IJVS Volume 2 Edition 3 - editorial

1. Editorial

The last few editions have been taking far too long to produce. The gap between us finally assembling the edition and you folks reading it has been almost 3 months. Now that the editorial team is doing the whole job we will become much more efficient. Louise Martin has now been appointed as Production Editor and Webmaster for the ijvs.com site and she will handle all aspects of production, publicity and subscription for you readers.

To demonstrate we mean business, here is Ed III of Vol II. Production time has been reduced which means that some of the submitted papers have been refereed, altered, edited and published in about 6 weeks. We plan to reduce our lead times still further!

The edition is a bit slim (only about 55 pages) because several authors who have promised pieces forgot about their Summer Holidays. So, your Editor had to produce some material – quickly! I hope you find my tutorial on fundamental modes useful. It’s not aimed at the expert but rather at the army of occasional users. In the piece I try to show you what fundamental modes are and how to assign the spectrum you record to specific modes. There are a wide variety of techniques for doing this job that I have not yet discussed. Perhaps the most useful is to use polarised light either in the infrared or the Raman. [An example of its infrared use came up last time]. So I will scribble up another tutorial for you next time.

The contributed section has only 3 papers this time, but all are really worth your attention.

Peter Chen has an exotic new method of recording spectra of gases based on Raman spectroscopy. It’s a hard technique to master, but do read the paper. I’m sure we will hear a lot more about the technique in the future. NOW – many of you will need more info than Peter provides. This is a WEB JOURNAL, so send your questions by e-mail direct to Peter [BUT PLEASE COPY TO ME AS WELL]. We will then feature any questions and answers, which will then help everyone else.

One of the foremost rubber chemistry laboratories used to be called the “Malaysian Rubber Producers Research Association Laboratories” and is situated near Hertford, just north of London. Now it is known as the “Tun Abdul Rajak Laboratories”. Kevin Jackson, their resident expert on the use of vibrational spectroscopy has written an excellent paper for us on elastomers and I urge you to have a good look at it.

Cees Otto and his colleague Dr Greve have produced for us a superb piece on micro-Raman spectroscopy with particluar application in biology and biochemistry.

Just to finish – a few days ago, we received an e-mail telling me that one of my papers had been cited in a recent review and our enquirer was interested in it. Problem was that the citation printed in the review was wrong and he asked for our help. Set me thinking – when that happens in IJVS [would it ever? – Assistant Editor] we can simply amend the error on the server, so that future readers will get the correct citation. Absolutely impossible to do anything about a hardcopy journal. Hmmm!

So Good Reading – but PLEASE tell us what you think of the Journal – be rude or even kind – lets have your ideas and suggestions. We are getting almost no reaction from you the readers. Remember we cannot improve the Journal without your input.

NIR – PLEASE HELP

This Journal covers near infrared – after all n.i.r is a vibrational technique even if it is based on overtones.

We URGENTLY need articles on the instrumentation, applications, value, analysis of the data and ideas about future applications. What about on-line applications?

Come on you lot – please tell us what you do, have done and aim for in the future. All contributions gratefully received by the whole readership.

And remember your paper will be published in ~ 6 weeks and will be seen by 600+ subscribers guaranteed.

2. The Interpretation of Vibrational Spectra Residential School

The Eighth Residential School in the brand new Glamorgan Business Centre at the University of Glamorgan in Wales, will be held on 13-14 April 1999 to be followed by a meeting of the “Infrared and Raman Discussion Group” on Thursday 15 April 1999.

The School follows previous residential meetings and includes as main contributors Prof Pat Hendra, Southampton, and Editor of IJVS, Prof. John Van der Maas, Utrecht, Dr Clara Craver, Craver Consultants, and Prof Bill Fateley, Kansas. These leading experts have been involved in research and tuition in the field covering many successful similar courses.

The Programme contains lectures and tutorials in interpretation of spectra using the latest accessories with problem solving on an individual basis. Practical work will include hands on use of spectrometers and latest accessories involving equipment and staff from leading instrument firms including Bio-Rad Laboratories Ltd , Bruker UK Limited, Nicolet Analytical and Perkin Elmer Ltd. These Companies are all providing generous sponsorship.

These meetings have a tradition of great work and inspiring social activities with visits to areas of outstanding natural beauty. Well worth attending for experts and newcomers alike!

Fees for the meeting are £275 for two days 13-14 April (£150 for one day) and £25 for the IRDG meeting on 15 April with 25% reduction for accredited students.

Booking form and further details from wogeorge [at] glam.ac.uk

Assistant Editorial

Well, it seems that I didn’t do too badly for my first attempt at publishing IJVS. I only had two e-mails about wrong links – of which there were only three! Hopefully they are now all fixed. As Patrick says that’s the good thing about IJVS being a web journal any errors can be fixed more or less instantly.
Hopefully this edition will work out fine. I get very nervous about all this web stuff, as it’s all still relatively new to me. Anyway I’m going back to College to fill in the gaps of knowledge as far as computers are concerned. I realise though that I’m in danger of turning into a computer ‘geek’, but if our Editor wishes the journal to improve and become more interactive, then I’m prepared to take the risk!

We are so pleased that the number of subscribers for IJVS is increasing so fast (600+ to date), but are keen to increase it even more. So some new cards have been printed with our new URL promoting IJVS and we are looking to distribute these cards in as many places as possible to spread the word. If any of you want some cards to give to friends or colleagues, then please e-mail me (louise [at] ijvs.demon.co.uk (mailto:))and I’ll send them out (a maximum of 20 cards). It will be gratefully appreciated.

Thank you to all our contributors for Edition III.