Investing in Integrity

Trust is the foundation of scientific publishing. At ACS Publications, our goal is simple but ambitious: to remain the most trusted scientific publisher. Achieving that goal requires continuous investment in the systems, expertise, and infrastructure so that researchers can rely on the integrity of the scientific record today and for generations to come. In this article, we will focus on ways that ACS invests in tools, technology, and most importantly, people to uphold the highest standards of scientific integrity.

Integrity is not a static achievement. It is an active, evolving commitment, and ACS Publications makes that commitment every day.

In this Article:
Integrating Trust Throughout the Publishing Experience
Policies That Evolve with Science
Education as a Cornerstone of Integrity
Partnership and Collaboration Across the Scholarly Publishing Ecosytem
Consultative Approach with Editors and Ethics Experts
Investing in Technology, with Humans Always in the Loop
A Long-Term Commitment to Trust

Integrating Trust Throughout the Publishing Experience

Maintaining trust requires more than strong editorial standards. It requires a publishing ecosystem intentionally designed to support fairness, security, and scientific rigor at every stage of the research journey. We continuously invest in improving the publishing experience through ongoing platform enhancements, strengthened security measures, and expanded submission and peer review capabilities. As scientific publishing evolves, so must the infrastructure that supports it. From author recruitment and engagement to reviewer workflows and editorial decision-making, ACS regularly evaluates how processes and systems can be refined to improve efficiency, consistency, and rigor for researchers around the world.

Policies That Evolve with Science

Strong publication policies are essential to protect the integrity of the scientific record, but policies must also evolve alongside advances in research practices, publishing models, and emerging technologies.

ACS regularly reviews and updates its publication and editorial development policies. These policies are designed both to set expectations and to educate authors and reviewers. Clear guidance on authorship, data reporting, reproducibility, and ethical conduct supports researchers proactively before issues arise.

Because of the importance of reproducibility in research, ACS requires full methodological details and encourages data transparency to ensure published work can be validated and replicated. We have also implemented policies surrounding the use of generative AI tools in research and manuscript preparation, reflecting the growing role of AI tools in research and writing workflows. As technology advances, maintaining confidence in the reliability, originality, and reproducibility of published research remains a central priority.

Education as a Cornerstone of Integrity

Ethical publishing standards are strongest when researchers clearly understand expectations and best practices. To support the global research community, ACS provides a wide range of educational resources for authors and reviewers designed to support everyone from early-career researchers to seasoned experts.

Authors can access a variety of resources on our Publications Ethics information page. Authors can also reach out to ACS’s Publishing Integrity Office with questions, and an independent ethics ombudsperson helps address specific concerns fairly and consistently. Together, these resources reinforce that ethical publishing is a shared responsibility that no one should have to navigate alone.

By combining clear policies with practical education and expert support, ACS aims to foster a culture of integrity that extends beyond individual journals and throughout the broader scientific community.

Partnership and Collaboration Across the Scholarly Publishing Ecosytem

Protecting research integrity is a shared responsibility across scholarly publishing, and no single publisher can address evolving ethical challenges alone. ACS actively collaborates with organizations across the scholarly publishing ecosystem, including through its long-standing membership in the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), to shape and advance industry best practices. Additionally, our journals support FAIR data principles, ensuring that research data are findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable.

Through supporting development of and participating in the STM Integrity Hub, ACS and other publishers monitor their respective submissions for potential integrity issues while ensuring flagged manuscripts and resultant actions are reviewed by humans, not decided by algorithms alone.

ACS also has invested in ensuring our published research remains accessible indefinitely to preserve the scientific record for the long term through partnership with preservation services like Portico. We also encourage authors to use open repositories to preserve underlying data, reinforcing the permanence and reliability of the scholarly record.

Consultative Approach with Editors and Ethics Experts

Editors are at the heart of scientific direction and scope of ACS journals. As active researchers and recognized experts in their fields, their scientific judgement, subject matter expertise, and vision are essential to maintaining rigorous editorial standards. Editors are at the frontlines of fostering and maintaining publishing integrity at ACS.

To support them, ACS provides publication ethics training courses, administrative assistance, and expanded ethics and data support resources. Because context and scientific expertise matter, the ACS Data Help Desk, staffed by Ph.D.-level experts, assists editors when data-related questions arise so that no decision is made without human judgement. By reducing administrative burden and offering expert help, we allow editors to focus on what they do best: advancing science.

Our centralized publishing integrity office works closely with editors and other ACS staff across journals, offering standardized ACS-approved processes for handling ethical concerns and conducting journal-portfolio level monitoring. Ethics training is required for editors, and an ombudsperson who serves as an independent liaison between ACS Publications and the chemistry community to address concerns about Editors, Editorial Advisory Board (EAB) members, or reviewers regarding the peer review process. Together, these resources ensure consistency, fairness, and transparency across the entire ACS portfolio.

Investing in Technology, with Humans Always in the Loop

Technology plays a critical role in protecting research integrity, and ACS continues to invest in sophisticated tools designed to detect and prevent unethical practices. All ACS journals use iThenticate for plagiarism detection. Additional integrity‑screening tools are applied at various stages of the publication process, including advanced image‑analysis technologies helping identify manipulation and duplication that would not be reasonably possible for humans to detect through manual review alone.

We are also actively addressing emerging risks, including paper mill activity, paid or manipulated authorship, peer review fraud, and inappropriate use of AI tools. When concerns are identified, ACS works to investigate and resolve issues as early in the publication process as possible, helping preserve trust in both published research and the broader scientific enterprise.

While technological tools are helpful in uncovering potential problems, ACS recognizes that technology alone cannot safeguard integrity. Automated tools are designed to support, not replace, human expertise. Recognizing that false positives can occur and legitimate research must always be protected from automated misinterpretation, flagged concerns receive human evaluation. As submission volumes and complexity continue to grow, ACS is expanding its integrity and ethics teams to ensure that human oversight scales alongside technological capability.

A Long-Term Commitment to Trust

Investing in integrity is about building resilient systems that protect trust over time. Through continuous improvement, evolving policies, education, collaboration, expert consultation, and responsible technology use, ACS Publications remains committed to preserving the integrity of the scientific record.

At ACS, safeguarding trust in science is not optional; it is central to our mission.