The steady progress of Comptes rendus Chimie in terms of readership and impact is due to the remarkable contributions of our authors and guest editors (of the special, theme issues) and they deserve our warmest thanks and congratulations for their commitment. The easy access to the articles published in Comptes rendus Chimie through the Internet portal “Science Direct” certainly accounts for the considerable increase in the number of downloads, ca. 200 000 in 2012. The impact factor of the journal has also enjoyed a nice progression, being now above 1.8, its highest ever. Although these data may still be considered as modest, they represent a very strong encouragement that we are pleased to share with you.

The theme issues published in 2012 have covered various fields: “Glycolipid chemistry at the European level” (guest editors: Arnaud Haudrechy and Éric Hénon); “Polyoxometalates, metal wires and other polymetallic complexes: Structure, properties, theoretical modelling”; “A tribute to Marie-Madeleine Rohmer” (Marc Bénard), “History of chemistry” (Yves Jeannin), and “Inorganic molecular materials” (Marius Andruh). It has been a real pleasure to work with our guest editors and we congratulate them for their efforts in collecting so many excellent contributions. 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 broad coverage of Comptes rendus Chimie is also apparent from the lists of most accessed articles. The “Top ten” most downloaded articles published in 2011 are:

Functionalisation of mesoporous silica nanoparticles with 3-isocynatopropyltrichlorosilane

Malti, W.E.; Mongin, O.; Blanchard-Desce, M.; Raehm, L.; Durand, J.O.

C.R. Chimie, 14 (2011) 1055-1058

Mild and efficient protection of diol and carbonyls as cyclic acetals catalysed by iron (III) chloride

Karame, I.; Alame, M.; Kanj, A.; Baydoun, G.N.; Hazimeh, H.; el Masri, M.; Christ, L.

C.R. Chimie, 14 (2011) 525-529

Green syntheses of biobased solvents

Bandres, M.; de Caro, P.; Thiebaud-Roux, S.; Borredon, M.E.

C.R. Chimie, 14 (2011) 636-646

Synthetic biology, tinkering biology, and artificial biology. What are we learning?

Benner, S.A.; Yang, Z.; Chen, F.

C.R. Chimie, 14 (2011) 372-387

Carbon dioxide conversion to dimethyl carbonate: The effect of silica as support for SnO₂ and ZrO₂ catalysts

Ballivet-Tkatchenko, D.; dos Santos, J.H.Z.; Philippot, K.; Vasireddy, S.

C.R. Chimie, 14 (2011) 780-785

Challenges in the directed evolution of stereoselective enzymes for use in organic chemistry

Reetz, M.T.; Krebs, G.P.L.

C.R. Chimie, 14 (2011) 811-818

Lithium tetrafluoroborate catalyzed highly efficient inter- and intramolecular aza-Michael addition with aromatic amines

Lad, U.P.; Kulkarni, M.A.; Desai, U.V.; Wadgaonkar, P.P.

C.R. Chimie, 14 (2011) 1059-1064

Squaric acid as an impressive organocatalyst for Michael addition in water

Azizi, N.; Saki, E.; Edrisi, M.

C.R. Chimie, 14 (2011) 973-977

One-pot multi-component synthesis of polyhydroquinolines at ambient temperature

Undale, K.A.; Shaikh, T.S.; Gaikwad, D.S.; Pore, D.M.

C.R. Chimie, 14 (2011) 511-515

Brønsted acidic ionic liquids promoted cyclocondensation reaction: Synthesis of 1,8-dioxo-octahydroxanthene

Salvi, P.P.; Mandhare, A.M.; Sartape, A.S.; Pawar, D.K.; Han, S.H.; Kolekar, S.S.

C.R. Chimie, 14 (2011) 883-886

Although the data are still incomplete at the time this Editorial was written, the “Top ten” most downloaded articles published in 2012 are:

Preparation of various xanthene derivatives over sulfonic acid functionalized imidazolium salts (SAFIS) as novel, highly efficient and reusable catalysts

Zolfigol, M.A.; Khakyzadeh, V.; Moosavi-Zare, A.R.; Zare, A.; Azimi, S.B.; Asgari, Z.; Hasaninejad, A.

C.R. Chimie, 15 (2012) 719-736

Simultaneous removal of copper(II), lead(II), zinc(II) and cadmium(II) from aqueous solutions by multi-walled carbon nanotubes

Salam, M.A.; Al-Zhrani, G.; Kosa, S.A.

C.R. Chimie, 15 (2012) 398-408

Synthesis, spectroscopic characterization and photophysical study of dicyanomethylene-substituted squaraine dyes

Pisoni, D.d.S.; Petzhold, C.L.; Abreu, M.P.d.; Rodembusch, F.S.; Campo, L.F.

C.R. Chimie, 15 (2012) 454-462

Antioxidant activity determination in Sencha and Gun Powder green tea extracts with the application of voltammetry and UV-VIS spectrophotometry

Masek, A.; Chrzescijanska, E.; Kosmalska, A.; Zaborski, M.

C.R. Chimie, 15 (2012) 424-427

Catalytic stereoselective Mannich reaction under solvent-free conditions

Azizi, N.; Baghi, R.; Batebi, E.; Bolourtchian, S.M.

C.R. Chimie, 15 (2012) 278-282

An appropriate one-pot synthesis of dihydropyrimidinones catalyzed by heteropoly acid supported on zeolite: An efficient and reusable catalyst for the Biginelli reaction

Moosavifar, M.

C.R. Chimie, 15 (2012) 444-447

Calix[4]arene-modified silica nanoparticles for the potentiometric detection of iron (III) in aqueous solution

Becuwe, M.; Rouge, P.; Gervais, C.; Cailleu, D.; Courty, M.; Dassonville-Klimpt, A.; Sonnet, P.; Baudrin, E.

C.R. Chimie, 15 (2012) 290-297

A novel method for the synthesis of tetrahydrobenzo[a]-xanthen-11-one derivatives using cerium(III) chloride as a highly efficient catalyst

Kidwai, M.; Jahan, A.; Mishra, N.K.

C.R. Chimie, 15 (2012) 324-330

Highly selective oxidation of alcohols using MnO₂/TiO₂-ZrO₂ as a novel heterogeneous catalyst

Massah, A.R.; Kalbasi, R.J.; Azadi, M.

C.R. Chimie, 15 (2012) 448-453

l-Proline-catalysed one-pot synthesis of tetrahydrobenzo[c]acridin-8(7H)-ones at room temperature

Poor Heravi, M.R.; Aghamohammadi, P.

C.R. Chimie, 15 (2012) 448-453

Furthermore, the “Top 5” most cited articles published in 2010 are:

“Chimie douce”: A land of opportunities for the designed construction of functional inorganic and hybrid organic-inorganic nanomaterials

Sanchez C., Rozes L., Ribot F., Laberty-Robert C., Grosso D., Sassoye C., Boissiere C., Nicole L.

C.R. Chimie, 13 (2010) 3

Use of ionic liquids in sol-gel; ionogels and applications

Vioux A., Viau L., Volland S., Le Bideau J.

C.R. Chimie, 13 (2010) 242

Functions of polymers in composite electrodes of lithium ion batteries

Lestriez B.

C.R. Chimie, 13 (2010) 1341

Design of metal oxide nanoparticles: Control of size, shape, crystalline structure and functionalization by aqueous chemistry

Jolivet J.-P., Cassaignon S., Chaneac C., Chiche D., Durupthy O., Portehault D.

C.R. Chimie, 13 (2010) 40

Lanthanide-doped LiYF₄ nanoparticles: Synthesis and multicolor upconversion tuning

Wang J., Wang F., Xu J., Wang Y., Liu Y., Chen X., Chen H., Liu X.

C.R. Chimie, 13 (2010) 731

and the “Top 5” most cited articles published in 2011 are:

Cyclodextrins and their applications in aqueous-phase metal-catalyzed reactions

Hapiot F., Ponchel A., Tilloy S., Monflier E.

C.R. Chimie, 14 (2011) 149-166

A propos of glycosyl cations and the mechanism of chemical glycosylation

Bohe L., Crich D.

C.R. Chimie, 14 (2011) 3-16

Frustrated Lewis pairs: Reactions with dihydrogen and other “small molecules”

Erker G.

C.R. Chimie, 14 (2011) 831-841

Iron-oriented ethylene oligomerization and polymerization: The Iron Age or a flash in the pan

Xiao T., Zhang W., Lai J., Sun W.-H.

C.R. Chimie, 14 (2011) 851-855

Organized molecular systems as reaction media

Rico-Lattes I., Perez E., Franceschi-Messant S., Lattes A.

C.R. Chimie, 14 (2011) 700-715

We warmly thank retiring members of the Editorial Board, Professors Vincenzo Balzani, Gilberte Chambaud, Robin J. H. Clark, Robert H. Crabtree, Peter Day, François Diederich, Yves Gnanou, John B. Goodenough, Achim Müller and Michael Veith for their contributions and efforts to develop the journal during the past few years, as well as providing support. At the same time, we are very pleased to welcome new members of the Editorial Board, Professors Matthias Driess, Kim Dunbar, Thomas Fässler, Alois Fürstner, François Gabbai, Pierre Grandclaudon, Michael Grätzel, Régis Réau and Helmut Schwarz and we look forward to work with them.

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 doubling of the number of submissions over the past three 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 need.

I wish you all a happy and successful 2013 with exciting chemistry to share with us in this Journal!