Category Archives: oa.chemistry

Internationalization of the Moroccan Journal of Chemistry: A bibliometric study: Heliyon

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Abstract:  In this research paper, we analyzed the bibliographic data of the research publications issued by the Moroccan Journal of Chemistry between 2013 and 2021. As an open-access country-based research journal with a narrow area of interest and international online exposure, it will be interesting to see how it affects the local chemical research community through the comparison of the characteristics of the research outputs of the journal as retrieved from the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) with the features of Moroccan chemical research from 2014 to 2021 in the Web of Science Core Collection (WoS). In this context, we generated scientometric networks using Gephi, a tool for large-scale data visualization, to reveal the patterns of the publications in the Moroccan Journal of Chemistry. When performing our analysis, we found a significant alignment between the research topics featured in the Moroccan Journal of Chemistry and the main research areas of the Moroccan chemical scholarly outputs, particularly Multidisciplinary Chemistry, Physical Chemistry, and Analytical Chemistry. We also identified that the Moroccan Journal of Chemistry functions as an incubator for establishing new traditions of research collaboration between Moroccan institutions and target nations such as Asian and African countries. As well, it is clear that the Moroccan Journal of Chemistry is an interesting venue for the most productive chemical researchers in Morocco for sharing preliminary research findings and discussing trendy topics.

 

Frontiers | Opening Up of Editorial Activities at Chemistry Journals. What Does Editorship Mean and What Does It Involve?

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Abstract:  The article unpacks the publishing practices and focuses on the curating work carried out by the editors of chemistry journals. Based on a qualitative analysis of multiple sources in two publishing houses (the American Chemical Society, ACS and Nature Research), it first shows that the role of editor-in-chief covers a wide range of realities and is far from being limited to that of a gatekeeper (the most common metaphor in the literature). In journals that are part of the Nature Research portfolio, in-house editors, who are no longer active scientists, work full time for the journals. The article describes the professional trajectories and skills required to join the publishing house. Interviews highlight collective identity-based actions, attention to the growth and the flow of manuscripts, but also specific epistemic properties of outputs in chemistry. Besides tasks that editors outline “as really the same as they were 100 years ago,” as they spend most of their time handling manuscripts and providing quality assurance, they also travel to conferences to support journals and encourage submissions, visit labs where researchers pitch their work or ask questions about journals, and “educate the actors themselves” about new fields. In both cases studied, the publishing houses partner with institutions to offer events (ACS on Campus programme, Nature masterclass) that a university or department can freely host or buy, where editors organize workshops on all aspects of manuscript preparation. Second, publishing houses, whether non-for-profit or commercial, have embraced a catalog logic, where the journals are not necessarily in competition and have an assumed place and hierarchy. At Nature Research, editors-in-chief head business units inscribed in the company’s organization. Despite standardized processes imposed by the procedural chain, there is still room to maneuver in these relatively autonomous structures that are ultimately evaluated on their results (the annual production of a certain number of high-quality papers). On the other hand, ACS is seen as a vessel whose course cannot easily be deviated. The conclusion calls for extending this type of investigation to other contexts or types of journals.

 

Innovative new open access agreement signed between PALCI and ACS Publications – PALCI

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“PALCI (Partnership for Academic Library Collaboration and Innovation) and ACS Publications are excited to announce the signing of a new open access agreement that provides participating members with full financial support for open access publication in all ACS journals, as well as complete access to ACS Publications’ journal content through the end of 2025.

Building on previous agreements with individual members of the consortium, this new agreement is one of the first to employ a new approach that leverages the strengths of various institutions to enable full open access publishing and subscription access for participating members. This enables open access publication support for authors while maintaining – and, in some cases, expanding – access to current and historical subscription content from ACS’ full range of journals….”

Community survey – Diamond Open Access Journal in Geochemistry

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“Community survey – Diamond Open Access Journal in Geochemistry

Personal information collected will only be used to help guide the formation the initial workgroup. It will then be deleted once the initial workgroup is formed. All other data will be anonymised and used to create the initial design of the journal. …”

New Guidelines for Presenting Electrochemical Data in All ACS Journals | ACS Measurement Science Au

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“Electrochemistry has become a cornerstone in many facets of modern chemistry research. The past few years have witnessed the rapid growth of research areas that employ electrochemical principles and methods, including batteries, supercapacitors, solar cells, fuel cells, electrolyzers, carbon dioxide reduction, nitrogen reduction, and organic electrosynthesis, to just name a few. As such, there has been an expansion in the number of papers reporting electrochemical testing and characterization. Publications reporting electrochemistry-related experiments have become prevalent in many ACS journals including, but not limited to, ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, ACS Catalysis, ACS Energy Letters, ACS Measurement Science Au, ACS Organic & Inorganic Au, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Organic Letters, The Journal of Organic Chemistry, and The Journal of Physical Chemistry. There have been a variety of guidelines and checklists developed for some of the experimental protocols required for characterizing specific technologies (e.g., rotating ring disk electrochemistry measurements for oxygen reduction electrocatalysis and isotope experiments for nitrogen reduction to ammonia testing). However, no guidelines are available for the presentation of characterization data from general electrochemical measurements. This lack of standardization has resulted in papers being published with insufficient details for readers to reliably replicate the experiments. To outline best practices, we have developed a set of guidelines for reporting electrochemical experimentation and characterization in ACS journals. These guidelines, similar to the existing ACS guidelines for reporting NMR data and X-ray crystallography data for chemical compound and materials characterization, can be found on our ACS Research Data Guidelines website. (1) The guidelines for reporting electrochemical data are split into two sections: guidelines for reporting voltammetry and amperometry measurements, and guidelines for reporting bulk electrolysis procedures….”

ResearchGate and Royal Society of Chemistry announce partnership | STM Publishing News

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“ResearchGate, the professional network for researchers, and the Royal Society of Chemistry, a learned society founded 180 years ago – and whose mission includes providing opportunities and tools for the chemical science community to network, create and exchange knowledge, adapt and thrive – have today announced a partnership that will see all journals from the Royal Society of Chemistry’s open access portfolio benefit from an enhanced presence on ResearchGate through its new Journal Home offering.

As part of the Journal Home offering, all version-of-record content from the Royal Society of Chemistry’s eight newly launched open access journals will be syndicated directly to ResearchGate, dedicated journal profiles will be created and made accessible on the network, and each journal will be prominently represented on all of its associated article pages on ResearchGate. This enhanced presence will help to grow the readership of these journals – as measured via COUNTER-compliant reporting – as well as increase journal visibility and engagement among the highly relevant researcher audience that is active on ResearchGate.

Last year, the Royal Society of Chemistry announced its intention to transition to a wholly open access publisher within the next five years, and, given researchers specializing in chemistry represent one of the largest audiences on ResearchGate, both parties see a clear opportunity to accelerate growth in readership and submissions for the new open access journals included in the partnership.

Authors of the articles included in the partnership will see their content automatically added to their publication pages on ResearchGate, giving them access to statistics showing the impact of their work, and enabling them to connect with their readers. Additionally, researchers will be able to more easily learn about potential publishing opportunities across the Royal Society of Chemistry’s growing portfolio….”

The Superfund Research Program Analytics Portal: linking environmental chemical exposure to biological phenotypes | Scientific Data

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Abstract:  The OSU/PNNL Superfund Research Program (SRP) represents a longstanding collaboration to quantify Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) at various superfund sites in the Pacific Northwest and assess their potential impact on human health. To link the chemical measurements to biological activity, we describe the use of the zebrafish as a high-throughput developmental toxicity model that provides quantitative measurements of the exposure to chemicals. Toward this end, we have linked over 150 PAHs found at Superfund sites to the effect of these same chemicals in zebrafish, creating a rich dataset that links environmental exposure to biological response. To quantify this response, we have implemented a dose-response modelling pipeline to calculate benchmark dose parameters which enable potency comparison across over 500 chemicals and 12 of the phenotypes measured in zebrafish. We provide a rich dataset for download and analysis as well as a web portal that provides public access to this dataset via an interactive web site designed to support exploration and re-use of these data by the scientific community at http://srp.pnnl.gov.

 

Electrochemical Society powers ahead with open science – Physics World

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“In a bid to remove the cost barrier for more authors to make their work freely accessible, the society launched its forward-looking ECS Plus programme in 2016. This read-and-publish package not only provides institutions with full access to the ECS digital library, but also allows authors at those institutions to publish an unlimited number of open access articles in ECS journals for free. The uptake has been impressive, with more than 1000 research centres around the world now subscribing to the package….”

Royal Society of Chemistry and CzechElib consortium sign first unlimited Open Access agreement in the Czech Republic

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“The three-year agreement will provide CzechELib member institutions access to view and publish in the complete portfolio of Royal Society of Chemistry journals, both hybrid and gold OA, without any limits. As with all new transformative agreements of this type, it represents a move away from traditional subscription models, combining reading and open access publishing. Researchers at participating institutions can also benefit from fast publication times, a reduced financial and administrative burden when publishing, and a substantial boost to their own profiles as scientists.”

ACS Publications announces open access initiative for primarily undergraduate institutions – American Chemical Society

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“The Publications Division of the American Chemical Society (ACS) is pleased to announce that it is sponsoring open access publication for corresponding authors at qualifying primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs). “Overnight, this program makes it possible for researchers at 114 institutions to publish their work in ACS journals, open access, at no additional cost to the researcher or the library,” says James Baldini, vice president of global sales, business operations and analytics at ACS Publications. “We are excited to generate awareness of this program so that authors at PUIs can immediately begin enjoying the benefits of sponsored open publication with ACS.” …

The program is available to any PUI that doesn’t offer graduate degrees in the sciences and that subscribes to the journal section of the ACS All Publications Package. This offer lasts the duration of the institution’s subscription, with no limit on the number of research articles that can be published open access during that time. Corresponding authors can opt in to open access when they sign their publishing agreement with ACS. Should each enrolled institution publish a modest number of articles as a result of this program, it will represent in excess of $1 million in ACS open access content….”

ACS inks ‘read and publish’ agreements with German consortia – American Chemical Society

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“The Publications Division of the American Chemical Society (ACS) proudly announces two new “read and publish” agreements with the Helmholtz and Niedersachsen consortia in Germany, effective January 2023. The agreements — ACS Publications’ first transformative agreements with German consortia in almost three years — offer researchers at 24 German institutions the opportunity to publish open research with one of the world’s most trusted publishers at no cost to the researcher, while also meeting funder requirements for open access. ACS invites researchers in this community to take full advantage of this agreement by submitting their next paper to the ACS journal of their choice. …”

Open and reusable annotated mass spectrometry dataset of a chemodiverse collection of 1,600 plant extracts | GigaScience | Oxford Academic

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Abstract:  As privileged structures, natural products often display potent biological activities. However, the discovery of novel bioactive scaffolds is often hampered by the chemical complexity of the biological matrices they are found in. Large natural extract collections are thus extremely valuable for their chemical novelty potential but also complicated to exploit in the frame of drug-discovery projects. In the end, it is the pure chemical substances that are desired for structural determination purposes and bioactivity evaluation. Researchers interested in the exploration of large and chemodiverse extract collections should thus establish strategies aiming to efficiently tackle such chemical complexity and access these structures. Establishing carefully crafted digital layers documenting the spectral and chemical complexity as well as bioactivity results of natural extracts collections can help prioritize time-consuming but mandatory isolation efforts. In this note, we report the results of our initial exploration of a collection of 1,600 plant extracts in the frame of a drug-discovery effort. After describing the taxonomic coverage of this collection, we present the results of its liquid chromatography high-resolution mass spectrometric profiling and the exploitation of these profiles using computational solutions. The resulting annotated mass spectral dataset and associated chemical and taxonomic metadata are made available to the community, and data reuse cases are proposed. We are currently continuing our exploration of this plant extract collection for drug-discovery purposes (notably looking for novel antitrypanosomatids, anti-infective and prometabolic compounds) and ecometabolomics insights. We believe that such a dataset can be exploited and reused by researchers interested in computational natural products exploration.

 

Swiss Chemical Society – Chemistry Europe Societies are Fully Committed to Open Access Publishing

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“In May 2022, representatives of the 16 chemical societies of Chemistry Europe made a bold statement as they elected ChemElectroChem to be the first title in their portfolio of 19 journals to transition from a reader-pays subscription model to an author-pays open access model.

Chemistry Europe is no stranger to open access publishing. Since launching the first fully open access, societyowned journal, ChemistryOpen, which published its first volume in 2012, Chemistry Europe has expanded theirportfolio to include Analytical Science Advances and Electrochemical Science Advances and launched Chemistry–Methods in 2021. In addition, Chemistry Europe recently announced it is launching a new gold open access journal, aptly called ChemistryEurope. The namesake fully open access journal will launch in 2023 and aims torepresent the core values of the association by publishing high-quality and high-impact articles across all areas of chemistry….”