Chemistry Central Journal evolves to BMC Chemistry

We are delighted to announce that Chemistry Central Journal, a journal that has served the chemistry community as a trusted resource for more than 10 years, will be renamed to BMC Chemistry in January 2019 and join the BMC series, as its first chemistry title! Editor Samuel Winthrop talks more about this exciting initiative.

I am pleased to announce that as of January 2019, Chemistry Central Journal, an Open Access (OA) broad scope journal, publishing across all areas of chemistry, will be renamed to BMC Chemistry and will start publishing its first content immediately.

We are excited to welcome this journal in the BMC series family and can’t wait to work alongside Editors, authors and readers of this historic journal and the important community that it serves. BMC Chemistry will further strengthen the BMC series footprint in the physical sciences by publishing quality articles and by pushing the boundaries of open chemistry.

A brief history of Chemistry Central Journal

Chemistry Central Journal launched in 2007, as the flagship of BMC’s spin-off imprint, Chemistry Central. This was at a formative era for OA publishing and Chemistry Central Journal was a true pioneer in open chemistry; not just as a broad-scope Gold OA chemistry journal, but as a journal that kept open science close to its core mission – by experimenting with better ways of publishing NMR spectra for example, or by looking at virtual environments and social networking for chemistry education.

Over its first decade, Chemistry Central Journal published over a thousand fully OA papers, and in 2017 alone, papers published in the journal were accessed more than half a million times.

The scholarly publishing world has changed a lot since 2007. There are many more journals, many more ways to publish papers, data and research, and whilst there is still a lot to do, OA continues to grow even outside of the disciplines where it first found a home. Chemistry Central Journal is published by Springer Nature, as part of the BMC brand of OA journals, and is leading the expansion of BMC into the physical sciences.

In order to remain a true pioneer of open science, the journal must continuously evolve, listening to the researchers, authors, reviewers and editors that form its backbone.

That is why we are excited to see the next step on this remarkable journal’s story, and to announce its evolution as BMC Chemistry.

The future as BMC Chemistry

For chemistry in general, 2019 is set to be an exciting year. It will be celebrated as the International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements (IYPT 2019). This marks 150 years since 1869, the year of discovery of the Periodic System by Dimitri Mendeleev. At the same time, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), the globally-recognized authority on chemical nomenclature and terminology, will celebrate its 100th anniversary on July 28, 2019.

We see no better time for the journal to re-introduce itself to the chemistry and open science community as BMC Chemistry.

Its new home, the BMC series, is a collection of high-quality, peer-reviewed journals covering all scientific and clinical disciplines, focusing on the needs of the research communities which they serve. It will share the BMC series ethos of presenting quality research to the community, with an emphasis on transparency and openness in both publishing and science. As such, BMC Chemistry will be well placed to continue its mission into the next decade and beyond – as a true pioneer of open chemistry.

BMC Chemistry aspires to contribute towards Springer Nature’s Grand Challenge Programme with a focus on sustainability, climate change and food-energy-water nexus by facilitating research across a wide range of chemistry disciplines!

It will join other successful recent launches like BMC Energy and BMC Chemical Engineering (and more!) in creating an exciting blend of communities that will champion open access research and innovation by continuously seeking how to better serve our research communities. It aspires to contribute towards Springer Nature’s Grand Challenge Programme with a focus on sustainability, climate change and food-energy-water nexus by facilitating research across a wide range of chemistry disciplines!

On a technical level, the journal’s history will continue in its refreshed form as BMC Chemistry. The journal’s rigorous peer-review and complete publication history will remain part of the journal – all previous papers will remain part of the journal and continue to be permanently and freely available to all. The journal will continue to be indexed as normal in Scopus, SCIE, PubMed and others. The journal’s impact factor will continue, but will transition over a three-year period to the new title. See a list of FAQs for more information.

Sections and editorial board

To cover the wide array of scientific principles and applications, the scope of BMC Chemistry will remain broad and cover all of chemistry. It will be divided into nine refreshed sections that have been revised by our editorial board and led by nine esteemed Section Editors:

  • Analytical Chemistry
  • Organic Chemistry
  • Environmental and Energy Chemistry
  • Agricultural and Food Chemistry
  • Inorganic Chemistry
  • Medicinal Chemistry
  • Physical Chemistry
  • Macromolecular and Materials Chemistry
  • Green and Sustainable Chemistry

The journal is supported by an international Editorial Advisory Board of senior scientists and researchers that is chaired by Professor R. Stephen Berry, one of the founders and current Editor-in-Chief for Chemistry Central Journal, who is a highly respected thought leader in chemistry from the University of Chicago.

We are accepting applications from exceptional researchers, irrespective of their location or affiliation, to join our board and support us in pushing the boundaries of open chemistry.

As part of our continuous efforts to be open and inclusive we are excited to announce that we are accepting applications from exceptional researchers, irrespective of their location or affiliation, to join our board and support us in pushing the boundaries of open chemistry.

We would like to invite you to submit your research to the journal and be part of this unique community. The journal will publish its first articles in January 2019, so stay tuned for more updates and blogs!

If you would like to know more about the journal or have any pre-submission queries, feel free to read our recently posted FAQs or email me at samuel.winthrop@springer.com. The journal will be present at ACS Spring (31 March-4 April, Orlando, Florida) to celebrate our re-launch! If you are attending, feel free to reach out – I’d be delighted to meet you.

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