Mendeleev Communications is a journal of the Russian Academy of Sciences published in close cooperation with the Royal Society of Chemistry. This journal, like any communications journal, fulfils a vital role in alerting the international chemical community to important new research. Perhaps uniquely, Mendeleev Communications is not translated from Russian but instead is published directly in English, giving the chemical community immediate access to new work being conducted in the Russian Federation and other states of the former Soviet Union and elsewhere. The scope and appeal to chemists is very broad and covers all levels - academic, research, professional, and industrial.