JACS Virtual Issues

A major goal of the Journal of the American Chemical Society, the flagship scientific journal of the American Chemical Society, is to capture, in all areas of the chemical sciences and allied fields, cutting-edge, fundamental research of broad appeal to our very diverse, contemporary readership. Equally important is the wide dissemination of the results of this exciting research to the chemical and scientific community.

Communications and Articles of conceptual novelty, significance, originality, and high scientific quality are published in JACS weekly. However, as chemical research becomes both more complex within traditional sub-disciplines and more interdisciplinary at the interface of the biological, material, neuro-, and other sciences, it becomes ever more daunting to communicate the results to non-experts. Hence, a typical JACS reader is faced with an abundance of fascinating, high-quality research that may be difficult to fully appreciate.

Therefore, in order to both highlight and further explain topics of interest to a diverse audience, the Journal of the American Chemical Society is introducing the JACS Virtual Issue, thematic Web-based collections of the best of recently published JACS papers.

In May 2008, the inaugural JACS Virtual Issue (http://pubs.acs.org/JACSbeta/JVI/index.html) explores the Total Synthesis of Biologically Active Natural Products and features some recent JACS publications in this area. Future JACS Virtual Issues, approximately four per year, will seek to engage and educate the chemical community worldwide in topics from both traditional and emerging areas of chemistry.

Each JACS Virtual Issue will feature about 15−20 Communications/Articles. These will be selected by the Editors, with the guidance of reviewer input, particularly regarding their assessment of the novelty and significance of the work, as well as the number of Web page views. Each will also have an associated synopsis and graphic to highlight the significance and elegance of the work. Additionally a guest Editorial will frame the topic and selected papers. This content will be extensively distributed to a worldwide audience, showcased online and free to all interested scientists, until the release of the next Virtual Issue.

We hope that these Virtual Issues will provide both the practitioner and the wider scientific community with insights into the significance and excitement of contemporary chemical research. We welcome your comments and feedback on this new venture as well as suggestions for future topics.