray, MALDI, and routine MS/MS) and evolution as the prodigious capacities of these techniques are directed at analytical challenges in proteomics. When all is said and done, the impact of analytical chemistry in proteomics may well surpass that of DNA sequencing, in terms of importance to the health sciences. “Microfluidics” and “microchips” would have been curious words in 1991, but they now represent a surging new version of analytical science—a revolution in process. Since 1991, a host of microscopy experiments—for example, scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and scanning electrochemical microscopy—have emerged and matured. STM and AFM have even become routine tools. Similarly, single-molecule spectroscopy is no
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longer an exceptional experiment, and although it is not routine, it is common. Microelectrode voltammetry revolutionized electrochemical science before 1991; it has since evolved into nanosized electrodes and microelectrode applications such as observing real-time, in vivo release of neurotransmitters. This commentary could go on at length; suffice it to say that analytical chemistry remains a vibrant and respected field and shows absolutely no signs of being dull. Changes in the process of considering papers for publication have been revolutionary to the editorial process but considerably more transparent to authors. The revolution is in how submitted papers, once reviewed, revised, and accepted, are converted into published articles. The change was built upon a steady (and continuing) development of electronic publishing systems to process authors’ electronic input—initially on floppy disks and now via the Internet—into printed and web-accessible versions. The revolution has morphed into an explosive, worldwide evolution, in which the submission of research results to the journal is no longer at the mercy of various postal services worldwide; the process is now nearly instantaneous. The change has taken place within just a few years and is so thoroughly accepted and efficient that, in 2006 and beyond, Analytical Chemistry will require all manuscripts to be submitted electronically via our secure website, not on paper or by email. Looking to the future, university libraries will increasingly agree to inter-institutional arrangements for sharing print copies and will downsize their journal print collections—at least in the sciences. The trend of users accessing the literature remotely, in their offices and labs, will impact the design of new library facilities, in a novel aspect of the publishing revolution. The past 15 years have been exciting times for researchers and editors. It has been wonderful to live in interesting times, and I look forward to more to come.
© 2006 AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY
