SA Chemistry - Journal of Chemistry

From the Editor-in-Chief

October 2009

The South African Journal of Chemistry continues to publish high quality papers in all fields of Chemistry. The Journal went fully electronic in 2000. It is freely available through open access online (http://journals.sabinet.co.za/sajchem). It is a CAS-abstracted publication and is listed in Current Web Contents. It has retained its status as an accredited publication with the South African Department of Higher Education and Training.

Owing to the large volume of submissions being received in the area of organic chemistry, two new scientific editors have been appointed to join Professor Gert Kruger in this field, Professor Willem van Otterlo and Dr Leigh-Anne Fraser.

The number of submissions to the Journal is relatively stable; 88 manuscripts were received in 2008, compared with 120 in 2007 and 103 in 2006. The number of papers published is also consistent; 28 papers appeared in 2008 (in 161 journal pages), compared with 23 in 2007 (128 pages) and 28 in 2006 (140 pages). The numbers of papers published per discipline in 2008 were organic chemistry (15 papers), inorganic chemistry (7 papers), physical chemistry (5 papers) and chemical education (1 paper), with no analytical chemistry articles in that year. These figures compare with 11, 2, 5, 0 and 5 (2007) and 14, 3, 5, 0 and 6 (2006) respectively. The international character of the Journal has been strengthened, with a number of papers published during 2008 by authors from India (5), Iran (4) and China (4). In 2007 the corresponding numbers were 6, 4 and 3.

The average time from submission to publication continues to decrease slightly to 6.3 months in 2008, compared with 6.1 months in 2007 and 8.6 months in 2006. The fastest time to publication remains acceptable (2.6 months in 2008, 2.5 months in 2007 and 1.8 months in 2006). The scientific editors are conscious of the need to improve the average time to publication, and are constantly seeking the cooperation of their referees in reducing the time taken to process their manuscripts, consistent with the maintenance of the highest standards of the peer review system.

T. A. Ford

Editor-in-Chief

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