Zeitschrift für Naturforschung B now being published by De Gruyter

Starting with the January issue 2015 (issue 70.1), Zeitschrift für Naturforschung B becomes part of the De Gruyter program. As a family-owned company with more than 260 years of experience in scientific publishing, De Gruyter honors the achievements of a journal so steeped in tradition.

The Zeitschrift für Naturforschung was founded in 1946 by the then 32-year-old Alfred Klemm (1913–2013) working at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Chemistry in Tübingen, with Hans Friedrich-Freksa as a co-founder and Dieterich’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung of Alfred Klemm’s father Wilhelm Klemm as the publisher, later succeeded by the Verlag der Zeitschrift für Naturforschung founded by Alfred Klemm. ^[1]

In 1947 the Zeitschrift für Naturforschung was divided into two parts which were devoted to the physical sciences (Section A) and the chemical and biological sciences including biophysics (Section B). It was not until 1973 that Section C was established for the biological sciences while Section B has since concentrated on chemistry.

In Zeitschrift für Naturforschung B – A Journal of Chemical Sciences, as it is fully referred to now, papers are presented which describe the results of preparative, spectroscopic and structural studies in chemistry with a distinct element of novelty. This encompasses the classical fields of inorganic, organometallic and organic chemistry including natural product chemistry. Manuscripts dealing with analytical and theoretical aspects of chemistry are also considered provided they can be expected to be of interest to the general readership of the journal. With regard to the article format, (full) articles are mostly published, but also research notes, communications, as well as review articles are welcome. Recently, the Zeitschrift für Naturforschung B has established itself as a hybrid journal which offers the possibility for open-access publishing.

The most visible changes after the move of Zeitschrift für Naturforschung B to the Berlin-based but internationally active publisher Walter De Gruyter is a new layout, maintaining, however, the traditional yellow color on the front page. More important, the reproduction of color figures in both the online and the print version is now free of charge for the authors. Effective as of April 2015 the full Zeitschrift for Naturforschung backfile archive going back to 1946 will be available online. During 2015 an online submission system will be implemented facilitating the submission process for authors and reviewers.

Being open for other changes that will be necessary in the future, the editors and the editorial team believe that these changes will improve the quality and add to the attractiveness and visibility of the journal, thus better servicing the publishing needs of the international chemical community.