Statement of Purpose
One of the greatest assets to chemists is the extensive and broad
literature at our disposal. Chemists have long realized the value
of this treasure, developing in-depth and broad indices since the
turn of the century. The vast majority of the chemical literature
appears as printed journal articles, communications and reviews.
The advent of the Internet, a global computer network, offers a
new avenue for chemists to disseminate their research. Traditional
print media is in fact quite limited in its ability to present
much information of value to chemists:
- Molecules are three-dimensional objects which are difficult to represent in
two-dimensions. An author must choose a single representation, which might not
be of interest to the reader. Associated structural information is often lost,
such as bond distances and angles. This is particularly acute in the area of
x-ray crystallography.
- Publication costs of color images are quite staggering and usually discouraged.
Color is often useful in representing a third (or fourth) dimension, such as in
electron density maps, multi-dimensional NMR, protein structures, etc.
- Dynamical processes are impossible to represent in print. The solution is the
publication of movies.
- With the increased cost of publication and demands to restrict article length,
spectra and large data files are placed in supplementary material or deleted
outright. Related to this is the ability to store online numerical results, input data, computer output, etc. ready for the reuse without retyping for further processing.
- Journal articles comprise the primary component of the important chemical
databases, yet there is little integration between these databases and the
literature. Electronic publications can be readily indexed and turned into
databases that can be searched in a variety of useful ways. In fact, the concept
of a journal can become synonymous with a database.
Traditional print publications are static objects whose form is completely
determined by the publisher. The use of dynamically-generated web pages allows for
end-user cutomization of the materials that are presented on the screen. It is
possible for the subscriber of a journal to customize the format and types of
information that he or she wishes to receive, allowing the journal to become more
suitable for the reader's purposes.
The Internet Journal of Chemistry aims to promote the use of the
Internet and development of network resources to enable chemists
to better communicate. This journal will provide a mechanism for
chemists to publish their research in developing new techniques,
new resources, new databases, etc. on the Internet for use by
chemists. Further, the journal will publish chemical research that
includes materials that are difficult if not impossible to include
in a traditional journal, especially those articles where the non-
traditional presentation is essential in understanding the work. Subscriber
customization will be an essential component of the journal so that readers can
configure the journal to best meet their needs.
The journal is aimed for all areas of chemistry, since the
Internet media provides unique opportunities for all disciplines.
Commitment to Technology
The Internet Journal of Chemistry will strive to be at the
forefront of Internet technology. We are committed to providing
the Journal with as broad an impact as possible. Therefore, we
will continually develop new resources in conjunction with the
Journal that will enhance the utility of the Journal. We
anticipate, for example, developing text and structure search
utilities and archival technologies. We plan to incorporate
Chemical Markup Language (CML) and become involved (and strongly
encourage others) in the develoment of browser plug-ins, Java
Scripts, external applications, etc. that will assist in
communicating molecular science. We plan to support development of
SGML with the aim of assuring long-term archival retrieval. A
major aim of the Journal is to promote the development of these
types of resources and to actively encourage their use throughout
the chemical community.
©1998 Internet Journal of Chemistry