History of Organic Reactions

Origin and Purpose of the Series

Roger Adams (1889–1971) was an illustrious chemist who led developments in local anesthetics, catalytic hydrogenation, the determination of stereochemistry of deuterated compounds and compounds with restricted rotation, natural product synthesis, and the industrial production of chemicals.

Adams was also a visionary teacher and made significant improvements to chemistry education. As part of his efforts to disseminate current chemical research, he was the progenitor of both Organic Syntheses and Organic Reactions, which have shared a close tie throughout the years. Organic Syntheses publishes detailed, carefully checked, large-scale procedures for the synthesis of important organic compounds. Organic Reactions publishes critical and thorough review chapters that are devoted to a single reaction of wide applicability.

Each Organic Reactions chapter presents the mechanism, scope, known applications toward compounds of value, advantages/disadvantages compared to other methods, and experimental procedures of the title reaction. At least half of each chapter is devoted to the Tabular Survey, which displays all known, or all significant examples of the title transformation. The table entries are grouped in a manner to allow readers to easily discern reactivity trends.

The concept of Organic Reactions is to provide readers with all of the knowledge needed to understand and successfully apply the title reaction in the laboratory. Our authors are leaders in the field, who share their expertise and distill the information in the primary literature for readers.

Start of the Series

The decision to start Organic Reactions was made at a meeting of the editors of Organic Syntheses and representatives of John Wiley & Sons during the Eighth National Organic Chemistry Symposium in December 1939. Organic Reactions was incorporated in Illinois on August 1, 1942, with the purpose of promoting organic chemistry education and research. Roger Adams, Werner E. Bachmann, Louis F. Fieser, John R. Johnson, and Harold R. Snyder were elected as directors, and Volume 1 was published in late 1942.

The Organization

Roger Adams served as president and editor-in-chief from 1942 until he was succeeded by Arthur C. Cope in 1960 with the publication of Volume 11. Organic Reactions has continued to be shepherded by esteemed chemists in the president/editor-in-chief role: Arthur C. Cope (1960–1966), William G. Dauben (1966–1984), Andrew S. Kende (1984–1988), Leo A. Paquette (1988–1998), Larry E. Overman (1998–2007), Scott E. Denmark (2008–2018), and P. Andrew Evans (2018–2024).  In July 2024, the roles of president and editor-in-chief were split with Kevin Shaughnessy becoming the editor-in-chief and P. Andrew Evans taking on only the president role to address the changing climate in publishing and marketing.

The support of the entire Organic Reactions organization keeps the publication running smoothly. The board of directors (BOD) meets annually to discuss finances and future directions for the journal. The board of editors (BOE) meets semi-annually to discuss chapters in preparation and potential future chapter topics. BOE members are the “responsible editors” for approximately 5 chapters at a time, aiding the authors from start to finish. The treasurer and recording secretary ensure solvency and record-keeping, and the digital content editors promote access and visibility of our publication. All content review and copyediting is completed in-house by Organic Reactions: by the BOE, executive editor, editorial advisor, editorial coordinator, processing editors, responsible secretary and the editor-in-chief. Although Wiley takes care of the publication, marketing, and sales of Organic Reactions, the BOD is now very active on social media and the role of the president is to enhance marketing.

It is a testament to Roger Adams’s spirit of dedication to serving the chemistry community that the esteemed members of the Organic Reactions organization work pro bono. The members of the board of directors and the board of editors serve for 5-year terms, which are often renewed. We are especially indebted to several members who have been part of the organization for >10 years: Bob Bittman (1968–2014), Leo Paquette (1978–2007), Engelbert Ciganek (1983–present), Larry Overman (1984–2020), Amos Smith (1987–2021), William Roush (1991–2019), Scott Denmark (1994–present), Peter Wipf (1997–2023), Steve Weinreb (2006–present), and P. Andrew Evans (2015–present). Jeff Press (1983–2024) as secretary/treasurer, and Linda Press (1996–2019) as editorial coordinator and consultant were also instrumental in maintaining the success of the publication over many years.

Chapter Framework

The board of editors meets semi-annually to discuss future chapter invitations. The chapter topics and possible authors are chosen based on current research activity and applicability of the reaction. The editor-in-chief then invites the proposed author to write the chapter, with the guidance of a “responsible editor.” Organic Reactions is known for its editing style, to maintain consistency of voice and format throughout the volumes and a meticulous attention to detail to ensure accuracy.

Every Organic Reactions review contains the following sections: Introduction, Mechanism & Stereochemistry, Scope & Limitations, Applications to Synthesis, Comparison with Other Methods, Experimental Conditions, Experimental Procedures, and Tabular Survey. Each volume also has a preface written by the editor-in-chief, which documents the historical context and the contents of the individual chapters.

Changes

The length of chapters has changed over the years. Volume 1 consisted of 12 chapters, with an average of 32 pages of text and 11 pages of tables per chapter. Chapter lengths steadily increased to an average of >270 pages by Vol. 75, and the average volume contains 2 or 3 chapters. There are outliers, of course: 13 chapters fill an entire volume each, and 1 chapter (on the Ugi Reaction) fills two volumes!

As of 2019, Organic Reactions no longer requires authors to prepare Tabular Surveys that include every known example of the title reaction. This shift has allowed authors to cover reactions that would be too large to tackle if the Tabular Survey were to be comprehensive. Instead, authors are tasked with choosing the most useful methods and conditions for a particular transformation, ensuring that the breadth of known examples is represented. Readers benefit from the fact that authors are experts in the field, and present a critical review of all examples in the primary literature. Future volumes of Organic Reactions will contain 3–4 chapters per 800-page volume.

We are also pleased that the number of international authors has increased over the years, including academic and industrial chemists in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. The frequency of publication has also increased, with 71 volumes published in the first 66 years, and 42 volumes in the next 15 years.

Special Volumes

The prefaces of the following special volumes include additional information about the series:

Vol. 25 (1977, Harold Blatt) preface

Vol. 50 (1997, Bob Joyce) preface

Vol. 75 (2011, Scott Denmark) preface

Vol. 100 (2019, Scott Denmark) preface

Introduction to the Series (1942, Roger Adams)

Introduction to the Series (2008, Scott Denmark)

Volume 100 was a turning point for Organic Reactions, in that for the first time in the history of the series, authors were asked to be selective instead of comprehensive regarding the examples included in the Tabular Survey. Volume 100 contains 15 short chapters that capture the state-of-the-art in synthetic organic chemistry in the early 21^st century.