1. HELPING CHEMISTS FIND JOBS IN A TOUGH MARKET. 2. TOWARDS A QUANTITATIVE UNDERSTANDING OF THE QUALITY OF THE CHEMISTRY JOB MARKET.
What's the job market like for chemists? Dude -- it's always bad.*
How bad is it? How the heck should I know? Quantifying the chemistry job market is what this blog is about. That, and helping chemists find jobs.
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(*For the literal-minded, this is a joke. Mostly.)
patents, look into the science direct catalyst journals... they are pretty good.
ReplyDeleteAs a non-expert myself I occasionally look at Advanced Materials (Wiley) and Nano Lett (ACS) and find them interesting.
ReplyDeleteThat's a pretty wide net you're casting there, CJ. I can speak mostly on the analytical front, where obviously Analytical Chemistry is staple. Within a given specialty, there are some journals that are the "go-to" outlet (for a mass spec jock, JASMS). So unless there's a specific technique you're interested in, Analytical Chemistry is your best bet for a survey of the field.
ReplyDeleteAs for the materials work, I've not personally followed it, but Langmuir sounds like it might be up your alley. From it's "about this journal" self-description:
•Colloids: surfactants and self-assembly, dispersions, emulsions, foams
•Interfaces: adsorption, reactions, films, forces
•Biological Interfaces: biocolloids, biomolecular and biomimetic materials
•Materials: nano- and mesostructured materials, polymers, gels, liquid crystals
•Electrochemistry: interfacial charge transfer, charge transport, electrocatalysis, electrokinetic phenomena, bioelectrochemistry
•Devices and Applications: sensors, fluidics, patterning, catalysis, photonic crystals
MRS Bulletin would be your best bet for current topics in materials science.
ReplyDeleteI really don't think you want to step into the fire hose of research journals. The volume of graphene articles alone will make your head explode.
Something that will help you in your next, non-chemistry, career, perhaps. Or, Mandarin for Dummies?
ReplyDeleteThe Journal of Applied Polymer Science is fairly accessable - it covers areas that explore the more practical applications of polymers, and doesn't delve too deeply into the fundamentals of polymer behavior.
ReplyDeleteJournals like Langmuir cover fundamental research in surface and colloid chemistry, and one would need to have at least some grounding in this area in order to make sense of the articles.
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. is the major journal missing there. That, JACS, and Org. Lett tend to be my major 3 journals.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to know how molecules are actually made, then OPRD. It doesn't get any more real than OPRD.
ReplyDeleteSadly, I agree with Lyle Langley... Sigh.
ReplyDeleteI am a synthetic organic chemist who has transitioned to have split responsibilities in organic chemistry and material science. I also would highly recommend Langmuir and a broader reading of Angew Chem Int Ed and JACS.
ReplyDeleteIf your interest in materials is industry specific, you might look for specific journals within the industry. The specificity of these journals keeps them under the radar for general readers, but they can be quite useful.
I know this is rather organic-heavy, but I like to stroll through MacMillan's journal forest:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.princeton.edu/chemistry/macmillan/resources/
(Scroll down to the linkage!)