Author guidelines for Faraday Discussions
The journal for discussion summaries and research papers that address current and emerging topics at the forefront of the physical sciences.
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Propose a presentation
Faraday Discussions papers are submitted by invitation or following selection of an abstract by the scientific committee of the relevant Faraday Discussion. They are presented at a Faraday Discussion meeting, each of which covers a topic within a rapidly developing areas of physical chemistry and its interfaces.
Find out more about the dates and topics of upcoming meetings and the associated deadline for submitting an oral abstract
Oral/paper abstracts for consideration should be uploaded via the 'abstract submission' link for the specific Faraday Discussion meeting.
Prepare your article
Discussion papers
Faraday Discussions papers must contain new and unpublished research work. Remarks or questions to encourage interesting scientific discussion at the Faraday Discussion meeting may be included.
A short introductory paragraph should provide the context for the new results; however review-type articles will not be accepted.
Faraday Discussions papers are distributed to all participants before the meeting, and most of the meeting is devoted to discussing the papers. Every delegate may contribute to the discussion – including presenting their own relevant new results.
General discussion
Uniquely Faraday Discussions publishes a record of the discussion comments, questions and responses in a fully citable format, alongside the Faraday Discussions papers as part of the final volume.
The templates will give you an idea of length and layout of the article. All articles are professionally edited and typeset to our house style, so the final article will look different to the template.
Use of the template is optional for our journals. For communications, use the communication template; for all other article types (including reviews), use the article template.
Download Microsoft Word templates
Please consult our user guide for help using our Microsoft Word templates.
LaTeX templates
If using the LaTeX template, please provide us with both the native files and a PDF file of your manuscript including all of your figures (as this format is the most accessible to our reviewers). Please note that articles are converted to a different format for professional typesetting during the publishing process.
Overleaf
We host our LaTeX templates with Overleaf, an authoring tool that helps collaborators easily prepare and edit their manuscripts with realtime format previewing, easy document sharing and collaboration, and user support and LaTeX help.
Endnote style files
You can automatically format references from your Endnote citation manager using our style files. Files are compatible with both Windows and Mac.
Chemical structure templates
Use our templates to produce clear chemical structures in ChemDraw. This will allow you to optimise the layout for the page dimensions of our journals. Download the zip files you need for Mac or PC below:
Keep your writing clear and concise, avoiding repetition or embellishment. All submissions must be in English. We permit standard English and American spelling in our journals, but please use one or the other consistently within the article itself. You are welcome to use common or standard abbreviations. If your abbreviations are non-standard, please include a definition the first time you use them.
All articles accepted for publication in our journals are edited and typeset to our house style by professional editors: the manuscript will be formatted for you.
If you would like professional guidance on improving the standard and style of your writing, before submitting your article, we offer a specialist language editing service.
Language editing service
If you would like professional guidance before you start the submission process, our native English speaking subject experts can work with you to improve the clarity of the research described in your manuscript by correcting grammatical errors, improving scientific expression, and addressing any other problems with the language.
Referencing your work clearly and accurately is incredibly important. Referencing acknowledges the work of others, and highlights the range and types of your cited material. Good referencing is an important part of a work’s presentation, and can affect how others view it. Failing to reference clearly could have a negative impact on your work if people can’t find the original material, or even be seen as plagiarism.
It’s important you use Vancouver style (not Harvard style). However, we will format your content according to our house style before publication.
We encourage the citation of primary research over review articles, where appropriate, in order to give credit to those who first reported a finding. This is part of our commitment to the principles of San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA).
Referencing in the text
Use superscript numbers to show the reference source of statements in the text – for example, reactive small molecule species.3 Usually these should appear at the end of the sentence (after the punctuation), but can be after the relevant word or compound. The reference numbers should be cited in the correct sequence through the text (including those in tables and figure captions, numbered according to where the table or figure is designated to appear).
If a statement has multiple references you should reference all of the citations in the text. If you have two citations, or if you have more than two and the numbers are not consecutive, use commas (with no spaces) between numbers, examples: 12,13 or 12,14,15. If there are more than two numbers and they are consecutive, use an en-dash to separate the first and last citation – for example, 14–20.
The author(s) can be mentioned at their first citation in the text, but initials are not necessary. For papers with one or two authors simply state the surname(s), and for papers with three or more authors you should use the first author’s surname followed by et al.
Listing your references
The references themselves are listed in numerical order at the end of the main article. The names and initials of all authors should be given in the reference. Please note, references cited in the Supplementary Information should be included in a separate references list within the Supplementary Information document.
Journal articles
The journal abbreviations to be used in Royal Society of Chemistry publications are defined in Chemical Abstracts Service Source Index (CASSI) . If you cannot find a recognised abbreviation for a journal and it is not obvious how the title should be abbreviated, please cite the full journal title.
Journal articles should be cited in the form:
A. Name, B. Name and C. Name, Journal Title, year, volume, page.
Inclusion of article title is optional for most journals, but required for Food & Function, Inorganic Chemistry Frontiers, Materials Chemistry Frontiers, Organic Chemistry Frontiers and Industrial Chemistry & Materials.
When page numbers are not yet known, articles should be cited by DOI (Digital Object Identifier) – for example, T. J. Hebden, R. R. Schrock, M. K. Takase and P. Müller, Chem. Commun., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C2CC17634C.
Books
A. Name, B. Name and C. Name, Book Title, Publisher, Publisher Location, year. For example, S T Beckett, Science of Chocolate, Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, 2000. If you are referencing published conference proceedings, these should be cited like a book.
Book chapters
A. Name, in Book Title, ed. Editor Name(s), Publisher, Publisher Location, edition, year, chapter, pages. The ‘ed.’ in the example above stands for ‘edited by’, that is, the editor(s) of the book; if the book has no editors this can be left out.
Theses
A. Name, PhD thesis, University Name, year.
Lectures, meetings and conferences
A. Name, presented in part at Conference Title, Place, Month, year.
Unpublished material
If you reference unpublished material in your article you must provide the editor with copies of the manuscripts with your submission. You should not reference unpublished work without the permission of those who completed the work.
For material accepted for publication, but not yet published: A. Name, Journal Title, in press. For material submitted for publication, but not yet accepted: A. Name, Journal Title, submitted. For material that has yet to be submitted for publication: A. Name, unpublished work.
Online resources (including databases, websites and wikis)
Name of resource, URL, (accessed date). Please note the most important information to include is the URL and the date accessed. For example, The Merck Index Online, http://www.rsc.org/Merck-Index/monograph/mono1500000841, (accessed October 2013).
Preprint servers (for example, ChemRxiv, arXiv)
ChemRxiv & bioRxiv: The citation should include the author(s), the name of the preprint server, the year, the word “preprint” and the DOI (including version number).
S. Bhattacharjee, S. P. Chaudhary and S. Bhattacharyya, ChemRxiv, 2019, preprint, DOI: 10.26434/chemrxiv.9794270.v1
arXiv: The citation should include the author(s), the name of the preprint server, the year, the article number and the url (including version number).
D. Carrascal, L. Fernandez and J. Ferrer, arXiv, 2009, preprint, arXiv:0904.1138, https://arxiv.org/abs/0904.1138v1
Patents
You should provide the name of the patentee(s), patent issuer, patent number and year. For example: J. C. Chung, US Pat., 20100105549A1, 2010; Nippon Telegraph & Telephone, Jpn. Pat., 2013034915A, 2013.
Software
T. Bellander, M. Lewne and B. Brunekreef, GAUSSIAN 3 (Revision B.05), Gaussian Inc., Pittsburgh, PA, 2003.
Notes and footnotes
Notes are used to provide information that is not suitable for inclusion in the main body of the text. The information is still important in qualifying or amplifying the argument in the text, but is not normally included because it would disrupt the flow of the text – for example, additional experimental details.
Information included as Notes (end-notes) relating to the main text should appear at the end of the article, just above the references. Notes should be numbered using the same numbering system as the references. These might include:
- comments relevant to but not central to the matter under discussion
- limited experimental and spectral data
- crystallographic data
Footnotes are referred to with the following symbols: †, ‡, §, ¶, ║ etc. They refer to information such as authors’ contributions, acknowledgements or references to the Electronic Supplementary Information (ESI). It’s always worth checking if your university department allows footnotes or notes.
Footnotes relating to the title and/or authors, including affiliations, should appear at the very bottom of the first page of the article. If Supplementary Information is available this is also stated here.
Please also include any dedications in the footnotes. At the editor's discretion, dedications of a personal nature may be more appropriate in the Acknowledgements section of the article.
Using images and copyright
Any images that are used should be numerically referenced in the figure caption. If your work is solely for your course, and will not be published publicly, you don’t need to obtain copyright permission.
If you are preparing an article to be published you will have to obtain copyright permission. The publisher/copyright owner of the image will need to be contacted and asked for their process for receiving permission requests. Permission is acknowledged in the figure caption and some organisations will require the permission statement to be given exactly as they specify. An example permission statement would be: Reproduced with permission from ref. reference number. Copyright year, Publisher. Find more information on our copyright and permissions processes.
Reference management
You can automatically format references from your Endnote citation manager using our style files.
Free reference management programmes are available. Check with your university what reference management software they recommend or have available for you to use.
- Colour images may be used free of charge both online and in print
- Figures, Schemes and Charts should be supplied as TIFF files, with a resolution of 600 dpi or greater. You can supply EPS or PDF files instead, but we will need to convert these to TIFF files in the final article
- Images should fit within either single column (8.3 cm) or double column (17.1 cm) width, and must be no longer than 23.3 cm. They should be prepared to make best use of the space available and must not be larger than a single page
- Any text, numerical data or scale bars should be clearly legible and sized appropriately so that any data may be accurately interpreted
- Figures including logos, trademarks or brands names (for example Lego® or Rubik’s Cube®) should not be used. You must obtain permission to use any figure or graphic belonging to someone else; see our guidance on using third party material in Royal Society of Chemistry publications.
Table of contents entry
A table of contents entry (graphical abstract) is required, which should be submitted at the revision stage. This should include an eye-catching graphic and 1-2 sentence(s) of text to summarise the key findings of the article to the reader. It will appear in the table of contents and feeds – for example, RSS feeds.
The graphic should:
- Be simple, but informative
- Capture the reader’s attention (the use of colour is encouraged)
- Include a structure, scheme, graph, drawing, photograph or combination that conveys the message of the article. Please note, complex schematics or spectra should be avoided
- Be original, unpublished artwork created by one of the co-authors. Preferably, the graphic should not be reused and appear again within the article
- Be suitable for, and uphold the standards of, a scholarly publication that has a global reach
- Not contain any elements that are offensive or inappropriate, in particular words or images that are discriminatory
- Not contain large amounts of text. Text should be limited to the labelling of compounds, reaction arrows and diagrams, with long phrases or sentences being avoided. Any text should be clearly legible to a reader
- Not contain logos, trademarks or brands names
The text should:
- Be concise and focus only on the key findings of the manuscript and their importance
- Avoid repeating or paraphrasing the title or abstract.
- Be provided in an editable format, e.g. .docx file
Table of contents specifications:
- The figure should be a maximum size of 8 cm wide x 4 cm high. It is recommended that authors make use of the full space available
- Figures should be supplied as TIFF files, with a resolution of 600 dpi or greater
- The text supplied should be 1-2 sentences long, using a maximum of 250 characters
Photographs
Photographs should be provided at the best resolution available (minimum 600 dpi) as TIFF, PDF or JPEG files
Biography photographs should be 4 cm wide x 5 cm high (individual photograph) or 8.3 cm wide x 5 cm high (group photograph)
Chemical structures
Structures should ideally be prepared with chemistry drawing software and saved as images in TIFF, EPS or PDF format. You may also embed the graphics in your manuscript if you prefer, but these should be saved in image format first.
You should use the settings below or you can use our chemical structure templates to format these for you.
- Chain bond angle = 120°
- Fixed bond angle = 15°
- Bond length = 0.43 cm or 12.2 pt
- Bond width = 0.016 cm or 0.5 pt
- Bold bond width = 0.056 cm or 1.6 pt
- Double bond space = 20% of bond length
- Stereo bond width = 0.056 cm or 1.6 pt
- Hash spacing = 0.062 cm or 1.8 pt
- Captions/atom labels = Arial/Helvetica, 7 pt
To save ChemDraw diagrams in TIFF format, select File, Save As. In the “Save as type” menu select “TIFF image (*.tif, *.tiff”)”, then click “Options” and change the resolution to 600.
Crystal structure images
A conventional line drawing of the structure should normally be included and one perspective diagram (or stereo pair) if appropriate. Packing diagrams should not be included unless required to illustrate a specific chemical point. The atom numbering scheme should be clearly shown in one of the diagrams.
Journal cover artwork
Appearing on the cover of the journal in which your work is published is an excellent way to promote your work and attract readers.
If you would like us to consider your artwork for the cover of a journal, please get in touch with that journal’s editorial team once your article has been accepted for publication. Use of artwork is at the editor's discretion and authors are required to pay a fee for this service. The submitted artwork should be the author’s own original creation. If third-party material is used as part of the artwork, or if it has been created with the help of an illustrator or designer, please ensure that all necessary permissions have been obtained. If using AI tools to help create the cover artwork, authors must confirm that the AI tool has been trained using fully licensed datasets and the terms of the licence to use the AI output allow commercial reuse.
If chosen for a cover, we will promote your article and increase its visibility in a number of ways:
- Your article will be made free to access to all for six weeks.
- Your cover will be highlighted in the contents pages of the journal online.
- Your cover will be attached to the PDF of your article, making it highly visible to readers.
- Your article will be placed towards the front of the issue, where it will be more readily accessible to readers.
We will also send you a digital version of the cover for you to use in presentations and your own promotion.
You can include supplementary information with your article to enhance and increase the impact of your work, for example by including 3D molecular models and movies. Authors can also improve the readability of their articles by placing appropriate material in the supplementary information, such as repetitive experimental details. All information published as supplementary information is fully archived and permanently linked to the article using CrossMark.
When preparing your supplementary information data files, you should keep in mind the following points:
- Supplementary data is peer-reviewed and should therefore be included with the original submission
- Supplementary Information files are published 'as is' which means editorial staff will not edit the data for style or content
- Data files are useful only if readers can access them. Use common, widely known and machine-readable file formats where possible
- Large files may prove difficult for users to download and access
- References cited in the supplementary information should be included in a separate references list within the Supplementary Information document
Where deposition in a subject-specific, institutional or general repository is not possible, we encourage the submission of supporting information for compounds and spectra. For compounds, please supply mol files (exported from your chemical drawing package) as unique compounds, without R-groups or variable attachments. Spectral data such as NMR, IR, Raman, ESR should be supplied in the standard JCAMP-DX format (.jdx files).
We offer a service that enables the 3D visualisation of complex molecules. You can use the FirstGlance in Jmol tool to prepare these.
Multimedia files and video abstracts
We welcome the use of multimedia files (including videos and animations) as these can be an excellent medium to present elements of your work. Any videos of general interest can also be shared with the wider community through social media – an effective way to attract new audience groups to your work.
Video abstracts offer an exciting opportunity to highlight the importance of a paper to the reader in a new and engaging way. Please notify the editorial team if you prefer for your video(s) not to be promoted in this way.
If you submit a multimedia file alongside your paper, please refer to it within your paper to draw it to the reader’s attention. Please also provide a short descriptive title for the video.
Content
- Start by introducing the conclusion of your article and concentrate on the main results
- Focus the video on why the article is relevant to the reader
- Introduce relevant co-workers and mix in images/footage of your laboratory, experiment and equipment to make it more engaging
- Videos should be approximately two-three minutes in length (no longer than four minutes)
- On screen text should be used sparingly and be large enough to read clearly
Technical
- Resolution/aspect ratio: 720p, 1080p or 4k.
- Frames per second: 25 to 30.
- Formats accepted: MPG, MOV, AVI, WMV, MP4.
Notes
You should ensure that you have copyright permission for any images, stock footage or background music used.
Please also submit a transcript of the video abstract that we can upload to make it more accessible.
Please read our detailed guidance on reporting experimental procedures and compound characterisation.
- Experimental reporting requirements apply to both new compounds and known compounds prepared by a new or modified method.
- It is the authors’ responsibility to provide descriptions of the experiments in enough detail to enable other skilled researchers to accurately reproduce the work.
- Experimental procedures, compound characterization data, research materials necessary to enable the reproduction of an experiment and references to the associated literature should be provided in the experimental section of the manuscript.
- Standard techniques and methods used throughout the work should be stated at the beginning of the experimental section; descriptions of these are not needed.
- For known compounds synthesised via a literature procedure, authors should provide a reference to previously published characterization data.
- Sources of starting materials obtained need not be identified unless the compound is not widely available, or the source is critical for the experimental result. Only non-standard apparatus should be described and commercially available instruments can be referred to by their stock numbers.
- The accuracy of primary measurements should be stated. Figures should include error bars where appropriate, and results should be accompanied by an analysis of experimental uncertainty. Care should be taken to report the correct number of significant figures throughout the manuscript.
- Any unusual hazards associated with the chemicals, procedures or equipment should be clearly identified.
- For studies that involve the use of live animals or human subjects please refer to the Human and Animal Welfare policy in our detailed guidance.
We often receive requests from individuals who want to communicate their research more clearly and effectively, and improve the standard and style of their written work when preparing for submission.
If you would like professional guidance before you start the submission process, our native English speaking subject experts can work with you to improve the clarity of the research described in your manuscript by correcting grammatical errors, improving scientific expression, and addressing any other problems with the language.
We can’t promise that using the service will guarantee acceptance of your manuscript – that decision is governed by the acceptance criteria of the specific journal, and by the quality of the scientific content. But the language editing service can make sure that your research is clearly communicated and presented.
Submit your article
Invited and selected speakers/authors will receive a submission link directly from the Faraday Discussions editorial office. Please contact us if you have a problem uploading your manuscript.
Publication
This journal is hybrid. Hybrid journals give authors the choice of publishing their research either via the traditional subscription-based model or instead by choosing our gold open access option.
Open access publishing options
Gold open access
For authors who want to publish their article gold open access, our article processing charge (APC) of £3,000 (+ any applicable tax) is applied. 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.
Open access agreements
If your institution has an open access agreement in place with the Royal Society of Chemistry, APCs for gold open access publishing may already be covered.
Use our journal finder to check if your institution has an open access agreement with us.
Please use your official institutional email address to submit your manuscript and check you are assigned as the corresponding author. This helps us to identify if you are eligible for an open access agreement or other APC discounts.
Traditional subscription model
Authors can also publish 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.
Once your article has been accepted for publication, you will need to choose and sign a licence to publish.
Hybrid journals give authors the choice of publishing their research either via the traditional subscription-based model or open access. There are different licences available in each case.
Open access
We offer industry-standard Creative Commons licensing for open access publication in all of our journals. These licences have more flexible terms for reuse and distribution of a work than a standard licence to publish, enabling our authors to fulfil funding body requirements.
We offer a choice of two Creative Commons licences. Authors may select the appropriate licence according to their funding body and research institute requirements or their personal choice.
CC BY licence
Allows other users to reuse, distribute, and build upon the work, even commercially, with full original author attribution.
Download CC-BY licence example form
CC BY-NC licence
Allows other users to reuse, distribute, and build upon the work, non-commercially, with full original author attribution.
Download CC-BY-NC licence example form
Traditional subscription model
We require the author to accept our licence to publish. This licence is normally requested after their article is accepted for publication. By signing this licence the author (who is either the copyright owner or who is authorised to sign on behalf of the copyright owner, for example his/her employer) grants to the Royal Society of Chemistry the exclusive right and licence throughout the world to edit, adapt, translate, reproduce and publish the manuscript in all formats, in all media and by all means (whether now existing or in future devised).
The Royal Society of Chemistry thus acquires an exclusive licence to publish and all practical rights to the manuscript, except the copyright. The copyright of the manuscript remains with the copyright owner. The copyright owner also retains certain rights regarding the sharing and deposition of their article and the re-use of the published material. For short items in journals (news items, etc) we take a non-exclusive licence in the form of a brief 'terms and conditions for acceptance' document.
Download the Royal Society of Chemistry licence to publish.