Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is the Organic Synthesis Newsletter?

The purpose of the Organic Synthesis Newsletter is to highlight key papers in synthetic organic chemistry that have been published in the previous week. A short selection of key publications from high-impact and well read chemistry journals will be highlighted in an easy-to-read format, with their TOC graphic, an often shortened form of the abstract, and a handy clickable link that takes you straight to the paper.

Keeping up-to-date with the literature while undertaking a PhD or post-doctoral research position in any field is a necessary but challenging process. Particularly in organic synthesis, where hundreds, if not thousands of new publications appear online daily. Sifting through all of these for relevant and useful material can be a time-consuming task, even with the use of an RSS reader. This alongside lab work, meetings, presentations and report writing etc. can often mean that literature searching quickly falls to the bottom of the list, despite its value.

Journal clubs are often a useful, collaborative way to keep on top of new literature—by dividing the task among colleagues before collating and sending it out to a broader audience. However, this requires the journal club to: (i) fit your topic of interest, (ii) be easily accessible, and (iii) be updated regularly.

This newsletter aims to provide a solution to the above by providing subscribers with an easy-to-read summary of the latest and most important publications in organic synthesis—delivered straight to your inbox, every Monday morning. 📬

What journals will the newsletter cover?

This newsletter will cover the following journals; however, I will add publications from other journals that stand out as being particularly interesting to the organic synthesis community.

1. Science

2. Nature

3. Nature Chemistry

4. Journal of the American Chemical Society

5. Angewandte Chemie International Edition

6. ChemRxiv

7. Organic Letters

8. Organic Process Research & Development

9. Chemical Science

10. Journal of Organic Chemistry

Where did the idea for this newsletter come from?

The idea for this newsletter originated from my time as a PhD student within the group of Prof. Varinder K. Aggarwal at the University of Bristol. The group had its own journal club, started by Dr. Adam Noble, who had prior experience with other journal clubs and brought this over to the group. This proved instantly popular and useful, so much so that many alumni have since taken this forward and started journal club’s of their own. I started one of these as a post-doctoral research associate within the group of Prof. Andrew L. Lawrence at the University of Edinburgh and wanted to continue this as I moved into industry.

Who is this newsletter for?

This newsletters is for anyone in the synthetic organic chemistry community with an interest in the literature, whether you have just entered into a PhD programme, are an industrial professional, academic or anything in-between.

Why this format?

We all appreciate the need to keep up-to-date with the literature yet rarely find the time to do so. By having a short selection of important articles delivered to your inbox every week, it saves you the time of searching them out in the first-place.

By keeping the articles in their abstract format alongside the TOC graphic, key information is quickly gathered and the reader can decide whether or not to click the link to the paper for more information or move on to the next. Also, by using this format, publication titles, author names and even key words can be easily searched for within your email inbox or by using the search bar found on the homepage of this website.

Why did you miss out [insert publication title]?

The publications highlighted within this newsletter have been chosen to showcase the most interesting and relevant papers published by the organic synthesis community in the previous week. However, this is of course a subjective matter and what may be interesting to myself won’t be to others and vice versa. There is also the chance that I will inadvertently miss publications!

This newsletter is also not meant to replace the due diligence required of a traditional academic programme. It should only be used to enhance or improve literature searching systems that are already in-place.

How much does it cost to subscribe?

Nothing! This is a free newsletter and there are no plans for a paid subscription model in the future. All newsletters will be sent out at 08:00 (U.K. time) but will also be posted live on the website for those who prefer not to subscribe.

Where can I find the latest updates about the newsletter?

I have started a Twitter account (@NewInSynthesis) to provide more information on the newsletter as well as to share posts and updates going forward.

Why are the “open paper” links not working for me?

For those who are having issues opening the links contained within this newsletter, viewing any images or even receiving the newsletter email in your inbox, please follow these steps with respect to your email service provider to safelist the email address “[email protected]”. If this does not work, strict firewall settings may be the issue and advising your IT department to safelist the following domains should help:

- media.beehiiv.net
- *.beehiiv.com
- *.beehiiv.net

For further information, please see the following article from Beehiiv.

Why does the newsletter look different on my email vs. the website?

Each email client, e.g. Outlook, Gmail etc. renders emails slightly differently and this will lead to a difference in appearance when compared and contrasted. Alongside this, some users may have specific settings enabled, such as dark mode, which will ultimately change how the email designs will look.

If this is an issue for you, a link to the web version of each newsletter is included by default in the top-right corner of the email.

For further information, please see the following article from Beehiiv.