RSC Publishing is celebrating news of continued success for its journals, following the release of the 2006 impact factors, calculated by ISI®. Journals from across the collection in areas of research such as analytical, materials and green chemistry have recorded significant rises to become leading impact journals in their field, while new interdisciplinary titles have received their first official ranking of the internationally recognised publishing industry metric. 

Among the headline success stories is Green Chemistry, the only journal publishing a mix of primary and secondary research in the field, which sees its impact factor rise by a staggering 29% to 4.19. The already impressive impact factor for Lab on a Chip has increased by a further 10% to 5.82, ensuring that it remains one of the leading journals in micro- and nano- research.

Impact matters ...

The RSC materials science journals show continuing strength and growth; weekly journal Journal of Materials Chemistry's impact factor rose significantly for the second year running to 4.29 (a meteoric rise of 58% over the past 2 years). Meanwhile, new interdisciplinary journal, Soft Matter  (launched June 2005), received its first (partial) impact factor of 4.39; an impressive figure which positions the journal ahead of its competitors and achieves the journal's aim of bringing together biologists, colloid scientists, physicists, polymer scientists, chemical engineers, chemists, and materials scientists to present work their interdisciplinary research.

Bio boost ...

RSC journals focussing at the interface with biology and biological applications have also been bolstered by increasing impact factors; Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry  and Natural Product Reports have both increased their impact factors to 2.87 and 8.89 (rises of 13% and 21%) respectively.  The most recent addition to the portfolio, Molecular BioSystems (launched May 2005), received its first (partial) impact factor of 2.45. This news comes after a year of continued development and enhancements to the presentation and linking of research in RSC Journals, in particular those containing biological content, through the innovative and industry-leading Project Prospect.

Topical research ...

But it is not just our impact factors that are impressing RSC authors and readers; work published in RSC journals is also amongst the most topical . and that's official!  The immediacy indices for a number of RSC Journals are now leading the way; DaltonTransactions became the leading general inorganic journal with an immediacy index of 0.89 (an increase of 22% on its 2005 figure). 

Analyse that ...

RSC Publishing dominates the analytical science community when it comes to topical and urgent research, with the highest immediacy indices in the field.  JAAS (Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry) and The Analyst top the charts for analytical chemistry journals with figures of 0.94 and 0.93 respectively.  This is supported by further growth in their impact factors which sees JAAS remain the leading primary research journal in spectroscopy, while The Analyst becomes the highest European general analytical journal. 

These impressive new figures, coupled with the RSC's position as the fastest publisher of chemical science research, reinforce RSC Publishing's reputation as the home of exciting new research.

RSC Publishing would like to thank all our authors, referees and readers for their continued support.

Footnote:

Impact factors provide an indication of the average number of citations per paper.  Produced annually by ISI®, they are calculated by dividing the number of citations in a year, by the number of citeable articles published in the preceding two years. Journals launched in 2005, therefore, have partial 2006 impact factors.

The immediacy index is a measure of how topical and urgent the papers published by a journal are. It is calculated by dividing the number of citations to articles published in a given year by the number of articles published in that year.

Data based on 2006 Impact Factors, calculated by ISI®, released June 2007.