Since their establishment in 1835 by François Arago, a French mathematician, physicist and astronomer who was chosen in 1830 as a Secrétaire perpétuel of the Académie des sciences, the Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des sciences have published an impressive number of outstanding contributions. Among the landmark papers, let us just recall the article by D. Mendeleev in C. R. Acad. Sci. 1875, 969-972, that was triggered by the discovery in that year of gallium by François Lecoq de Boisbaudran. The existence of this element was predicted (under the name eka-aluminum) six years earlier by Mendeleev. On the occasion of Mendeleev’s publication in February 1869, 2019 was declared by UNESCO as International Year of the Periodic Table. This 150th anniversary was celebrated by a scientific event on 19 November 2019 in the Académie des sciences. Lectures were presented on this occasion, which will appear shortly in the Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des sciences.

Comptes Rendus Chimie publishes original research and accounts (short reviews and historic chronicles) in all areas of chemistry, including at the frontiers of chemistry with other disciplines. Notes (preliminary communications) should describe novel and important results, while full papers should provide a detailed account of new results. In all cases, the work should be of high general interest or outstanding specialized interest. Short reviews focusing on the author(s) research but placed in the context of the most recent advances in the field are also welcome. Furthermore, thematic issues coordinated by one or many guest editor(s) (spontaneous suggestions are welcome) always attract much attention. We are most grateful to our authors and guest editors because they are responsible for the success of this journal and its increasing visibility.

Only submissions considered by the Editorial office to potentially meet these criteria are sent out to referees. We understand the frustrations generated by a rejection not accompanied by detailed comments from the referees, but this is the only way to proceed given the number of submissions received by the Editorial Office, as also done by many international scientific journals for similar reasons. We all know that it is essential for a journal to be able to rely on high-level scientific referees with an ethic that lives up to their task and we also know that these colleagues are being increasingly solicited. We wish to take this opportunity to thank them warmly for their contribution to the success of our journal.

We are pleased to share with you that the quality and diversity of the articles published in Comptes Rendus Chimie result in a nice trend in the number of downloads: ca. 193,300 in 2015, 257,800 in 2016, 222,800 in 2017, 262,000 in 2018 and 244.200 in 2019 at the time this editorial was written. The impact factor rose from 1.713 in 2014 to 2.366 in 2018.

In a rapidly changing landscape of scientific publishing, with a growing number of predatory scientific journals and increasing international competition, the Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des sciences represent a reference and stability element with a long-standing reputation.

Since January 1, 2020, a major development has taken place for all the publications of the Académie des sciences. Comptes Rendus Chimie is now fully Open Access worldwide online, with no fee for authors nor readers (“diamond model”). This is the result of an innovative collaboration with the Mersenne Centre for open scientific publishing, supported by the CNRS and the Université Grenoble Alpes. The archives of all the articles published between January 1, 2002, and December 31, 2019, will remain accessible free of charge from the website of Elsevier, our previous publishing partner.

Finally, I am most grateful to the editorial and production staff of Comptes Rendus Chimie, in particular to Marie-Christine Brissot (scientific secretary) and Jean-Michel Blengino (Elsevier) for their commitment and cooperation and look forward to collaborating with those who will join the team and share with us these new and exciting developments.

The continuing success of Comptes Rendus Chimie depends on you! We are doing our best to meet the demands of the international scientific community. Suggestions to help us meet your expectations are most welcome!

Looking forward to receiving outstanding contributions from you soon, I wish you all a happy and most successful year 2020 with exciting science!

Pierre Braunstein

Editor-in-Chief

Strasbourg