ACS Chemical Neuroscience in 2012: Opportunities and Challenges

Abstract

Year three of publication of ACS Chemical Neuroscience is upon us—how quickly time flies. Once again, I would like to thank the Associate Editors, Arthur Christopoulos (Monash University) and Alan Jasanoff (MIT), for all of their hard work and volume of manuscripts handled last year—we saw a large increase in submissions. As always, ACS editorial staff have been amazing, and marketing for ACS Chemical Neuroscience has been present at most major neuroscience meetings. Moving into year three, the Journal welcomes Anne M. Andrews (UCLA) as a new Associate Editor, bringing complementary expertise in neuroscience to the editorial board—welcome Anne! We also anticipate three Special Issues in 2012 with Associate Editors Arthur Christopoulos (Monash University) and Alan Jasanoff (MIT), and Benjamin Cravat (SCRIPPS) serving as Guest Editors for their respective Special Issues. We are also planning a thematic crossover with both ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters and the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry—more on this next month. Moreover, ACS Chemical Neuroscience wants to extend a warm welcome to the new Editors-in-Chief of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, Shaomeng Wang and Gunda Georg, and a fond farewell and deep thanks to Philip Portoghese, who made JMC the best medicinal chemistry journal in the world and paved the way for the biological journals within the ACS. Finally, during year three of the Journal, we will learn of the initial Impact Factor. While we can only speculate, based on citations (an ∼7-fold increase in citations in 2011 over 2010), h-index (ACS Chemical Neuroscience has an h-index of 8), and other parameters, we are expecting an impressive Impact Factor for the first neuroscience journal in the American Chemical Society Publications family. 2011 has been a year of major challenges for CNS research, with several major pharmaceutical companies announcing they were leaving altogether and/or significantly downsizing CNS drug discovery. Fortunately, academic drug discovery groups are emerging with CNS focus, and NIH has developed new RFAs to fund drug discovery as well as the highly successful Molecular Libraries Probe Production Center Network (MLPCN). However, lower pay-lines for grant funding continue to put a strain on academics and slow neuroscience research. Importantly, many foundations fund neuroscience research, and many have focused drug discovery funding opportunities—all of these can be found on the ACS Chemical Neuroscience Web site. A huge development at the end of 2011 was the announcement that Congress will fund the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), and the existing network of Clinical Translational Science Awards (CTSAs) will be brought into NCATS. Hopefully, this will foster new avenues for CNS drug discovery in the academic sector, with full translation into clinical studies. Both the MLPCN and NCATS are necessary to continue innovation in CNS research and therapeutics development in light of the departure of big pharma. In closing, there is a special session entitled Chemical Neuroscience within the Organic Division at the 2012 Spring ACS Meeting in San Diego. The Session features authors and Editors of ACS Chemical Neuroscience and other notable neuroscientists. Please stop by for the session and visit the ACS Chemical Neuroscience booth. 2012 promises to be an important and pivotal year for chemical neuroscience, CNS drug discovery, and ACS Chemical Neuroscience.