1. Clear focus. There is a clear focus on the development of chemical reactions and processes that are economical, safe, environmentally benign, and resource- and energy-saving. Despite the high level of sophistication of chemical research, we are still at the very beginning in meeting this challenge. ASC reaffirms the commitment of chemistry to play a central role in the sustainable development of global society. Homogeneous catalysis and biocatalysis have at last found a worthy home in ASC, but all areas contributing to the achievement of synthetic efficiency are included. The focus of ASC encompasses some of the hottest topics of current chemical research, such as catalytic hydrogenation, catalytic oxidation, catalysis in water, olefin metathesis, C-H activation, C-Cl activation (including aryl halides), C-C coupling, C-X coupling, organocatalysis, directed evolution, heterogeneous catalysis, biphasic catalysis, catalyst immobilization, ionic liquids, supercritical phases, high throughput screening, etc.

2. Commitment of international leaders. Meeting the challenges facing chemistry in the new millennium requires the highest level of scientific creativity: truly first-class research devoted to the solution of practical chemical problems. The members of the Editorial Board, Ryoji Noyori (Chairman), Stephen L. Buchwald, Mark J. Burk, Eric N. Jacobsen, Shū Kobayashi, Andreas Pfaltz, and Chi-Huey Wong, as well as the members of the Industrial and the Academic Advisory Boards are top chemists worldwide, who have demonstrated a commitment to the goals of the journal in their own work. Ryoji Noyori, the chairman of the Editorial Board and 2001 Nobel Prize laureate, was instrumental in fine-tuning the focus and goals of ASC. His inaugural editorial commentary, published in the first issue of ASC (Adv. Synth. Catal. 2001, 343, 1), is still very timely (also available for free on the ASC website.

3. Significant industrial participation at the international level. Until now, the highly cited core journals in chemistry have recognized scientific creativity as the principal or only criterion for acceptance. ASC recognizes scientific creativity with practical consequences, which is more in line with Nobel Prize criteria. This has been very well received by the industrial community. Indeed, the input and commitment of the ASC Industrial Advisory Board has been crucial to the success of the journal. Likewise, academic researchers recognize in ASC a medium to report their best scientific work with practical potential to a readership which includes highly interested industrial researchers.

4. Integration of previously diverse fields and groups. Work in industry is necessarily interdisciplinary—this has not been the case in traditional academic research. Each of the different groups, who are making significant contributions to synthetic efficiency and environmentally benign processes, has their own discipline and their own specialist journals: organic chemists, catalysis chemists, organometallic chemists, inorganic chemists, polymer chemists, biochemists, biotechnologists, process chemists, and chemical engineers. ASC brings these groups together in a high-profile journal that unites their efforts.

5. Thematic issues. The ASC thematic issues have received considerable attention and rightfully so. Edited by renowned leaders, they present a timely coverage of areas of high interest and intensive current investigation. The goal of each issue is to present a broad spectrum of cutting-edge research in order to (1) familiarize the reader with the most exciting current developments and frontiers in the area, (2) to promote a broader application of the new chemistry presented in both academia and industry, and (3) to stimulate further developments in the field. Each thematic issue has a mix of reviews, personal accounts, communications, and full papers, often accompanied by pertinent book reviews. The contributions come from both academic and industrial laboratories. Thus, each thematic issue has become a landmark in the respective area. Examples include Biocatalysis (2001 and 2003), Catalysis in Water (2002), Olefin Metathesis (2002), Catalytic Hydrogenation (2003), Catalysis Applied to Fine Chemicals (2003), Activation of Unreactive Bonds (2003).

6. Experimental details in every original article. Finally, as a journal with practical goals, ASC requires an experimental section in every original research article, including the communications. This is another influence of the industrial participation in ASC and is designed to make every article practically useful.

  Have there been specific developments in the field of chemistry that may have contributed?

Yes, indeed. As indicated above, chemistry as a core science is faced with daunting challenges in the new millennium. The approach of ASC and its editors is to renew the commitment of chemistry as a central science to the solution of a wide range of global problems facing mankind. Since we had the opportunity to reshape the focus of the journal entirely, we were able to ask ourselves where chemistry is today and where it is going. As Ryoji Noyori pointed out in his inaugural editorial, "the cooperation of academia and industry is crucial for the development of both sectors in the new century...To achieve the goals outlined above, synthetic chemists will need to initiate a new era of chemical science, based on their own efforts and on interdisciplinary collaboration. Then I am certain that chemistry will make an even greater contribution to the quality of life than it does now."

It is my experience that it is very hard to be innovative with traditional journals; the inertia against any change seems to be proportional to the age of the journal. For high-priced, high-profit journals, economic factors also influence the decision-making process. Therefore, a "new" journal is in a much better position to be innovative and meet the current and future needs of a field. In organic chemistry, Tetrahedron Letters was an innovator in the ‘60s; SYNTHESIS in the ‘70s reinforced the central position of organic synthesis and the continued need for detailed experimental procedures; SYNLETT in the ‘90s brought new wind into the organic letters scene and helped integrate organometallic chemistry into the organic mainstream; also in the ‘90s, Clayton Heathcock made a tremendous contribution in renovating and improving the scientific level of Journal of Organic Chemistry, in spite of the inertia mentioned above. But it was only with the founding of Organic Letters, that true innovation came about in the tradition-bound ACS Publications Division. Indeed, Organic Letters has set new standards for electronic submission and refereeing, electronic publication, web presentation, and speed of publication that have motivated all other chemistry journals into action, even at the ACS. Unfortunately, the subscription price of Organic Letters for libraries is well above that of other ACS journals and also considerably higher than that of many so-called "commercial" journals, with the result that libraries now have two high-priced organic letters journals instead of one.

In the new millennium, Advanced Synthesis & Catalysis is presenting a new focus on urgent problems facing chemistry and setting new standards for the interdisciplinary collaboration of academia and industry.

Some of the innovations mentioned for ASC above will be copied by other journals—we hope that that will indeed be the case! All of us in the chemical sciences will benefit.

  How do you envision the state of our knowledge in this particular field 10 years from now?

Little can be added to the perceptive statement by Ryoji Noyori in his inaugural editorial:

"The advanced chemical process of the future needs to be economical, safe, environmentally benign, and resource- and energy-saving. Chemists need new catalytic systems effecting 'perfect chemical reactions' that give only the desired products, with 100% selectivity and 100% yield without unwanted wastes. Chemical and biological technologies are complementary for this goal.  Production of bioactive compounds and functional materials is an integrated endeavor for which all components must satisfy the requirement of practicality."

We are currently very far from that goal, but that is certainly the direction in which we are headed, in which we have to go if chemistry is to maintain it position as a core science.

  What would you like to convey to the general public about the work of Advanced Synthesis & Catalysis?

The success of Advanced Synthesis & Catalysis is not limited to its high Impact Factor in the ISI^® Journal Citation Reports ®. In the first three years, 2001-2003, ASC has experienced a healthy increase in submissions, in published articles, in size and in the number of issues:

• 2001   124 articles published in 848 pages and 8 issues

• 2002   154 articles published in 1,204 pages and 10 issues.

That is an increase in size of 42% after one year. In 2003, ASC went to 12 issues. There may well be an increase again in 2004. In 2001, ASC published articles from 14 different countries; in 2002, 22 countries were represented. Somewhat more than half of the publications in ASC come from Europe, followed by America, then Asia, and then the rest of the world. ASC has published a good mix of articles from academic and industrial laboratories; the ratio has been about 6:1.

ASC ranks among the top chemistry journals in terms of strict refereeing and careful editing; one indication of this is that not a single errata appeared in ASC in 2002.

In addition to Reviews, Communications, Full Papers, and Book Reviews, ASC also published Commentaries by the Editors or other responsible leaders and Updates reporting progress on a given project. Finally, the Reagents & Catalysts section publishes original reports on reagents, auxiliaries, ligands and catalysts, as well as third-party mini-reviews.

To close, I would like to quote Eric N. Jacobsen from his editorial commentary that launched ASC into its second year (Adv. Synth. Catal. 2002, 344, 1):

"ASC seeks to serve as the premier forum for publications illuminating the future of synthetic chemistry.  We aim to achieve this by focusing not only on catalytic methods, but on all aspects of synthesis aimed toward providing genuine solutions to global problems in health, food supply, energy, and the environment.  While we are pleased with the journal’s strong start, we recognize that there is a long way to go before it reaches its full potential.  In that light, we invite you to convey your comments and suggestions, and better still to submit your most provocative and exciting papers on cutting edge chemical synthesis to ASC."

Advanced Synthesis & Catalysis
Joe P. Richmond, Executive Editor
Wiley-VCH, publishers

The ASC Editorial Office is an independent editorial operation. The views expressed in this interview are those of the author and not necessarily those of the publisher.