From this month (January 2010), Nature Chemical Biology (6, 1; 2010) has a new look, with more online features to facilitate the communication of chemical biology discoveries.

Over the past few months, Nature Chemical Biology has rolled out two new chemical information resources, both developed in partnership with Nature Chemistry. First, the chemical compound pages have been expanded significantly (example here), providing readers with a rich resource for each compound including names, molecular properties, and chemical identifiers (such as InChI and InChIKey identifiers). Second, the html (online full-text) versions of Nature Chemical Biology papers now contain a highlighting tool that allows users to quickly identify additional chemical compounds in the paper and rapidly link to more information on these materials (example here). The compound pages and the annotations and their corresponding links are curated by the journal’s technical editors. Taken together, these two enhancements more completely integrate chemical information within each Nature Chemical Biology paper.

Several other changes are underway to enhance the experience of reading Nature Chemical Biology. Beginning with the January 2010 issue, the print versions and the electronic pdfs of the papers have a new look based on the designs of the Nature journals in the physical sciences. The new template integrates ‘subject’ terms, which will enhance searching and archiving of published content. In the coming months, readers of Nature Chemical Biology (and the other Nature journals) will see major improvements in the html versions of online articles: article layouts and navigation are being streamlined to give articles a new look and feel, and a variety of new tools will be introduced to enhance the reader interface and improve retrieval of other information relevant to the paper. Major changes supporting the journal web site are also in store, including enhancements to search functionality and subject archives.

Though the primary aim of Nature Chemical Biology remains to publish the best research and insights in chemical biology, the editors look forward to using new electronic publishing and social networking tools to enhance interactions in the chemical biology community. To receive journal news regarding latest research papers, policy updates and other information, follow @nchembio at Twitter. The editors are seeking feedback from authors and readers on how best to make use of these new technologies, either electronically or the old-fashioned way—through interactions in person at conferences and meetings throughout 2010 and beyond.