r. Amos Smith, the editor of Organic Letters, recently spoke with in-cites correspondent Karen Kreeger about the citation record of this journal. In both the November 2001 and January 2002 updates, Organic Letters achieved the highest increase in total citations, moving steadily up in the chemistry journal rankings in the ISI Essential Science Indicators Web product. In addition to his responsibilities at Organic Letters, Dr. Smith is the Rhodes-Thompson Professor of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Organic Letters is published under the aegis of the American Chemical Society.

Organic Letters is a rapid-communications journal that started in 1999 for the broad field of organic chemistry, which includes subjects ranging from bio-organic medicinal chemistry to physical and theoretical organic chemistry to natural products chemistry to organometallic chemistry and finally materials chemistry. We actually achieved a very high citation rate soon after we came on the scene. We're filling a necessary niche.

There was a desire in the American Chemical Society (ACS) community, in conjunction with the Scientific Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) folks as well as with the Research Library Association, to do something about the rising price of journal subscriptions not only in chemistry, but in all areas. These groups came together at the same time ACS was looking at the possibility of starting a communications journal in organic chemistry. All the groups talked and started Organic Letters with the understanding that the members of SPARC would subscribe to it when it first came out. We weren't that surprised about our early high citation rate given the excellent group of associate editors and members of the advisory board.

What we envision now is that the citation rate will grow significantly over the next three to four years when people become more familiar with how rapidly we can handle and publish information. From submission to publication on the web, the average time is seven weeks, which compares very favorably with other communication journals. The average hits per month to the Organic Letters website is increasing steadily. The latest statistics available (September 2001) show 113,000 hits.

  Was there a change in policy or editorial direction that might account for this?

We started the journal from scratch, so not really. It was too new to have a change in policy.

The idea was to publish the very best of broadly focused organic chemistry communications, and to use fully the modern technology of the web so that we can be as fast as possible in getting things published. I think we really changed the way many journals have now adapted to the web.

But what did change was the Journal of Organic Chemistry (JOC), also an ACS publication. Prior to Organic Letters, JOC had a communications section. Now it no longer publishes that type of paper. Organic Letters is essentially its sister journal that has taken over that role. The focus is short, four-page, rapid communications. We receive about 85% of our manuscripts via the web, which is very high. And we use the web to solicit reviewers, send manuscripts out for review, and receive manuscripts back. The papers are published on the web two or three days after authors approve their galleys.

  Have there been specific developments in the fields served by your journal that may have contributed?

I just think that chemistry is a central science and organic chemistry is a major player in the field. Clearly there's a lot of exciting work going on!

Blue skies. Lots of excitement, especially at the interface of biology and materials science. The role for Organic Letters will be to cover the most important contributions and discoveries.

  What factors do you see that may affect the evolution of your journal?

The web is clearly a key factor. This is affecting all the ACS journals, but especially ours. The ACS is reengineering the whole way it handles journal publications so that submission of manuscripts through to final production of an issue will be via the web.

  How do you envision the state of knowledge in your field 10 years from now?

I think it has a very bright future. It's very clear that the recent genomics—and now proteomics—revolution will allow organic chemistry to have a major impact in studying biology. Also, combinatorial chemistry has become a very exciting field in the last ten years.

  What are the greatest challenges for publishing in this field?

I don't think much has changed. As always, getting high-quality work submitted to the journal.

  Are there significant controversies affecting your journal or field at this time?

There's always intellectual discourse that goes on. People have various opinions about new discoveries and so forth, but, no, not really any.

  What, in your view, is this journal's main contribution in this field?

Again, we're certainly moving towards taking full advantage of the web with an electronic version of a journal that has all kinds of wonderful features such as direct linking of references immediately to the actual cited papers.

This type of feature is going to change how one looks at libraries and information exchange. My grad students now use the web to access journals from all kinds of publishers, not just ACS.

Another aspect that's very exciting is that we can now publish additional information that isn't in the print form of the journal such as real-time video and computer programs. For example, we can attach to a paper a short movie, or a graphic of a molecule, which can be rotated in space. This will really change how we think about journals, although I think paper journals will still be around for a long time.

All of this will make information gathering much faster. I'd say this is the journal's main contribution to the field.

  How do you see the current state of affairs in the field covered by your journal, and what predictions would you make about the field's future?

Everywhere you look you see organic materials, either natural or newly designed. Organic chemistry affects a wide range of fields, from medicine to materials science. One aspect that will become very important is understanding the function of natural organic materials in plant and animal systems and designing new molecules with specific properties and functions.

Organic Letters
Dr. Amos B. Smith III, Editor
American Chemical Society, Publishers