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Pergamon press 1948–1988 and talanta 1958–1988 two anniversaries
Tdanto, Vol. 35,No. 5,pp.III-V, 1988
0039-9140/88 53.00+0.00 Pergamon Press plc
Printed in Great Britain
PERGAMON
PRESS 1948-1988 AND TALANTA
1958-1988
TWO ANNIVERSARIES ROBERT A. CHALMERS Department of Chemistry, University of Aberdeen, Old Aberdeen, Scotland
Like many of the important developments in analytical chemistry, Tulunfu partly owes its existence to serendipity. It happened (as far as can be traced) that at a time when Ronald Belcher was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the policies and standards of some of the analytical journals then current, and wondering what could be done about that and the rapidly increasing number of papers arising from the upsurge in analytical research, he chanced to meet in a London pub an employee of Pergamon Press who mentioned that Robert Maxwell was considering expanding his list of scientific journals to include one on analytical chemistry. Belcher not only expressed immediate interest but also said he knew someone who would make an excellent editor for such a journal. There thus came about a meeting between Belcher and Maxwell, which resulted in the appearance of a new journal on the analytical sceneTalanta, with Cecil Wilson as Editor-in-Chief. The first issue appeared in August 1958, with a Foreword by Fritz Feigl (see Frontispiece), a highly distinguished international band of analytical chemists as the Advisory Board, and Louis Gordon, Rudolf Piibil and Takeo Takahashi as Regional Editors. The new journal was so successful in attracting work for publication that in spite of a double-size first issue there was an editorial apology for failure to include all the papers submitted for it and accepted for publication. The initial policy was to publish full papers, short communications, preliminary communications (with publication given priority), critical reviews, book reviews, notices of meetings, letters to the editor, and summaries in English, French and German for each paper. The papers themselves could be written in any of these three languages. Later, Russian summaries were added, and the English and Russian versions were repeated at the end of each issue so that they could be cut out and used for the compilation of card indexes.. A notable early feature was the publication of specially commissioned “Talanta Reviews” (later supplemented by updating in “Mini-Reviews”), some 60 of which appeared. As time went on, further features were added to the journal, in keeping with the ideals behind its foundation. The “Analytical Data” section was added to deal with the numerous papers on determination of stability constants, protonation constants etc., which convey data vital to the understanding and inter-
pretation of analytical chemistry, but do not necessarily require detailed descriptions, since the methods used are more or less standard. The “Annotations” feature was created to allow publication of those papers which offer a critical commentary on existing ideas, or attempt to resolve controversy and polemic, and all too frequently have been refused publication elsewhere on the grounds that they do not constitute “research”, even though in fact they may be far more valuable than many of the papers that are readily accepted as “research” despite the fact that their authors may well be the only people ever to use the methods described in them. This question of what to accept and what to reject is often a difficult one. Many workers struggle to do research under highly adverse circumstances, often having to cope with lack of finance and equipment, and shortage of library funds, and are dependent on publication for promotion or even continuation of tenure. The inevitable consequence is that all too often, through no fault of their own, their work may not meet the standards set by the journal to which they submit it, though it may well have been soundly conceived and executed. It was to try to help research workers in general that an earlier feature was introduced in Tulantu, in the form of papers on the development and publication of new methods using a particular technique. These were intended to lay down a set of requirements for the thorough investigation of the proposed method and to provide guidelines for writing up the results for publication. Starting with the classic paper by Kirkbright in 1966, several of these papers appeared (Table 1), until the idea was taken over by IUPAC for publication in Pure and Applied Chemistry. A further extension of the range of services offered by Tulanta has been the establishment of “paper symposia” in the form of special issues devoted to a particular research topic, the contributors being selected from the leaders in their field and specially invited to write for the issue. The issues to date are listed in Table 2. The most recent development has arisen from the widespread use of computer facilities in analysis, and has taken the form of the “Software Survey” which offers rapid publication of basic information about software designed for use in analytical chemistry. Besides this unusually broad range of publication features, Talunta has at its command two prestigious
ROBERT A. CHALMERS
IV
Table 1. Research guideline papers Talanta reference
Topic Spectrophotometry Gravimetry Ion-selective electrodes Titrimetry Kinetic methods Atomic-absorption spectrometry Stability constants Solvent extraction Polarography
G. F. Kirkbright, 1966, 13, 1 L. Erdey, L. P&OS, R. A. Chalmers, 1970, 17, 1143 G. J. Moody, J. D. R. Thomas, 1972, 19,623 A. Berka, J. Sevcik, R. A. Chalmers, 1972, 19, 747 H. B. Mark, Jr., 1973, 20, 257 J. Ramirez-Mufioz, 1973, 20, 705 H. S. Rossotti, 1974, 21, 809 Y. Marcus, 1976,23, 203 L. Meites, B. H. Campbell, P. Zuman, 1977, 24, 709
awards. One is the “Honour Issue” which can be dedicated to an individual or a country in recognition of eminence in the analytical world, and the otherthanks to the generosity of Robert Maxwell-is the “Talanta Medal”, awarded in recognition of an outstanding contribution to analytical chemistry. Neither is awarded at regular time intervals, but only when a suitably worthy occasion arises. The Honour Issues are, of course, the equivalent of the German “Festschrift” issues. This article, like similar ones in other Pergamon journals, will in fact form part of a Festschrift planned for presentation to Robert Maxwell in June this year in celebration of his 65th birthday and the 40th anniversary of the establishment of Pergamon Press (and incidentally the 30th anniversary of the founding of Talanta). A list of the Honour Issues is given in Table 3, and a list of recipients of the Talanta Medal in Table 4. A picture of the medal itself is shown in Plate I. These are not the only awards associated with Talanta, however. When Louis Gordon, who had served as Regional Editor for the United States since Talanta was started, died in 1966, it was decided to institute the Louis Gordon Memorial Award in his honour. This is awarded for the paper judged to be the best written of those pubished in the journal in the year of award, and takes the form of a specially bound copy of the volume in which the awardwinning paper appeared. A list of the winners shows that the ability to write well knows few geographical boundaries. It should be pointed out the Award can be made only once to the same person, otherwise at least one of the winners would possess several bound copies of Talanta! An award of similar nature is the Pharmacia Prize, funded by Pharmacia AB, Uppsala, Sweden, for the
Table 2. Paper SymPOSk*
Topic Errors in trace analysis Analytical methods in clinical chemistry Fiber optic chemical sensors
Talanta issue
1982, November 1984, October 1988, February
*A precursor was a special issue on microprocessors, July 1981.
best research paper published in Talanta by an industrial research laboratory. It is a biennial award and consists of a specially commissioned piece of Swedish ceramic, accompanied by a scroll citing the award. It is perhaps not surprising that so far the Prize has always gone to a laboratory in the United States. Finally, to commemorate Ronald Belcher, the original inspiration behind the journal, who served as Chairman of the Advisory and Editorial Boards from the beginning of the journal to his death in 1985, Pergamon Press has established the Ronald Belcher Memorial Award, designed to assist young research workers to undertake travel they might otherwise not be able to afford. There has often been speculation about the meaning of the title of the journal. This was explained in the correspondence reprinted below, from TaJanta, 1962, 9, 1063.
Table 3. Honour Issues 1961 H. H. Willard 1963 Hungary 1964 I. M. Kolthoff 1966 G. F. Smith 1968 A. A. Smales 1969 R. Belcher 1972 Japan 1975 Scandinavia 1979 Germany 1980 H. Diehl 1985 H. Freiser 1987 Soviet Union
Table 1961 1963 1965 1967 1969 1971 1974 1977 1981 1983 1986
4. Talanta winners
Medal
F. Feigl G. Schwarzenbach I. P. Alimarin E. Stahl A. Walsh R. Piibil B. V. L’vov R. Belcher J. RtX?iEka T. Fujinaga E. Punaor
0039-9140/88 53.00+0.00 Pergamon Press plc
Printed in Great Britain
PERGAMON
PRESS 1948-1988 AND TALANTA
1958-1988
TWO ANNIVERSARIES ROBERT A. CHALMERS Department of Chemistry, University of Aberdeen, Old Aberdeen, Scotland
Like many of the important developments in analytical chemistry, Tulunfu partly owes its existence to serendipity. It happened (as far as can be traced) that at a time when Ronald Belcher was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the policies and standards of some of the analytical journals then current, and wondering what could be done about that and the rapidly increasing number of papers arising from the upsurge in analytical research, he chanced to meet in a London pub an employee of Pergamon Press who mentioned that Robert Maxwell was considering expanding his list of scientific journals to include one on analytical chemistry. Belcher not only expressed immediate interest but also said he knew someone who would make an excellent editor for such a journal. There thus came about a meeting between Belcher and Maxwell, which resulted in the appearance of a new journal on the analytical sceneTalanta, with Cecil Wilson as Editor-in-Chief. The first issue appeared in August 1958, with a Foreword by Fritz Feigl (see Frontispiece), a highly distinguished international band of analytical chemists as the Advisory Board, and Louis Gordon, Rudolf Piibil and Takeo Takahashi as Regional Editors. The new journal was so successful in attracting work for publication that in spite of a double-size first issue there was an editorial apology for failure to include all the papers submitted for it and accepted for publication. The initial policy was to publish full papers, short communications, preliminary communications (with publication given priority), critical reviews, book reviews, notices of meetings, letters to the editor, and summaries in English, French and German for each paper. The papers themselves could be written in any of these three languages. Later, Russian summaries were added, and the English and Russian versions were repeated at the end of each issue so that they could be cut out and used for the compilation of card indexes.. A notable early feature was the publication of specially commissioned “Talanta Reviews” (later supplemented by updating in “Mini-Reviews”), some 60 of which appeared. As time went on, further features were added to the journal, in keeping with the ideals behind its foundation. The “Analytical Data” section was added to deal with the numerous papers on determination of stability constants, protonation constants etc., which convey data vital to the understanding and inter-
pretation of analytical chemistry, but do not necessarily require detailed descriptions, since the methods used are more or less standard. The “Annotations” feature was created to allow publication of those papers which offer a critical commentary on existing ideas, or attempt to resolve controversy and polemic, and all too frequently have been refused publication elsewhere on the grounds that they do not constitute “research”, even though in fact they may be far more valuable than many of the papers that are readily accepted as “research” despite the fact that their authors may well be the only people ever to use the methods described in them. This question of what to accept and what to reject is often a difficult one. Many workers struggle to do research under highly adverse circumstances, often having to cope with lack of finance and equipment, and shortage of library funds, and are dependent on publication for promotion or even continuation of tenure. The inevitable consequence is that all too often, through no fault of their own, their work may not meet the standards set by the journal to which they submit it, though it may well have been soundly conceived and executed. It was to try to help research workers in general that an earlier feature was introduced in Tulantu, in the form of papers on the development and publication of new methods using a particular technique. These were intended to lay down a set of requirements for the thorough investigation of the proposed method and to provide guidelines for writing up the results for publication. Starting with the classic paper by Kirkbright in 1966, several of these papers appeared (Table 1), until the idea was taken over by IUPAC for publication in Pure and Applied Chemistry. A further extension of the range of services offered by Tulanta has been the establishment of “paper symposia” in the form of special issues devoted to a particular research topic, the contributors being selected from the leaders in their field and specially invited to write for the issue. The issues to date are listed in Table 2. The most recent development has arisen from the widespread use of computer facilities in analysis, and has taken the form of the “Software Survey” which offers rapid publication of basic information about software designed for use in analytical chemistry. Besides this unusually broad range of publication features, Talunta has at its command two prestigious
ROBERT A. CHALMERS
IV
Table 1. Research guideline papers Talanta reference
Topic Spectrophotometry Gravimetry Ion-selective electrodes Titrimetry Kinetic methods Atomic-absorption spectrometry Stability constants Solvent extraction Polarography
G. F. Kirkbright, 1966, 13, 1 L. Erdey, L. P&OS, R. A. Chalmers, 1970, 17, 1143 G. J. Moody, J. D. R. Thomas, 1972, 19,623 A. Berka, J. Sevcik, R. A. Chalmers, 1972, 19, 747 H. B. Mark, Jr., 1973, 20, 257 J. Ramirez-Mufioz, 1973, 20, 705 H. S. Rossotti, 1974, 21, 809 Y. Marcus, 1976,23, 203 L. Meites, B. H. Campbell, P. Zuman, 1977, 24, 709
awards. One is the “Honour Issue” which can be dedicated to an individual or a country in recognition of eminence in the analytical world, and the otherthanks to the generosity of Robert Maxwell-is the “Talanta Medal”, awarded in recognition of an outstanding contribution to analytical chemistry. Neither is awarded at regular time intervals, but only when a suitably worthy occasion arises. The Honour Issues are, of course, the equivalent of the German “Festschrift” issues. This article, like similar ones in other Pergamon journals, will in fact form part of a Festschrift planned for presentation to Robert Maxwell in June this year in celebration of his 65th birthday and the 40th anniversary of the establishment of Pergamon Press (and incidentally the 30th anniversary of the founding of Talanta). A list of the Honour Issues is given in Table 3, and a list of recipients of the Talanta Medal in Table 4. A picture of the medal itself is shown in Plate I. These are not the only awards associated with Talanta, however. When Louis Gordon, who had served as Regional Editor for the United States since Talanta was started, died in 1966, it was decided to institute the Louis Gordon Memorial Award in his honour. This is awarded for the paper judged to be the best written of those pubished in the journal in the year of award, and takes the form of a specially bound copy of the volume in which the awardwinning paper appeared. A list of the winners shows that the ability to write well knows few geographical boundaries. It should be pointed out the Award can be made only once to the same person, otherwise at least one of the winners would possess several bound copies of Talanta! An award of similar nature is the Pharmacia Prize, funded by Pharmacia AB, Uppsala, Sweden, for the
Table 2. Paper SymPOSk*
Topic Errors in trace analysis Analytical methods in clinical chemistry Fiber optic chemical sensors
Talanta issue
1982, November 1984, October 1988, February
*A precursor was a special issue on microprocessors, July 1981.
best research paper published in Talanta by an industrial research laboratory. It is a biennial award and consists of a specially commissioned piece of Swedish ceramic, accompanied by a scroll citing the award. It is perhaps not surprising that so far the Prize has always gone to a laboratory in the United States. Finally, to commemorate Ronald Belcher, the original inspiration behind the journal, who served as Chairman of the Advisory and Editorial Boards from the beginning of the journal to his death in 1985, Pergamon Press has established the Ronald Belcher Memorial Award, designed to assist young research workers to undertake travel they might otherwise not be able to afford. There has often been speculation about the meaning of the title of the journal. This was explained in the correspondence reprinted below, from TaJanta, 1962, 9, 1063.
Table 3. Honour Issues 1961 H. H. Willard 1963 Hungary 1964 I. M. Kolthoff 1966 G. F. Smith 1968 A. A. Smales 1969 R. Belcher 1972 Japan 1975 Scandinavia 1979 Germany 1980 H. Diehl 1985 H. Freiser 1987 Soviet Union
Table 1961 1963 1965 1967 1969 1971 1974 1977 1981 1983 1986
4. Talanta winners
Medal
F. Feigl G. Schwarzenbach I. P. Alimarin E. Stahl A. Walsh R. Piibil B. V. L’vov R. Belcher J. RtX?iEka T. Fujinaga E. Punaor