First came enhanced HTML in electronic journal articles in the first phase of Project Prospect - now further developments means RSC Publishing has become the first ever publisher to enhance RSS feeds with structured subject and compound information.

Journal RSS feeds from RSC Publishing were the first from a scientific publisher to include the graphical abstract. This latest innovation means that RSS feeds from RSC journals will also display ontology terms and compound details, including the 2D image. Users will be able to see at a glance whether the paper is relevant to their research. In addition, hidden coding within the RSS feed allows the metadata to be read by machine - another step towards the 'semantic web'.

Research from across four institutions, in two countries, and involving eight researchers published in Molecular BioSystems has become the first RSC Open Science paper. Authors from the UK and US collaborated on the work, which involved screening chemical compounds and monitoring changes in tissue during early skeletal development in zebrafish.

The study is an excellent example of research carried out at the chemistry-biology interface, which is a prime focus of the Molecular BioSystems journal.

Zebrafish embryos can be monitored relatively easily outside of the uterus and are transparent, so changes can be clearly observed. They serve as models in the study of Menkes disease in humans, a developmental disease associated with copper metabolism.

In the study, mercapto-pyridine-N-oxide (MCP) was found to affect the development of the notochord, an important tissue involved in early skeletal development. Results suggested that MCP targets the copper-dependent enzyme lysine oxidase.

RSC Open Science gives authors the option of paying a fee in exchange for making their accepted communication, research paper or review article openly available to all via the web.

The RSC is continually aiming to provide both scientists in the lab and those working in industry with reliable and high-quality reference material.  Three recently published titles focus on industry-related topics and make excellent reading:

Metal-Catalysis in Industrial Organic Processes  (G P Chiusoli, P Maitlis) - Covers the major areas of the field, discussing the logic of using catalysis in industrial processes as well as the mechanisms involved.

Freeze-Drying of Pharmaceuticals and Biopharmaceuticals (F Franks) - Describes the technology with particular emphasis on the properties of the material to be processed.