From owner-chemistry@ccl.net Mon May 5 10:01:00 2014 From: "Wolfram Koch w.koch:_:gdch.de" To: CCL Subject: CCL: ChemPhysChem: warning Message-Id: <-50028-140505081121-26015-hXK9gq9tkMHHpzy6TvlSpA~~server.ccl.net> X-Original-From: "Wolfram Koch" Date: Mon, 5 May 2014 08:11:19 -0400 Sent to CCL by: "Wolfram Koch" [w.koch[]gdch.de] Dear CCL readers, I am Wolfram Koch and I am the Executive Director the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh), the German Chemical Society. The GDCh is part of ChemPubSoc Europe, the consortium of 16 European chemical societies which owns a number of prestigious chemistry journals, including ChemPhysChem. In my previous life as a practicing scientist I also happened to be a computational chemist. Some of you might remember my book A Chemists Guide to DFT, which I wrote with my former co-worker M. Holthausen a number of years ago. The reason why, after many years, I come back to the CCL is the message from last Saturday by "Demetra Dimetrodon" and the accusations she raises against the editor-in-chief of our journal ChemPhysChem. Her allegations deeply upset me and I feel obliged to set the record straight: First, the article in question was indeed sent out for review, but unfortunately the reviewers did not respond (I have seen the documentation). Second, the behavior of the editor-in-chief was not totally out of line but fully adequate and finds my approval. Third, the correspondence by the editor was certainly not extremely rude and condescending but rather polite and appropriate (but you should see the authors letters!). Fourth, it is true that the editor is not an active scientist anymore but works as a full time editor with the publisher. We use this model with great success for all our journals, including Angewandte Chemie. I strongly reject the imputations that such editors lack the scientific integrity needed for this responsible job and that they are likely to be manipulated. This is outrageous! By the way, all editors-in-chief of our journals, including of course ChemPhysChems, have to approved by the owner societies and need a proven record of a successful scientific career. Let me re-iterate, the co-owners of ChemPhysChem are respected chemical societies. Our aim is to produce high-quality journals with which we serve the chemical community and fulfill our statutory task of dissemination of research findings. The accusations brought up by Demetra Dimetrodon are simply pointless and inappropriate. To conclude, there was definitely nothing sinister behind the decision to reject the ms. While I understand the frustration of an author whose paper gets rejected, this must not lead to personal and fully unjustified accusations which, to make it even worse, are made public to a greater audience. Such a behavior poisons the relationship between the various players in the publication process and should not be tolerated by our scientific community. Best regards Wolfram Prof. Dr. Wolfram Koch Geschftsfhrer / Executive Director Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker / German Chemical Society Varrentrappstr. 40-42 60486 Frankfurt am Main Tel.: +49 (0)69 7917 320 Fax : +49 (0)69 7917 1320 w.koch _ gdch.de www.gdch.de (English: www.gdch.de/home.html)