beyond borders, beyond reviews

Beyond Borders, Beyond Reviews

Beyond Borders

The year 2012 in The Chemical Record has in many ways beendedicated to journeys: Not only the remarkable journey ofProf. Tetsuo Nozoe that has recently been brought to thecommunity in the form of his famous autograph books, butalso the publishing ventures that have been developed in thisjournal.

Here at the start of its 13th volume, The Chemical Recordhas come a long way. It started in 2001 as a “personal highlights”journal that represented a conglomeration of disciplines servedby seven, and later eight, chemical societies in Japan. The maincontent was review articles that were told from a personal pointof view, in the same vein as a perspective or account article. Thejournal was already quite distinctive—it was not only a majorchemistry review journal based in East Asia, but its articlescompellingly explored both the successes and the failures thatled to research breakthroughs. The journal’s personalized char-acter was further enhanced by the overwhelming individualcommitment of founding Editor-in-Chief Teruaki Mukaiyamaand his successor Koji Nakanishi, who together with the jour-nal’s Executive Editors and Board members actively engagedauthors to participate in a special forum.

In 2009, The Chemical Record became part of Wiley-VCH, and many exciting changes immediately started to takeshape. Publication under the same roof as Angewandte Chemieand Chemistry-An Asian Journal not only helped to increase theinternational visibility of The Chemical Record but also placed itwithin a publishing environment that draws on extensive edi-torial experience. Furthermore, the Chemical Society of Japan,which was one of the journal’s founding societies and alwayscarried a leadership role, formalized its collaboration withWiley-VCH to showcase The Chemical Record as one of its topinternational journals. Together with the new Editor-in-Chieffrom 2010, Prof. Hisashi Yamamoto, the journal took a greaterposition on the international stage.

Just after these developments took shape, the readership ofThe Chemical Record grew immediately worldwide. The onlineusage, measured in the number of full-text downloads, morethan doubled within three years, climbing by 116% during theperiod from 2009 to 2012. The readership of The Chemical

Record has become international in every sense, with about15% of readers coming from Japan and about 85% well dis-tributed over Europe, North America, Australia, and the rest ofAsia. The strongest contribution in readership comes from theUSA. At the same time, the authorship has also become moreinternational. While The Chemical Record has its roots in Japan,it had always had a strong international contingent, with about20-30 % of authors coming from outside Japan. In 2012, theproportion of articles coming from outside Japan grew sharplyto 79 % (24 % from North America, 34 % from Europe, 21%from rest of Asia and Australia). This diversity is exemplified inthe list of most-accessed articles from 2012 (Table 1), with topcontributions from both Japan and abroad. In addition, anewly established article series features international authors:the Nagoya Gold Medal series, which is introduced in a recentEditorial by Ryoji Noyori.[1] So far, Nagoya Gold Medal award-ees Steven Ley, Manfred Reetz, and K. C. Nicolaou have con-tributed to this series (Topical Cluster, Issue 4/2012), and thenext article, contributed by Henri Kagan, has already beenaccepted.

The dedication and joint efforts of the Board members,the Chemical Society and Japan, and the publisher have helpedstrike a balance in increasing the international scope for TheChemical Record while maintaining its identity as a journalbased in Japan. Since 2011, an active Editorial Board that islocated predominantly in Japan has been in place. Its membersnot only act as ambassadors of the journal but also take anactive role in identifying potential authors for The ChemicalRecord who are pushing the boundaries in their research fields.The nine members of the Editorial Board—Shigeru Amemiya,Masayuki Inoue, Keiji Maruoka, Noritaka Mizuno, ShigeruNagase, Hiroshi Sugiyama, Yasuhiro Uozumi, Eiji Yashima,and Jun-ichi Yoshida—have continually excelled in this presti-gious role, and we thank them for all their efforts.

Beyond Reviews

The main articles in The Chemical Record are now officiallyknown as Personal Accounts, a category which reflects thelong-running “personalized highlights”, or personalized review

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10 www.tcr.wiley-vch.de The Chemical Record, Vol. 13, 10–13 (2013) © 2013 The Chemical Society of Japan and Wiley-VCH, Weinheim

DOI: 10.1002/tcr.201310001

articles, in the journal. Moreover, a new article type has beenintroduced as part of a special feature within The ChemicalRecord, namely Record Review articles, which serve as a scien-tific peer-reviewed forum for the presentation of world recordsin chemistry.

Covering world records in chemistry carries severalinteresting considerations. The book World Records in Chemis-try (Ed.: H.-J. Quadbeck-Seeger; Wiley-VCH, 1999) laid aterrific foundation, not only in eloquently describing knownworld records in chemistry, but also in classifying records bysubject and tactfully handling cases where several possible“record candidates” exist. Many claims of world records,ranging in scope from extremely broad all the way to veryspecific for individual system classes, appear in the chemicalliterature every week. Record Review articles are written byscientists in the field who are in the best position to summarizeclaimed world records, put these into context, and commenton their importance or even propose new targets. These articlesare peer-reviewed and make up a growing forum for readers tocontemplate what limits currently exist in research and whatthe next challenges are. Some strong examples of Record

Review articles are listed in Table 2. The Record Review articleby Wei Zhou (NIST Center for Neutron Research, and Univ.Maryland) on record methane storage capacities in metal-organic frameworks has been one of the most widely readand highly cited articles in The Chemical Record over the pastthree years.

Record Review articles are part of the wider section of TheChemical Record called “Records and Challenges”. The impor-tance of including the “Challenges” aspect was apparent earlyon. After all, reporting existing records is just the first step andpresents an opportunity to define what the future of researchcould or should hold. We welcome authors of Record Reviewarticles to go beyond existing data and comment on what’s tocome or which targets deserve specific attention by chemicalresearch. As inspiration toward this line of thinking, an onlinearchive has been established in The Chemical Record for report-ing world records that have been claimed in the literature. Thislist is not meant as an official acknowledgement or seal ofapproval for any claim as being a definitive record, but serves asa starting point for inspiration, discussion, and hopefullynew achievements. This archive, aptly named the “Record of

Table 1. Most-downloaded articles of The Chemical Record in 2012.

Authors (origin) Title Reference Link

M. Haruta (Japan) When Gold Is Not Noble: Catalysis byNanoparticles

2003, 3, 75 http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/tcr.10053

M. Pumera (Japan, nowSingapore)

Electrochemistry of Graphene: New Horizonsfor Sensing and Energy Storage


Y. Sasaki, K. Akiyoshi(Japan)

Nanogel Engineering for NewNanobiomaterials: from ChaperoningEngineering to Biomedical Applications


W. Zhou (USA) Methane Storage in Porous Metal-OrganicFrameworks: Current Records and FuturePerspectives


L. Kavan (Czech Republic) Electrochemistry of Titanium Dioxide: SomeAspects and Highlights


C. G. Claessens, U. Hahn,T. Torres (Spain)

Phthalocyanines: From Outstanding ElectronicProperties to Emerging Applications


K. M. Weiß, S. B.Tsogoeva (Germany)

Enantioselective Epoxidation ofElectron-Deficient Olefins: An OrganocatalyticApproach


J. W. W. Chang, T. M. U.Ton, P. W. H. Chan,(Singapore)

Transition-Metal-Catalyzed Aminations andAziridinations of C-H and C=C Bonds withIminoiodinanes


J. J. Gooding, N. Darwish(Australia)

The Rise of Self-Assembled Monolayers forFabricating Electrochemical Biosensors—AnInterfacial Perspective


J. F. Rusling, (USA) Nanomaterials-Based ElectrochemicalImmunosensors for Proteins


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Records” (archive of world records), presents selected claims ofrecords in the literature that have the broadest possible scope.The list has grown to well over 100 entries and is structured bysubject category. The Record of Records is available online forfree at www.tcr.wiley-vch.de/records, and we welcome readersto report to us any published records to be considered forthe list.

In 2012, an absolute highlight was launched in The ChemicalRecord: The Nozoe Autograph Books. Professor Tetsuo Nozoe(1902-1996), an eminent organic chemist and a pioneer ofnonbenzenoid aromatic chemistry, set out in 1953 on a seriesof trips around the world. This was at a time when Japanesechemists were not widely known to travel abroad, and Prof.Nozoe, already in his fifties, had never been to the West before.He took along a blank autograph book and asked his hosts tosign it during each of his visits to institutes. This practicebecame Prof. Nozoe’s passion and it resulted, over a period of

41 years, in a collection of around 4000 autographs fromchemists and many of their students and families. This collec-tion is a treasure chest of chemistry drawings, sentiments, andeven poems, including autographs of at least 34 Nobel Prizelaureates. The entire set of Prof. Nozoe’s autograph books, atotal of 1179 pages, is being published in The Chemical Recordunder the title “Bonding beyond Borders” in roughly 80-pagesegments over 15 consecutive issues. The current issue containsthe third published segment in the series.

The Bonding beyond Borders project, however, goes beyondsimple reproduction of the books and even beyond the con-ventional modes of publishing. A series of 15 Essays accompa-nies publication of the autograph books, and a wiki-typewebsite has been designed to allow readers to interact with thebooks. We are delighted to have Dr. Jeffrey I. Seeman of theUniversity of Richmond serving as Guest Editor of the entire

Table 2. Most-accessed Record Review articles published in The Chemical Record since 2010.

Authors (origin) Title Reference Link

W. Zhou (USA) Methane Storage in Porous Metal-OrganicFrameworks: Current Records and FuturePerspectives


S. Sanchez, A. A. Solovev, S.M. Harazim, C. Deneke, Y. F.Mei, O. G. Schmidt(Germany)

The Smallest Man-Made Jet Engine 2011, 11, 367 http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/tcr.201100010

M. Kita, D. Uemura (Japan) Marine Huge Molecules: the Longest CarbonChains in Natural Products


W. Gao, S. Sattayasamitsathit,J. Wang (USA)

Catalytically Propelled Micro-/Nanomotors:How Fast Can They Move?


N. Arai,T. Ohkuma (Japan) Design of Molecular Catalysts for Achievementof High Turnover Number in HomogeneousHydrogenation


www.tcr.wiley-vch.de/records

www.tcr.wiley-vch.de/nozoe

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project. As a highly dedicated chemical historian (see detailedbiography in Ref. [2]), Jeff has brought to the project a deepknowledge of the context of Prof. Nozoe’s travels and interac-tions. His introductory Essay, published in Issue 5/2012 of TheChemical Record,[2] gives a description of the Nozoe AutographBooks and explains the conception of the Bonding beyondBorders project and the wiki-type website. The speciallydesigned website is an innovation in scientific publishing: Itprovides a browseable format for readers to “thumb through”the autograph books on screen, and contains an index of namesand locations that appear in the autograph books. Readers areencouraged to browse the books, discover the many names andpersonalities, and enter their findings and any comments intothe growing signature index. The wiki-type site and centrallanding page of the Bonding beyond Borders project are foundat: www.tcr.wiley-vch.de/nozoe.

TCR Lecture 2013

Prof. Andrew Holmes(University of Melbourne)

Conjugated Organic Materials forLight Emission and Light Harvesting2013 CSJ Annual MeetingMarch 23, 2013, 3:30-4:20 pmRitsumeikan University,Biwako-Kusatsu CampusCo-Learning House I C103

We have many further highlights to look forward to in 2013,not least of which is the upcoming The Chemical RecordLecture (TCR Lecture). We are pleased to announce that Prof.Andrew Holmes, University of Melbourne, will be giving theTCR Lecture as part of the Annual Meeting of the ChemicalSociety of Japan on March 23, 2013. Prof. Holmes’ lecture

continues a rich tradition of TCR Lecturers that have in thepast included Gerhard Ertl, Yuan T. Lee, Reinhard Hoffmann,Bruno Scrosati, as well as last year’s TCR Lecturer Bert Meijer,just to name a few. The full details of Prof. Holmes upcomingTCR Lecture are shown above.

For all who will be attending the Annual Meeting of theChemical Society of Japan, we’ll look forward to seeing you atthe TCR Lecture. We also hope you enjoy the projects that aredescribed above, and we look forward to your feedback.

All the best for a fruitful 2013!

Brian JohnsonManaging Editor

REFERENCES

[1] R. Noyori, Chem. Rec. 2012, 12, 375.[2] J. I. Seeman, Chem. Rec. 2012, 12, 517.

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beyond borders, beyond reviews

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