Discover how the ACS Publications team in Latin America is helping early-career scientists from the region to develop the skills needed to master scientific storytelling.
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Aligned with ACS’s mission to empower a global community, the ACS Publications Latin American team is dedicated to advancing science and supporting regional research excellence. Among the many initiatives promoted by ACS Publications in Latin America aiming to support the scientific community and collaborate to expand the global impact and visibility of research conducted in the region, The Scientific Article Lab is a standout. It is a program that helps early-career scientists to develop the skills needed to master scientific storytelling. The Lab was designed to provide essential training on how to write effective scientific manuscripts and publish in high-impact journals from the ACS Publications’ portfolio, ultimately helping to elevate the international presence of research from the region.
Launched in 2023, this program was crafted into an introductory course for early career scientists seeking to publish their first scientific paper. Initially offered in Brazil in a short format of five classes, the course focused on covering the basics of scientific writing—from conducting literature searches to selecting the appropriate journal for submission.
Due to the success of the program’s first edition, the content was expanded, and it was delivered in both Portuguese and Spanish, helping to increase the number of countries whose scientists could benefit from it. The 2025 edition of The Scientific Article Lab featured 10 virtual sessions, covering a broader spectrum of key aspects of the publishing process: how to draft the initial outline, what to cover in each article section, how to write a impactful title and create relevant figures, how to select the appropriate journal for submission, peer reviewing process workflow, how to communicate with editors, and much more. All sessions were delivered by our field-based ACS Publications’ scientific representatives, Juliana García (Hispanic America) and Valtair Júnior (Brazil).
Here we list the main topics covered:
- The Art of Scientific Writing and Understanding the Publishing Process
- Preparing Primary Articles and Short Communications
- Preparing Review Articles and How to Do Scientific Literature Searches
- Figures and Graphics Creation and Data Management
- How to Choose the Right Journal
- Open Access, Preprints, and Transformative Agreements
- Understanding Peer Reviewing
- Ethics in Scientific Publishing
- Artificial Intelligence in Scientific Writing
The new version of The Scientific Article Lab was concluded in June 2025 with more than 24,000 registrations and 7,000 participants from 38 countries, a record for the program. Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico, three of the research powerhouses in the region, had the higher number of participants. Meanwhile, we also had participations from European, African and Asian countries, including Angola, China, Mozambique, Portugal, and Spain.
As a global authority responsible for disseminating some of the most important scientific discoveries, ACS Publications keeps fostering ways to help scientist to develop the best science possible and channel it to a global audience. Latin America is emerging on the global stage and is steadily increasing its presence and contribution to scientific advancement worldwide. As we expand Read and Publish Agreements in Brazil and Hispanic LATAM Countries, open access publishing is increasingly becoming a first choice for authors. Through these efforts, we are demonstrating how ACS Publications is collaborating to increase the global impact and visibility of the science developed in Latin America.
This year’s post event survey revealed that 93% of attendees had not yet published with ACS, and 46% said that they had never published open access before. This is a clear demonstration that we have space to keep expanding the number of publications from LATAM as we keep increasing our collaboration and support. We are confident that programs like The Scientific Article Lab can empower researchers who are Hispanophones and Lusophones to master scientific storytelling, understand the benefits of a flexible open access publishing experience, and increase the potential to achieve high impact and visibility for their work by choosing ACS journals. In this way, the American Chemical Society continues to grow as a trusted partner for scientists in Latin America.
On-demand recordings of the program in Portuguese and Spanish are now available. Learn more about how to write effective manuscripts and publish in high-impact journals!