Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics

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Impact factor: 3.430*
Eigenfactor Score: 0.191*
CiteScore: 3.69**
Publishing frequency: 48 issues per year
Indexed in MEDLINE and Web of Science
Chair: David Rueda

Scope

Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (PCCP) is an international journal for the publication of cutting-edge original work in physical chemistry, chemical physics and biophysical chemistry. To be suitable for publication in PCCP, articles must include significant innovation and/or insight into physical chemistry; this is the most important criterion that reviewers and the Editors will judge against when evaluating submissions.

The journal has a broad scope and welcomes contributions spanning experiment, theory, computation and data science. Topical coverage includes spectroscopy, dynamics, kinetics, statistical mechanics, thermodynamics, electrochemistry, catalysis, surface science, quantum mechanics, quantum computing and machine learning. Interdisciplinary research areas such as polymers and soft matter, materials, nanoscience, energy, surfaces/interfaces, and biophysical chemistry are welcomed if they demonstrate significant innovation and/or insight into physical chemistry.

PCCP is proud to be a society journal and is co-owned by 19 national chemical societies. The journal is published by the Royal Society of Chemistry on a not-for-profit basis for the benefit of the whole scientific community.

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See who's on the team

Meet the PCCP Chair and other board members.

Chair

David Rueda, Imperial College London, UK

Deputy chair

Anouk Rijs, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam,The Netherlands

Associate editors

Bo Albinsson, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden

Kiyotaka Asakura, Hokkaido University, Japan

Piero Baglioni, University of Florence, Italy

Luis Bañares, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain

Chantal Daniel, Institute of Chemistry, University of Strasbourg, France

Anna Krylov, University of Southern California, USA

Prabal Maiti, Indian Institue of Science, India

Ron Naaman, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

Henry Schaefer, University of Georgia, USA

Yunjie Xu, University of Alberta, Canada

John Zhang, NYU Shanghai, China

C Adamo, ENSCP Chimie Paris Tech, France

Hans Ågren, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden

Ayyappanpillai Ajayaghosh, CSIR-National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (NIIST), India

Katsuhiko Ariga, National Institute for Materials Science, Japan

Mike Ashfold CChem FRSC, University of Bristol, UK

Paul Ayers, McMaster University, Canada

Vincenzo Barone, Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, Italy

Phil Bartlett CChem FRSC, University of Southampton, UK

Matthias Bickelhaupt, Vrije Universiteit, The Netherlands

Piergiorgio Casavecchia FRSC, University of Perugia, Italy

Ove Christiansen, University of Aarhus, Denmark

G Andres Cisneros, University of North Texas, USA

Mattanjah DeVries, University of California Santa Barbara, USA

Jairton Dupont, University of Nottingham, UK

Daan Frenkel, University of Cambridge, UK

Asuka Fujii, Tohoku University, Japan

Laura Gagliardi, University of Minnesota, USA

Marie-Pierre Gaigeot, Universite d'Evry val d'Essonne, France

Robert (Benny) Gerber, Hebrew University Jerusalem, Israel

Debashree Ghosh, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, India

Daniella Goldfarb, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

Stefan Grimme, University of Bonn, Germany

Martina Havenith, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany

Yasuhiro Iwasawa, University of Tokyo, Japan

Denis Jacquemin, Université de Nantes, France

Seong Keun Kim, Seoul National University, Korea

Wolfgang Lubitz, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion, Germany

Julie MacPherson, University of Warwick, UK

Spiridoula Matsika, Temple University, USA

Hedi Mattoussi, Florida State University, USA

Frank Neese, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion, Germany

David Nesbitt, University of Colorado, USA

Dan Neumark, UC Berkeley, USA

Modesto Orozco, IRB Barcelona - Parc Científic de Barcelona, Spain

Michel Orrit, Leiden University, The Netherlands

G Naresh Patwari, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India

Marie-Paule Pileni, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, France

Martin Pumera, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Pekka Pyykkö, University of Helsinki, Finland

Mary Rodgers, Wayne State University, USA

Ruth Signorell, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Martin Suhm FRSC, University of Göttingen, Germany

Dage Sundholm, University of Helsinki, Finland

Toshinori Suzuki, Kyoto University, Japan

Alessandro Troisi, University of Warwick, UK

Jeroen van Bokhoven, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Shimon Vega, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

David Waldeck, University of Pittsburgh, USA

Li-jun Wan, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Wenchuan Wang FRSC, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, China

Bert Weckhuysen FRSC, Utrecht University, The Netherlands

Xueming Yang, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Anne Zehnacker-Rentien, Université Paris-Sud 11, France

R Ernst, Zürich, Switzerland

G Ertl HonFRSC, Berlin, Germany

S W Hell, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Germany

J Jortner FRSC, Tel Aviv, Israel

M Karplus, Harvard University, USA

K Kohse- Hoeinghaus, Universitaet Bielefeld, Germany

Y T Lee, Academia Sinica, Chinese Taipei

W H Miller, Berkeley, USA

E Neher, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Germany

J Polanyi HonFRSC, Toronto, Canada

H Schwarz, Technische Universität Berlin, Germany

J P Simons, University of Oxford, UK

Gabor A Somorjai, California, USA

Jürgen Troe, GWDG, Germany

R N Zare HonFRSC, Stanford, USA

J Aoiz, Spain

D Berti, Italy

H Cohen, Israel

O Crescenzi, Italy

J Dowle, New Zealand

A Michalak, Poland

W Ernst, Austria

J Sauer, Germany

K Holmberg, Sweden

L Hviid, The Netherlands

T Kee, Australia

J Keegan, Ireland

M Lim, Korea

A Brown, Canada

J Macpherson, UK

M Mahramanlioglu, Turkey

M Pettersson, Finland

S D Price, CChem MRSC, UK

M Quack, Switzerland

E Uggerud, Norway

S Vogel, Denmark

Anna Simpson, Executive Editor

Vikki Pritchard, Deputy Editor

Alexandra Klein, Development Editor

Jeanne Andres, Publisher

Gisela Scott, Editorial Production Manager, ORCID 0000-0002-2552-982X

Viktoria Titmus, Senior Publishing Editor

Ellis Crawford, Publishing Editor

Peter DaBell, Publishing Editor

Chris Goodall, Publishing Editor

Colin King, Publishing Editor

Emma Lockyer, Publishing Editor

Richard Thompson, Publishing Editor

Isobel Tibbetts, Publishing Editor

Jack Washington, Publishing Editor

Daphne Houston, Editorial Assistant

Robert Griffiths, Publishing Assistant

Article types

PCCP publishes:

Communications
Full papers
Perspectives
Comments

See more information about these article types

Communications

These are urgent reports of highly original and significant work likely to have a high impact on the community and of such importance that rapid publication is justified.

Communications are given priority treatment, are fast-tracked through the publication process and appear prominently at the front of the journal in a dedicated Communications section.

At the time of submission authors should supply a short statement justifying why the work merits urgent publication as a Communication. Reviewers will be asked to judge the work on these grounds.

It is recommended that Communications do not exceed four printed journal pages, authors may find the Communications template useful for preparing their submissions.

Section headings, lengthy introductions and discussion, extensive data, and excessive experimental details should not be included. Figures and tables should be essential to understanding the paper. The experimental evidence necessary to support a Communication should be supplied for the referees and eventual publication as electronic supplementary information (ESI).

Full papers

Full papers contain original scientific work that has not been published previously. They must demonstrate significant new insight into physical chemistry; this is the prime criterion that reviewers and the Editors will judge against when evaluating submissions.

Full papers based on Communications are encouraged provided that they represent a substantial extension of the original material. There are no restrictions on the length of a paper. Authors should include a brief discussion in the Introduction that sets the context for the new work and gives their motivation for carrying out the study.

Perspectives

Perspectives are high profile articles that present an authoritative state-of-the-art account of the selected research field. PCCP Perspectives take a wide variety of forms including personal accounts of research, critical analyses of topics of current interest and essential introductions to a field.

Perspective articles should provide critical evaluation, placing personal work in the context of the wider literature. Simple literature surveys will not be accepted for publication. Some new unpublished research may be included.

There are no strict length requirements, but as a general guide Perspectives should be typically between 6 - 20 pages in length. Shorter Perspective articles of 3 - 4 journal pages highlighting a topical area or important new development in an established field will also be considered.

Perspectives are commissioned by the PCCP editorial board and editorial office and we welcome suggestions on topics and authors. Enquiries regarding the submission of Perspectives should be directed to the editor.

Perspectives manuscripts undergo a full and rigorous peer review procedure, in the same way as regular PCCP research papers.

Comments

Comments and Replies are a medium for the discussion and exchange of scientific opinions between authors and readers concerning material published in PCCP.

For publication, a Comment should present an alternative analysis of and/or new insight into the previously published material. Any Reply should further the discussion presented in the original article and the Comment. Comments and Replies that contain any form of personal attack are not suitable for publication.

Comments that are acceptable for publication will be forwarded to the authors of the work being discussed, and these authors will be given the opportunity to submit a Reply. The Comment and Reply will both be subject to rigorous peer review in consultation with the journal’s Editorial Board where appropriate. The Comment and Reply will be published together.

Article templates

To help authors publish their research with us we host our PCCP LaTeX template in the Overleaf authoring tool. Overleaf simplifies LaTeX authorship by enabling collaborators to easily prepare and edit their manuscripts with realtime format previewing, simple document sharing and collaboration, and user support and LaTeX help.

With one-click, the PDF of your manuscript and a ZIP file of the LaTeX source files are sent directly to the PCCP submission system without the need to download and re-upload files, making the process quicker and easier.

A free introductory course is available to authors who are new to LaTeX and Overleaf. Our Microsoft Word templates are located in our author guidelines.

Journal specific guidelines

Papers that contain insufficient information to ensure reproducibility or material which actively promotes the interest of a process, instrument, software or other intellectual property of actual or potential commercial value will not be considered suitable for publication in PCCP.

PCCP welcomes suggestions of topics for future themed issues to be considered by the editorial board. If you have any suggestions of suitable topics please email the PCCP editorial office.

Themed Collections

PCCP publishes a number of themed collections every year, guest edited by members of the physical chemistry community on timely and important topics. Selected festschrift collections in honour of a notable scientist within the field are also published. Themed collections are available to read here.

Members of the community are welcome to submit proposals for themed collections that would be of interest to the PCCP readership. Please use the form below to submit a proposal. All proposals will be considered by the Editorial Board and assessed based on the timeliness and relevance of the topic to PCCP readers.

Suggest a topic

Your details

Name:

Email address:

PCCP Emerging Investigator Lectureship Award

The Emerging Investigator Lectureship Award recognises early career researchers, who have made a significant contribution to physical chemistry, chemical physics or biophysical chemistry, in their independent academic career.

The award is presented annually and nominations open in the summer.

Nominations are welcome from anyone and are to be sent to the Editorial Office with a nomination form and a letter of recommendation. Self-nomination is not permitted.

The nominations are then shortlisted and the winner selected by the PCCP Editorial Board. The winner is announced in late autumn.

The recipient of this award receives: the opportunity to present at an international conference, and a contribution of up to £1,000 to cover associated travel and accommodation costs. Also, an invitation to submit a perspective article to PCCP.

Eligible nominees will be invited to contribute an article to a PCCP Emerging Investigator Lectureship themed collection. Access the web collection here.

2021’s PCCP Emerging Investigator Lectureship Award

We are delighted to let you know that due to the additional difficulties faced by emerging investigators in raising their profile during the COVID-19 pandemic and the high quality of nominations, we have decided to grant two Lectureship Awards for 2021. Each recipient will receive £1,000 to cover associated travel and accommodation costs and be invited to present a lecture at a leading international meeting.

Dr Stella Stopkowicz and Dr Stefania Impellizzeri have been selected as the 2021 winners of the PCCP Emerging Investigator Lectureship Awards.

Readership information

PCCP has a large and international readership, which spans many communities in the broad fields of physical chemistry, chemical physics and biophysical chemistry.

Subscription information

PCCP is part of RSC Gold and Core Chemistry subscription packages.

Print + online 2021: ISSN 1463-9076, £4,837 / $8,522
Online only 2021: ISSN 1463-9084, £4,455 / $7,848

*2019 Journal Citation Reports (Clarivate Analytics, 2020)

**CiteScore™ 2018. Calculated by Scopus on 30 April 2019. Available from www.scopus.com/sourceid/27011

PCCP