Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics journal

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Impact factor: 3.945*

Eigenfactor Score: 0.10767*

Time to first decision (all decisions): 26.0 days**

Time to first decision (peer reviewed only): 35.0 days***

CiteScore: 6.3****

Indexed in MEDLINE and Web of Science

Chair: David Rueda
Deputy Chair: Anouk Rijs

Article submissions (2021): 5712

Article publications (2021): 2539

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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. Joined experimental/theoretical studies are particularly appreciated when complementary and based on up-to-date approaches.

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PCCP Emerging Investigator Lectureship Award

This award recognises early career researchers, who have made a significant contribution to physical chemistry, chemical physics, or biophysical chemistry, in their independent academic careers.

Nominations are currently open for this award until 30 September 2022, with a new winner being announced early 2023.

Read about eligibility, how to nominate, and see all award winners

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

Piero Baglioni, University of Florence, Italy

Luis Bañares, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain

Maria Lucia Curri, University of Bari, Italy

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

Keith Gordon, University of Otago, New Zealand

Jürgen Janek, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany

Hiroshi Kondoh, Keio University, Japan

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

Isaac Tamblyn, University of Ottawa, Canada

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

Paul Ayers, McMaster University, Canada

Vincenzo Barone, Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, Italy

Malgorzata Biczysko, Shanghai University, China

Evan Bieske, University of Melbourne, Australia

Julie Biteen, University of Michigan, USA

David Casanova, Donostia International Physics Center, Spain

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

Cristina Díaz, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain

Jairton Dupont, University of Nottingham, UK

Shirin Faraji, University of Groningen, Netherlands

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

Subi George, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), India

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

Krister Holmberg, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden

Yasuhiro Iwasawa, University of Tokyo, Japan

Denis Jacquemin, Université de Nantes, France

Thomas Jagau, KU Leuven, Belgium

Erin Johnson, Dalhousie University, Canada

Seong Keun Kim, Seoul National University, Korea

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

Katya Pas, Monash University, Australia

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

Srinivasan Sampath, Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, India

Ruth Signorell, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Timothy Schmidt, University of New South Wales, Australia

Martin Suhm FRSC, University of Göttingen, Germany

Arthur Suits, University of Missouri, USA

Dage Sundholm, University of Helsinki, Finland

Toshinori Suzuki, Kyoto University, Japan

Alessandro Troisi, University of Warwick, UK

Shimon Vega, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

David Waldeck, University of Pittsburgh, USA

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

G Ertl HonFRSC, Berlin, Germany

B Feringa, University of Groningen, Netherlands

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 (Real Sociedad Española de Química)

D Berti, Italy (Società Chimica Italiana)

A Brown, Canada (Canadian Society for Chemistry)

H Cohen, Israel (Israel Chemical Society)

O Crescenzi, Italy (Società Chimica Italiana)

S Eason, New Zealand (New Zealand Institute of Chemistry)

W Ernst, Austria (Österreichische Physikalische Gesellschaft)

K Holmberg, Sweden (Svenska Kemisamfundet)

L Hviid, The Netherlands (Koninklijke Nederlandse Chemische Vereniging)

J Keegan, Ireland (Institute of Chemistry of Ireland)

M Lim, Korea (Korean Chemical Society)

J Macpherson, UK (Royal Society of Chemistry)

M Mahramanlioglu, Turkey (Türkiye Kimya Dernegi)

A Michalak, Poland (Polskie Towarzystwo Chemiczne)

M Pettersson, Finland (Suomalaisten Kemistien Seura I Finland)

M Quack, Switzerland (Swiss Chemical Society)

J Sauer, Germany (Deutsche Bunsen-Gesellschaft für Physikalische Chemie)

E Uggerud, Norway (Norsk Kjemisk Selskap)

C Vallance, UK (Royal Society of Chemistry)

S Vogel, Denmark (Kemisk Forening)

D Wilson, Australia (Royal Australian Chemical Institute)

Michael A. Rowan, Executive Editor, ORCID 0000-0001-6584-3648

Vikki Pritchard, Deputy Editor

Bee Hockin, Development Editor

Jeanne Andres, Publisher

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

Chris Goodall, Senior Publishing Editor

Catherine Au, Publishing Editor

Isobel Darlington, Publishing Editor

Konoya Das, Publishing Editor

Hugh Ryan, Publishing Editor

Wing So, Publishing Editor

Richard Thompson, Publishing Editor

Isobel Tibbetts, Publishing Editor

Michael Whitelaw, Publishing Editor

Daphne Houston, Editorial Assistant

Robert Griffiths, Publishing Assistant

Article types

PCCP publishes:

Communications
Full papers
Reviews
Tutorial Reviews
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.

Reviews

Concise and critical reviews of important or emerging topics in physical chemistry, chemical physics and biophysical chemistry. Reviews should be easy to read and cover current areas of interest, rather than comprehensive reviews of the literature, and may include a limited amount of unpublished research.

Tutorial Reviews

Tutorial reviews provide an essential introduction to a particular area of physical chemistry, chemical physics or biophysical chemistry. The article should have particular appeal to early career researchers, as well as established researchers seeking new fields to explore. Tutorial reviews may include a limited amount of unpublished research.

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 and critical analyses of topics of current interest.

Perspective articles should provide critical evaluation, placing any 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 and Reviews are typically between 6 - 20 pages in length, whilst some Tutorial Reviews are more in-depth. 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, Reviews and Tutorial Reviews are commissioned by the PCCP Editorial Board and Editorial Office and we welcome suggestions of topics and authors. We also welcome direct submissions. Enquiries regarding the submission of these article types should be directed to the Editor.

All Review-type articles undergo full and rigorous peer review, 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.

Open access publishing options

PCCP is a hybrid journal and gives authors the choice of publishing their research either via the traditional subscription-based model or instead by choosing our gold open access option.

Gold open access

For authors who want to publish their article gold open access, PCCP charges an article processing charge (APC) of £1800 (+ any applicable tax). Our APC is all-inclusive and makes your article freely available online immediately, permanently, and includes your choice of Creative Commons licence (CC BY or CC BY-NC) at no extra cost. It is not a submission charge, so you only pay if your article is accepted for publication.

Learn more about publishing open access.

Read & Publish

If your institution has a Read & Publish agreement in place with the Royal Society of Chemistry, APCs for gold open access publishing in PCCP may already be covered.

Check if your institution is already part of our Read & Publish community.

Please use your official institutional email address to submit your manuscript; this helps us to identify if you are eligible for Read & Publish or other APC discounts.

Traditional subscription model

Authors can also publish in PCCP via the traditional subscription model without needing to pay an APC. Articles published via this route are available to institutions and individuals who subscribe to the journal. Our standard licence allows you to make the accepted manuscript of your article freely available after a 12-month embargo period. This is known as the green route to open access.

Learn more about green open access.

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

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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.

Online only 2023: ISSN 1463-9084, £4,448 / $7,835

*2021 Journal Citation Reports (Clarivate Analytics, 2022)

**The median time from submission to first decision including manuscripts rejected without peer review from the previous calendar year

***The median time from submission to first decision for peer reviewed manuscripts from the previous calendar year

****CiteScore™ 2021 available at www.scopus.com/sources

PCCP