2018 marks the third year of publishing for ACS Energy Letters, and it’s off to a fast start with 95 Articles ASAP (As Soon As Publishable) published in January and February. “The enthusiasm of researchers worldwide to tackle major hurdles in energy conversion and storage has made this field one of the outstanding frontiers of […]
2018 marks the third year of publishing for ACS Energy Letters, and it’s off to a fast start with 95 Articles ASAP (As Soon As Publishable) published in January and February.
“The enthusiasm of researchers worldwide to tackle major hurdles in energy conversion and storage has made this field one of the outstanding frontiers of modern science,” wrote Editor-in-Chief Prashant V. Kamat, and his team of Senior Editors in their January 12, 2018, Editorial “Energy Research Outlook. What to Look for in 2018.”
They went on to outline six areas in the field of energy research that have the potential to see important scientific advances this year:
- Energy materials
- Electrochemical energy conversion and energy storage
- Solar cells
- Solar fuels
- LED and display devices
- Theory and computational modeling
“Since writing that editorial, we have received many great research articles in these areas this year, and we’re looking forward to receiving more in the coming months,” says Kamat. “We encourage everyone to submit new advances in energy research for rapid publication in ACS Energy Letters.”
We also invite you to read the latest advances and learn what’s new with ACS Energy Letters through our sample issue: Volume 3, Issue 1.
Volume 3, Issue 1, is Free to Read
Everyone can read Volume 3, Issue 1, of ACS Energy Letters free through December 31, 2018, with complimentary access from ACS Publications. Institutional subscribers to ACS All Publications, All Access, and token packages have access to all issues of the journal as well as all Articles ASAP (As Soon As Publishable).
Authors and Readers: Talk to your librarian if you would like access to ACS Energy Letters at your organization or email the sales team at ACSPubsSales@acs.org and they will be glad to assist.
Librarians: Email your ACS Publications sales representative with any subscription questions related to this journal at ACSPubsSales@acs.org.
Submission to Acceptance in Less than a Month
If you want to see your groundbreaking research published as quickly as possible, you should submit it to ACS Energy Letters. The journal’s average time to acceptance is just 28 days from submission.
Once your manuscript is accepted, it will be published online, complete with a page number.
Submit your groundbreaking energy research to ACS Energy Letters!
Meet Senior Editor D.D. Sarma
“We are pleased to have Professor Sarma, a leading scientist from India, join ACS Energy Letters,” Kamat says. “His wide range of expertise will help us broaden our editorial expertise and allow us to maintain a rapid publication time.”
I recently connected with Dr. Sarma to learn more about him and his research. Here are the highlights of our conversation.
As a Senior Editor of ACS Energy Letters, what do you expect your new contribution to the journal will be?
Each editor brings in a unique combination of vision for the growth of a field, expertise, sphere of influence, and approach. A journal editor’s job is not limited only to judge–with the help of reviewers’ inputs–the suitability of a submitted manuscript for the publication in that journal, it should encompass a much larger vision of contributing to the growth of the field itself; to nurture scientific temper and good practices and to expose the uninitiated–often young–researchers to the excitement of the field. As a Senior Editor of ACS Energy Letters, I hope to contribute to each of these to the best of my abilities.
All editors at ACS Publications are practicing scientists. Could you describe some of the key research areas your group is involved in?
Our group’s main concern is to investigate the behavior of electrons to understand interesting material properties. Specifically, we have been interested primarily in magnetic, electronic, optical, and dielectric properties of bulk and nanomaterials.
One of the areas that we deal extensively in is where electron-electron interaction is crucial to understand material properties with notable examples being in the fields of magnetism, metal-insulator transition, and many other interesting properties.
The other major area of activities in our group has been to understand the growth, optical, electronic, and magnetic properties of group II-VI semiconductor nanocrystals with and without doping of impurities. We have been studying for a long time various inorganic perovskite material for their spectacular range of exotic properties, and to this, we have more recently added activities in the organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites with their promises in the field of energy.
Beyond high-quality, breakthrough science, what do you think makes a great article on energy research?
High-quality, breakthrough science needs no champion, but often time is the only judge to decide what really deserves that tag, particularly for a field like energy research. Leaving aside such spectacular examples, what editors are constantly looking for in any submission is a touch of originality, evidence of deep thinking, and not a work that is cast in the already-established tradition and format of research in the field, something that is often referred to as more-of-the-same.
In addition, energy research is ultimately driven by the applicability of the concept or the progress made in a specific research activity. Therefore, even if an article does not conform to our idea of high-quality research influencing some fundamental aspects of our understanding in the field, if it contributes significantly to enhance chances of translation of a technology, for example, by an enormous simplification of a process, I feel that such a work makes a great article on energy research.
What advice do you have for young and emerging energy researchers?
Energy research is the most exciting field of science today and will continue to remain that way for several more decades. So, this is the field to be in, but we should avoid the temptation of opting for the routine work that is publishable, but not thought-provoking. One should always try to write such papers that will make a sizable part of the readership think “Oh! Why did I not think of this?”
Senior Editor D.D. Sarma’s Publications
Sarma has published more than 460 research papers in peer-reviewed journals, including two papers in ACS Energy Letters:
Substrate Integrated Nickel–Iron Ultrabattery with Extraordinarily Enhanced Performances
ACS Energy Lett., 2016, 1 (1), pp 82–88
DOI: 10.1021/acsenergylett.6b00067
Electrochemical Energy Storage: The Indian Scenario
ACS Energy Lett., 2016, 1 (6), pp 1162–1164
DOI: 10.1021/acsenergylett.6b00567
