Open Access is Evolving and ChemistryOpen is Too!

Gone are the days when every mention of open access (OA) came with a long explanation of what it entails. Instead, OA is now widely accepted as a model for scholarly publishing. ChemistryOpen is proud to have been one of the journals there at the start for the chemistry community, being the first society‐owned fully OA general chemistry journal, launched in 2011. Since then, ChemistryOpen has gone from strength to strength, and was rewarded with an impressive 2015 impact factor of 3.585. Following this, we have recently seen an increase in both the quantity and quality of submissions, enabling us to achieve our aim of publishing high‐quality chemistry to the widest possible audience.

A lot has happened in terms of OA over the years, and it is great to see so many funding bodies and institutions advocating OA publishing. One of the most notable driving forces towards OA is the Horizon 2020 programme, in which the European Commission mandates all beneficiaries to publish their work OA, and this notion is being echoed by other institutes and funding bodies the world over. This positive outlook on OA has, however, led to some negatives in the OA landscape. One of the detrimental ways in which some publishers operate is to deliberately adopt journal names that sound almost identical to others. Dr. Peter Gölitz touches on this fact in his latest Editorial for Angewandte Chemie; however, this is a particular challenge for the authors and readers of ChemistryOpen. Although there are many examples, two particular journals with identical scope to ChemistryOpen that have adopted very similar names are Open Chemistry published by De Gruyter with an impact factor of 1.207 (formerly known as the Central European Journal of Chemistry) and Open Chemistry Journal published by Bentham Open. While the journal name and scope may be almost identical, it is important to know that these are not, in fact, one and the same.

ChemistryOpen is delighted to have been the very first society‐owned, fully open access, general chemistry journal, and we are co‐owned and supported by ChemPubSoc Europe, which is made up of 16 national chemical societies that together serve approximately 70 000 society members.

To complement the support that we receive from ChemPubSoc Europe, we offer all members of the national societies a 20% discount on the article publication charge (APC). In addition, our partnership will also result in royalties that are paid to ChemPubSoc Europe annually. This sets us apart from the competition. Neither Open Chemistry nor Open Chemistry Journal have such partnerships and they do not support a society through the payment of royalties. ChemistryOpen is also proud to adhere to balanced and high‐quality peer review that enables us to publish such great articles, which is reflected by our success.

Perhaps more harmful to OA publishing, on the whole, is the growing number of predatory publishers. This exploitive business model is threatening the progress that has been made over the years with respect to OA publishing and open science. Predatory publishers offer little or no peer review, meaning that there is zero quality control and they often publish plagiarized or fabricated results. They do, however, continue to endorse APCs and pose as reputable publishers, often by advertising fictional editorial boards and false location details. Perhaps the most frustrating feature of predatory publishers is the way in which they aggressively campaign to potential authors, spamming inboxes all around the globe.

There are, however, a number of useful websites that are being maintained to advise authors about OA publishing options. One of which is “Beall's List”, which was initially launched in 2010 to warn academics of predatory publishers. The list is maintained by University of Colorado Denver librarian Jeffrey Beall, and seeks to identify all publishers that fit into certain criteria. Most notable, however, is the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), which was launched way back in 2003 at Lund University, Sweden, and remains committed to high‐quality, peer‐reviewed OA publishing. These resources offer information and advice about OA publishing, and the Editorial Team at ChemistryOpen always recommend that authors and readers take a little precaution, be it prior to submitting an article or when browsing the literature.

Change is in the Air

The past year has seen many changes at ChemistryOpen; most notably, we have implemented a new flat‐rate APC. Our standard fees of 2500€ for Full Papers and Communications or 3500€ for Reviews and Minireviews have been heavily reduced to only 1800€ for all article types! This reduced fee will be in effect at least until August 31^st, 2018. Therefore, all submissions received by the Editorial Office on or before this date will be eligible for the reduced rate. In addition, all members of a ChemPubSoc Europe national society will be entitled to a further 20% discount, making the APC only 1440€!

For further information about other discounts and waivers, details can be found on the journal's homepage at www.ChemistryOpen.org/charges.

ChemistryOpen begins 2017 with further changes, and this time it is to our Editorial Advisory Board (EAB). While we are pleased that many of our EAB members will remain for a second term, we are also excited to welcome some fresh faces. The Editorial Team at ChemistryOpen would like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to the retiring EAB members for all of their help and support over the last few years.

We are pleased to announce our refreshed EAB (Table 1), with members from all over the world that offer expertise across all chemistry‐related fields, and together we hope to continue our success in publishing high‐quality papers.

Table 1.

Members of the Editorial Advisory Board for ChemistryOpen.

Chairmen
Ramón Martinez‐Máñez	Universitat Polytechnica de Valencia	Co‐Chairman
Thomas Wirth	Cardiff University	Co‐Chairman
Jean‐Marie Lehn	Collège de France/Université de Strasbourg	Honorary Chairman

Members
Fernando Albericio	University of KwaZulu‐Natal		Thisbe Lindhorst	Universität Kiel
Valentin Ananikov	Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry		Carlos Lodeiro	Universidade Nova de Lisboa
Didier Astruc	Institut des Sciences Moléculaires		Todd L. Lowary	University of Alberta
Jochen Autschbach	State University of New York at Buffalo		Stefan Matile	Université de Genève
Christian Becker	Universität Wien		Mikko Metsä‐Ketelä	University of Turku
Per Berglund	KTH Royal Institute of Technology		Pedro Molina	Universidad de Murcia
Sheshanath V. Bhosale	RMIT University		Toshiaki Murai	Gifu University
F. Matthias Bickelhaupt	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam		Berit Olofsson	Stockholms Universitet
Renata Bilewicz	University of Warsaw		Mario Pagliaro	Istituto per lo Studio dei Materiali Nanostrutturati, CNR
Kathrin Breuker	Universität Innsbruck		Yuanjiang Pan	Zhejiang University
David Bryce	University of Ottawa		Oliver Reiser	Universität Regensburg
Jianfeng Cai	University of South Florida		Knut Rurack	Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und ‐prüfung
Juan Cámpora	CSIC‐Universidad de Sevilla		James Rusling	University of Connecticut
Minserk Cheong	Kyung Hee University		Albert Schenning	Technische Universiteit Eindhoven
Young Keun Chung	Seoul National University		Patrik Schmuki	Friedrich‐Alexander‐Universität Erlangen‐Nürnberg
Richard G Compton	University of Oxford		Min Shi	Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry
Alberto Credi	Universiry of Bologna		Norio Shibata	Nagoya Institute of Technology
Patrick Dansette	Université Paris‐Descartes		Rint Sijbesma	Technische Universiteit Eindhoven
Matthias D′hooghe	Ghent University		Holger Stephan	Helmholtz‐Zentrum Dresden‐Rossendorf
Ulf Diederichsen	Universität Göttingen		Brian Stoltz	California Institute of Technology
Benjamin Dietzek	Friedrich Schiller University Jena		Reshef Tenne	Weizmann Institute of Science
Antony Fairbanks	University of Canterbury		Matthew Todd	University of Sydney
Elena Ferapontova	Aarhus University		Jaume Veciana	Institut Ciencia Materials Barcelona
Stefan Grimme	Universität Bonn		Hans‐Achim Wagenknecht	Karlsruher Institut für Technologie
Narayan Hosmane	Northern Illinois University, DeKalb		Ralph Weissleder	Massachusetts General Hospital
Christoff Janiak	Universität Düsseldorf		Charlotte Willans	University of Leeds
Klaus Jurkschat	Technische Universität Dortmund		Gunther Wittstock	Universität Oldenburg
Mats Larhed	Uppsala Universitet		Johan Wouters	Université de Namur
Ying‐Wu Lin	University of South China		Vivian W. W. Yam	The University of Hong Kong

As a multidisciplinary journal, ChemistryOpen covers all aspects of chemistry and its subdisciplines. The journal also features specialized Virtual Issues that seek to highlight particular areas within the chemical sciences of current interest and importance. In 2016, ChemistryOpen launched its latest Virtual Issue, focusing on Advances in Electrochemistry. This Virtual Issue is being prepared in collaboration with Guest Editor, Professor Bernhard Gollas (TU Graz, Austria), and it is still open to new submissions; researchers wishing to contribute to this or future Virtual Issues should contact the Editorial Office via e‐mail for further details.

On behalf of the entire ChemistryOpen Editorial Team, we thank all of our board members (past and present), reviewers, authors, and readers for their continued support. We very much look forward to being part of the continuing evolution of OA publishing.

Dr. Kate Lawrence

Deputy Editor

ChemistryOpen

K. Lawrence, ChemistryOpen 2017, 6, 3.