It is a great pleasure to welcome you to Chemistry—An International Journal. Chemistry is often called “the central science” and there is no doubt that it lies at the core of cutting-edge research in fields as diverse as molecular biology, materials science and atmospheric studies. Although technical results are commonly published in specialized journals appropriate to the discipline, it is important to have platforms which allow researchers to address the broader community. Indeed, many of the most interesting and paradigm-shifting results come from research activities between the established disciplines.
I firmly believe that the better we communicate between ourselves, inside and outside our disciplines, the better mankind can benefit from our research. I am proud and honoured to be Editor-in-Chief of this new journal dedicated to publishing ground-breaking results from the entire field of chemistry. I will of course be delighted to see interdisciplinary research, but I will particularly welcome outstanding results from disciplines presented in a way that the wider chemical community can appreciate and assimilate them. In this context, the training of future generations of scientists is paramount and I will welcome submissions in the area of chemical education.
Finally, it is a great honour to be associated with a general chemistry journal that is predicated upon the principles of Open Access publication. The need for the results of public-funded research to be available to the whole of society is an imperative that I embrace and welcome, even though it is predicated upon changes in traditional publishing strategy and practice. I look forward to bringing the research excellence of “the central science” to a broader audience.