Michigan State University chemistry professor James McCusker has been appointed an associate editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry’s flagship journal, Chemical Science.
McCusker will be overseeing submitted papers dealing with the more physical side of inorganic chemistry, including steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopy, electron transfer, magnetism and energy conversion.
McCusker said he was honored to be asked by the Royal Society and the new editor in chief, Harvard University Professor Daniel Nocera, to join the editorial board of Chemical Science in this capacity.
“Associate editors at any journal play a vital role as gatekeepers for what ultimately appears in the literature,” McCusker said. “The progress of science relies on the dissemination of quality research that has undergone fair, rigorous evaluation by knowledgeable experts in the relevant field of study. I’m grateful that Professor Nocera and the Royal Society of Chemistry have the confidence in me to provide this service to one of the premier journals in the field of chemistry, and I’m proud to be able to represent Michigan State University in this way.”
McCusker added that the journal, launched in 2010, has rapidly gained notoriety, in part because of the excellent team of editors that were brought on board, which provided the stature to draw submissions from some of the leading researchers across all areas of chemistry. Named Best New Journal in 2011 by the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers, the journal now boasts an impact factor of 8.6 and is now viewed in the same regard as the Journal of the American Chemical Society in terms of stature.
“In its relatively short history, Chemical Science has emerged as one of our discipline’s highest profile journals,” said Robert Maleczka, professor and chairperson of the MSU Department of Chemistry. “Jim being asked to serve in this important role is a testament to his stature as a globally recognized leader in the fields of inorganic chemistry and energy science. Furthermore, it is certainly a point of pride to see Michigan State join Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, UC Irvine and Berkeley as the United States institutions providing editorial board members to this Royal Society journal.”