Avid readers of Nature Reviews Chemistry may have noticed a somewhat sudden influx of articles on heavy-element chemistry. These articles have included short highlight pieces on safer nuclear fuels and the decay kinetics of californium ions as well as Year in Review articles looking back on the key developments in radiolabelled bioconjugates and actinide separations in 2023. These takes on the most interesting aspects of recent f-block science came about through a new journal club collaboration with early-career researchers (ECRs) at the Heavy Element Research Laboratory (HERL) at UC Berkeley.

Particularly devoted readers may even have noticed another spike in interest last year, that time in topics related to medicinal chemistry. This was thanks to the first Journal Club we established with ECRs working in drug discovery research and development (R&D) at AstraZeneca in Sweden, which led to three Journal Club articles on AI enabled NMR deconvolution1, organozirconium catalysis2 and skeletal editing chemistry3.

We hope that these journal club initiatives become a mainstay of the News and Comment sections of the journal. The articles are written by chemists about recent research that has fascinated them — a combination that is hard to beat.

On the back of these successful collaborations, we would also like to take this opportunity to open up the call to any other groups or organizations interested in getting on board. If you work within a graduate school training centre trying to make the world more sustainable, a research collective studying the atmosphere, or a team of investigators making new molecular capsules, we want to hear from you.

Like all good clubs, this collaboration can last as long as you want, one month or many, and the article types and amount can vary to suit you and your team. Our typical Journal Club articles are short highlight-type pieces focussing on a new study that has caught your eye, Year in Review articles discuss a few highlights of a specific area of chemistry within the past year, while Tools of the Trade articles focus on a cool and unusual piece of kit that you use in your research.

“The aim of your writing should be to spark the readers’ attention, share your enthusiasm for a new tool, method, or discovery and explain why our readers should be as fascinated as you are.”

While ECRs might be familiar writing research articles and reviews, these News and Comment articles demand a different style of communication. The aim of your writing should be to spark the readers’ attention, share your enthusiasm for a new tool, method, or discovery and explain why our readers should be as fascinated as you are. These short pieces are a celebration of chemistry and all the quirks and curiosities that come with it. The journal club initiative also gives you a chance to experience the publication process from start to finish: to pitch ideas, to structure and write articles, to experience the (sometimes) heavy use of the proverbial red pen by a team of professional editors, to generate art with a dedicated art editor, to see word documents turn into online proofs and then a shiny, finished journal article with your name at the top.

We would love to have more passionate voices from diverse backgrounds within our journal pages. If this sounds like something you or your team might be interested in, then do get in contact. We recommend that initial contact is brief and sent directly to the journal inbox so that we can provide further guidance before anyone puts pen to paper. We look forward to hearing from you!