A message from the new ChemComm chair

Richard R. Schrock

Richard R. Schrock received his PhD in inorganic chemistry from Harvard in 1971. After spending one year as an NSF postdoctoral fellow at the University of Cambridge and three years at the Central Research and Development Department of E. I. DuPont de Nemours and Co., he moved to M.I.T. in 1975 where he became full professor in 1980 and the Frederick G. Keyes Professor of Chemistry in 1989. His interests include the inorganic and organometallic chemistry of early transition metals and catalytic processes involving them. In 2005 he shared the Nobel Prize in chemistry with Robert Grubbs and Yves Chauvin for the “development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis.”

I accepted the position of ChemComm Editorial Board Chair with honour and pride in the summer of 2011. Steeped in history, ChemComm continues to be one of the leading journals for important and urgent research across all chemical disciplines. It was largely because of the journal's standing in the chemical community that I agreed to take the role and lead the Editorial Board for the next four years. In this brief message, I would like to layout my vision for ChemComm from 2012.

First, I want to thank Professor Peter Kündig, University of Geneva, who retires from the Chairman's role at the end of 2011. In his four years as Chair, ChemComm has seen its impact factor rise year on year while the number of articles published has increased by 50%; this is a truly remarkable achievement. I hope to be able to look back on similarly impressive results in four years time. Thank you Peter for your leadership, vision and energy.

Looking to the future, 2012 will be a landmark year for ChemComm. Starting in January the journal will publish 100 issues per year. ChemComm will be the first chemistry journal to achieve such a remarkable feat. The journal will be hitting your desks twice a week, with each issue packed with a mixture of high quality communications and reviews. This doubling in frequency is a consequence of the significant growth of the journal, with annual submissions now close to 8000. The most rapid growth is in the number of submissions from Asia, in particular China, where ChemComm is both well known and popular. We hope to maintain these links with Asia while ensuring we continue to build strong support from other key countries that are leading the way in chemical research.

Most importantly, we will continue to focus on further improving the quality of the journal through vigorous and fair peer review. Marshalled by our Associate Editors, who are all world-renowned scientists, and the dedicated professional Editors based in Cambridge, UK, we will strive to deliver the very best customer service at a speed that sets ChemComm apart from its competitors.

In summary, I am very much looking forward to working with the Editorial Board and steering the journal through this exciting period of its life. On behalf of the Editorial Board, I would like to thank all our referees and authors who continue to contribute to the journal’s success.

Richard R. Schrock

F. G. Keyes Professor of Chemistry

Editorial Board Chair, ChemComm

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