Editorial pubs.acs.org/cm
Looking Back: Recap of 2014 at Chemistry of Materials
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irst of all, I would like to express an enormous thank you to the readers and authors of Chemistry of Materials. Reading through new submissions every day is for us a privilege, and we greatly appreciate the trust you put in us, each time you submit your research to Chemistry of Materials. This year has been one of transformation and freshening up for the journal, and we have brought in a number of changes that we hope that you have noticed. A few of the new items introduced in 2014 are shown visually in Figure 1, but here is a more thorough list: (i) Our 25th Anniversary. The first issue of 2014 is an open access celebration of 25 years of Chemistry of Materials and is composed of perspectives and editorials from 66 top materials groups around the world, describing their research areas.1 (ii) A new look. The graphic designers at the American Chemical Society worked with us to develop a new, clean look for the journal (see Figure 1, our Web site, or any published manuscript!). (iii) New editors. We brought on 7 new editors this year, including managing editor, Carlos Toro, associate editors Brian Korgel, Kian Ping Loh, Kyoung-Shin Choi, Ram Seshadri, and Stacey Bent, and editor-in-chief, Jillian Buriak. More to come in 2015! (iv) Active Twitter account (@ChemMater). Chemists have been very slow to pick up on Twitter and other avenues of communication, but a number of ACS journals have used Twitter very effectively to share their content with their audience and to hear from readers as well. We tweet every day, and topics include the latest articles but also updates on where our editors are, our thoughts on materials chemistry in society, top downloads, and many other subjects. Give us a follow and let us know what you think. (v) Up-and-Coming series of perspectives. These invited perspectives are written by younger scientists (assistant professors are the target) with a story to tell. We want to know what excites them about their area of research and where they believe it is going in the future. Thus far, we have had perspectives dealing with flexible electronics,2 acenes for organic electronics,3 new functional metal organic frameworks (MOFs),4 integration of 2D layered materials into device architectures,5 and nanoparticles in lithium-ion batteries.6 These perspectives have been accompanied by an e-mail and social media campaign, and while early, we have noted that the download rates have placed each of them solidly in the top handful of each issue. If you are interested in writing one or know someone you think would like to, please let us know. (vi) Chemistry of Materials’ 1k Club. This series of editorials consists of interviews with authors whose papers published in the journal have been cited 1000 times or more. What were they thinking when they wrote their article? What made it special? What advice do they have for younger authors? Thus far, we have published our © 2014 American Chemical Society
Figure 1. Examples of some of the changes introduced at Chemistry of Materials in 2014.
interviews with El-Sayed and Nikoobakht,7 Martin,8 the co-authors of an article by Stucky,9 McGehee,10 and Kreuer.11 (vii) Virtual issues. In 2014, Chemistry of Materials participated in two virtual issues, one of which is shown in Figure 1. In collaboration with ACS Nano and Journal of Published: December 23, 2014 6905
dx.doi.org/10.1021/cm504393f | Chem. Mater. 2014, 26, 6905−6906
Chemistry of Materials
Editorial
Physical Chemistry Letters, we assembled 20 editorials and articles that try to shed light on the publishing process and provide helpful insights to authors.12 We also contributed to a virtual issue on solid-state chemistry that was led by the editors of Inorganic Chemistry.13 (viii) An editorial in every issue. The editorials have covered topics that attempt to provide insight into the publishing process (several of which are captured in the virtual issue on publishing, above), introducing new people to the journal, highlighting the Up-and-Coming Series, and others. Anything you want to see? Please let us know we would consider co-authorship with an author or reader on topics that could be of broad interest to the materials community and beyond. (ix) New cover image every issue. Every issue this year has had a new cover image highlighting research within the issue. We are always asked how we choose coversmost of the time, authors share with us an appealing image and ask if we could consider it. Sometimes we cannot say yes, as we may be already booked several issues ahead, which would delay a paper an unacceptable length of time, but we are always open to suggestions. To summarize, it has been a busy year, but academic publishing, particularly in the rapidly growing area of materials, is changing quickly. We cannot predict the future, but we can work with you, one author at a time, to make the journal a great place to publish your high quality research in materials chemistry. Please do not hesitate to reach out and share your thoughts with us. We wish everyone a successful 2015.
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Jillian M. Buriak, Editor-in-Chief
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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REFERENCES
(1) http://pubs.acs.org/toc/cmatex/26/1#SpecialIssueCelebratingTwentyFiveYearsofChemistryofMaterials. (2) Savagatrup, S.; Printz, A. D.; O’Connor, T. F.; Zaretski, A. V.; Lipomi, D. J. Chem. Mater. 2014, DOI: 10.1021/cm501021v. (3) Ye, Q.; Chi, C. Chem. Mater. 2014, DOI: 10.1021/cm501536p. (4) Chen, T.-H.; Popov, I.; Kaveevivitchai, W.; Miljanić, O. Chem. Mater. 2014, DOI: 10.1021/cm501657d. (5) Lim, H.; Yoon, S. I.; Kim, G.; Jang, A-R.; Shin, H. S. Chem. Mater. 2014, DOI: 10.1021/cm502170q. (6) Oszajca, M. F.; Bodnarchuk, M. I.; Kovalenko, M. V. Chem. Mater. 2014, DOI: 10.1021/cm5024508. (7) Toro, C.; Buriak, J. M. Chem. Mater. 2014, DOI: 10.1021/ cm502841d. (8) Toro, C.; Buriak, J. M. Chem. Mater. 2014, DOI: 10.1021/ cm5030662. (9) Toro, C.; Buriak, J. M. Chem. Mater. 2014, DOI: 10.1021/ cm503557g. (10) Toro, C.; Buriak, J. M. Chem. Mater. 2014, DOI: 10.1021/ cm503182r. (11) Toro, C.; Buriak, J. M. Chem. Mater. 2014, DOI: 10.1021/ cm504118j. (12) Link to the issue: http://pubs.acs.org/page/vi/art_of_ scientific_publication.html. Editorial accompanying the issue: Kamat, P. V.; Buriak, J. M.; Schatz, G. C.; Weiss, P. S. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2014, 5, 3519. (13) Link to the issue: http://pubs.acs.org/page/vi/2014/ SolidStateChemistry.html. Editorial accompanying the issue: Halasyamani, P. S. Inorg. Chem. 2014, 53, 10781. 6906
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