On July 20, 2011, Wiley-VCH and ChemPubSoc Europe announced the launch of ChemistryOpen, the first open access chemical society journal. Dr. Vera Köster, editor of the ChemViews magazine spoke with the editors Dr. Karen Hindson and Dr. Haymo Ross about ChemistryOpen.

What is the difference between ChemistryOpen and other journals?

ChemPubSoc Europe has always been open to advantageous innovation

not only for its members but also for the chemistry community in the wider sense. ChemistryViews.org is an excellent example of this.

ChemistryOpen is in more than one aspect a first for ChemPubSoc Europe journals. Up to now this family of society journals is subscription based. ChemistryOpen will be the first journal in which funding bodies, through the authors, pay for the dissemination of the research that they support.

So what will be different for the authors?

All ChemPubSoc Europe journals including the new ChemistryOpen have the same Online Submission system. An author will find ChemistryOpen next to Chemistry – A European Journal, for example. Submission is still free for all manuscripts.

The procedure only differs once a manuscript has been peer reviewed and accepted. At this point processing can only go ahead once the Gold Road fee has been paid.

Gold Road means that the authors pay for publication so that once published, an article will be available free to anyone who wishes to read it.

You mentioned more than one “First” for ChemistryOpen …

Yes, ChemistryOpen will be at present the only example of the ChemPubSoc Europe family of journals that is available exclusively online.

So will there still be issues?

For the ease of navigation on the ChemistryOpen homepage, the journal will have issues. In the first year, six issues are envisioned.

Who will take care of the peer-review process?

The societies selected the editors and deputy editor for ChemistryOpen for their expertise in different fields of chemistry and their many years of experience. All are editors of other journals in the ChemPubSoc Europe portfolio.

Does ChemistryOpen also have an Advisory Board like the other ChemPubSoc Europe journals?

Yes, the chair persons of the Editorial Advisory Board are Professor Ramòn Martìnez-Mànez from Polytechnic University of Valencia and Professor Thomas Wirth from Cardiff University. The members of the Board will represent all geographical regions of the world and cover a wide range of disciplines in chemistry.
This will truly be another journals “Made in Europe for the World”.

From left to right: Karen Hindson, Haymo Ross, Vera Köster talk about ChemistryOpen

Another unique feature is the Thesis Treasury ChemistryOpen will provide. Can you give a short explanation what this is please?

The purpose of the thesis treasury is to make PhD thesis, which are at present often difficult to track down, as easy to access as an article in any scientific journal. The thesis summary will have its digital object identifier (DOI), and an essential feature will be the link to a complete version of the thesis.

This would usually be the archive stipulated by the university granting the degree. If the summary cannot be linked to such a repository, a full version must be submitted as supporting information to ChemistryOpen.

Will only theses by students graduating from 2011 be accepted or can a thesis be submitted retrospectively?

No, anyone who has a digital version of their thesis and can provide proof of acceptance by a accredited university may apply to deposit a summary in the Thesis Treasury.

So it could also grow to an archive of PhD theses of famous chemists.

Thank you very much for the interview!

ChemViews will, of course, keep you up to date on the development of ChemistryOpen.

• ChemistryOpen
• Press Release: Open Access Chemistry Journal
• ChemPubSoc Europe Journals