Two of the RSC's most prestigious journals are to be published weekly from January 2005, it has been announced. Chemical Communications and Journal of Materials Chemistry, each celebrating landmark anniversaries next year, will be doubling in frequency to bring you the latest research, even faster.

The move has come about thanks to the RSC's commitment to continued growth and development of its journals. Increased submissions have not only enabled the highest quality research to be selected for publication but, in these two cases, have made the progression to 48 issues possible.

The developments also include new and improved formats, aimed to improve the readability and attractiveness of content, and for Chemical Communications the expansion of its page limit for communications to three pages. This welcomed improvement will provide authors with greater flexibility to develop their results and discussion.

2005 is set to be a momentous year - Chemical Communications will be celebrating 40 successful years of publication and Journal of Materials Chemistry, slightly younger at 15, will become the world's first weekly journal dedicated to materials chemistry.

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Researchers in certain developing and transitional countries can now have full electronic access to RSC journals for free, thanks to the RSC's inclusion in the Programme for the Enhancement of Research Information (PERI). The programme, which supports capacity building in the research sector by strengthening the production, access and dissemination of information, is provided by the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP). Institutes from countries included within the scheme must register their interest with PERI in order to receive access to the RSC journals. Since our inclusion in the scheme in January 2004, institutes from countries such as Bolivia, Nepal and Senegal have already signed up, with Pakistan seeing a staggering 107 institutes express an interest in RSC journals.

Funding for the programme is provided by a number of international organisations, including the British Medical Association, the National Academy of Sciences (USA) and UNESCO.

• Scientists Emilien and Sarah Pelletier (Universities of Quebec and Alberta, Canada) unknowingly submitted separate research papers to The Analyst at the same time. In a first for the journal, the two papers from a father and daughter appear together in the August issue.
• The recent revival in palladium-catalysed oxidation is the focus of an 'Emerging Area' article in this month's Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry (<MAN>b409127m</MAN>)