The RSC is to provide free access to its journals back-catalogue in over 50 developing countries, it has been announced, making it the first learned society to make such a gesture.

The launch of the programme Archives for Africa in London, UK, in February was preceded by an announcement by RSC president Simon Campbell at the inaugural meeting of the Federations of African Societies of Chemistry in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 

PERI asks that developing nations make a contribution for materials they receive. For a nominal fee, the latest three years of RSC content can be bought. 'In any initiative there has to be an African pull as well as Western push,' said Campbell who went on to describe how the RSC is building on the UK government's stated intention to build science and technology capacity in Africa, following the publication of the Commission for Africa's report on 11 March 2005.  

'It was really hard in Addis for me to get hold of the right papers.' said Hareg Tadesse, a PhD student from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia, 'this is where the archives are going to be so useful. Now students like me in Addis can get the RSC Archives straight away, when we need them. On behalf of all my fellow students in Ethiopia, I would like to congratulate the RSC on such a gesture.'

CrystEngComm, a pioneering crystal engineering e-journal, is now published in monthly issues. Editor, Jamie Humphrey explains, 'This development to monthly issues is possible thanks to the continued growth in high quality submissions, and reinforces the RSC's commitment to the development of the journal.'

Each monthly issue of CrystEngComm features stunning artwork illustrating an article in that issue and contains a dynamic mix of communications, full papers and highlights. Taking full advantage of the electronic environment, publication in CrystEngComm is exceptionally fast - typically 65 days from receipt for full papers and just 40 days for urgent communications. 

But it's not just fast publication times that get CrystEngComm noticed. It's official: the science is hot. A CrystEngComm  article has just been highlighted as a Fast Breaking Paper by Essential Science Indicators^SM from Thomson Scientific. Fast Breaking Papers are highly cited papers that are attracting the attention of the scientific community; they show the largest recent percentage increase in citations.

The article by Proserpio and co-workers presents an algorithm enabling crystal engineers to discover new properties, like interpenetration, in substances (see Blatov et al., CrystEngComm, 2004, 6, 378). 

Fundamental Toxicology - a new textbook published by the RSC - gathers together the most up to the minute developments in toxicology. 

Based on the highly successful Fundamental Toxicology for Chemists, it has been expanded and updated to include the very latest in this exciting area of science.  It covers well established areas of toxicology as well as rapidly developing topics such as toxicogenomics, reproductive toxicology, behavioural toxicology and ecotoxicology. 

Complete with a suggested curriculum, an extensive glossary and recommended further reading this definitive resource is essential reading for students, teachers and lecturers alike. A must for anyone interested in toxicology!