ChemRxiv™ Beta open for submissions

Following in the footsteps of arXiv and bioRxiv, preprint servers focused on physics and life sciences respectively, ChemRxiv will enable researchers working across a broad range of chemistry fields to share early results with their colleagues ahead of formal peer review and publication.

Serving the chemical science community

Our director of publishing, Dr Emma Wilson, said: "Serving the chemical science community by enabling them to effectively share scientific knowledge has been central to our learned society purpose throughout our 176-year history.

"Our shared priority is to provide the global chemistry community with the 21st century tools they need to share and discover research.”

Dr James Milne, senior vice president, Journals Publishing Group, ACS Publications Division, said: "We have seen the value that preprints can make in accelerating the pace of discovery. With their commitment to open data, Figshare shares our goal of supporting the sharing and dissemination of research findings in a wide variety of file formats, allowing us to meet the Society’s key mission, as well as that of ChemRxiv."

Streamlined submissions

The preprint server includes a one-page streamlined submission portal with drag-and-drop file functionality through which authors can quickly, easily and directly submit preprints in a wide variety of file formats. ChemRxiv does not have submission or access fees. All content is accessible to interested users and also for harvesting through an open API or via OAI-PMH.

ChemRxiv is developing a triage process that includes plagiarism and other checks with the goal of posting preprints within one to two business days. To better enable rapid handling, the preprint server features a "next-generation curation module" that allows multiple curators to work together on large volumes of submissions.

ChemRxiv will help to accurately attribute preprints through automatic assignments of digital object identifiers (DOI) and citation tracking, and will leverage CrossRef processes to establish links between the final published version of articles and preprints. Altmetric will track online mentions with each page displaying the associated Altmetric badge and attention score.

Dr Milne adds: "We are currently finalizing the community-wide governance supporting ChemRxiv and look forward to announcing more developments shortly. We encourage feedback from users during the weeks ahead." 

"Scientific publishing is changing; transparency and completion of the communication cycle are important to scientists, publishers and funders,” says Mark Hahnel, CEO of Figshare. “In fast-paced fields like chemistry, moving to facilitate broad dissemination of ideas earlier in the process will speed up science.

"The intent behind ChemRxiv is to give the global chemistry community a central place to share and build recognition for their research discoveries — positively shaping routes of future work. Working with the ChemRxiv community-driven team to make this a reality is a distinct honor."

Further information

ChemRxiv is set to continue to release updates to functionality and features throughout 2017 and 2018. Learn more on the ChemRxiv site.

About Figshare
Figshare is a web-based platform to help academic institutions manage, disseminate and measure the public attention of all their research outputs. The light-touch and user-friendly approach focuses on four key areas: research data management, reporting and statistics, research data dissemination and administrative control. Figshare works with institutions in North America and internationally to help them meet key funder recommendations and to provide world-leading tools to support an open culture of data sharing and collaboration.  

About Digital Science
Digital Science is a technology company serving the needs of scientific and research communities at key points along the full cycle of research. It invests in and incubates research software companies that simplify the research cycle, making more time for discovery. Its portfolio companies include a host of leading brands including Altmetric, BioRAFT, Figshare, IFI CLAIMS, Labguru, Overleaf, ReadCube, Symplectic, ÜberResearch, Peerwith, GRID, TetraScience and Transcriptic. It is operated by global media company the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. 

About the American Chemical Society
The American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society, is a not-for-profit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS is a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. ACS does not conduct research, but publishes and publicizes peer-reviewed scientific studies. Through its Publications Division, the Society publishes 50+ peer-reviewed journals and eBooks. ACS journals are among the most cited, most trusted and most read within the scientific literature. The Publications Division offers high-quality service to authors and readers, including rapid time to publication, cutting-edge web and mobile delivery platforms and comprehensive open-access options. The Society's main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

For more information on their work on ChemRxiv, visit the ACS website.

About the German Chemical Society

The Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh) is the largest chemical society in continental Europe with members from academe, education, industry and other areas. The GDCh supports chemistry in teaching, research and application and promotes the understanding of chemistry in the public. In 2017 the GDCh celebrates the 150^th anniversary of the founding of its predecessor society, the Deutsche Chemische Gesellschaft.