Natural Product Communications (NPC)’s broad scope means that we publish high quality papers across the entire spectrum of natural products research, including organic, medicinal, pharmaceutical, bioorganic, analytical, theoretical, biotechnological and chemotaxonomic aspects. We welcome all types of manuscripts: communications, full papers and reviews. We have a very wide international authorship and readership that is continuously growing, as indicated by the increasing number of submissions and published papers, and also from the web statistics. NPC is a SCI cited journal with an impact factor in 2011 of 1.242. We would like to thank our authors, readers and referees who are the architects of this success.

During 2012, we published two themed issues dedicated to “Biological and Supramolecular Chemistry” and “Terpenoids - Structure, Synthesis, and Biological Activity”. The former themed issue was in honor of the 75th Birthday of Professor Hans–Jörg Schneider, a well-known authority in NMR-spectroscopy of Natural Products, and Supramolecular Chemistry. We had an honorarium issue to commemorate the 65th birthday of the internationally renowned natural product researcher, Professor Geoffrey A. Cordell. We are pleased to mention that we are committed to placing this journal at the forefront for the dissemination of novel and exciting natural products research and NPC will be proud to recognize other eminent scientists by dedicating an issue in their honour, and suggestions for themed and/or honorarium issue(s) would be welcomed. We look forward to receiving your submissions and to receiving feedback.

Professor Sylvia Urban, School of Applied Sciences at RMIT University, Australia, won the 2011 “Gerald Blunden Award”, for her paper " On-line (HPLC-NMR) and Off-line Phytochemical Profiling of the Australian Plant, Lasiopetalum macrophyllum" Natural Product Communications, 6, 1605-1616 (2011), which is co-authored with Michael Timmers, a graduate student. The Award wins a free year's subscription to Natural Product Communications and is accompanied by US$ 500, sponsored by Natural Product Inc. The “Gerald Blunden Award” for 2011 was for the best paper published during 2011, and for 2012 it will be awarded for the best review published during the last two years (2011-2012). The award for each year will be announced in May at the time of Prof. Blunden’s Anniversary and a similar pattern will be followed in consecutive years.

For the information of our authors and readers, we have to announce some changes to the Editorial Board of Advisors. Leaving the Editorial Board is Professor Joseph Michael and we thank him for his support. We are, however, pleased to report that as of January 2013, Professors Chiaki Kuroda, Neil A. Koorbanally, Vladimir Kalinin, and Bikram Singh will be joining the Editorial Advisory Board. We welcome them all and look forward to working with them.

Dr Pawan K. Agrawal
Professor Gerald Blunden (Honorary)
Professor Alessandra Braca
Professor Dean Guo
Professor Yoshihiro Mimaki
Professor Stephen G. Pyne
Professor Manfred G. Reinecke
Professor William N. Setzer
Associate Professor Yasuhiro Tezuka
Professor David E. Thurston