New developments at IUCr Journals

The IUCr has initiated a major project to extend and expand the scope of its journals to meet the needs and serve the interests of researchers in the crystallographic and wider scientific communities who obtain and utilize structural information for addressing their scientific questions. The Editor-in-Chief, Samar Hasnain, appointed in August 2012, in consultation with appropriate committees and commissions of the IUCr, as well as with the wider structural science community, has developed an ambitious plan for IUCr journals. Its aim is to make the journals the natural home for many of the high-quality scientific publications that are currently published in journals such as Nature Structure and Molecular Biology, Structure, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Angewandte Chemie, Chemical Communications, etc., where structural data underpin these publications. The overall development plan was approved by the IUCr Executive Committee in December 2012.

Chemists, biologists, physicists and material scientists will be actively encouraged to report the best of their structural studies in IUCr journals. Significant changes are being implemented in journal organization and management to coincide with the celebration of the International Year of Crystallography (IYCr2014). Major scientific advances require multidisciplinary research and very often these breakthrough papers report results covering a wide range of methods and technologies. The wide-ranging expertise that exists on our editorial boards is being further strengthened by appointing additional research leaders in chemistry, crystal engineering, biological sciences, materials science, free electron laser science and technology, and a broader range of structural methods so that our journals continue to lead in all aspects of structural science and methods. Subtitles of the journals in the Acta Crystallographica series are being changed to make it clear that we are open to publishing a wider range of science in these journals. The first issue of Acta Crystallographica B under its new subtitle Acta Crystallographica Section B: Structural Science, Crystal Engineering and Materials appeared on 1 February 2013, with other sections of Acta expected to follow soon.

Since crystallographic studies are critical to understanding the structural basis for chemistry, physics, biology and materials science, the IUCr will launch a new journal as part of the celebrations of IYCr2014. The new journal will be simply called IUCrJ.  It will be fully open access, striving to reach the high impact and influence appropriate for the best of our structural sciences. Our aim is to capture high-profile papers on all aspects of the sciences, technologies and methods supported by the IUCr via its commissions, including emerging fields such as 3D structures from 'single molecules' using free electron lasers. Many of the exciting structural science results that have been published in other high-profile journals appeared first in presentations at IUCr congresses, and at AsCA, ECM and ACA meetings. The goal for 2014 will be to publish 100 articles in IUCrJ; many of these articles will be solicited from the presentations of cutting-edge research at ACA, ECM, AsCA meetings as well as the IUCr congress and conferences closely linked to IUCr via its Commissions. IUCrJ is thus intended to be a natural home for reporting breakthroughs and 'full' science reports rather than simply reporting structures and how they were determined. 

A Management Board has been appointed including the Main Editors of the current journals and representatives of the IUCr Executive and Finance Committees. The board is responsible for: (a) increasing the influence of IUCr journals among the wider scientific communities; (b) serving the interests of all of its Commissions in its journals; (c) broadening the scope of the journals so that high-quality science papers that use crystallography are attracted to the journals; and (d) improving the visibility of IUCr journals at non-crystallographic conferences.

A Business Development Manager will be appointed in early 2013 with a mandate to (a) reach out to the wider science community, (b) encourage closer integration of the journals with the Commissions, (c) develop social media marketing, (d) boost article citations by writing press releases highlighting the most significant papers, (e) prepare market research reports including citation and usage trend analysis, (f) identify subject trends and new journal opportunities, (g) identify target authors and encourage them to submit to the journals, and (h) exploit opportunities arising from IYCr2014. The Business Development Manager will work closely with the editorial staff.

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