Editorial: Crystal‐Clear View of Chemistry

Abstract

Extensive coverage: 1 Chemistry—A European Journal has provided its readers with crystal-clear top-quality chemistry from around the world since it was founded 15 years ago. Originally launched as a monthly journal for Full Papers, Chemistry—A European Journal has since made the successful transition to a weekly publication, offering its readers in addition a wide range of article types, including Concepts, Communications, Reviews, and Minireviews. The growth over this period in terms of articles published is truly remarkable (see Figure 1): in 2009 we published 1435 top-quality articles on over 13 500 pages. In 2008 we launched the Communications section of the journal; in the first year we published 167 Communications. Last year the number of Communications published more than doubled to 370, and the number of Full Papers published also grew by more than 6 % to over 1000. Growth of Chemistry—A European Journal in terms of the number of articles since its launch in 1995. The move to weekly publication has been accompanied by not only a marked increase of over 30 % in the number of submissions to the journal, but also more importantly by a 22 % increase in the number of peer-reviewed published articles. Pleasingly, the Impact Factor for Chemistry—A European Journal rose for the sixth consecutive year to a new record level of 5.454 in 2009. Internationalization: The global influence of Chemistry—A European Journal is reflected not only by the number of submissions, but also by the fact that we received papers from over 60 countries in 2009. The major increases in the number of submissions from Asia came from Taiwan (+96 %), South Korea (+63 %), China (+29 %), Japan (+27 %), and India (+38 %). In Europe the main growth came from Denmark (93 %), Italy (+35 %), Spain (+34 %), Switzerland (+34 %), France (+22 %), and Germany (+20 %). There was also notable growth in the number of submissions from North America (USA +31%; Canada +52 %), and in the Rest of the World there was a dramatic increase in the number of submissions from Australia (80 %). Growing influence: Over the last 10 years the global distribution of submissions and accepted papers has altered considerably (see Figure 2). Chemistry—A European Journal, like most other top ranking journals, has witnessed the growing influence of chemistry from Asia, both in terms of output and improving quality. This is also reflected in the increasing number of papers from Asian universities that appear regularly among the most downloaded publications in the journal. Internationalization of Chemistry—A European Journal: regional breakdown of papers submitted (right) and correspondence authors (left) of papers published in Chemistry—A European Journal in 2001, 2005, and 2009. Submitted data for 2009 extrapolated from data on November 30, 2009. Our sister journal, Chemistry—An Asian Journal, is testimony to this growing influence. The announcement of its first impact factor of 4.197 in 2009 was followed by a dramatic increase in the number of top papers submitted from the partner societies. The ACES partnership behind Chemistry—An Asian Journal, which also supports Chemistry—A European Journal, also gained a new member during the course of 2009, with the Chemical Society of Vietnam joining the growing ranks of its society partners. There are now 12 member chemical societies of the ACES partnership. These together with the 14 members of ChemPubSoc Europe provide a further illustration of the strength of the commitment of Wiley-VCH to promoting chemical sciences and chemical societies. The ChemPubSoc Europe family of journals, which encompasses 1 the European Journal of Organic Chemistry, the European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry, ChemPhysChem, ChemBioChem, ChemMedChem, and ChemSusChem, was extended in 2009 by the addition of its newest member ChemCatChem. This journal has made an excellent start and the first issues are freely available online (see www.chemcatchem.org for details). ChemPubSoc Europe itself is expanding to include “Supporting Societies”, the first of which is the Slovenská chemická spoločnost' (SCHS).1 A Nobel occasion: As part of the celebrations to mark the 10th anniversary of our sister journals ChemPhysChem and ChemBioChem, there will be a symposium entitled “Frontiers of Chemistry: From Molecules to Systems” at the Maison de la Chimie in Paris on May 21, 2010. 1 This special event will feature lectures from four Nobel Laureates: Gerhard Ertl, Jean-Marie Lehn, Roger Tsien, and the 2009 winner Ada Yonath. Further details of the program and the other keynote speakers can be found under www.chembiophyschem.org. European showcase for chemistry: Europe will again be a prominent stage in the world of chemistry in 2010 with the 3rd EuCheMS Chemistry Congress (Chemistry—The Creative Force) providing a notable highlight of the upcoming year. The event, which is being organized by the German Chemical Society (GDCh) on behalf of EuCheMS, will take place in Nürnberg, Germany, between August 29 and September 2, 2010. 1 The Congress will cover seven main topics, each of which will host three symposia: Innovative Materials; Resources and Environment; Supramolecular Systems; Catalysis; Molecular Life Sciences; Analysis, Manipulation and Simulation; and Advances in Organic and Inorganic Chemistry. The program, which features top speakers from all around the world, has been put together by François Diederich and Andreas Hirsch, the chairmen of the event, and the 21 symposia conveners. Further details can be found under www.euchems- congress2010.org. Special effects: As part of our continued mission to promote the aims and science of our society partners, we produced a special issue marking the 100th anniversary of the Società Chimica Italiana (Italian Chemistry Society). In addition to numerous Communications and Full Papers from top Italian chemists, the issue featured some fascinating historical articles about the key figures in the development of Italian chemistry and the Italian Chemical Society, as well as a guest editorial from Professor Luigi Campanella, the President of the society. 1 The special issue was also made available at a conference (“The Centenary”) in Padova to mark the event. It proved to be highly successful, and we would to thank all Italian authors who contributed. We also produced a special issue to mark the 65th birthday of Professor Yitzhak Apeloig, whose research interests span organic to silicon and computational chemistry. Professor Apeloig, incidentally, will be giving one of the lectures at the 3rd EuCheMS Chemistry Congress in Nürnberg. The place to be: In the first 15 years of Chemistry—A European Journal, we have published 357 issues of the journal, in which over 9000 papers have appeared: 467 Concepts and Reviews, 8112 Full Papers, and 437 Communications. Over the course of this period we delivered our readers over 92 000 pages packed with top-quality chemistry. The most cited papers in this 15-year period are given in Table 1. Top of the class at present is a paper by Frank Caruso entitled “Hollow Capsule Processing through Colloidal Templating and Self-Assembly”. A fairer assessment of the citations of the papers we have published can be made, however, if one considers the average number of citations per year (see Table 2). In this case the paper by Younan Xia and co-workers, entitled “Shape-Controlled Synthesis of Metal Nanostructures: The Case of Silver” was determined to be the most prominent. The other papers featured in these two tables illustrate the diversity and quality of the papers published in Chemistry—A European Journal. Title Authors Citation Cites Hollow Capsule Processing through Colloidal Templating and Self-Assembly F. Caruso Chem. Eur. J. 2000, 6, 413 464 Maximizing Synthetic Efficiency: Multi-component Transformations Lead the Way H. Bienayme et al. Chem. Eur. J. 2000, 6, 3321 418 Dynamic Combinatorial Chemistry and Virtual Combinatorial Libraries J.-M. Lehn Chem. Eur. J. 1999, 5, 2455 379 Organic Fluorine Hardly ever Accepts Hydrogen Bonds J. D. Dunitz, R. Taylor Chem. Eur. J. 1997, 3, 89 359 Light-Triggered Molecular Devices—Photochemical Switching of Optical and Electrochemical Properties in Molecular Wire Type Diarylethene Species J. M. Lehn et al. Chem. Eur. J. 1995, 1, 275 336 Palladacycles: Efficient New Catalysts for the Heck Vinylation of Aryl Halides W. A. Herrmann et al. Chem. Eur. J. 1997, 3, 1357 313 Functional Dendrimers: Unique Biological Mimics D. K. Smith, F. Diederich Chem. Eur. J. 1998, 4, 1353 312 Double-Stranded Helices and Molecular Zippers Assembled from Single-Stranded Coordination Polymers Directed by Supramolecular Interactions X.-M. Chen, G. F. Liu Chem. Eur. J. 2002, 8, 4811 298 Shape-Controlled Synthesis of Metal Nanostructures: The Case of Silver Y. Xia et al. Chem. Eur. J. 2005, 11, 454 290 Synthesis and Characterization of Ion-Exchangeable Titanate Nanotubes X.-M. Sun, Y.-D. Li Chem. Eur. J. 2003, 9, 2229 290 Title Authors Citation Average cites per year Shape-Controlled Synthesis of Metal Nanostructures: The Case of Silver Y. Xia et al. Chem. Eur. J. 2005, 11, 454 58.0 Hollow Capsule Processing through Colloidal Templating and Self-Assembly F. Caruso Chem. Eur. J. 2000, 6, 413 46.4 Synthesis, X-ray Crystal Structures, and Gas Sorption Properties of Pillared Square Grid Nets Based on Paddle-wheel Motifs: Implications for Hydrogen Storage in Porous Materials K. Kim et al. Chem. Eur. J. 2005, 11, 3521 46.2 Organocatalysis Mediated by (Thio)urea Derivatives S. J. Connon Chem. Eur. J. 2006, 12, 5418 44.3 Phosphorescent Dyes for Organic Light-Emitting Diodes P. T. Chou, Y. Chi Chem. Eur. J. 2007, 13, 380 42.7 Maximizing Synthetic Efficiency: Multi-component Transformations Lead the Way H. Bienayme et al. Chem. Eur. J. 2000, 6, 3321 41.8 Synthesis and Characterization of Ion-Exchangeable Titanate Nanotubes X.-M. Sun, Y.-D. Li Chem. Eur. J. 2003, 9, 2229 41.3 Detection and Amplification of Chirality by Helical Polymers E. Yashima et al. Chem. Eur. J. 2004, 10, 42 40.3 Double-Stranded Helices and Molecular Zippers Assembled from Single-Stranded Coordination Polymers Directed by Supramolecular Interactions X.-M. Chen, G. F. Liu Chem. Eur. J. 2002, 8, 4811 37.3 Molecular-Scale Logic Gates A. P. de Silva, N. D. McClenaghan Chem. Eur. J. 2004, 10, 574 37.2 Metal Nuclearity Modulated Four-, Six-, and Eight-Connected Entangled Frameworks Based on Mono-, Bi-, and Trimetallic Cores as Nodes E. B. Wang, Z.-M. Su et al. Chem. Eur. J. 2006, 12, 2680 36.8 What's hot: A selection of the top 5 downloaded Full Papers and Communications, as well as the top 10 downloaded Concepts and Reviews from 2009 is given in Tables 3–, , 5. The data in the tables again illustrate the international appeal and authorship of the journal, as well as the diverse range of topics covered. The importance and interest in catalysis is clearly apparent from the list of the top 5 downloaded Communications in Table 3. This serves as a further illustration of the perfect timing of the decision by ChemPubSoc Europe to launch ChemCatChem. Title Authors Citation Asymmetric Iminium Ion Catalysis with a Novel Bifunctional Primary Amine Thiourea: Controlling Adjacent Quaternary and Tertiary Stereocenters P. Melchiorre et al. Chem. Eur. J. 2009, 15, 7846 Iron(III)-Catalyzed and Air-Mediated Tandem Reaction of Aldehydes, Alkynes and Amines: An Efficient Approach to Substituted Quinolines Y.-Q. Tu et al. Chem. Eur. J. 2009, 15, 6332 Highly Enantio- and Diastereoselective Organocatalytic Desymmetrization of Prochiral Cyclohexanones by Simple Direct Aldol Reaction Catalyzed by Proline R. Rios et al. Chem. Eur. J. 2009, 15, 6564 Iron-Catalyzed Ligand-Free Three-Component Coupling Reactions of Aldehydes, Terminal Alkynes, and Amines L. Wang et al. Chem. Eur. J. 2009, 15, 2045 Improved Palladium-Catalyzed Sonogashira Coupling Reactions of Aryl Chlorides M. Beller at al. Chem. Eur. J. 2009, 15, 1329 Title Authors Citation Organocatalytic Domino Michael–Knoevenagel Condensation Reaction for the Synthesis of Optically Active 3-Diethoxyphosphoryl-2-oxocyclohex-3-enecarboxylates K. -A. Jørgensen et al. Chem. Eur. J. 2009, 15, 3093 Total Synthesis of Rapamycin S. V. Ley et al. Chem. Eur. J. 2009, 15, 2874 Novel Zinc Porphyrin Sensitizers for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells: Synthesis and Spectral, Electrochemical, and Photovoltaic Properties C.-Y. Yeh, E. W.-G. Diau et al. Chem. Eur. J. 2009, 15, 1403 One-Step Synthesis of Stoichiometrically Defined Metal Oxide Nanoparticles at Room Temperature M. A. Morris et al. Chem. Eur. J. 2009, 15, 440 Bright, Color-Tunable Fluorescent Dyes in the Vis/NIR Region: Establishment of New “Tailor-Made” Multicolor Fluorophores Based on Borondipyrromethene K. Suzuki et al. Chem. Eur. J. 2009, 15, 1096 Title Authors Citation Metal-Catalyzed One-Step Synthesis: Towards Direct Alternatives to Multistep Heterocycle and Amino Acid Derivative Formation B. A. Arndtsen Chem. Eur. J. 2009, 15, 302 Artificial Enzyme Catalysis Controlled and Driven by Light G. Knör Chem. Eur. J. 2009, 15, 568 Do We Understand the Recyclability of Ionic Liquids? Y-M. Zhang, H.-P. Wang et al. Chem. Eur. J. 2009, 15, 1804 Construction of Nitrogen-Containing Heterocycles by CH Bond Functionalization M. Lautens, P. Thansandote Chem. Eur. J. 2009, 15, 5874 Use of Tetradentate Monoanionic Ligands for Stabilizing Reactive Metal Complexes J. Arnold, W. A. Chomitz Chem. Eur. J. 2009, 15, 2020 Diels–Alder “Click” Chemistry in Designing Dendritic Macromolecules A. K. Kakkar, G. Franc Chem. Eur. J. 2009, 15, 5630 Applications of Multicomponent Reactions to the Synthesis of Diverse Heterocyclic Scaffolds S. F. Martin, J. D. Sunderhaus Chem. Eur. J. 2009, 15, 1300 Structure Formation Principles and Reactivity of Organolithium Compounds C. Strohmann et al. Chem. Eur. J. 2009, 15, 3320 Radical and Radical-Ionic Multicomponent Processes Y. Landais, E. Godineau Chem. Eur. J. 2009, 15, 3044 Highly Enantioselective Synthesis of Linear β-Amino Alcohols J. Cossey et al. Chem. Eur. J. 2009, 15, 1064 The right mix: A summary of the top 10 downloaded articles from 2008 (Table 6) reveals that all the different article types, regardless of length, are attractive to our readers. The only important measure is the quality of the work presented. Title Authors Citation Type One-Pot Oxidative Esterification and Amidation of Aldehydes C. Wolf, K. Ekoue-Kovi Chem. Eur. J. 2008, 14, 6302 Review New Architectures for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells J. T. Hupp et al. Chem. Eur. J. 2008, 14, 4458 Concept The Synthesis of Azadirachtin: A Potent Insect Antifeedant S. V. Ley et al. Chem. Eur. J. 2008, 14, 10683 Full Paper Iron-Catalyzed N-Arylations of Amides C. Bolm et al. Chem. Eur. J. 2008, 14, 3527 Communication Recent Developments in Enantioselective Gold(I) Catalysis R. A. Widenhofer Chem. Eur. J. 2008, 14, 5382 Concept Catalytic Asymmetric Synthesis of Chiral Phosphanes D. S. Glueck Chem. Eur. J. 2008, 14, 10683 Concept Classical Reagents: New Surprises in Palladium-Catalyzed CC Coupling Reactions T. Skrydstrup, A. T. Lindhardt Chem. Eur. J. 2008, 14, 8756 Concept New Strategies for the Synthesis of Pyrimidine Derivatives M. Movassaghi, M. D. Hill Chem. Eur. J. 2008, 14, 6836 Concept Recent Synthetic Applications of Manganese in Organic Synthesis J. M. Concellón et al. Chem. Eur. J. 2008, 14, 10184 Concept Facile Synthesis of Gold Nanoparticles with Narrow Size Distribution by Using AuCl or AuBr as the Precursor Y. Xia et al. Chem. Eur. J. 2008, 14, 1584 Full Paper Contented chemists: Over the last 15 years we have continually improved the service we offer to our referees, readers, and authors. We have implemented many novel innovations, such as Concepts, the online submission service, VIP papers, Frontispieces, and EarlyView, all of which have been well documented. These have helped to forge strong bonds and to encourage authors to publish their best work with us repeatedly on a regular basis. A list of the most prolific authors in the history of Chemistry—A European Journal is given in Table 7. A more recent reflection, which summarizes data for the last five years is given in Table 8; the most recent papers from several of these authors appear in this issue, for example, work by Atsuhiro Osuka et al. on phosphorus complexes of the first expanded isophlorins. These data provide further confirmation of the international appeal of the journal as well as the diversity of the fields which it covers. Among the newest improvements are inside covers, additional hot topics and virtual issues, as well as an effective network for facilitating the publication of articles within our family of journals. Name Country Number of articles J. Fraser Stoddart USA 62 Jean-Marie Lehn France 61 José Barluenga Spain 42 François Diederich Switzerland 38 David N. Reinhoudt The Netherlands 35 Chi-Ming Che China 36 Helmut Schwarz Germany 36 Gernot Frenking Germany 34 Armin de Meijere Germany 34 Vincenzo Balzani Italy 33 Herbert Waldmann Germany 32 Lutz F. Tietze Germany 31 Matthias Beller Germany 30 Klaus Müllen Germany 30 K. C. Nicolaou USA 30 Dirk M. Guldi Germany 29 Alois Fürstner Germany 28 E. W. Meijer The Netherlands 28 Atsuhiro Osuka Japan 28 Detlef Schröder Czech Republic 28 Name Country Number of articles Atsuhiro Osuka Japan 23 José Barluenga Spain 22 Gernot Frenking Germany 22 Jean-Marie Lehn France 20 Armin de Meijere Germany 18 François Diederich Switzerland 18 Chi-Ming Che China 17 Alois Fürstner Germany 17 Dirk M. Guldi Germany 17 Matthias Beller Germany 16 Helmut Schwarz Germany 16 Luis Echegoyen USA 15 Shunichi Fukuzumi Japan 15 Min Shi China 15 Raymond Ziessel France 15 Jean-Claude G. Bünzli Switzerland 14 Jesús Jiménez-Barbero Spain 14 Detlef Schröder Czech Republic 14 Jan-E. Bäckvall Sweden 13 Osamu Ito Japan 13 Ingo Krossing Germany 13 Tetsuro Majima Japan 13 E. W. Meijer The Netherlands 13 Inside story: In an effort to provide increased visibility for more of our authors we also now feature an inside cover. The articles chosen to appear on the inside cover are highlighted on our news page and in our special cover gallery on the journal homepage. The inside cover for this issue featuring work by Michael Organ et al. is shown below. CH activation has now been added to the list of hot topics on the journal homepage (www.chemeurj.org). The other topics featured on this list currently include organocatalysis, click chemistry, mesoporous materials/metal–organic frameworks, RNA, gold, and sustainable chemistry. Virtual issues are also available on topics such as solar cells, liquid crystals, surfaces and interfaces, magnetic materials, and organic electronics. These lists provide the reader with related content from the family of European Journals, Chemistry—An Asian Journal, Angewandte Chemie, the family of Macromolecular journals, Advanced Materials, Advanced Functional Materials, and Small. Welcome to 2010: The first issue of year features a Review article by Karl-Anker Jørgensen and co-workers1 on organocatalytic asymmetric synthesis of organophosphorus compounds (p. 28) and a fascinating mix of Communications and Full Papers from top authors around the world. 1 The cover highlights work by Gema de la Torre, Dirk M. Guldi, Tomás Torres et al. on lanthanide(III) bis(phthalocyaninato)–C60 dyads (p. 114). The inside cover illustrates research by Chao-Jun Li, Michael Organ and co-workers on the microwave-assisted continuous-flow organic synthesis of propargyl amines (p. 126), and the frontispiece at the beginning of the Full Paper section features work by Kay Severin et al. on cross-reactive sensor arrays for the detection of peptides (p. 104). Papers from members of the Editorial Board also feature prominently in this first issue. Steven V. Ley et al. report on the synthesis of yne–ones by using modular flow reactors (p. 89), C. N. R. Rao describe work on the graphene analogue BCN (p. 149), François Diederich et al. discuss mechanistic work related to the formation of intramolecular charge–transfer chromophores (p. 202), Pekka Pyykkö and his colleague Björn O. Roos investigate the bonding trends in molecular compounds of lanthanides (p. 270), Chi-Ming Che's group together with that of Hartmut Yersin report on phosphorescent platinum(II) Schiff base complexes (p. 233), David Milstein and colleagues discuss the effect of CO on the oxidative addition of arene CH bonds by cationic rhodium complexes (p. 328), Barry M. Trost's group report on catalytic double stereoinduction in asymmetric allylic alkylation of oxindoles (p. 296), and Claudio Toniolo et al. describe the total synthesis of the hexadecapeptide integramide A (p. 316). Thanks: Finally I would like to take this opportunity to thank our dedicated referees and Editorial Board members for all their hard work behind the scenes. Without their help and advice Chemistry—A European Journal would not have succeeded in becoming so successful and growing so successfully over the last 15 years. Together we look forward to providing our readers with even more cutting-edge research from the world of chemistry and its related disciplines in the coming years.1 Neville Compton, Editor