Editorial

Authors: Peter Gärtner

Publish Date: 2009/09/16

Volume: 140, Issue: 10, Pages: 1137-1138

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Abstract

As some of you may have realized at the end of October 2008 the EditorinChief Prof Heinz Falk and with him all other Editors resigned due to problems which were solved in May 2009 Whereas the other Editors continued with their duties then Prof Heinz Falk who was operating as EditorinChief since 1998 decided not to come back Thus a new EditorinChief had to be assigned and I was in May 2009 nominated by the Austrian Academy of Science and the Austrian Chemical Society both owners of Monatshefte für Chemie/Chemical Monthly After a short time of consideration and a brief talk with my friend Prof Falk who promised to support me as much as possible I accepted the nominationIt was of course an honor to become EditorinChief but it was certainly not an easy decision to take this position Anybody who knows Prof Falk more well will confirm that Monatshefte für Chemie/Chemical Monthly was like a “child” for him that he cared for with a great deal of personal effort I think I can judge this at least to some extent because I have had very close contacts with him since 2003 when I became Editorial Assistant/Managing Editor Anyway it is difficult to measure this personal effort but as an indication of what he did for the journal let us have a brief look at the development of the impact factor of the journal under his guidance When he became EditorinChief in 1998 the impact factor of Monatshefte für Chemie/Chemical Monthly was around 05 and after a continuous increase during the period he guided the journal it was nearly 15 for the year 2008 Although we all are aware of problems in connection with impact factors Prof Falk himself does not believe that they are a valid instrument to quantify the scientific quality of a journal or a paper if published in this journal for several reasons that I cannot replicate here they are still used in the scientific community If we use them to compare the development of the Monatshefte für Chemie/Chemical Monthly I dare say what he did for the journal cannot be overestimated and the footprints he is leaving are really big Thus I would feel a bit uncomfortable as his successor if I had to do this job without his assistance but as mentioned above Prof Falk offered his helping hands and I am counting on himOf course a journal with about 1500 pages a year covering all areas of chemistry cannot be handled by only one Editor and thus part of the success is also due to the members of the Editorial Board who I am more than happy to welcome back They have supported Prof Falk fantastically and I hope that they will do so for me as wellLast but not least a scientific journal would be nothing without the contributions from its authors Thus a big part if not the biggest of the success is also due to this group The more interesting the submitted papers are the more resonance they will generate and this will of course influence the impact factor positively I hope to welcome back most of you but also young scientists publishing for the first time are invited to submit their most important papersTo further increase the speed of processing during the last Editorial Board meeting it was decided to appoint two additional editors It is therefore my particular pleasure to welcome Prof Jürgen Fleig Physical Chemistry Vienna University of Technology and Prof Wolfgang Buchberger Analytical Chemistry Johannes Kepler University Linz to the Board I hope that they will enjoy their tasks as do all the other members of the Board and support us as much as possible in our endeavorFinally I wish for all of us that we can proceed with our journal on the path that Prof Falk paved and be as successful as he was in maintaining high standards In this regard I would like to mention two particular points First I think that we should continue with our Special Issues focused on current trends in chemistry such as we recently had on topics like “Solid state ionics electrochemistry meets material science” “Sensor devices and biosensors in food analysis” “From molecules to molecular devices” “Computational chemistry” “Ionic liquids—a survey of recent developments and applications” etc All of them have given very detailed insight into selected areas of research in these fields but can also be recommended as broad overviews to scientists moving into these subjects Proposals for such Special Issues are always welcome and I am convinced that they will also be a successThe second point I would like to mention at the very end because I feel that this is an important argument and I want it to be recognized is the ownership of Monatshefte für Chemie/Chemical Monthly by both the Austrian Chemical Society and the Austrian Academy of Science two organizations representing Austrian scientists Although the journal is nowadays an international one with contributions from all over the world I think it would be appropriate also to have more submissions from Austrian scientists again I would go so far to say it should be a moral obligation for all chemistry scientists in Austria in the broadest sense to submit some of their best scientific achievements to Monatshefte für Chemie/Chemical Monthly As the development of the impact factor in the last couple of years has shown it can change significantly if the quality of submissions is good and this is the accomplishment of our authorsFor my new position I am looking forward to a prosperous development of our journal to good collaboration with all Editors and to a large number of topquality submissions on contemporary research from our authors and then I think the future of Monatshefte für Chemie/Chemical Monthly will be brilliant This is all it needs

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