Editorial Cite This: Org. Lett. 2018, 20, 1−3
pubs.acs.org/OrgLett
Twenty Years of Organic Letters, A Look Back...and Forward read paper among all ACS journals: “Darwinolide, a New Diterpene Scaffold That Inhibits Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Biofilm from the Antarctic Sponge Dendrilla membranosa” by Jacqueline L. (von Salm) Fries, Christopher G. Witowski, Renee M. Fleeman, James B. McClintoc, Charles D. Amsler, Lindsey N. Shaw, and Bill J. Baker (Figure 1).
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his year marks Volume 20 of Organic Letters, which seems like an excellent time to reflect on where we have been and where we are going. Much has changed in the past 20 years. When Organic Letters started, we were the first American Chemical Society (ACS) journal to accept web submissions; now ACS has 17 web-only journals. Twenty years ago, scientific journals were mailed to subscribers or were available in institutional libraries. Now you can read an article from your phone. The first Twitter message was sent in March 2006. Now Twitter is an integral part of the social and scientific landscape, and even journals have twitter accounts. Our joint Organic Letters/The Journal of Organic Chemistry twitter account (@ JOC_OL) has close to 5000 followers from 31 countries; we invite you to join us! Twenty years ago we looked at clouds to check the weather; now we store our data in a cloud! While the communication world has evolved, our commitment to disseminating important scientific advancements has remained unchanged. Organic Letters was launched to provide the organic chemistry community with a top quality venue to rapidly publish communications and to provide a cost-effective societysupported alternative to commercial publishers. I think we have accomplished both of these goals. Our subscription cost remains competitive, and we provide first decisions to authors in as few as one to two weeks after submission! We got off to a fast start publishing Letters. We published our first Letter on the web in May 1999, and by April of 2000 we had published our 1000th Letter. As of the end of 2017, we have published over 28 thousand Letters. See Table 1 for other Organic Letters landmarks.
Figure 1. Dr. Jackie Fries with Prof. Amos B. Smith, III at the ACS National Meeting in San Francisco, CA, April 2017. Dr. Fries at the “most cited author” mosaic wall at the meeting.
Over the past 20 years, organic chemistry has evolved to include nearly every subdiscipline of chemistry, performed in laboratories across the globe. Our submissions from China especially show the enormous growth of chemistry in that country. In 2000 (our first full year), 2.30% of our published Letters were from China; in 2016, this percentage grew to 37%. Organic Letters has worked to ensure that our Associate Editors and Editorial Advisory Board members reflect the geographic and scientific diversity of our field. We added our first Associate Editor from China (Prof. Dan Yang) in 2009 and from India (Prof. Kavirayani Prasad) in 2017. Currently, we have two Associate Editors from China: Profs. Kuiling Ding and Zhenfeng Xi. Our other current Associate Editors include researchers in Australia (Prof. Andrew Holmes), Canada (Prof. Bill Lubell), France (Prof. Janine Cossy), India (Prof. K. Prasad), Japan (Prof. Shigehiro Yamaguchi), Switzerland (Prof. Erick Carreira), the United Kingdom (Prof. Karl Hale), and the US (Profs. Ben Liu, Gary Molander, and Jeff Winker). As organic chemistry has evolved, Organic Letters is proud to have provided a venue for important advances in our discipline. Our most cited papers in key years (Table 2) and our virtual issues (Table 3) provide a glimpse into the hot topics in our field over the past 20 years. Although interest areas may shift over the years, some things remain constant. Most striking is the abiding interest in isolation/synthesis of natural products. Our first published
Table 1. Organic Letters Landmarks 1998 1999 2000 2002 2005 2009 2010 2012 2012 2013 2014 2016 2017 2017
plans for Organic Letters approved by ACS March 1, first paper submitted May 17, first Letters appeared on web published 1000th paper on web first impact factor: 3.7 (current impact factor: 6.6) stopped paper submissions first Associate Editor from China crystal consultant added first virtual issue published data analyst added first OL/JOC sponsored symposium in China Outstanding Organic Letters Paper award started ACS most read paper was from Organic Letters first Associate Editor from India published over 28000 Letters (1999−Dec 2017)
I am delighted that Organic Letters quickly achieved acceptance as the go-to journal for the latest research communications in organic chemistry. Our impact factor is now above the leading general chemistry journals such as Chemical Communications, and our online article views have risen steadily, increasing 3% over the last five years. In 2016, we were especially proud that Organic Letters published the most © 2018 American Chemical Society
Received: December 8, 2017 Published: January 5, 2018 1
DOI: 10.1021/acs.orglett.7b03845 Org. Lett. 2018, 20, 1−3
Organic Letters
Editorial
Table 2. Top Cited Letter in Volumes 1, 5, 10, and 15 Volume 1 (1999) Volume 5 (2003) Volume 10 (2008) Volume 15 (2013)
Synthesis and Activity of a New Generation of Ruthenium-Based Olefin Metathesis Catalysts Coordinated with 1,3-Dimesityl-4,5-dihydroimidazol-2-ylidene Ligands Homeopathic Ligand-Free Palladium as a Catalyst in the Heck Reaction. A Comparison with a Palladacycle Copper-Catalyzed Click Reaction/Direct Arylation Sequence: Modular Syntheses of 1,2,3-Triazoles Copper- and Iron-Catalyzed Decarboxylative Tri- and Difluoromethylation of α,βUnsaturated Carboxylic Acids with CF3SO2Na and (CF2HSO2)2Zn via a Radical Process
Scholl, M.; Ding, S.; Lee, C. W.; Grubbs, R. H. de Vries, A. H. M.; Mulders, J. M. C. A.; Mommers, J. H. M.; Henderickx, H. J. W.; de Vries, J. G. Ackermann, L.; Potukuchi, H. K.; Landsberg, D.; Vicente, R. Li, Z.; Cui, Z.; Liu, Z.-Q.
Table 3. Virtual Issue Topics, Guest Editors, and Publication Dates virtual issue title
guest editor
publication date
Cross-Coupling Reactions Peptide Chemistry Terpenoid- and Shikimate-Derived Natural Products Total Synthesis Nucleic Acids: Chemistry and Applications All Natural − The Renaissance Of Natural Products Chemistry Linking the Biological and Synthetic Worlds Organocatalysis Recent Advances in C−H Functionalization Legacy of Richard Heck Radicals in Action: A Festival of Radical Transformations Olefin MetathesisFundamentals and Frontiers
Carsten Bolm William Lubell Karl Hale Krishna Ganesh and Yamuna Krishnan Tadeusz Molinski Vince Rotello, Amos Smith, and Dale Poulter Takashi Ooi Huw Davies and Daniel Morton Donald Watson, Matt Sigman, and Patrick Walsh Sam Zard Deryn Fogg
June 2012 September 2012 July 2013 December 2013 August 2014 July 2015 October 2015 January 2016 May 2016 March 2017 May 2017
Letter was on the total synthesis of (±)-preussomerins G and I by Clayton Heathcock and Shannon Chi. Our 1000th published Letter was on the asymmetric synthesis of Pamamycin 621 by Michael Calter and F. Christopher Bi. Organic Letters’ “most read” lists have always included papers on these topics. For example, the top five most read Letters in 2016 were all natural product papers, four on total synthesis! But along with total syntheses reports, our editors strive to provide a balanced variety of top science in all areas of organic chemistry. As stated in our guidelines, Organic Letters welcomes fundamental research in all branches of organic, physical organic, organometallic, medicinal, and bioorganic chemistry. Sometimes this means being highly selective in “hot” areas so that we can publish outstanding papers on a robust variety of topics in each issue. We constantly examine our criteria and adjust them to reflect the interests of the organic chemistry community. In addition to reflecting changes in our discipline, Organic Letters has evolved to reflect changes in technology and publishing, working to ensure that our Letters contain reliable and reproducible data. In 2012, we introduced checking protocols for plagiarism and data accuracy. (see our previous editorials on data integrity, data quality checks, and Supporting Information review). We are also improving the process for submitting primary data. We encourage submission of FID data for NMR spectra and now require deposition of crystallographic information files (CIFs) with the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC) prior to submission. These data submission methods take advantage of the growing number of data repositories including CCDC and Figshare, which have robust storage capacities that allow access to full, interactive data sets. Importantly, this effort will help authors comply with funder-mandated data management plans. Over the years, we have refined and clarified our guidelines on Supporting Information, striving to make the data we publish reliable and reproducible. For example, last year we introduced the requirement for a 1 mmol scale method for new or improved one-step synthetic transformations.
Change can, however, present challenges. For example, the growing popularity of preprint servers has prompted journals to consider and define what constitutes prior/new publication, grappling with the challenge of how best to ensure that readers are directed to the peer reviewed and published final “version of record” associated with a preprint report. Open Access initiatives by funding agencies and other organizations have prompted responses from publishers including ACS Publications, which has focused on providing open access options to support the needs of the community. ACS Publications provides open access articles daily via the ACS Editors’ Choice initiative and through its open access journals and virtual issues. Organic Letters is clearly well positioned to meet the challenges facing scientific publishing, to grow, and to change in the next 20 years to support the community. We look forward to evaluating emerging technologies to provide new ways for researchers to interact with published content, and we remain committed to carefully and efficiently reviewing your work. As always, we are interested in your suggestions on how to keep Organic Letters a leader in publishing the best organic research reports. Although there have been many changes in the past 20 years, what has remained the same is our commitment to publish the top communications in organic chemistry, carefully reviewed in the efficient timely manner that the community has come to rely on. Despite a rise in submissions, our average time to final decision has remained the same or improved, and our impact factor indicates that we are publishing the research reports that you want to read. Credit for these achievements belongs to our current and past Associate Editors who, as outstanding active researchers themselves, are uniquely qualified to evaluate your submissions and select appropriate reviewers; to our Editorial Advisory Board who have provided valuable support and advice over the years; to our staff, some of whom have been with us since we began 20 years ago, ably assisting our editors, authors, and reviewers; and to the American Chemical Society for providing a strong infrastructure that permits us to concentrate on 2
DOI: 10.1021/acs.orglett.7b03845 Org. Lett. 2018, 20, 1−3
Organic Letters
Editorial
showcasing the very best in organic chemistry. Most importantly, we are grateful to our authors for entrusting us with their best work and our reviewers who selflessly help ensure that the work we publish is at the forefront of research. My sincere appreciation and gratitude are extended to all of you, who have helped make Organic Letters ‘Exactly where researchers want to be’. I am confident that Organic Letters has built a strong foundation in its first 20 years, ensuring that the next 20 years will be even greater. I personally am grateful for the opportunity to have been here from day one!
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Amos B. Smith, III, 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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DOI: 10.1021/acs.orglett.7b03845 Org. Lett. 2018, 20, 1−3
