On behalf of the C&EN team, best wishes for a healthy, happy, and prosperous 2021

Happy New Year! On behalf of the whole C&EN team, I would like to wish happiness, health, and prosperity to all American Chemical Society members in 2021. I hope that the year has started off well for you.

During most of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the way we work and live. Although vaccinations are now available to health-care workers, first responders, and the like, and the end of the pandemic is finally in sight, we still have some way to go, and the disruption to life as we know it is likely to continue well into 2021.

At C&EN we want to make sure that you can access our chemistry news anytime, anywhere and that there’s continuity to your C&EN benefits as a member of ACS. With that in mind, for those who registered to receive C&EN’s print edition, we will extend availability of the digital edition, the interactive version of our print magazine, through our June 28, 2021, issue. You will continue to receive an email in your inbox every Monday, alerting you when the next issue of C&EN is available.

Also remember that, as a member, you have unlimited access to C&EN’s website, cen.acs.org, on any device for daily news updates, weekly issues, videos, podcasts, and more.

Or you may use our redesigned mobile app, Chemistry News by C&EN. This exclusive ACS member benefit delivers daily chemistry news and weekly issues of our magazine optimized for mobile devices. You can download the app for both Apple and Android devices.

The C&EN team is energized and excited about what we have in store for 2021. You’ll hear more in due course, but to kick off the year, we are making a number of changes to our commenting policy and processes.

As a member-focused newsroom, C&EN is committed to building trust—and relationships—with our readers. We’re also committed to doing all we can to ensure that C&EN spaces are welcoming, inclusive, and useful for all chemists and other scientists.

In the past year, we’ve seen an erosion of civility and productive discussion in the comments on cen.acs.org. We’ve responded by closing comments on some stories and never opening them on others. We have devoted much time to discussing the pros and cons of this strategy, which feels reactive and does not offer the robustness and reliability of a formal policy.

Using input from the C&EN team and what we know of other organizations dealing with similar challenges, we carefully considered how to best use our limited resources and have decided to remove the comment function for all stories on C&EN’s website. Existing comments will remain, but no new ones will be added. We will occasionally turn on comments for stories when the reporter and editor are able to actively guide, moderate, and nurture the discussion.

We still want to hear from you, however, and encourage any and all feedback. You can still submit letters to the editor to edit.cen@acs.org and other comments, questions, and suggestions to cenfeedback@acs.org.

You can also take the conversation to our social media channels and engage with C&EN staff and others in the scientific community on topics that interest you. In addition, we’re working to make it easier for you to contact reporters and provide feedback directly to them.

Look for these changes to be implemented in the next few weeks.

In the meantime, we welcome feedback on how we might continue to improve our engagement with you.

Once again, best wishes for 2021.

Views expressed on this page are those of the author and not necessarily those of ACS.