Increasing the Impact of Published Work.

Introducing ACS LiveSlides

The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters (JPCL) is now in its
fourth year of publishing groundbreaking articles in physical
chemistry with the fastest publication time. Our streamlined
editorial and publication processes have allowed JPCL to make
a huge impact among physical chemists, chemical physicists,
biophysicists, and material scientists and engineers. Web of
Science (Thomson Reuters) recently released the 2012 impact
factor for JPCL of 6.585 another testimonial of our eorts to
publish the highest-quality scientic papers reporting important
scientic advances. The 1164 Letters and Perspectives and 50
Editorials and Commentaries published in 2010 and 2011
garnered 7765 citations in 2012 (Source: Web of Science,
Thomson Reuters). JPCL is ranked number one in the Physics
Atomic Molecular and Chemical category.
The changing publication landscape and the wide availability
of new electronic tools have made it increasingly important to
explore new ways to disseminate published research. Since
JPCLs inception in 2010, we have been constantly working
with and engaging authors to publicize their research published
in JPCL in new ways. For example, Perspective videos oer a
unique opportunity for authors to communicate their
involvement in a particular research theme and discuss issues
related to an emerging topic. So far, more than 70 videos have
been catalogued on the journal homepage (http://pubs.acs.
org/page/jpclcd/video/perspectives.html), as well as on the
ACS Publications YouTube Channel. The more than 50 000
views that these videos have received demonstrates the
increasing popularity of disseminating research through multi-
media and the eectiveness that JPCL has in helping authors
get their research out in this social media space. The JPC
Fa c e b o o k p a g e ( h t t p s : / / www. f a c e b o o k . c o m/
JournalofPhysicalChemistry), updated regularly with news
about the journal and other interesting bits about physical
chemistry and physical chemists, is another informal platform
where our authors and readers can explore new physical
chemistry highlights and participate in relevant discussions.
Recently, we introduced a new multimedia feature, ACS
LiveSlides, to allow all JPCL authors to present their published
work in an easy-to-prepare, short presentation format (Figure
1). The PowerPoint slides and audio narrations prepared by the
authors are integrated into a user-friendly ACS LiveSlides
format, which can be played on a number of web-based
platforms and devices. These slideshows are directly linked to
the authors published paper through the Supporting
Information. There is also a catalog of ACS LiveSlides
presentations available in the Multimedia tab of the JPCL
homepage (http://pubs.acs.org/page/jpclcd/acsliveslides.
html). This new presentation concept provides readers with
the opportunity to quickly capture the essence of a research
project through the vision of authors. The preparation of an
ACS LiveSlides presentation only requires authors to submit ve
to six PowerPoint slides and an MP4 audio le. Playing a
presentation can be done using almost any web browser. ACS
LiveSlides can also be accessed on mobile-friendly devices, thus
oering the convenience of accessing research highlights from
any location with ease. Direct links to share ACS LiveSlides with
colleagues and friends on social media sites such as Facebook
and Twitter is yet another feature that authors can use to
promote their research. As the discussions of scientic papers in
social media get tracked by sites such as Altmetric (www.
altmetric.com), the necessity of integrating published work with
multimedia will likely become a necessary part of scientic
communication. All JPCL authors will be invited to participate
in this new multimedia presentation following acceptance of
their Letters. We would like to extend our sincere appreciation
to all the authors who made contributions during the early
phase of this project. All presentations will be available in the
ACS LiveSlides collection.
Why should authors consider a multimedia presentation? The
vast number of scientic publications that appear today makes
it dicult to track important published papers quickly. Many
authors assume that publication in a high impact journal is the
only way to make their work known. It is interesting to
consider that when even a few of the published papers in a
particular journal draw a disproportionately high number of
citations, it can result in that journal being crowned with a high
Published: July 18, 2013
The 2012 impact factor for JPCL of
6.585 is another testimonial of
our eorts to publish the highest-
quality scientic papers.
The launch of ACS LiveSlides oers
an easy-to-use platform for au-
thors to disseminate their signi-
cant ndings using a format that
engages readers in a new way.
Figure 1. The launch of ACS LiveSlides (http://pubs.acs.org/page/
jpclcd/ACSLiveSlides.html) oers an easy-to-use platform for authors
to disseminate their signicant ndings using a format that engages
readers in a new way.
Editorial
pubs.acs.org/JPCL
2013 American Chemical Society 2377 dx.doi.org/10.1021/jz401301z | J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2013, 4, 23772378
impact factor.
1
Also, the citations received for Reviews,
Perspectives, and (for some journals) editorial matter are
included in the journal impact factor calculation. It is worth
noting that the citations recorded for about half of the
published papers remain below the impact factor level of the
corresponding journal. Interestingly, 13% papers fail to record
even a single citation, and 1530% of papers receive less than
ve citations.
4
What criteria should authors take into
consideration when publishing their work? Even a paper in a
high impact journal might lead to few, if any, citations if the
topic is not relevant to that journals readership, whereas a
specialized or topical journal may draw the desired attention by
readers of the appropriate scientic community. As noted in a
recent editorial in Science, the journal impact factor should not
be used to gauge the impact of any given published work.
2
Impact factors are meant to assist librarians in selecting journals
and not meant to judge the specic impact of individual papers.
The real impact of a published work lies in its scientic (and
perhaps commercial) merit, carefully executed study, and its
ability to attract broad interest from researchers.
It is essential that all published work receives well-deserved
attention. In a previous JPCL Editorial, we discussed important
points for authors to consider in composing eective scientic
papers.
3
Even after publication, authors and journal editors and
publishers can take additional steps to promote the published
research ndings. A recent ACS Publications guide explains
why authors should take additional measures to publicize their
research ndings and thus increase the impact of their
published work.
5
The use of multimedia platforms, such as
ACS LiveSlides (introduced by JPCL) and JPCL Perspective
videos, provide new and exciting ways for authors to draw the
attention of Internet and mobile app-savvy readers to their
work.
The current issue of JPCL highlights a Perspective on the
topic of magnetochemistry. In their Perspective, Ballav and co-
workers discuss recent advances in on-surface magneto-
chemistry (Ballav, N.; Waeckerlin, C.; Oppeneer, P.; Jung, T.
Emergence of On-Surface Magnetochemistry. J. Phys. Chem.
Lett. 2013, 4, 23032311). Careful manipulation of coordina-
tion chemistry of surface-supported complexes oers a
distinctive possibility of controlling their magnetic properties.
It is interesting to note that surfacemolecule interactions,
which play an important role in dictating magnetochemical
eects, arise beyond those known from classical coordination
chemistry. The Perspective authors present recent advances in
magnetochemistry using the examples of metal porphyrins and
metal phthalocyanines containing rst-row transition-metal
ions.
We would like to thank the ACS Publications sta for their
eorts in bringing the ACS LiveSlides feature to the JPCL
readership. It is our hope that the JPCL authors will embrace
ACS LiveSlides as an easy way to gain an edge in raising the
impact of their published work.
Prashant V. Kamat, Deputy Editor
University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana
George C. Schatz, Editor-in-Chief
Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois

REFERENCES
(1) Editorial, Beware the Impact Factor. Nat. Mater. 2013, 12, 89,
DOI: 10.1038/nmat3566.
(2) Alberts, B. Impact Factor Distortions. Science 2013, 340, 787
787.
(3) Kamat, P. V.; Schatz, G. C. How to Make Your Next Paper
Scientifically Effective. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2013, 4, 15781581.
(4) On the basis of citations of 20112012 papers published in a few
leading journals with impact factors greater than 6 (as of May 30,
2013). Source Web of Science.
(5) Be Found or Perish: Writing Scientic Manuscripts for the Digital
Age. Bio-Journals, ACS Publications Link; http://pubs.acs.org/bio/
ACS-Guide-Writing-Manuscripts-for-the-Digital-Age.pdf (2013).

EDITOR'S NOTE
Views expressed in this editorial are those of the authors and
not necessarily the views of the ACS.
This new presentation concept
provides readers with the oppor-
tunity to quickly capture the
essence of a research project
through the vision of authors.
The real impact of a published
work lies in its scientic (and
perhaps commercial) merit, care-
fully executed study, and its
ability to attract broad interest
from researchers.
The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters Editorial
dx.doi.org/10.1021/jz401301z | J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2013, 4, 23772378 2378