CCL: ChemPhysChem: warning

 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)