Journal Guide

The preeminent comprehensive catalysis journal. 

ACS Catalysis is dedicated to publishing original research on heterogeneous catalysis, homogeneous catalysis, and biocatalysis. ACS Catalysis includes both experimental and theoretical research on molecules, macromolecules and materials that are catalytic in nature, that is, they exhibit catalytic turnover.

Wide-ranging coverage of catalysis includes, but is not limited to:

• drug discovery and synthesis
• electrochemistry
• energy and fuels
• life sciences
• materials science
• organometallics and synthesis
• photochemistry
• polymer discovery and synthesis
• synthesis of organic, medicinal, and bio-organic molecules

Potential authors are encouraged to read our instructive Editorials for guidance as well as the manuscript submission requirements checklist.

• To Err is Human; To Reproduce Takes Time
• Best Practices in Pursuit of Topics in Heterogeneous Electrocatalysis
• The Scope of Papers Sought in Three Catalysis Subdisciplines: Biocatalysis and Enzymology, Molecular Catalysis for Organic Synthesis, and Heterogeneous Photocatalysis
• Organic Electrosynthesis: When is it Electrocatalysis?
• The Burden of Disproof
• A Matter of Life(time) and Death
• Superlative Scientific Writing
• Nano-Apples and Orange-Zymes
• New Guidelines for Presenting Electrochemical Data in All ACS Journals
• Preparing Your Manuscript for Submission to ACS Catalysis

All manuscripts are subject to critical, anonymous peer review. It is to be understood that the final decision relating to a manuscript’s suitability rests solely with the Editor.

ACS Central Science publishes the most compelling, important primary reports on research in chemistry and in allied fields, wherein chemical approaches play a key role. It is also the first fully open access journal published by the American Chemical Society. 

The term "central science" is frequently used to describe chemistry's focal role in bridging the physical and life sciences, and the basic sciences with applied disciplines such as medicine and engineering.

ACS Central Science is a multi- and inter-disciplinary journal that publishes articles of exceptional quality and interest to the broad chemistry and scientific community. The journal addresses important advances in fundamental areas of chemistry, as well as applied and interdisciplinary research highlighting the seminal role of chemistry in a wide range of other scientific disciplines. The journal considers submissions in core fields such as, but not limited to:

• Analytical, physical, inorganic, and organic chemistry
• Biological and medicinal chemistry, and biotechnology
• Sustainable and environmental chemistry
• Computational and theoretical chemistry
• Materials and nanoscience
• Energy and catalysis
• Chemical engineering
• Earth, atmospheric and space chemistry
• Chemical education

The journal also publishes inter- and multidisciplinary research applicable to allied fields across the physical sciences, life sciences, engineering, medicine, and beyond. 

ACS Chemical Biology provides an international forum for the rapid communication of research that broadly embraces the interface between chemistry and biology.

The journal also serves as a forum to facilitate the communication between biologists and chemists that will translate into new research opportunities and discoveries. Results will be published in which molecular reasoning has been used to probe questions through in vitro investigations, cell biological methods, or organismic studies.

We welcome mechanistic studies on proteins, nucleic acids, sugars, lipids, and nonbiological polymers. The journal serves a large scientific community, exploring cellular function from both chemical and biological perspectives. It is understood that submitted work is based upon original results and has not been published previously.

While safety permeates all ACS journals, it benefits from its preeminence in ACS Chemical Health & Safety where its authors influence chemical safety and guide tomorrow’s science. Chemical safety research can be transformational and innovative, and it can also focus on practice and be narrowly scoped. This includes foundational datasets or variations on well-studied themes because they hold value to those working with hazardous materials. ACS Chemical Health & Safety provides the opportunity to publish across all these areas. As a discipline, chemical health and safety does not limit itself to laboratories and chemical facilities, and our authors are more than just chemists and chemical engineers; they are scientists with broad research backgrounds and members of the public from many disciplines, including environmental safety and health professionals, industrial hygienists, public health professionals, safety policy makers, human factors specialists, and more. 

Refer to Author Guidelines for detailed topic lists. Sample topics that span the journal's scope include:

• Fundamental chemical safety research and datasets
• Chemical health safety and security warnings
• Chemical risk assessment and management for all settings (e.g., laboratory, industrial, educational, public spaces, etc.)
• Other topics that influence chemical safety and guide tomorrow’s science (e.g., occupational safety, regulatory, emergency response, training/education, etc.)

Manuscripts relating to commercial products are welcome, provided that they are not advertisements. 

Topics that address new medical approaches (e.g., those utilizing nano materials to deliver targeted drug therapies) and environmental contaminates will be considered but are not regularly accepted for peer review because we believe the topics could be better served by the journals that specialize in those fields.

All manuscripts are subject to critical, anonymous peer review. The final decision relating to a manuscript’s suitability for the journal rests solely with the Editor.

ACS Chemical Neuroscience publishes high-quality research articles and reviews that showcase chemical, quantitative biological, biophysical and bioengineering approaches to the understanding of the nervous system and to the development of new treatments for neurological disorders. Research in the journal focuses on aspects of chemical neurobiology and bio-neurochemistry such as the following:

• Neurotransmitters and receptors
• Neuropharmaceuticals and therapeutics
• Neural development—Plasticity, and degeneration
• Chemical, physical, and computational methods in neuroscience
• Neuronal diseases—basis, detection, and treatment
• Mechanism of aging, learning, memory, and behavior
• Pain and sensory processing
• Neurotoxins
• Neuroscience-inspired bioengineering
• Development of methods in chemical neurobiology
• Neuroimaging agents and technologies
• Animal models for central nervous system diseases
• Behavioral research

Research articles reporting the identification of general principles that govern how information is processed by neuronal circuits; or using genetic model systems in conjunction with computational biology, imaging, electrophysiological, and computational neuroscience (neuroinformatics) are also welcomed.

ACS ES&T Air welcomes novel, cutting-edge, and globally relevant original research on all aspects of outdoor and indoor air quality sciences and engineering. The journal focuses on investigations of air chemistry and physics, air pollution, and climate change that impact human and ecosystem health, encompassing laboratory and in-situ measurements, remote sensing observations, and computational and modeling studies. Specific topics of interest may include (but are not limited to):

• Chemical, physical, and biological processes in the atmosphere
• Gases, aerosols, and clouds
• Climate change and air quality across scales
• Health impacts of air pollution
• Effects of air pollution on ecosystems
• Atmosphere-biosphere interactions
• Atmosphere-hydrosphere interactions
• Air pollution sources, control technologies and atmospheric implications
• Advances in instrumentation, model development, and remote sensing techniques
• Indoor air chemistry and air quality
• Science/Policy interface
• Air quality in disproportionately impacted communities

ACS ES&T Water is a high-quality specialist journal dedicated to water research and policy. This international, multidisciplinary journal publishes novel, high-impact, peer-reviewed research on all aspects of water quality, chemistry, treatment, protection, and sustainable use/reuse and supply. The Journal considers both marine and freshwater environments as well as water utilized for industrial and municipal applications. ACS ES&T Water's multi-disciplinary research focus also welcomes other water-related research fields. Manuscripts describing public policy and the underlying science utilized for decision making are also encouraged. Specific topics of interest may include (but are not limited to) the following areas:

• Water quality and the transformation, transport, and behavior of contaminants in aquatic environments (groundwater, surface water, snow/ice, precipitation, and marine water) and engineered systems
• Water/wastewater treatment and innovative technologies, including biological, physical, chemical, and natural processes
• Sustainable water supply, reuse, and integrated water resource management
• Industrial water systems and process water treatment
• Marine, estuarine, and freshwater biogeochemistry and ecology
• Direct and indirect impacts of climate change on water sustainability
• Remediation and restoration of natural aquatic systems
• Innovative technologies for water quality monitoring and spatial vulnerability assessments
• Modelling groundwater, surface water and marine flow and contaminant fate and transport
• Spatial data on global and local water supply and water quality monitoring data trends.
• Water quality impacts on human and environmental health, including pathogen, chemical, and physical stressors
• Risk assessment and regulatory frameworks
• Life-cycle assessments and economic impact calculations, and social science implications

ACS ES&T Engineering publishes high-impact research and review/perspective/viewpoint articles. It is a specialist journal that aims to serve as an international forum for research and innovation, welcoming contributions on materials, technologies, processes, data analytics and engineering systems that can manage, protect, and remediate air, water, and soil quality, treat wastes, and recover resources. Research contributions that support effective decision-making within complex engineered systems and are informed by mechanistic science and analytics that describe complex environmental engineering systems are encouraged. Papers that present novel, innovative advancements will be considered across the continuum from lab-based discovery to field-based application. Case/demonstration studies without significant scientific advances and technological innovations will not be considered. Papers containing experimental and/or theoretical methods and knowledge grounded in engineering principles that are integrated with core knowledge from other disciplines are welcome. Specific topics may include (but are not limited to) the following environmental engineering areas:

• Novel materials, technologies, processes, data analytical methods, and systems that:
• evaluate, protect and remediate air, water, and soil quality
• solve or address multiple emerging environmental issues at various nexuses
• (e.g., energy, material, sustainability, public health)
• Novel separation, desalination, and resource recovery technologies
• Environmental nanotechnology and biotechnology
• Environmental catalysis for pollution abatement and cleaner sustainable processes
• Redox processes for engineering applications
• Waste management, treatment, valorization, and waste-to-energy
• Environmental technologies developed for monitoring, sensing, and assessing environmental exposure & hazards
• Macroscopic and microscopic mechanisms that inform environmental engineering systems
• Novel analytical and simulation methods (e.g., data-driven science, artificial intelligence, machine learning, data scraping) for environmental engineering application 

The Journal does NOT cover the following areas if they are presented as solitary topics and without making their connection to engineered systems or technological innovation clear:

• Environmental policy and regulation as a solitary focus (i.e., papers about the impact of engineered systems on the environment and health, and policy/regulation implications are considered within scope as long as outcomes link to advancements around the engineered system as a central theme of the paper)
• Characterization and monitoring of the environment as a solitary focus
• Fate and transport of contaminants and biogeochemical cycling
• Ecotoxicology and environmental health
• Atmospheric chemistry and processes, climate change
• Environmental chemistry as a primary focus (e.g., fundamental reaction mechanisms). However, environmental chemistry works that are necessary to demonstrate or understand engineering technologies or engineered systems may be suitable.

The scope of ACS Earth and Space Chemistry includes the application of analytical, experimental, and theoretical chemistry to investigate research questions relevant to the Earth and Space. The journal encompasses the highly interdisciplinary nature of research in this area, while emphasizing chemistry and chemical research tools as the unifying theme. The journal publishes broadly in the domains of high- and low-temperature geochemistry, atmospheric chemistry, marine chemistry, planetary chemistry, astrochemistry, and analytical geochemistry.

Among the areas the journal covers are:

Earth Interior

• High pressure experiments
• Core and mantle investigations
• Studies of planetary Interiors
• Mineral-melt phase equilibria, partitioning, and kinetics
• Mineralogy and mineral physics
• Igneous and metamorphic petrology, petrogenesis, and geochronology

Earth Surface

• Mineral-microbe-water reactions, thermodynamics, and kinetics
• Reactive transport modeling and colloid transport
• Multiscale science and scaling of geochemical and biogeochemical reactions

Atmosphere

• Atmospheric composition and reaction pathways
• Chemistry-climate interactions
• Biogeochemical cycles

Ocean

• Chemical fluxes and marine trace element chemistry
• Effects of global change on marine chemistry and the cryosphere
• Chemistry of the paleo-environment

Space

• Chemistry of planetary atmospheres and surfaces
• Investigations of meteorites and tektites
• Properties of cometary and interstellar materials
• Spectroscopy and chemistry of stars, interstellar clouds, and planetary formation

Analytical

• Analytical methods for characterization of Earth and Space materials

ACS Electrochemistry is an international forum for high-quality, cutting-edge original research in all areas of electrochemistry. The journal aspires to provide a platform for the diverse communities of scientists practicing electrochemistry to address global challenges. The journal welcomes submissions across fundamental, applied, experimental and theoretical aspects of electrochemistry research.

ACS Energy Letters is a monthly peer-reviewed journal that publishes new scientific advances in all aspects of energy research that are of interest to scientists working in the fundamental, and applied sciences. A central criterion to acceptance is that the paper reports sufficiently new results such that rapid publication is essential. 

The journal maintains one of the most rapid publication times in the field (average 4-6 weeks from submission to web publication in ASAP -As Soon As Publishable- format). ACS Energy Letters is currently ranked within the top 10 journals for the Web of Science Electrochemistry, Physical Chemistry, Energy & Fuels, and Nanoscience & Nanotechnology categories. 

Journal editors and staff routinely attend major scientific conferences, and are eager to discuss with readers and authors, and the journal maintains an active presence on social media. 

The following topics are examples within the scope of ACS Energy Letters:

• Storage Batteries and Supercapacitors
• Solar Cells (for example, Perovskite, Quantum Dots, Organic Photovoltaics and Tandem)
• Solar Fuels (Hydrogen, CO₂ and N₂ reduction) and Biofuels
• Energy Materials (Quantum Dots and Light Harvesting Assemblies)
• LED and Display Devices
• Fuel Cells and Redox Flow Batteries
• Photo- and Electro- Chemical/Catalytic Processes
• Desalination and Electrolyzers

Reviewers of ACS Energy Letters manuscripts will be asked the following questions:

• Is the manuscript likely to interest a substantial number of energy researchers, not just specialists working in the authors' specialized area of research?
• Are the conclusions adequately supported with appropriate data, control experiments, and statistics?

How does the manuscript rank in terms of urgency, significance, novelty, and scholarly presentation?

ACS Engineering Au is an open access journal reporting significant advances in chemical engineering, applied chemistry, and energy, covering fundamentals, processes, and products. The journal's broad scope includes experimental, theoretical, mathematical, computational, chemical, and physical research from academic and industrial settings. Topics include:

• Fundamental research in thermodynamics, transport phenomena (flow, mixing, mass & heat transfer), chemical reaction kinetics and engineering, catalysis, separations, interfacial phenomena, and materials
• Process design, development, and intensification (e.g., process technologies for chemicals and materials, synthesis and design methods, process intensification, multiphase reactors, microwave, cavitation, scale-up, systems analysis, process control, data correlation schemes, modeling, machine learning, Artificial Intelligence)
• Product research and development involving chemical and engineering aspects (e.g., catalysts, plastics, elastomers, fibers, adhesives, coatings, paper, membranes, lubricants, ceramics, aerosols, fluidic devices, intensified process equipment)
• Energy and fuels (e.g., pre-treatment, processing, and utilization of renewable energy resources; processing and utilization of fuels; properties and structure or molecular composition of both raw fuels and refined products; fuel cells, hydrogen, batteries; photochemical fuel and energy production; decarbonization; electrification)
• Measurement techniques, computational models, and data on thermo-physical, thermodynamic, and transport properties of materials and phase equilibrium behavior
• New methods, models, and tools (e.g., real-time data analytics, multi-scale models, physics informed machine learning models, machine learning enhanced physics-based models, soft sensors, high-performance computing)

ACS Environmental Au is an open access journal publishing experimental research and theoretical results in all aspects of environmental science and technology, both fundamental and applied. Topics include:

• Alternative energy
• Anthropogenic impacts on atmosphere, soil, or water
• Biogeochemical cycling
• Biomass or wastes as resources
• Contaminants in aquatic and terrestrial environments
• Environmental applications and implications of synthetic biology
• Environmental data science
• Environmental justice and equality
• Ecotoxicology and public health
• Energy and climate
• Environmental modeling, processes, and measurement methods and technologies
• Environmental nanotechnology and biotechnology
• Green chemistry
• Green manufacturing and engineering
• Risk assessment, regulatory frameworks, and life-cycle assessments
• Systems engineering and quantitative sustainability
• Treatment and resource recovery and waste management

ACS Infectious Diseases is the first journal to highlight chemistry and its role in the multidisciplinary and collaborative field of infectious disease research. With editors well-versed in both chemistry and the biology of infectious diseases, the journal aims to bridge the gap between these two disciplines. ACS Infectious Diseases welcomes submission of articles reporting investigations into chemistry and biology of infectious diseases, and encourages discussions centered on specific pathogen- and disease-related issues relating to bacteria, viruses, parasites, and fungi.

Topics covered by the journal include but are not limited to the following:

• Therapeutics
• Diagnostics
• Anti-infective Biomaterials and Drug Delivery Systems
• Drug Resistance
• Pathogens and Host-Pathogen Interactions
• Vaccines

ACS Macro Letters is the leading forum for the dissemination of urgent macromolecular and bio-macromolecular research. ACS Macro Letters welcomes research across many fields, from chemistry to physics to biology, including polymer engineering, polymer processing, and applications of polymers. Submissions to ACS Macro Letters typically contain strong elements of innovation and important experimental/theoretical approaches that demonstrate a fundamental advance in the understanding of polymers.

Topics covered by ACS Macro Letters include, but are not exclusively limited to:

• Polymers in catalysis and biocatalysis
• Advanced mechanics and rheology of polymer-based systems
• Polymer and composite membranes
• Supramolecular polymers and macromolecular assembly
• Polymer bioconjugates
• Carbohydrate and biobased polymers (polypeptides)
• Biomimetic polymers
• Polymer composites and nanocomposites
• Computational techniques
• Polymer networks and gels
• Diagnostic imaging and biosensing
• Polymer glasses
• Dynamic and stimuli-responsive macromolecules
• Polymerization/depolymerization
• Electronic, optical, magnetic, and spin-active macromolecules
• Polymers for advanced manufacturing, e.g., 3D printing
• Machine learning and artificial intelligence in polymer science
• Polymers for drug/gene delivery
• Nonlinear and block polymers
• Polymers for energy applications
• Porous polymers
• Polymers for membrane applications
• Sustainable and circular polymers
• Polymers for regenerative engineering
• Analysis and characterization of novel polymers
• Polymer design and synthesis

ACS Materials Au is an open access journal publishing high-quality research at the forefront of fundamental and applied research, and at the interface between materials and other disciplines, such as chemistry, engineering, and biology. Manuscripts that showcase multidisciplinary and innovative materials research addressing global challenges are especially welcome. Topics include, but are not limited to:

• Design, synthesis, characterization, and evaluation of forefront and emerging materials
• Understanding structure, property, performance relationships and their underlying mechanisms
• Development of materials for energy, environmental, biomedical, electronic, and catalytic applications

ACS Materials Letters publishes high-quality and urgent papers on the forefront of fundamental and applied research at the interface between materials and other disciplines, such as chemistry, engineering, and biology. Papers that showcase multidisciplinary and innovative materials research addressing global challenges are especially welcome. Research areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Design, synthesis, characterization, and evaluation of forefront and emerging materials
• Understanding of structure, property, performance relationships and their underlying mechanisms
• Development of materials for energy, environmental, biomedical, electronic, and catalysis applications

ACS Materials Letters is dedicated to publishing the most transformative materials research with very fast processing times.

With the launch of ACS Materials Letters, Chemistry of Materials and ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces will focus exclusively upon publishing full articles and have ceased publishing Letters/Communications.

ACS Measurement Science Au is an open access journal publishing experimental, computational, or theoretical research in all areas of chemical measurement science. The journal welcomes work on any phase of analytical operations, including sampling, measurement, and data analysis. Papers dealing with established methods need to offer a significantly improved, original application of the method. Topics include:

• Chemical Reactions and Selectivity
• Chemometrics and Data Processing
• Electrochemistry
• Elemental and Molecular Characterization
• Imaging
• Instrumentation
• Mass Spectrometry
• Microscale and Nanoscale systems
• Omics (Genomics, Proteomics, Metabonomics, Metabolomics, and Bioinformatics)
• Sensors and Sensing (Biosensors, Chemical Sensors, Gas Sensors, Intracellular Sensors, Single-Molecule Sensors, Cell Chips, Arrays, Microfluidic Devices)
• Separations
• Spectroscopy
• Surface analysis

ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters is interested in receiving manuscripts that discuss various aspects of medicinal chemistry. The journal will publish studies that pertain to a broad range of subject matter, including compound design and optimization, biological evaluation, drug delivery, imaging agents, drug interactome studies, and pharmacology of both small and large bioactive molecules.

Specific areas include but are not limited to:

• Identification, synthesis, and optimization of lead biologically active molecules and drugs (small molecules and biologics)
• Biological characterization of new molecular entities in the context of drug discovery towards delineating structure-activity relationship (SAR) trends
• Computational, cheminformatics, and structural studies for the identification or SAR analysis of bioactive molecules, ligands, and their targets, etc.
• Use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in drug discovery
• Novel and improved methodologies, including radiation biochemistry, with broad application to medicinal chemistry if the methods have been tested on relevant molecules. (e.g., DNA-encoded libraries, high-throughput experimentation, high-throughput parallel synthesis- compound library production, fragment-based drug discovery, covalent modulators.)
• New developments in discovery screening and bioassay technologies for biologically active molecules from both synthetic and natural (plant and other) sources.
• Chemistry patents relevant to the medicinal chemistry field
• Studies involving proximity-inducing agents including targeted protein degradation and molecular glues.

ACS Nano is a forum for the communication of comprehensive articles on nanoscience and nanotechnology research at the interfaces of chemistry, materials science, biology, medicine, physics, and engineering.

In addition to comprehensive, original research articles, ACS Nano offers thorough reviews and perspectives on cutting-edge research, and discussions of topics that provide distinctive views about the future of nanoscience and nanotechnology, including, but not limited to:

• Synthesis and assembly of nanomaterials and nanostructures
• Molecular nanotechnology and nanosystems
• Nanofabrication and nanomanufacturing
• Energy conversion and storage
• Nanobiotechnology and nanomedicine
• Catalysis
• Nanodevices and systems, nanorobotics
• Single-molecule, single-atom methods and measurements
• Nanometrology, nanoscopy, and characterization
• Theory, simulations & modeling for nanotechnology
• AI and machine learning for nanotechnology
• Nanophotonics and plasmonics
• Nanoelectronics and nano-optoelectronics
• Quantum materials and technology
• Interfacial and surface science
• Carbon capture, hydrogen, and clean electrification
• Sustainable development through nanotechnology
• Mechanistic understanding of nano-bio interactions
• Biomaterials and nano-enhanced bioengineering
• Environmental health and safety, nanotoxicology
• Community impact of nanotechnology innovations