Chemistry Central Blog
Chemistry Add-in for Word - formally known as Chem4Word - was unveiled during the American Chemical Society Spring 2010 Meeting in San Francisco.
It is the result of an ongoing collaboration between Microsoft Research and Peter Murray-Rust, from the Journal of Cheminformatics Editorial Board, as well as Joe Townsend and Jim Downing - all at the Unilever Centre for Molecular Science Informatics at the University of Cambridge.
You can check it out by downloading a copy of Chemistry Add-in for Word or watching a demo from Microsoft Research.
The Chemistry Add-in for Word enables chemists to insert and modify chemical information, such as labels, formulas and 2-D chemical structure depictions, within Word. It utilizes Chemical Markup Language (CML), making it possible to author chemical content in Word, and also to include the data behind chemical structure representations. The Chemistry Add-in and CML make chemistry documents open, readable and easily accessible, not just to other chemists, but also to other technologies.
Posted by Jan Kuras at 15:14 Comments (0)
EMBL-EBI launches OA drug discovery database
The European Molecular Biology Laboratory's European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) this week announced the launch of an online database - ChEMBLdb - containing information on the properties and activities of drugs and drug-like small molecules and their targets.
The database contains information on over half a million compounds. The number of small molecules covered is over 520,000, with over 2.4 million records of their effects on biological systems. The data includes information about how small molecules bind to their targets, how these compounds affect cells and organisms, and information on the molecules' absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicity.
Dr John Overington, leader of the ChEMBL team at EMBL-EBI, commented that large and small pharmaceutical companies and academic institutions will all benefit from free access to the data, in their development of innovative drug therapies.
More details are available in the press release.
Posted by Jan Kuras at 15:07 Comments (0)
Spread some festive cheer with Gulliver
BioMed Central's well-travelled open access mascot, Gulliver the Turtle, features on our new seasonal eCards for Christmas.
Gulliver even accompanies his colleagues in Chemistry Central to conferences, so keep an eye out for him.
Send a Christmas eCard to a colleague and help spread the word about open access publishing. As Gulliver says, "It's time to let your research out of its shell!"
Posted by Jan Kuras at 17:37 Comments (0)
Nobel Laureates support open access
41 Nobel prize winning scientists, including 16 chemists, have sent an open letter to the US Congress to express their strong support for the Federal Research Public Access Act to enhance access to federally funded published research.
They state that broad dissemination of research is fundamental to the advancement of knowledge and its open availability in open online archives supports accelerated discovery and innovation, and encourages greater participation by providing equal access to all researchers. Additionally, open availability expands the global visibility of research conducted in the US.
The signatories of the letter include the following Chemistry Central Editorial Board Members: Robert F. Curl and Kary B. Mullis (Chemistry Central Journal), and Jack W. Szostak (Journal of Systems Chemistry).
Posted by Jan Kuras at 16:13 Comments (0)
Chemistry Central at the ACS Meeting
Chemistry Central will be once again attending the American Chemical Society National Meeting & Exposition, 16-19 August in Washington DC, USA.
If you are planning to attend the ACS Meeting, we would welcome the opportunity to meet you there. Please feel free to stop by the Chemistry Central booth (#2012).
We'll be interested to discuss with you the latest developments at Chemistry Central.
Support for open access publishing within the chemistry community is increasing, and we value feedback from scientists in order to maintain the growth. Chemistry Central now publishes 3 journals: Chemistry Central Journal (covering all areas of chemistry); Journal of Cheminformatics; and Journal of Systems Chemistry; and supports BioMed Central in publishing Geochemical Transactions. Chemistry Central Journal achieved its first Impact Factor of 0.82 last month.
If you are not available to meet at the ACS Meeting, or are not attending but would still like to share your thoughts, please let us know and we can make contact at a later date.
We also draw your attention to some interesting technical sessions at the ACS Meeting.
On Sunday 16 August there is a session on Chemical Text Mining and Public Molecular Databases, which includes a presentation from Tony Williams on "Building an integrated system for chemistry markup and online publishing integrated to online chemistry resources".
Also on Sunday 16 August there is a session on Copyright and Author Rights, including a presentation from Steven Bachrach on "Implementing an open access policy at Trinity University".
And, on Monday 17 August and Wednesday 19 August there is a session Federated Search: Beyond Traditional A&I Services, which includes a presentation by Josef Eiblmaier entitled "Federated search in commercial and non-commercial structure and reaction databases: A flexible approach".
Posted by Jan Kuras at 16:34 Comments (0)
1st Impact Factor for Chemistry Central Journal
The latest edition of Thomson Reuter's Journal Citation Reports has just been released, with the 1st official Impact Factor of 0.82 for Chemistry Central Journal.
We appreciate that the Impact Factor is by no means a perfect quality metric, but journal citation data is important for the growing success of Chemistry Central Journal and the open access journal portfolio of Chemistry Central.
There is also an improved Impact Factor of 2.13 for Geochemical Transactions, the society-affiliated journal published by BioMed Central.
Across the whole BioMed Central journal portfolio there are 12 new Impact Factors, bringing the total to 58. Like-for-like journal Impact Factors are up from an average (arithmetic mean) of 2.83 last year to an average (arithmetic mean) of 3.00 this year.
We thank you for your ongoing support of Chemistry Central through submission of papers to our journals and help with peer review of papers. We strongly encourage you to submit your manuscripts to our journals, and to spread the word about Open Access publishing and Chemistry Central Journal's 1st Impact Factor amongst your colleagues.
Posted by Jan Kuras at 11:20 Comments (0)
Centre for Systems Chemistry, University of Groningen
The Opening Symposium for the Centre for Systems Chemistry at the University of Groningen, Netherlands takes place 28-29 April 2009.
An engaging and informative programme includes the following Plenary Lectures:
Bert Meijer, Technical University Eindhoven, the Netherlands: How to control supramolecular polymerization processes.
Stefan Matile, University of Geneva, Switzerland: Synthetic photosystems, soft and smart.
Günter von Kiedrowski, Ruhr University of Bochum, Germany: Systems chemistry, chemical self-replication and multicomponent assembly.
Alan Rowan, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands: Catalysis; Dynamics and Motion.
Other speakers include: Ben Feringa, University of Groningen; Douglas Philp, University of St Andrews, UK; Sijbren Otto, University of Groningen; Gonen Ashkenasy, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel; and Piet Herdewijn, University of Leuven, Belgium.
Chemistry Central is honoured that the announcement of the European launch of the Journal of Systems Chemistry will take place during the symposium. Several members of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Systems Chemistry will be speaking at and attending the symposium.
We are pleased to be involved in this emergent, rapidly growing field that is already generating much interest; as highlighted by the launch of the COST action on Systems Chemistry and by the creation of the Centre for Systems Chemistry at Groningen University.
The new journal will complement existing journals, providing a platform for papers that are special by virtue of the nature of research in Systems Chemistry, e.g. descriptions of new phenomena observed (rigorously!) in complex systems that do not yet have a detailed explanation; papers describing new methodologies for the study and analysis of complex chemical systems; and papers dealing with the re-interpretation of existing data.
We look forward to an interesting symposium, and to a successful new journal.
Posted by Jan Kuras at 18:45 Comments (0)
Chemistry Central, along with our colleagues at BioMed Central and PhysMath Central, are moving to new offices on Friday 20 March 2009.
Our new contact details will be:-
Chemistry Central Ltd
236, Gray's Inn Road
London WC1X 8HL, UK
+44 20 3192 2000 (switchboard)
+44 20 3192 2013 (customer services)
+44 20 3192 2011 (fax)
Please update your records accordingly.
Posted by Jan Kuras at 13:41 Comments (0)
Journal of Systems Chemistry accepting submissions
Journal of Systems Chemistry is the new peer-reviewed open access journal from Chemistry Central covering all aspects of systems chemistry, including (but not limited to):-
- experimental and theoretical studies of complex molecular networks and emergent phenomena
- catalytic and autocatalytic systems; self-replicating and self-reproducing chemical systems; dynamic combinatorial chemistry
- bottom up approaches to synthetic biology and chemical evolution
- research on chemical self-organization inspired by the problems of the origin and synthesis of life
- research from the conjunction of supramolecular, prebiotic and biomimetic chemistry, theoretical biology, complex systems physics, and earth, planetary and space sciences with a center in chemistry
The Editors-in-Chief are: Günter von Kiedrowski (Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany), Sijbren Otto (University of Groningen, Netherlands), and Piet Herdewijn (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium); supported by a prestigious international Editorial Board.
In recognition that Systems Chemistry is an emerging field, we are inviting submission of a range of articles. As well as Research papers presenting primary research within systems chemistry, authors can also contribute:-
- Commentary articles: short, focused and opinionated usually related to a contemporary issue, or to highlight hot or emerging areas of research
- Perspectives: to focus attention on important issues - to provoke discussion either by the phrasing of new hypotheses, alternative interpretations of existing work, or by the presentation of new proposals for tackling existing problems
- Review articles: summaries of recent insights in specific research areas within the scope of Systems Chemistry
- Preliminary communications: for brief reports of findings
- Methodology articles: presenting a new experimental method, test or procedure
- Database and Software articles
- Book reviews and Meeting reports
More details are available at the Journal of Systems Chemistry About section and Instructions for Authors.
Your contributions are invited. Also, please let your colleagues working in this exciting, emerging field know about our new journal.
Posted by Jan Kuras at 11:35 Comments (0)
Journal of Cheminformatics publishes launch articles
We are delighted to announce that Journal of Cheminformatics has published its first articles. Journal of Cheminformatics is the new open access journal from Chemistry Central publishing peer-reviewed research in all aspects of cheminformatics and molecular modelling. It is run by Editors-in-Chief Christoph Steinbeck (European Bioinformatics Institute) and David J. Wild (Indiana University).
Amongst the launch articles is an insightful Editorial by David Wild on Grand challenges for cheminformatics, and a thought-provoking Commentary by Steven Bachrach on Chemistry publication - making the revolution. Also, Antony Williams and colleagues present their work on Computer-assisted methods for molecular structure elucidation.
Please share this information with your colleagues working in the field of chemical information who may be interested reading and publishing in this new journal.
Posted by Jan Kuras at 10:36 Comments (0)
Chemistry Central at the ACS Meeting
Chemistry Central is attending the forthcoming American Chemical Society Meeting, 22-26 March 2009 in Salt Lake City, USA. You can meet representatives from Chemistry Central at Booth #707 in the Exhibition Hall.
Come along to Booth #707 to hear more about the latest developments at Chemistry Central, including the exciting launch of Journal of Cheminformatics, a new open access journal devoted to the dissemination of new and original knowledge in all branches of cheminformatics and molecular modelling.
You can also pick up one of our fantastic mystery giveaways and be entered into a free prize draw to win an 8GB MP4 Watch Player with 1.5 inch LCD screen.
If you are attending and there is a specific topic you would like to discuss, and have a particular time in mind, please let me know and we can arrange a meeting.
We look forward to seeing you in Salt Lake City!
Posted by Jan Kuras at 18:18 Comments (0)
ChemSpider Journal of Chemistry
Tony Williams at ChemZoo Inc. has announced the launch of ChemSpider Journal of Chemistry with the publication of 8 articles. It is intended that the journal demonstrates how web technologies can be used to enhance the information that can be communicated using web-based tools over standard online publishing approaches.
The plan is to host chemistry-related materials including synthesis, analytical chemistry, solid-state chemistry, chemical biology, cheminformatics, and molecular modeling, and publish original research, review articles, commentaries, methodologies, blog pages, and book and software reviews. All papers published in ChemSpider Journal of Chemistry will be made freely accessible online immediately upon publication; and will use a mixed review process of peer and public review.
The launch issue includes articles marked-up using ChemMantis technology from ChemZoo. The articles were sourced, with permission, from two Open Access journals - Chemistry Central Journal and MDPI’s Molbank.
The articles sourced from Chemistry Central Journal are: Isolation, purification, and full NMR assignments of cyclopamine from Veratrum californicum by Cooper et al. and Solvent effect on the spectral properties of Neutral Red by Rauf et al.
Posted by Jan Kuras at 15:31 Comments (0)
Meet Chemistry Central in 2009
Last year was very productive for us in increasing awareness of open access publishing and Chemistry Central amongst the research community.
One of our most successful means of communicating about open access publishing and Chemistry Central is at conferences and meetings.
In 2009, Chemistry Central will be attending the Spring and Fall American Chemical Society National Meetings and the IUPAC Chemistry Congress, as well as several smaller meetings.
This provides a fantastic opportunity to meet you and speak with you about what we’re doing. We look forward to seeing you there!
Also, if you are organising a conference or meeting – in particular a focussed themed meeting – please let me know. We can send promotional materials for distribution and display, and consider attending and exhibiting.
Posted by Jan Kuras at 16:59 Comments (0)
Festive greetings from Chemistry Central!
Here's wishing you all a very Merry Christmas, and all the best for the New Year!
Thank you for your continued interest and support in 2008. We hope that 2009 brings you much success.
Posted by Jan Kuras at 12:01 Comments (0)
Journal of Cheminformatics now accepting submissions
I am delighted to announce that the Journal of Cheminformatics is now accepting submissions.
The Journal of Cheminformatics is a new peer-reviewed open access journal devoted to the dissemination of new and original knowledge in all branches of cheminformatics and molecular modelling including:
- chemical information systems, software and databases, and molecular modelling
- chemical structure representations and their use in structure, substructure, and similarity searching of chemical substance and chemical reaction databases
- computer and molecular graphics, computer-aided molecular design, expert systems, QSAR, and data mining techniques
The Journal of Cheminformatics is an independent open access journal published by Chemistry Central. The Editors-in-Chief for the journal are: Christoph Steinbeck, Head of Cheminformatics and Metabolism at the European Bioinformatics Institute, and David J. Wild, Assistant Professor of Informatics at the Indiana University School of Informatics. Editorial control for the journal will lie with the Editors-in-Chief and Editorial Board, whilst Chemistry Central will provide in-house administrative and operational support.
The Journal of Cheminformatics will publish high quality peer-reviewed research of specific interest to the cheminformatics community. As well as providing open access to published articles, the journal will strive to respond to emerging electronic technologies to enhance the display of scientific data.
The new journal will benefit the scientific community by providing a valuable forum for the dissemination of research in cheminformatics. The multi-disciplinary nature of cheminformatics research makes the benefits of open access particularly attractive, as it ensures that scientists working on different aspects will all have shared access to the latest research.
I encourage you to spread the news of the Journal of Cheminformatics to your colleagues, and to submit your cheminformatics research to our new journal.
Posted by Jan Kuras at 17:28 Comments (0)