Dedicated to publishing top-tier research at the interface of chemistry and biology, this research journal's website features direct database links from chemical compounds mentioned in articles
Nature Publishing announces the launch of the first issue of Nature Chemical Biology, a new research journal dedicated to publishing top-tier research at the interface of chemistry and biology.
A unique feature of the journal's website is linkage of chemical compounds mentioned in research articles to the PubChem database, a new initiative of the US National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) of the National Institutes of Health.
This is the first example of a commercial publisher linking into PubChem, says Nature.
The journal articles also link into ChemPort of the American Chemical Society and Bind (the Biomolecular Interaction Network Database) making for what is described as a truly dynamic online journal.
Like other interdisciplinary fields, chemical biology thrives because chemists and biologists have unique perspectives and skills that complement each other.
Nature Chemical Biology will illuminate the combined strengths of these two scientific communities and stimulate new collaborations and scientific insights.
The first issue of the journal, published in June and available online, reflects its broad scope by including topics ranging from bacterial to human biology and from small molecules to ribozymes.
The journal combines research articles with enhanced content such as reviews, research highlights and news and views articles that put important developments in context for a broad readership.
Along with the online features, new functionality has been developed specifically for the Nature Chemical Biology website.
The PubChem link allows readers of Nature Chemical Biology to go in a single click, from the mention of a molecule in a paper to a rich and growing collection of information about chemical structures and properties, and biological assay results, hosted by the NCBI.
In addition, when a manuscript is accepted for publication in Nature Chemical Biology the acceptance process includes an automated deposition of the article's compound data to PubChem, and the creation of mutual web links between these PubChem records and the paper concerned.
This will enhance the utility of Nature Chemical Biology for the scientific community by providing new data for the PubChem database.
Additional features include data and index pages for significant chemical compounds reported in each paper, linking directly from the compound reference in the full text, graphical abstracts for research articles for both the advanced online publication table of contents and the current issue table of contents, and the provision of RSS feeds for the current issue table of contents.
"Nature Chemical Biology launches at a time of great expansion of research at the chemistry-biology interface" says Terry Sheppard, chief editor for the journal.
"The importance of this growing field can be seen in recent initiatives.
"Numerous universities have developed chemical biology programs that cross traditional departmental lines and funding agencies worldwide have identified the chemistry-biology interface as a target for investment.
"We believe that Nature Chemical Biology will become the primary source for the highest-impact research and commentary in chemical biology by offering an exceptional forum for the ongoing conversations between chemists and biologists."
