EDITORIAL Bioorganic Chemistry at a Crossroads
First of all, let me thank Professor Gordon Hamilton, Pennsylvania State University, for his many years of faithful service as Editor. Under his editorship a solid base of subscribers has been established and a mountain of valuable information about our field has been communicated to the scientific community. On July 1, 1997, I began to serve as Editor. I have served on the journal's Editorial Board since 1983 and have followed it closely. I strongly believe that, with your support, we can take this journal to new levels of scientific prominence.
We need to distinguish between the field of bioorganic chemistry, which is very broad and expanding, and the journal, Bioorganic Chemistry. Both of these entities are at their respective crossroads, and both need continuous nurturing. I believe that the journal can help set the tone for increasing both the importance and the influence of the field. With respect to the field, it is becoming so popular to practice bioorganic chemistry that there is a concern that the term may be lost in the shuffle. We should endeavor to maintain and promote bioorganic chemistry as a scientific discipline. The journal is currently published bimonthly and in a small format. The journal must expand to take a more visible place in the scientific publication community.
As a first step toward this goal, Academic Press will launch a widespread publicity campaign to announce both the new leadership and the revamped Editorial Board. Also, for an initial period of time, Acacemic Press has agreed to publish color figures free of charge. The library subscription base for the journal is sound, and an ever growing list of universities, companies, and countries is subscribing to Academic Press journals en bloc and, increasingly, on-line. In case you have not visited the Academic Press Online Journal Library Website (Ideal), its address is either http:/www.idealibrary.com/ or http:/www.europe.idealibrary.com/. We are moving toward more and more electronic submission of manuscripts which has the potential of speeding up the whole review process considerably. Another important change that should increase efficiencies is that all submissions and correspondence will from now on be made directly to the journal's headquarters in San Diego.