Introducing Review-Ready Submission for ACS Journals

As part of ACS Publications’ continued commitment to improving the publishing experience for both authors and reviewers, we have introduced “Review-Ready Submission.” This initiative is intended to save authors time and effort when preparing manuscripts for submission, as well as help reviewers focus on the science contained within the submitted manuscript.

Starting February 1, we ask that you follow the following standard formatting practices when submitting to any ACS journal:

• Submissions must be complete with clearly identified standard sections used to report original research, free of annotations or highlights, and include all numbered and labeled components.
• Figures, charts, tables, schemes, and equations should be embedded in the text. You may supply separate graphics at revision.
• When required by a journal’s structure or length limitations, manuscript templates should be used.
• You may provide references in any style, but they must be complete including titles.
• Supporting Information must be submitted as a separate file(s).
• Author names and affiliations on the manuscript must match those found on ACS Paragon Plus.

To streamline reference styling, we will be updating the publicly available reference managers with a standard style, which will automatically include titles. Journal-specific reference styles will be applied by the journal production team after the journal accepts a paper for publication.

While each journal will continue to have journal-specific scientific requirements, these standard formatting guidelines will ensure that manuscripts are ready for review upon receipt by the editorial office. Also, these new standards will help streamline the authoring process for transferring manuscripts to the most appropriate ACS journal.

Want to learn more about the ins and outs of publishing with ACS journals? Visit the Author and Reviewer Resource Center to view journal templates, submission instructions, and more.

Still, need help navigating the review-ready submission process? You can reach us through the ACS Publications Support Portal, via email at support@services.acs.org, or by phone at 1-800-227-9919 (USA and Canada) or 1-202-872-4357.