Author guidelines for PCCP
The journal for high quality research in physical chemistry, chemical physics and biophysical chemistry.
Step 1 of 4
Prepare your article
PCCP publishes:
- Communications
- Full papers
- Reviews
- Tutorial Reviews
- Perspectives
- Comments
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 supplementary information (SI).
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.
All review types guidance
There are no strict length requirements, but as a general guide Perspectives and Reviews are typically between six and 20 pages in length, whilst some Tutorial Reviews are more in-depth. Shorter Perspective articles of three to four 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, including those about which article type best fits your manuscript, should be directed to the editorial office.
All Review-type articles undergo full and rigorous peer review, in the same way as regular PCCP research papers.
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. Simple literature surveys will not be accepted for publication.
Tutorial Reviews
Tutorial reviews provide an essential introduction to a particular area of physical chemistry, chemical physics or biophysical chemistry. The article should introduce the development of a subject, its current state and indications of future directions the field is expected to take.
Tutorial reviews are intended to interest a wide range of readers and should be written at a level that could be understood by an advanced undergraduate student. The article should have particular appeal to early career researchers, as well as established researchers seeking new fields to explore. Some previously unpublished research may be included in a Tutorial Review.
Perspectives
Perspectives are high profile articles that present an authoritative state-of-the-art account of the selected research field. Perspectives should provide critical evaluation of areas of current interest. These articles can take a wide variety of forms:
- Personal accounts of research, placing any personal work in the context of the wider literature
- Critical analyses of topics of current interest
- Roundtable discussion of the development of a field of research
- Roadmaps and accounts looking to the future of a field
Simple literature surveys will not be accepted for publication. Some new unpublished research may be included.
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.
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 and Edge articles), use the article template.
Some journals also offer double-anonymised peer review; authors who choose to opt-in should ensure their manuscript and all associated files are suitably anonymised before submission.
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
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 real-time 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.
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:
Download Microsoft Word templates
Please consult our user guide for help using our Microsoft Word templates.
Title
The title should be short and straightforward enough to appeal to a general reader, but detailed enough to properly reflect the contents of the article.
- Keep it as short as possible
- Use easily recognisable words and phrases that can be read quickly
- Use keywords and familiar, searchable terms – these can increase the chances of your article appearing in search results. Around 70% of our readers find articles through search engines
- Use general terms for compounds and procedures rather than specific nomenclature or very specialised terms
- Avoid using non-standard abbreviations and symbols
An example of an effective title:
‘Alkylation of active methylene compounds with alcohols catalysed by an iridium complex’.
An example of an ineffective title:
‘Active methylene compounds are alkylated with ROH under catalysis of [IrCl(cod)]2’.
Authorship
Include full names and affiliations for all authors. Everyone who made a significant contribution to the conception, design or implementation of the work should be listed as co-authors. The corresponding author has the responsibility to include all (and only) co-authors. The corresponding author also signs a copyright licence on behalf of all the authors.
If there are more than 10 co-authors on the manuscript, the corresponding author should provide a statement to specify the contribution of each co-author. It is possible to have two corresponding authors. Please identify co-corresponding authors on your manuscript's first page and also mention this in your comments to the editor and/or cover letter.
The author affiliation(s) listed should be the institution(s) where the majority of the research was conducted. If an author has multiple affiliations all the relevant institutions should be listed. If the present address of an author is different from that at which the work was conducted, that address should be stated in a footnote and not as an affiliation.
Abstract
The abstract is the first part of your manuscript that editors, reviewers and potential readers will see. It will help readers to decide whether your article is of interest to them.
Therefore, it’s important that it clearly and concisely summarises the main findings of your research and why they are important.
The abstract is a single paragraph which should:
- be around 50 to 250 words
- be concise and easy to read with recognisable words and phrases
- use familiar, searchable terms and keywords
- set out the main objectives and results of the work; it should give the reader a clear idea of what has been achieved
- emphasise (but not overstate) the potential impact of the research and why it is important (compared to other research in its field)
- avoid including detailed information on how the research was carried out – this should be described in the main part of the manuscript
Introduction
An introduction should 'set the scene' of the work. It should clearly explain both the nature of the problem under investigation and its background. It should start off general and then focus in to the specific research question you are investigating.
Ensure you include all relevant references.
Experimental
Provide descriptions of the experiments in enough detail so that a skilled researcher is able to repeat them. Standard techniques and methods used throughout the work should just be stated at the beginning of the section; descriptions of these are not needed. Any unusual hazards about the chemicals, procedures or equipment should be clearly identified.
Authors are encouraged to make use of Supplementary Information for lengthy synthetic sections. In general, there is no need to report unsuccessful experiments.
Only non-standard apparatus should be described. Commercially available instruments are referred to by their stock numbers (for example, Perkin-Elmer 457 or Varian HA-100 spectrometers). The accuracy of primary measurements should be stated.
Suitable characterisations of compounds must be included – read see the experimental reporting section of these guidelines.
For studies that involve the use of live animals or human subjects an ethical statement may be required. For full details, please refer to our Human & Animal Welfare policy.
Results and discussion
This is arguably the most important section of your article.
Your results should be organised into an orderly and logical sequence. Only the most relevant results should be described in the text, to highlight the most important points. Figures, tables, and equations should be used for purposes of clarity and brevity. Data should not be reproduced in more than one form, for example in both figures and tables, without good reason.
The purpose of the discussion is to explain the meaning of your results and why they are important. You should state the impact of your results compared with recent work and relate it back to the problem or question you posed in your introduction. Ensure claims are backed up by evidence and explain any complex arguments.
Conclusions
This is for interpretation of the key results and to highlight the novelty and significance of the work. The conclusions should not summarise information already present in the article or abstract. You can also include any plans for relevant future work here.
Author contributions
In the interests of transparency, we strongly encourage authors of research articles to include an "Author contributions" section in their manuscript, for publication in the final article. Contributions should be explained concisely. We strongly recommend you use CRediT (the Contributor Roles Taxonomy from CASRAI) for standardised contribution descriptions.
All authors should have agreed to their individual contributions ahead of submission and these should accurately reflect contributions to the work. Please note that for any manuscript with more than ten co-authors the corresponding author must provide the editor with a statement to specify the contribution of each author.
Conflicts of interest
In accordance with our policy on Conflicts of interest please ensure that a conflicts of interest statement is included in your manuscript. This statement is required for all submitted manuscripts. If no conflicts exist, please state that ‘There are no conflicts to declare’.
Data availability
A data availability statement (DAS) is required to be submitted alongside all articles. Please see the submit section of these guidelines for more details and examples of suitable statements you can use.
Acknowledgements
Contributors (those not already included as co-authors) may be acknowledged. Keep this section as brief as possible. You should also declare all sources of funding at this point.
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
On submission
When you submit your manuscript to a Royal Society of Chemistry journal, please provide the following.
- Article text as a Word, PDF or LaTeX file (if you use LaTeX, please also include a PDF version)
- Numbered figures are either included within or at the end of the text; for specifications see information on figures, graphics, images & cover artwork
- A cover letter, including a statement of the importance of the work
- A list of preferred reviewers; should be entered in the manuscript submission system
- Any Supplementary Information
- Any CCDC numbers, as well as CheckCIF files for each crystal structure; see the experimental data section for more information
The submission system allows for up to five files to be uploaded at once. Alternatively, a ZIP file containing up to 20 files can be uploaded. All files relating to a single manuscript should be uploaded simultaneously during one transaction.
Articles should be submitted using ScholarOne Manuscripts, our online submission system. We do not accept submissions by post or email. You will also be asked to supply the names and contact details of all co-authors.
ScholarOne Manuscripts requires the use of pop-ups, so you'll need to enable these in your browser before you start.
An author guide and FAQ is available from ScholarOne Manuscripts to help you learn and navigate the system.
Registering a new account
New users will need to set up an account on the system before starting. To do this go to the ScholarOne homepage and click on 'Register here' under 'New User?' to the right of the page. It takes only a few minutes to complete the form; once done you will be able to access your account immediately.
Frequently asked questions
I am trying to register my account and am getting a 'Marketing Flag' error. What do I do?
A Marketing Flag error occurs when you have not completed a required field. You are required to respond to the question that reads 'Do you wish to receive emails from the Royal Society of Chemistry about its related activities, products and services?', which can be found in the 'User ID & Password' section of the form, underneath the area where you can add keywords. Please select 'Yes' or 'No' from the dropdown menu.
I’ve forgotten my password, or need to change it, how can I do this?
If you have forgotten your password, click the ‘Submit your article’ link from one of our journal pages. From this page, select ‘Reset Password’. Your login details will be sent to you.
If you do not receive an email containing your login details, or your email address has changed, please contact the specific journal office.
What is your policy on data protection?
The Royal Society of Chemistry will use the information you supply for the provision and administration of its activities, products and services. It will treat the information you supply in the strictest confidence. There is more information on our Privacy & cookies page.
If you are still having trouble please contact our manuscript support team.
This is a chance for you to explain the importance of the work submitted and why it is most suitable for the journal. Your cover letter will be sent to reviewers.
Things to consider:
- Make sure you state the correct journal name.
- Address your letter to the relevant Associate Editor or Executive Editor.
- Include a succinct statement about the importance and/or impact of your work.
- Avoid repeating information that is already in your abstract or introduction.
- Check your spelling.
- Don’t include preferred/non-preferred reviewers in your letter as these should be entered in the manuscript submission system only.
- Don’t refer to themed issue invitations or invited articles as these should be entered in the manuscript submission system only.
To maintain high standards of transparency, research reproducibility, and to promote the reuse of new findings, a data availability statement (DAS) is required to be submitted alongside all articles.
- Data availability statements provide information about where data, software, or code supporting the results reported in a published article can be found. These should include, where applicable, links to datasets shared in an external data repository, which have been analysed or generated during the study. This section should list the database, accession number, DOI, URL or any other relevant details.
- The full URL link to data sets should be provided (not embedded behind text).
- Authors are also encouraged to include data citations to associated datasets in the reference section of an article.
- The data availability statement can provide information about the data presented in an article (e.g., in Figures or Tables) or provide a reason if data are not available to access (e.g. human health data). If supporting data or code have been included in the article’s Supplementary Information, this should also be stated here.
- If data for the article cannot be made available, for example, due to legal or ethical confidentiality requirements, then the DAS should state this.
A data availability statement must be included at the end of the article under the heading “Data availability”, after the conflicts of interest statement and before any acknowledgements.
The following are some examples of DAS that you can use:
- Data for this article, including [description of data types] are available at [name of repository] at [URL – format https://doi.org/DOI].
- The data supporting this article have been included as part of the Supplementary Information.
- Crystallographic data for [compound number] has been deposited at the [name of repository, such as CCDC / ICSD / PBD] under [accession number] and can be obtained from [URL of data record, format https://doi.org/DOI].
- The code for [description of software] can be found at [URL to code location] with [DOI – see guidelines below for citing software and code]. The version of the code employed for this study is version [XXX].
- This study was carried out using publicly available data from [name of repository] at [URL] with [accession number].
- The data analysis scripts of this article are available in the interactive notebook [name of notebook, e.g. Google Collab] at [URL].
- Data for this article are available at [name of repository] at [URL – format https://doi.org/DOI]. Data collected from human participants, described in [Fig. X], are not available for confidentiality reasons.
- No primary research results, software or code have been included and no new data were generated or analysed as part of this review.
The following statement is generally not acceptable “Data are available upon request from the authors".
Please read our guidance for best practice and reproducibility of experimental data.
Please see our data sharing guidance and policy for more details on specific data types and recommended repositories.
We believe that where possible, all data associated with the research in a manuscript should be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR), enabling other researchers to replicate and build on that research. We strongly encourage authors to deposit the data underpinning their research in appropriate repositories and make it as openly accessible as possible.
For all submissions to our journals, any data required to understand and verify the research in an article must be made available on submission. To comply, we suggest authors deposit their data in an appropriate repository. Where this isn’t possible, we ask authors to include the data as part of the article Supplementary Information. If necessary data are not made available, authors may be requested to provide these as part of the peer-review process, or in light of any post-publication concerns.
Assessment and review
This journal offers transparent peer review as well as traditional, single-anonymised peer review during the submission process.
Transparent peer review
In the interest of transparency and open science, transparent peer review is where the editor’s decision letter, reviewers’ comments and authors’ response for all versions of the manuscript are published alongside the article under an Open Access Creative Commons licence (CC-BY) .
You can see some examples here:
You can opt in during the submission and peer review process and can change your mind about transparent peer review at any point prior to acceptance. Reviewer comments remain anonymous unless the individual chooses to sign their report.
We are always looking for ways to improve the author experience – and our manuscript tracker is part of that commitment. Developed using feedback from our authors, the tracker is available across all Royal Society of Chemistry journals, making it as easy as possible for authors to stay informed about their submissions.
With a clear and informative interface, this time-saving tool allows users to follow the progress of their paper by receiving updates at each stage – from the moment it is submitted, to when it is published online. The manuscript tracker even allows authors to find out details such as the number of reviewers who have agreed to provide a report, or the name of the handling editor. This information can also be shared with co-authors, removing the need for the corresponding author to manually update everyone on the paper.
Revisions are a natural part of the publication process – generally all authors will be asked to make at least a few changes, to make sure that the article is of the highest possible quality.
As well as your revised manuscript, you will be asked to provide a response to the referees, your figures as separate high-resolution files and a table of contents entry. Full details of what you should include will be sent to you by the editor when required.
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The Royal Society of Chemistry is committed to providing authors with a high level of customer service throughout the publication process. One of the ways we do this is to consider the suitability of a manuscript for another Royal Society of Chemistry journal if the manuscript is unsuitable for publication in the journal to which it was submitted originally.
When a paper is to be rejected from one Royal Society of Chemistry journal, then we would offer the author(s) the option to transfer the paper to one of our other journals for consideration, when this is appropriate. This offer may occur during the initial assessment of a manuscript or after reports on it have been received from reviewers. As part of the peer review process, the reviewers are asked to comment whether the manuscript would be more appropriate for one of our other journals.
An offer by the editorial office to transfer the manuscript to another journal is made in the decision letter to the corresponding author; the author decides whether or not to take up the offer and then selects the appropriate option provided in the letter. On acceptance of the offer the manuscript is transferred automatically to the new journal without the author needing to supply the submission information again.
The transferred manuscript will appear as a 'draft' in the author’s ‘Author Centre’ in the new journal, and the author will receive an email asking them to finalise the submission. The process provides a quick and easy route for these papers to be considered by another journal.
If the manuscript already has reports from reviewers then the author will be asked to upload the revised files. These files should include a summary of any new work added and a point by point response to the reviewers’ comments. Authors should be aware that the reviewers’ comments are transferred to the editor of the receiving journal together with the manuscript files. On submission to the new journal, the manuscript will then be assessed by an editor as to whether further peer review will be necessary.
Our appeal procedure provides authors with the opportunity to respond to the editorial decision on their manuscript. Authors have the right to appeal to the editor against any decision taken on their manuscript at any stage; an appeal will be considered at the discretion of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
How do I appeal?
Step 1: Send a rebuttal letter to the editor via the journal email. Your letter should explain clearly why you disagree with the decision on your manuscript, and should include a detailed response to any reviewers’ comments
Step 2: The editor will consider your appeal. All appeal requests are handled on a case by case basis and the editor's decision is final.
If your appeal is granted:
Step 3: Your manuscript will undergo further assessment by an independent reviewer.
Step 4: The editor will make a final decision on 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.