An invitation to contribute a paper
Jean-Claude Bradley Memorial Issue
Guest Editors
Antony J. Williams, Cheminformatics, Royal Society of Chemistry
Andrew Lang, Oral Roberts University
Overview.
In May of 2014 we lost one of our colleagues, Jean-Claude Bradley (JC), way too soon.
JC was, in many ways, a man ahead of his time. He foresaw the future of science likely a decade ahead of the new shift that is occurring in academia, that of Open Notebook Science. The last decade has seen a dramatic shift toward openness in science that has encompassed Open Access Publishing, Open Source in software development, Open Data in the majority of branches of science and Open Standards primarily as a result of people like JC. As a result of these shifts the amount of data now available online for scientists to consume and interrogate is enormous and grows daily. Much of this data is however already “aged” having been extracted from published articles or assembled into databases from historical data that often lacks provenance.
Jean-Claude Bradley’s drive was towards something more immediate with his concept of Open Notebook Science, the practice of making the entire primary record of research activities publicly available online as it is recorded (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_notebook_science). Through his leadership in this area he motivated, cajoled and guided a number of scientists who operated in a more generally closed manner of science into the domain of Open Science. He mentored young students into the new world and encouraged us all to consider the benefits that could result in being more open.
Jean-Claude was also a master collaborator and networker bringing together scientists from various domains to work together. But in his own work he also stimulated participation and contributions from instrument manufacturers, chemical vendors, journal publishers and software developers. Most of you reading this will have almost certainly have heard of, worked with or benefited from some of his activities.
We, Andrew Lang and Antony Williams, intend to celebrate the work and vision of JC and are presently editing a memorial issue that crosses both the domains of chemistry and cheminformatics that he operated in. Since he was a member of the editorial advisory board for Journal of Cheminformatics and Co-Editor-in-Chief of Chemistry Central Journal our intention is to encourage participation and submission of papers from areas of chemistry and cheminformatics that will be assembled into a single memorial issue. If you are receiving this communication then please accept it as an invitation to submit an article to the most appropriate of the two journals that you choose.
Timelines and how to submit your paper
In recognition of the contributions that Jean-Claude Bradley has made to science and Open Science in particular, we hope that you will consider our invitation and contribute a paper to help us in celebrating and evangelizing his work. Please do not hesitate to contact either of us with questions, to confirm participation and for instructions on how to submit your paper at Andrew Lang (asidlang@gmail.com) or Antony Williams (tony27587@gmail.com).
If you wish contribute to this thematic issue please use the online submission system for the appropriate journal, found here:
Chemistry Central Journal: http://journal.chemistrycentral.com/manuscript.
Journal of Cheminformatics: http://www.jcheminf.com/manuscript
Please ensure that you state in your cover letter that your paper is an invited paper for ‘Insert relevant Journal name’ as part of the cross journal thematic issue entitled ‘Jean-Claude Bradley Memorial Issue’. The deadline for submitting your paper is 1 December 2014, to publish the thematic issue in early 2015.
About Chemistry Central
Chemistry Central Journal and Journal of Cheminformatics are open access journals published by Chemistry Central. The benefits of open access are particularly attractive in these fields, ensuring that scientists working throughout the community on different aspects all have shared access to the latest research.
Chemistry Central (www.chemistrycentral.com) is part of the Springer chemistry publishing unit, having been set up in 2006 as a service dedicated to the open access publishing of chemistry research.
