Do you DOI?

With the advent of digital communication and storage, developments in publishing have been rapid, bringing many challenges and benefits to those involved in the communication and dissemination of scholarly information. The DOI, or digital object identifier, is one such development - an exciting citation tool fast becoming the standard for publishing and online referencing. The RSC, always keen to take advantage of technical advances, has already implemented this service. 

A DOI is a unique tag, consisting of a sequence of numbers and letters, assigned by the publisher to a unit of work, most commonly a journal article. This identifies the work and can link directly to the article on the publisher's web page. Documents can then be retrieved (depending on access permissions) or bought online, and ultimately cited. This elegant system, established by scholarly publishers, enables researchers to navigate electronically throughout the web and gain access to publications with just a couple of clicks. Among the main advantages of the system is that it allows citation of an Advance Article before the full citation is available. In addition the DOI is a persistent link, unlike a URL which may change over the years. Examples of the DOI in use can be seen at the top of articles published in RSC journals. 

The potential benefits are huge. At a time when information retrieval is becoming more digitised, an international standard is essential. This new system provides a citation backbone to electronic publishing and will be indispensable for the publishing community and beyond. 

Chemistry World reporter wins award

Chemistry World science correspondent Katharine Sanderson has been named New Business Features Journalist of the Year by the UK's Periodical Publishers Association's Periodicals Training Council.

The award, made to new journalists with no more than three years' experience, was based on three feature articles written during 2005. Sanderson's features were praised by judges for turning a subject they found 'impenetrable' into pieces that were 'readable, interesting and absorbing.'

Sanderson welcomed the recognition of chemistry alongside topics covered by other publications highlighted by the awards, which included The Guardian. 'So chemistry isn't so impenetrable after all,' she said. 

Sanderson was selected from hundreds of new journalists whittled down to a shortlist of 10. The topics she covered included the chemistry of cooking, with multi-Michelin-starred Heston Blumenthal (May); the international diplomatic role of Britain's science attachés (February); and one-time chemist Gordon Moore, along with his eponymous law that has driven the electronics industry for 40 years (July). 

And finally....

If you are interested in research at the interface between chemistry and biology, take a look at the RSC's new Chemical Biology supplement. Free online, and as a print supplement in selected RSC journals, it provides access to chemical biology content from across RSC Publishing. Additional material is available to online readers, and each news item links directly to the original research articles, which are free to access. You can also register for the regular email alerts - simply follow the link on the home page