A decade of Chemistry World

‘Magazine for a new world order’ was the title of the editorial of the January 2004 issue. ‘The challenges of the chemical sciences demand a new publication’, continued Phil Abrahams, the then Chemistry World publisher. It was a bold statement, but this was no ordinary editorial: it was the first of the newly launched Chemistry World.

The magazine was first published in January 2004 to replace Chemistry in Britain, the publication with the same general brief that ran from 1965. Chemistry in Britain was revamped with ‘a new title, to acknowledge the international nature of the subject; a new design, to help make the articles we print be both readable and attractive; and a modified approach to news gathering and feature writing that we believe will make the magazine more topical’. So, in 2014 we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the metamorphosis of Chemistry in Britain into Chemistry World. 

The new title has meant that we look beyond the UK and now report on developments in the chemical sciences worldwide. A team of six has become a team of nine and we continue to expand our group of specialist writers, which now includes journalists from all corners of the world, allowing us to reach audiences in countries such as India, China or Brazil.

The new design has meant that Chemistry World has received several accolades: Best new journal in 2004 from the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers and best monthly business and professional magazine 2006 at the Professional Publishers Association Magazine Awards. And we continue to invest in the design of magazine and website. 

The ‘modified approach to news gathering and feature writing’ has meant that we’ve continued to adapt and learn. We aim to offer a comprehensive review of the latest news and cutting edge research published in the chemical sciences. We have embraced some of the technological developments of recent times. For example, we can boast a social media reach of more than 325,000 followers on Facebook and Twitter alone. We have also successfully introduced multimedia content and created digital products such as webinars, podcasts, apps, etc.

As Abrahams said in his editorial ‘Chemical science has never been more central to society’. That was true then and it is true now, and Chemistry World is at the forefront of it.

Out with the old… 

Totally Synthetic is being replaced with a new column following Paul Docherty’s departure to pastures new. The team and I would like to thank him for five years of work and support. In its place, we have commissioned a new column called Organic matter with three different contributing authors on rotation. The first one is by Karl Collins, a postdoc from the University of Münster, Germany. He will be writing about methodology, looking for game-changing methods that are robust enough to stand up to widespread use. Then BRSM will be taking in total synthesis, with similar criteria to Docherty, but will obviously imprint his own style. And finally Chemjobber will be writing about process chemistry in a similar vein to the Process Wednesdays feature on his blog. 

Best wishes for 2014!