The dramatic increase in the number of submissions to Comptes rendus Chimie has experienced new records in the last two years. This is result of a number of factors, including the steady progress in terms of readership and impact, which is caused by the remarkable contributions of our authors and guest editors (who are in charge of the thematic issues), and the easy access to the articles published in Comptes rendus Chimie through the Internet portal “ScienceDirect”. This situation has naturally resulted in an increased rejection rate (about 80%) and a sharpening of the Editorial policy. Notes (preliminary communications) should describe novel and important results and full papers should report new results and include a detailed experimental section (the deposition of supplementary material is encouraged). In all cases, the work should be of high general interest or of outstanding specialized interest. Consequently, only submissions considered by the Editorial office to meet these main criteria are sent out to referees. Short reviews focusing on the author(s) research and placed in the context of most important recent advances are very welcome.

This year, at the suggestion of Dr. Ioana Fechete, we will start a new section, called Block calendar, in which we will be reminded of major scientists associated with each calendar day. Your comments will be appreciated.

Like in previous years, theme issues have been coordinated by guest editors and those published in 2014 have again covered very diversified fields: Green extraction of natural products (guest editors: F. Chemat, M. Abert-Vian and A.-S. Fabiano-Tixier), Progress in the kinetics and mechanisms of chemical reactions at the atomic and molecular levels (in honour of F. Garin, guest editors: I. Fechete, V. Jouikov, T. Visart de Bocarmé, D. Bazin), and Organometallic and coordination chemistry (guest editors: S. Richeter, S. Clément). It has been a real pleasure to work with our authors, referees and guest editors and we congratulate them for their efforts and support. We encourage all of you to also contribute to the success of Comptes rendus Chimie by being the guest editor of a thematic issue on a topic of your choice.

The quality and diversity of the articles published in Comptes rendus Chimie certainly accounts for the considerable increase in the number of downloads, ca. 183,700 in 2013. This represents a very strong encouragement that we are pleased to share with you.

The broad coverage of Comptes rendus Chimie is also apparent from the lists of most accessed articles. The “top-ten” most downloaded articles published in 2013 are:

• • D. Habibi, M. Nasrollahzadeh, An ultrasound-promoted green approach for the N-formylation of amines under solvent- and catalyst-free conditions at room temperature [Vol. 16, No. 11, pp. 1008–1016];
• • D. Habibi, A. R. Faraji, Preparation, characterization and catalytic activity of a nano-Co(II)-Catalyst as a high efficient heterogeneous catalyst for the selective oxidation of ethylbenzene, cyclohexene, and benzyl alcohol [Vol. 16, No. 10, pp. 888–896];
• • F. Shirini, S. Akbari-Dadamahaleh, A. Mohammad-Khah, A.-R. Aliakbar, Rice husk: A mild, efficient, green and recyclable catalyst for the synthesis of 12-aryl-8,9,10,12-tetrahydro [a] xanthene-11-ones and quinoxaline derivatives [Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 207–216];
• • Y. Coffinier, G. Piret, M. R. Das, R. Boukherroub, Effect of surface roughness and chemical composition on the wetting properties of silicon-based substrates [Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 65–72];
• • M. A. Zolfigol, A. R. Moosavi-Zare, P. Moosavi, V. Khakyzadeh, A. Zare, Nano-ferrous ferric oxide (nano-Fe₃O₄): Powerful, reusable, and stable catalyst for N-Boc protection of amines [Vol. 16, No. 11, pp. 962–966];
• • P. Chenevier, L. Mugherli, S. Darbe, L. Darchy, S. DiManno, P. D. Tran, F. Valentino, M. Iannello, A. Volbeda, C. Cavazza, V. Artero, Hydrogenase enzymes: Application in biofuel cells and inspiration for the design of noble-metal free catalysts for H₂ oxidation [Vol. 16, No. 5, pp. 491–505];
• • S. J. Sabounchei, M. Ahmadi, Z. Nasri, E. Shams, S. Salehzadeh, Y. Gholiee, R. Karamian, M. Asadbegy, S. Samiee, Synthesis, characterization, thermal, electrochemical, and DFT studies of mononuclear cyclopalladated complexes containing bidentate phosphine ligands and their biological evaluation as antioxidant and antibacterial agents [Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 159–175];
• • U. M. Tefashe, G. Wittstock, Quantitative characterization of shear force regulation for scanning electrochemical microscopy [Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 7–14];
• • M. Salavati-Niasari, G. Banaiean-Monfared, H. Emadi, M. Enhessari, Synthesis and characterization of nickel sulfide nanoparticles via cyclic microwave radiation [Vol. 16, No. 10, pp. 929–936];
• • J. Safari, Z. Zarnegar, Immobilized ionic liquid on superparamagnetic nanoparticles as an effective catalyst for the synthesis of tetrasubstituted imidazoles under solvent-free conditions and microwave irradiation [Vol. 16, No. 10, pp. 920–928].

Although the data are still incomplete at the time this Editorial was written, the “top-ten” most downloaded articles published in 2014 are:

• • S. Khodabakhshi, B. Karami, K. Eskandari, S. J. Hoseini, Titanium dioxide nanowires as green and heterogeneous catalysts for the synthesis of novel pyranocoumarins [Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 35–40];
• • S. J. Sabounchei, M. Panahimehr, M. Ahmadi, F3. Akhlaghi, C. Boscovic, Seven-membered Pd(II) complexes containing symmetric phosphorus ylides: Synthesis, characterization and high catalytic activity toward Suzuki cross-coupling reactions [Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 81–90];
• • J. A. Khan, M. Qasim, B. R. Singh, W. Khan, D. Das, A. H. Naqvi, Polyaniline/CoFe₂O₄ nanocomposite inhibits the growth of Candida albicans 077 by ROS production [Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 91–102];
• • M. R. Poor Heravi, S. Mehranfar, N. Shabani, An efficient green MCR protocol for the synthesis of 2,4,5-trisubstituted imidazoles by Selectfluor™ under ultrasound irradiation [Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 141–145];
• • H. Naeimi, Z. S. Nazifi, Environmentally benign and one-pot synthesis of 14-aryl-14H-dibenzo[a,j] xanthenes catalyzed by acyclic Brønsted acidic ionic liquid [H-NMP][HSO₄] under green conditions [Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 41–48];
• • R. Ghorbani-Vaghei, R. Karimi-Nami, Z. Toghraei-Semiromi, M. Amiri, Zahra Salimi, M. Ghavidel, One-pot synthesis of pyrimidines under solvent-free conditions [Vol. 17, No. 4, pp. 324–330];
• • Y. Li, F. Fine, A.-S. Fabiano-Tixier, M. Abert-Vian, P. Carré, X. Pages, F. Chemat, Evaluation of alternative solvents for improvement of oil extraction from rapeseeds [Vol. 17, No. 3, pp. 242–251];
• • Alizadeh, A. Rezvanian, Catalyst- and solvent-free synthesis of highly functionalized octahydro-imidazo[1,2-a]quinolin-6-ones via a one-pot sequential four-component reaction in melt conditions [Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 103–107];
• • K. Alimohammadi, Y. Sarrafi, B. Rajabpour, An expedient approach for the regio- and stereoselective synthesis of novel spiroindolizidines via [3+2] cycloaddition [Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 156–163];
• • Z. Vafajoo, H. Veisi, M. T. Maghsoodlou, H. Ahmadian, Electrocatalytic multicomponent assembling of aldehydes, 4-hydroxycoumarin and malononitrile: An efficient approach to 2-amino-5-oxo-4,5-dihydropyrano(3,2-c)chromene-3-carbonitrile derivatives [Vol. 17, No. 4, pp. 301–304].

Furthermore, the “top-5” most cited articles published in 2012 are:

• • M. A. Zolfigol, V. Khakyzadeh, A. R. Moosavi-Zare, A. Zare, Seyedeh B. Azimi, Z. Asgari, A. Hasaninejad, Preparation of various xanthene derivatives over sulfonic acid-functionalized imizadolium salts (SAFIS) as novel, highly efficient and reusable catalysts [Vol. 15, No. 8, pp. 719–736];
• • S. Nemouchi, R. Boulcina, B. Carboni, A. Debache, Phenylboronic acid as an efficient and convenient catalyst for a three-component synthesis of tetrahydrobenzo[b]pyrans [Vol. 15, No. 5, pp. 394–397];
• • M. A. Salam, G. Al-Zhrani, S. A. Kosa, Simultaneous removal of copper(II), lead(II), zinc(II) and cadmium(II) from aqueous solutions by multi-walled carbon nanotubes [Vol. 15, No. 5, pp. 398–408];
• • M.A. Kulkarni, V.R. Pandurangi, U.V. Desai, P.P. Wadgaonkar, A practical and highly efficient protocol for multicomponent synthesis of β-phosphonomalononitriles and 2-amino-4H-chromen-4-yl phosphonates using diethylamine as a novel organocatalyst [Vol. 15, No. 9, pp. 745–752]
• • N. Dadhania, V.K. Patel, D.K. Raval, Catalyst-free sonochemical synthesis of 1,8-dioxo-octahydroxanthene derivatives in carboxy functionalized ionic liquid [Vol. 15, No. 5, pp. 378–383];

• • S. J. Sabounchei, M. Ahmadi, Z. Nasri, E. Shams, S. Salehzadeh, Y. Gholiee, R. Karamian, M. Asadbegy, S. Samiee, Synthesis, characterization, thermal, electrochemical, and DFT studies of mononuclear cyclopalladated complexes containing bidentate phosphine ligands and their biological evaluation as antioxidant and antibacterial agents [Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 159–175];
• • U. M. Tefashe, G. Wittstock, Quantitative characterization of shear force regulation for scanning electrochemical microscopy [Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 7–14];
• • D. Habibi, M. Nasrollahzadeh, An ultrasound-promoted green approach for the N-formylation of amines under solvent- and catalyst-free conditions at room temperature [Vol. 16, No. 11, pp. 1008–1016];
• • F. Shirini, S. Akbari-Dadamahaleh, A. Mohammad-Khah, A.-R. Aliakbar, Rice husk: A mild, efficient, green and recyclable catalyst for the synthesis of 12-aryl-8,9,10,12-tetrahydro [a] xanthene-11-ones and quinoxaline derivatives [Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 207–216];
• • Y. Coffinier, G. Piret, M. R. Das, R. Boukherroub, Effect of surface roughness and chemical composition on the wetting properties of silicon-based substrates [Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 65–72].

We are most grateful to the editorial and production staff of Comptes rendus Chimie, in particular to Marie-Christine Brissot (scientific secretary) and Fatima Messadi, whose dedication and help are invaluable. Their workload has dramatically increased with the massive increase of the number of submissions over the past four years.

The future development of Comptes rendus Chimie depends on you! Please send your thoughts and suggestions to me and help us to keep developing the journal to meet your needs.

I wish you all a happy and successful year 2015 with exciting chemistry to share with us in this journal!