With the rise in popularity of the social networking/microblogging site Twitter, there is now another channel by which journals can disseminate their content. Twitter enables users to post 140-character snippets of information — known as Tweets — on their profile page. It is also possible to 'follow' the Tweets of other users, and these are aggregated in a feed that can be viewed through various web- or desktop-based clients. Nature Chemistry is on Twitter1 and not only do we use it to let our followers know about the content we've published, but we also Tweet from conferences (when the rules allow), and share chemistry-related news that the editorial team find interesting. It also provides a means by which we can actively engage with our followers, by responding to Tweets addressed to the journal.

It is understandable that the emergence of yet another social-networking tool prompts scepticism2 and worries of information overload — and the signal-to-noise ratio in Twitter can be a cause for concern. Nevertheless, carefully selecting who to follow and establishing lists — such as the one we've compiled3 that draws together chemistry journals we've found on Twitter — means this problem can be managed. Only time will tell whether Twitter catches on as a way of keeping up with the scientific literature4, but for now, @NatureChemistry is going along for the ride!