Not just another journal

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EDITORIAL

Not just another journal Rudiger Woscholski & Banafshe Larijani

Published online: 15 May 2008 # Springer-Verlag 2008

We are pleased to launch the new interdisciplinary publication “Journal of Chemical Biology” (JOCB), which aims to disseminate research achievements of the physical sciences that can be applied to answer biological and medical research problems (see Aims and Scope on http:// www.springer.com/chemistry/physical/journal/12154? detailsPage=aimsAndScopes for more information). The journal caters for the still growing community of researchers at the interface of the physical and life sciences with a clear focus on the novelty and innovation being achieved in the physical sciences part with a purpose to elucidate life sciences problems. Being in a developing research area, such as chemical biology, bestows on the journal two additional duties beyond the publication of novel research ideas and results. Firstly, the journal will need to be at the forefront of the education of interested life and physical scientists with regard to the potential chemical biology has for future research. This goal is best reached by having suitable research areas, techniques, themes and tools discussed. The Journal of Chemical Biology will, therefore, aim to provide the research community with interesting and topical reviews written by experts in the field as well as opinion papers to R. Woscholski (*) Division of Cell and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Chemical Biology Centre (CBC), Imperial College London, South Kensington campus, London SW7 2AZ, UK e-mail: [email protected] B. Larijani Department of Cell Biophysics, Cancer Research UK, 44 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PX, UK e-mail: [email protected]

foster an exchange of research ideas and arguments. While this will all add to the development of the “Chemical Biology” area, it is probably equally important to provide a forum for exchange of information concerning conferences, books, instrumentation and funding opportunities. This “journalistic” content will be covered in the “JOCB bulletin,” which is managed by our news editor Colin Rosser, who would welcome your input and suggestions. As pointed out above, the focus of the journal will be on innovations achieved by the physical sciences that can be applied to answer biological or medical problems rather than just a chemistry-driven approach, the latter being probably the origin of this new emerging discipline. However, chemistry is and has always been a discipline that fostered interaction with other disciplines such as physics (physical chemistry), mathematics (theoretical chemistry) and biology (protein chemistry) as well as medicine (medicinal chemistry and pharmacology). By accepting that chemistry can offer all these aspects of physical sciences when engaging with the life sciences, we believe that it makes sense to interpret chemical biology in the way described above. While the future development of this exciting new discipline is still beyond prediction,