Author Guidelines

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Scope of the Journal

Environment & Health (E&H), a peer-reviewed, open access journal, is committed to exploring the relationship between the environment and human health.

 

As a premier journal for multidisciplinary research, Environment & Health reports the health consequences for individuals and communities of changing and hazardous environmental factors. In supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the journal aims to help formulate policies to create a healthier world.

 

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • Air, water, and soil pollution
  • Exposomics
  • Environmental epidemiology
  • Innovative analytical methodology and instrumentation (multi-omics, non-target analysis, effect-directed analysis, high-throughput screening, etc.)
  • Environmental toxicology (endocrine disrupting effect, neurotoxicity, alternative toxicology, computational toxicology, epigenetic toxicology, etc.)
  • Environmental microbiology, pathogen, and environmental transmission mechanisms of diseases
  • Environmental modeling, bioinformatics, and artificial intelligence
  • Emerging contaminants (including plastics, engineered nanomaterials, etc.)
  • Climate change and related health effect
  • Health impacts of energy evolution and carbon neutralization
  • Food and drinking water safety
  • Occupational exposure and medicine
  • Innovations in environmental technologies for better health
  • Policies and international relations concerned with environmental health

 

More information can be found here.

Manuscript Types

Research Article (flexible length typically up to 7,000 word-equivalents).

 

Research Articles in E&H must report original research that is expected to have a definable impact on the advancement of environmental health and related policy, being characterized by the editor and referees as an advance representing the top 10% of articles published annually in that field. Articles must be of high scientific quality, originality, significance, and conceptual novelty.

 

Authors are requested to provide an explanation in their cover letter why they believe the manuscript belongs in E&H and why their research will interest our readers with an emphasis on the novelty and environmental or health relevance of the contribution. For articles focusing on environmental science or technology, a brief discussion on the implications for human health should be included in the article.

 

Review (flexible length typically up to 10,000 word-equivalents).

 

Reviews are topical, forward looking, and of general interest to the readership. A good review critically evaluates existing work of multiple groups in a field or across disciplines, provides a logical organization, and makes the material more easily available to those not expert in the area through clear text and figures. Reviews should lay out the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. Reviews should contain an abstract and appropriate references. The use of graphics to illustrate key concepts is strongly encouraged. Reviews include a graphical Table of Contents entry and ~5–8 keywords.

 

Authors should briefly describe their expertise in the subject matter and provide a list of their own publications related to review topic in the cove letter accompanying the submission. Authors should also provide justification for the need for a review on the topic and address what differentiates their submission from the most recent and related Reviews, Perspectives, or Viewpoints published in the topic area. All Review articles will undergo full peer review.

 

Although most Reviews are invited, they can be submitted without invitation. Authors interested in submitting a Review are strongly encouraged to contact the Editors prior to manuscript preparation and submission, to seek conditional approval of the proposed topic. One-page proposals should be sent to the Editor (eic@eh.acs.org ) with the subject line “Review Proposal”.

 

Perspective (flexible length approximately 2,000 to 4,000 word-equivalents).

 

Perspectives are personal reviews of a field or area by one or a small team of authors, and they are focused rather than comprehensive. Perspective authors are asked to assess the current status of the field with an emphasis toward identifying key advances being made or those advances that are needed, and with an eye to the future. A Perspective should touch base with the current literature, including key contributors and references, but will primarily serve to inspire and help direct future research efforts.

 

Authors should briefly describe their expertise in the subject matter and provide a list of their own related publications on the topic in the cove letter accompanying the submission. Authors should also provide justification for the need for a Perspective on the topic and address what differentiates their submission from the most recent and related Reviews, Perspectives, or Viewpoints published in the topic area. Perspectives will undergo full peer review. 

 

Although most Perspectives are invited, they can be submitted without invitation. Authors interested in submitting a Perspective are strongly encouraged to contact the Editors prior to manuscript preparation and submission, to seek conditional approval of the proposed topic. One-page proposals should be sent to the Editor (eic@eh.acs.org ) with the subject line “Perspective Proposal”.

 

Policy Analysis (flexible length typically up to 7,000 word-equivalents).

 

These manuscripts typically focus on the interface of environment and health research with public policy and provide new insight into the understanding and management of human-environment nexus. Policy Analysis articles will undergo peer review.

 

Viewpoint (flexible length approximately 1,000 to 1,500 word-equivalents).

 

Viewpoints are short opinion-style manuscripts, written in the journalistic style of an opinion piece in a newspaper or magazine. They provide authors with a venue to comment on an issue of pressing importance to E&H readership. Viewpoint articles should express an opinion of a clear scientific nature, based on rigorous scientific research in an environmental or health discipline. They should not be wholly political or summary in nature. Viewpoints are not generally peer reviewed but are subject to editorial approval.

 

Correspondence/Rebuttal (length limit: 1,000 word-equivalents each including citations).

 

Correspondence is a technical contribution providing, with supporting material, a respectful but alternative point of view to a publication that has appeared in E&H. The author of the original publication may be invited to write a Rebuttal. The Correspondence and Rebuttal may undergo peer review under the direction of the assigned editor. The Correspondence and Rebuttal will appear in the same issue of the journal, when possible.

 

In Focus (flexible length approximately 1,000 to 1,500 word-equivalents).

 

In Focus are articles that popularize scientific knowledge and raise the public's scientific literacy in an easy-to-understand way. They provide authors with a venue to communicate professional knowledge to the general public and enable the citizens to become aware of environmental and health issues. In Focus articles are not generally peer reviewed but are subject to editorial approval. Interested authors can submit proposals for In Focus to the Editor (eic@eh.acs.org) with the subject line, “In Focus Proposal”.

 

News

 

News reports latest incidents in environment and health research in a concise and timely manner. News may be linked to articles either published in E&H or elsewhere. News is not peer reviewed. News manuscripts are invited only.

 

Spotlight

 

Spotlights are short editorial features that highlight research articles published in E&H or other journals, alerting the readership to interesting research findings. Spotlights are not peer reviewed. These pieces are invited submissions, and those who wish to contribute a Spotlight article should contact the Editor (eic@eh.acs.org).

 

Special Issue

 

E&H has a required template that must be completed for all proposals for special issues. If you would like to propose a special issue, please contact the Editor for more information (eic@eh.acs.org).

ACS Researcher Resources

While this document will provide basic information on how to prepare and submit the manuscript as well as other critical information about publishing, we also encourage authors to visit ACS Researcher Resources for additional information on everything that is needed to prepare (and review) manuscripts for ACS journals and partner journals, such as

Manuscript Preparation

Submit with Fast Format

All ACS journals and partner journals have simplified their formatting requirements in favor of a streamlined and standardized format for an initial manuscript submission. Read more about the requirements and the benefits these serves authors and reviewers here.

 

Manuscripts submitted for initial consideration must adhere to these standards:

  • 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 at the point of relevance. Separate graphics can be supplied later at revision, if necessary.
  • When required by a journal's structure or length limitations, manuscript templates should be used.
  • References can be provided in any style, but they must be complete, including titles. For information about the required components of different reference types, please refer to the ACS Style Quick Guide.
  • Supporting Information must be submitted as a separate file(s).

Document Templates and Format

Environment & Health does not require the use of any document templates.

General information on the preparation of manuscripts may also be found in the ACS Guide to Scholarly Communication.

Acceptable Software, File Designations, and TeX/LaTeX

See the list of Acceptable Software and appropriate File Designations to be sure your file types are compatible with the submission system. Information for manuscripts generated from TeX/LaTeX is also available.

Cover Letter

A cover letter must accompany every manuscript submission. During the submission process, you may type it or paste it into the submission system, or you may attach it as a file.

 

Recommended information includes the following:

  • the full manuscript title
  • the name and complete contact information (mailing address, phone, and email) of the corresponding author
  • the type of manuscript submitted
  • a paragraph explaining why the paper is appropriate for E&H, clearly indicating what key advance(s) is/are described in the work.
  • a statement confirming the manuscript is not under consideration for publication and has not been published elsewhere.
  • note any use of a preprint server, and as appropriate, state how the manuscript has been adjusted/updated between deposition and submission.

 

Manuscript Text Components

Title. Titles should clearly and concisely reflect the emphasis and content of the manuscript. Titles are of great importance for current awareness and information retrieval and should be carefully constructed for these purposes. Titles of manuscripts may not contain the words “New” or “Novel” nor any part number or series number without permission from the Editor. Claims of precedence should not be made in a title, so use of “First” in titles for this purpose is prohibited. Additionally, “Superb”, “Excellent”, “Exceptional”, “Outstanding” or other similar descriptive words, are strongly discouraged. Acronyms and abbreviations are not permitted in manuscript titles, unless they are broadly familiar to readers in all disciplines of chemistry. Titles should not be phrased as a question.

 

Author List. Bylines should include all those who have made substantial contributions to the work. To facilitate indexing and retrieval and for unique identification of an author, use first names, initials, and surnames or first initials (e.g., Jody R. Smith), second names, and last names (e.g., J. Riley Smith). Do not use only initials with surnames (e.g., J. R. Smith). Deceased persons who meet the criteria for inclusion as coauthors should be included, with an Author Information note indicating the date of death. Do not include professional or official titles or academic degrees. At least one, or optionally more than one but fewer than four authors must be designated with an asterisk as the author(s) to whom reader correspondence regarding the published manuscript may be addressed.

 

The full names and e-mail addresses of all co-authors must be provided on the Authors & Institutes page upon submission of the manuscript in the ACS Publishing Center. Use of ORCID identifiers is encouraged.

Addition or deletion of an author or authors after submission of the manuscript requires justification from the corresponding author and is subject to approval by the Editor.

 

Institution Address. The author affiliation(s) listed should be the institution(s) where the work was conducted. If the present address of an author differs from that at which the work was done, that address should be given in an Author Information note.

 

Many Funders and Institutions require that institutional affiliations are identified for all authors listed in the work being submitted. ACS facilitates this requirement by collecting institution information during manuscript submission under Step 2: Authors and Affiliations in the ACS Publishing Center.

 

Abstract. All Articles, Reviews, Perspectives and Policy Analysis papers must be accompanied by an abstract, including an Abstract (TOC) graphic, which should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results, and major conclusions. Abstracts of manuscripts may not contain the words “superb”, “excellent”, “exceptional”, “outstanding”, or other similar descriptive words unless rigorously supported by a thorough comparison with the state-of-the-art in the manuscript. Like manuscript titles, the words “New”, “First”, or “Novel” are also generally disallowed in the abstract. The abstract should not generally exceed 200 words. Pasting the abstract in the text box on the Web submission page does not replace the need for including an abstract in the manuscript document.

 

Keywords. All Articles, Reviews, Perspectives and Policy Analysis papers must be accompanied by 5–8 keywords. Authors are encouraged to include significant keywords that do not appear in the title to expand discoverability and aid the reader in literature retrieval. These keywords will appear in the PDF version of the article and will also be used as a search term in the HTML version of the article.

 

Introduction. The introduction should clearly and concisely explain the motivation for the work, its importance and originality, where it fits in the development of the field and why it should be of interest to E&H readers. Discuss relationships of the study to previously published work, but do not reiterate or provide a complete literature survey.  If a recent article has summarized work on the subject, cite that article only, and not the sources it cites. Current findings should not be included or summarized in this section. 

 

Materials and Methods. Describe pertinent and critical factors involved in the experimental work but avoid excessive description. Details not essential for understanding the paper can be placed in Supporting Information (SI).  Specific experimental methods should be sufficiently detailed for others to repeat the experiments unequivocally. List devices of a specialized nature or instruments that may vary in performance or affect the quality of the data obtained (e.g. spectroscopic resolution), including the vendor. If the procedures are already published, provide citations to previous publications and expand only on differences in the current work. Authors must emphasize any unexpected, new, and/or significant hazards or risks associated with the reported work and this safety information must be included in the Materials and Methods section.

 

Results and Discussion. Be complete but concise.  Discuss your findings, postulate explanations for the data, elucidate models and compare your results with those of others.  Avoid irrelevant comparisons or contrasts, any speculation unsupported by the data presented and verbose discussion.

 

Conclusions. Concisely articulate the important findings of your work and their impact on the field of research, aiming for maximum brevity.

 

Safety. Authors must emphasize any unexpected, new, and/or significant hazards or risks associated with the reported work. For each manuscript that reports experimental procedures, authors must include an affirmative statement about safety in the Experimental Section of the full article or the main text of a Letter. Further information may be included or re-introduced in the Supporting Information.

Abbreviations. Acronyms and abbreviations that are not broadly familiar to readers in all disciplines of chemistry should be introduced in parentheses following the full term on its first appearance in the text. Do not include a separate Abbreviations list.

Acknowledgment. Dedications and notes acknowledging financial or professional assistance to the conduct of research or indicating presentation at a meeting should be brief and placed in the Acknowledgment section.

Author Information Notes. The e-mail address(es) of the corresponding author or authors must be provided as a Corresponding Author note. Present addresses for individual authors that differ from the address(es) at which the work was done should be given in a Present Address(es) note.

Statements about author contributions to the work or equal contributions of work should be included as a separate statement.

References and Footnotes. All the references and footnotes must be placed together in a list at the end of the manuscript text. In the Web edition, many of them will have links to other Web resources, such as the corresponding abstracts in Chemical Abstracts and the full text from other American Chemical Society journals. Because of this electronic linking, and to aid scientific research, it is crucial that authors verify the accuracy of all references.

Unnecessarily long lists of references should be avoided, and excessive self-citation is not permitted. However, authors must reference all previous publications in which portions of the present work have appeared. Each literature reference should be assigned one number and placed in the text as a superscript Arabic numeral. Footnotes to the text should be combined with references and numbered in ordinal sequence. Long footnotes should be avoided in Articles and are not permitted in Communications; additional data and peripheral discussion should be placed in the Supporting Information rather than in footnotes.

Bibliographic references to classified documents and reports or references to unpublished materials that are not generally available to the scientific public should not be used. Authors must obtain written permission from any person whose work is cited as a personal communication, unpublished work, or work in press. Copies of letters of permission and documentation should be appended to the cover letter file. If the manuscript is accepted but the necessary permissions have not been received, the Editor will ask the author to remove the reference(s) and dependent text.

List submitted articles as “in press” only if they have been formally accepted for publication. Otherwise, use “unpublished work” with the name of the place where the work was done and the date. For work published online (ASAP, in press), the DOI should be furnished in addition to the author name(s), article title, journal name, and year. DOI is an accepted form of citation before and after the article appears in an issue.

Example of a journal reference:

Yue, Q.; Liu, W.; Zhu, X. n-Type Molecular Photovoltaic Materials: Design Strategies and Device Applications. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2020, 142, 11613–11628.

Example of an in-press journal reference:

Ham, J. S.; Park, B.; Son, M.; Roque, J. B.; Jurczyk, J.; Yeung, C. S.; Baik, M.-H. ; Sarpong, R. C–H/C–C Functionalization Approach to N-Fused Heterocycles from Saturated Azacycles. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2020, DOI: 10.1021/jacs.0c04278.

Example of a reference to a book with no editors:

Desiraju, G. R.; Vittal, J. J.; Ramanan, A. Crystal Engineering: A Textbook. World Scientific Publishing Co Pte Ltd: Singapore, 2011.

Example of a reference to a book with editors:

Byrn, S. R.; Stowell, J. G. Impurities in Drug Substances and Drug Products. In Validation of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients; Berry, I.R., Harpaz, D., Eds.; CRC Press: Boca Raton, 2001; pp 271–292.

Authors should consult the ACS Guide to Scholarly Communication for the appropriate style to use in citations of journal articles, books, and other publications. In literature references, article titles must be included and journal abbreviations should be those used in the Chemical Abstracts Service Source Index (CASSI)

Supporting Information

This information is provided to the reviewers during the peer-review process (for Review Only) and is available to readers of the published work (for Publication). Supporting Information must be submitted at the same time as the manuscript. See the list of Acceptable Software by File Designation and confirm that your Supporting Information is viewable.

 

If the manuscript is accompanied by any supporting information files for publication, these files will be made available free of charge to readers. A brief, nonsentence description of the actual contents of each file, including the file type extension, is required. This description should be labeled Supporting Information and should appear before the Acknowledgement and Reference sections.  Examples of sufficient and insufficient descriptions are as follows:

 

Examples of sufficient descriptions: “Supporting Information: 1H NMR spectra for all compounds (PDF)” or “Additional experimental details, materials, and methods, including photographs of experimental setup (DOC)”.

 

Examples of insufficient descriptions: “Supporting Information: Figures S1-S3” or “Additional figures as mentioned in the text”.

 

When including supporting information for review only, include copies of references that are unpublished or in-press. These files are available only to editors and reviewers.

Research Data Policy

All ACS journals strongly encourage authors to make the research data underlying their articles publicly available at the time of publication.

Environment & Health applies ACS Research Data Policy Level 1, meaning the journal encourages all authors to publicly share all the data underlying the results reported in the paper, preferably via archiving in an appropriate public repository. Authors are also encouraged to provide a Data Availability Statement describing the public availability of the data supporting the article’s conclusions. Publicly available data sets should be cited appropriately.

Research data is defined as materials and information used in the experiments that enable the validation of the conclusions drawn in the article, including primary data produced by the authors for the study being reported, secondary data reused or analyzed by the authors for the study, and any other materials necessary to reproduce or replicate the results.

The ACS Research Data Policy provides additional information on Data Availability Statements, Data Citation, and Data Repositories.

Data Requirements

Nomenclature. Use abbreviations and acronyms sparingly, and all usage should be defined at the first occurrence in the text. Whenever possible, use systematic nomenclature as recommended by IUPAC and IUBMB for chemical compounds and biomolecules, and SI units. The ACS and IUPAC websites have links to nomenclature recommendations. Names of organisms should comply with genetic conventions, with genus and species names written in italics and spelled out in full on first appearance. Trade names should be defined at the point of first use (registered trade names should begin with a capital letter).

 

Database Deposition. Advancing scientific discoveries can be enhanced when data and materials are made available and readily exchanged. E&H encourages authors to make materials, data, and protocols available to readers through deposition in a public database for all published articles. In addition, ACS Publications’ figshare houses all Supporting Information within the HTML presentation of the paper and at acs.figshare.com and is available free of charge. Authors may want to further investigate Dryad or institutional repositories for depositing data. Authors also agree to make available to interested academic researchers for their own use any materials reported in the manuscript that are not otherwise obtainable. Any restrictions to the availability of materials or information must be stated at the time of submission. The ACS Math Style Sheet and NMR Guidelines are available on ACS Researcher Resources.

Sequence data. DNA sequence data must be submitted to GenBank, EMBL Nucleotide Sequence Database, or the DNA Data Bank of Japan. Protein sequence data should be deposited with the Protein Identification Recourse at Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), or the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics.

Microarray data. Manuscripts that present microarray data should follow the MIAME (Minimum Information About a Microarray Experiment) guidelines. Data must be submitted to the GEO (Gene Expression Omnibus) or ArrayExpress Archive databases.

For sequence data and microarray data, the relevant accession numbers should be available at the time that the revision is submitted and should be listed at the end of the Materials and Methods section in the revised version of the manuscript.

Proteomics data. Proteomic experiments must meet the standards established by the Journal of Proteome Research. More information is available in the Publication Guidelines for the Analysis and Documentation of Peptide and Protein Identifications. Protein sequences should be handled in the same way as described above, and accession number and database source should be included.

Computer codes. When computer codes are developed or used and are an essential part of a manuscript, sufficient detail must be given, either within the paper or in the SI. Types of languages that are used in the computer codes, compiler/interpreter, and operating system with a specific version must be provided or properly cited. Upon request, after appropriate material transfer agreements to restrict the use of the materials so as to protect the legitimate interests of the authors, codes and input data must be made available for others to validate the calculations. Regardless of whether the source code is open or closed source, it must be properly cited in the References.

Computational chemistry calculations. When computational chemistry calculations are performed, input data— including force field parameters, equations defining the model (or references to where such material is available in the open literature), methods and approaches, and basis sets—must be given either within the paper or in the SI. If the software used for calculations is generally available, it must be properly cited in the References. References to the methods upon which the software is based must also be provided.

Materials. When requested, the authors should also make a reasonable effort to provide samples of unusual materials unavailable elsewhere, including, but not limited to, clones, microorganism strains, antibodies, computer codes, etc., to other researchers, with appropriate material transfer agreements to restrict the field of use of the materials so as to protect the legitimate interests of the authors. Any restrictions to the availability of materials or information must be stated at the time of submission.

Use of Human Subjects or Animals in Research. The American Chemical Society Publications rules and ethical guidelines provide mandatory standards of practice in experimental studies performed using biological samples obtained from animals or human subjects. Studies submitted for publication approval must present evidence that the described experimental activities have undergone local institutional review assessing safety and humane usage of study subject animals. In the case of human subjects, authors must also provide a statement that study samples were obtained through the informed consent of the donors, or in lieu of that evidence, by the authority of the institutional board that licensed the use of such material. The institution’s name and approved IRB number must be listed in the paper. Papers that include any aspect of Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) or citizen science must include information on practices employed protects vulnerable populations.

Language and Editing Services

A well-written paper helps share your results most clearly. ACS Publications’ English Editing Service is designed to help scientists communicate their research effectively. Our subject-matter expert editors will edit your manuscript for grammar, spelling, and other language errors so your ideas are presented at their best.

Preparing Graphics

The quality of illustrations in ACS journals and partner journals depends on the quality of the original files provided by the authors. Figures are not modified or enhanced by journal production staff. All graphics must be prepared and submitted in digital format.

 

Graphics should be inserted into the main body whenever possible. Please see Appendix 2 for additional information.

 

Any graphic (figure chart, scheme, or equation) that has appeared in an earlier publication should include a credit line citing the original source. Authors are responsible for obtaining written permission to re-use this material.

Figure and Illustration Services

The impact of your research is not limited to what you can express with words. Tables and figures such as graphs, photographs, illustrations, diagrams, and other visuals can play a significant role in effectively communicating your findings. Our Artwork Editing and Graphical Abstract services generate publication-ready figures and Table of Contents (TOC) graphics that conform to your chosen journal’s specifications. For figures, this includes changes to file type, resolution, color space, font, scale, line weights, and layout (to improve readability and professional appearance). For TOC graphics, our illustrators can work with a rough sketch or concept or help extract the key findings of your manuscript directly for use as a visual summary of your paper.

Preparing for Submission

Manuscripts, graphics, supporting information, and required forms, as well as manuscript revisions, must all be submitted in digital format through ACS Publishing Center, which requires an ACS ID to log in. Registering for an ACS ID is fast, free, and does not require an ACS membership. Please refer to Appendix 1 for additional information on preparing your submission

Prior Publication Policy

Submission of a manuscript to E&H is contingent upon the agreement by all the authors that the reported work has not received prior publication and that no portion of this or any other closely related work is under consideration for publication.

E&H authors may deposit an initial draft of their manuscript in a preprint service such as ChemRxiv, bioRxiv, arXiv, or the applicable repository for their discipline before the manuscript is accepted for publication in E&H. Authors may revise the preprint version of their manuscript up until a final acceptance decision has been issued. Please note any use of a preprint server in the cover letter and include a link to the preprint, and as appropriate, state how the manuscript has been adjusted/updated between deposition and submission. All other prior/redundant publication is forbidden. Upon publication in E&H, authors should add a link from the preprint to the published article via the Digital Object Identifier (DOI). Some preprint servers, including ChemRxiv and bioRxiv, add this link for authors automatically after publication. For further details, contact the Editorial Office. For the ACS Publications policy on theses and dissertations, click here.

Editorial Policies

Open Access and Article Publishing Charges at E&H. E&H is a fully open access journal, with all content published under an open access license. There is therefore no subscription charges and no charge to access, read, and download articles published in the journal. Authors of accepted manuscripts will need to pay an Article Publishing Charge (APC) to publish their research in E&H. The default license for authors will be CC BY-NC-ND, with the option to upgrade to CC BY. Country discounts apply for authors based in countries with lower-income economies, detailed here. Authors from institutions with ACS Read + Publish Agreements are eligible to have their APC covered through these agreements. Information can be found here.

Pricing details can be found here. For assistance with open access, please contact support@services.acs.org.

The Peer-Review Process

Editors evaluate submitted manuscripts, and only those judged to fall within the scope of the journal and to be of potential interest to E&H readers are sent for external evaluation. Authors are required to suggest a minimum of four persons competent to review the manuscript from at least three different countries. Suggested referees may not be at the same institution as any of the manuscript authors, may not be former mentors or mentees, and they may not have a conflict of interest and/or have co-authored publications in the past 5 years with any of the authors.

Reviewers will evaluate the manuscript on the basis of originality, technical quality, clarity of presentation, and importance to the field. The editors evaluate the reviewers’ arguments in the context of the scope and aims of the journal and make the final decision on each manuscript. The possible decisions will be:

  • accept;
  • revise to address the concerns of the reviewers before the editors make a final decision;
  • reject but consider a resubmission if significant additional work is completed; or
  • decline on the grounds of major technical or interpretational flaws, insufficient advance, or lack of novelty and interest.

Editorial decisions are based on many factors, and reviewers’ concerns are taken seriously. In cases when reviewers suggest different decisions, the editors may request additional information from the reviewers, consult other experts, and/or ask the authors to clarify sections in question. Some manuscripts that are declined may be considered upon resubmission if significant additional work is completed.

Reviewers may be asked to review subsequent versions of the manuscript, especially if new data have been added to the paper, to evaluate whether the authors have addressed the scientific concerns. In such cases, anonymized copies of all reviewers’ comments are normally sent to the reviewers. This practice allows the reviewers to understand the expectations of the editors. The editors will expedite any additional rounds of reviews to ensure timely publication.

Any appeals should be addressed to the Editor and should include a concise statement of the specific reason for appeal.

The editors strongly disapprove of any attempts by authors to determine the identity of reviewers or to confront potential reviewers. The editorial policy of this journal is neither to confirm nor to deny any speculation about the identities of our reviewers. The journal will not release the identity of a reviewer to the authors or to other reviewers. Authors whose manuscripts are published in E&H will be expected to review manuscripts submitted by other researchers from time to time. More information about peer review at ACS Publications can be found here.

Providing Potential Reviewer Names

Please suggest at least four qualified reviewers.  Authors are encouraged to avoid suggesting reviewers from the authors’ institutions. Do not suggest reviewers who may have a real or perceived conflict of interest. Whenever possible, suggest academic email addresses rather than personal email addresses.

Manuscript Transfer

If your submission is declined for publication by this journal, the editors might deem your work to be better suited for another ACS Publications journal or partner journal and suggest that the authors consider transferring the submission. Manuscript Transfer simplifies and shortens the process of submitting to another ACS journal or partner journal, as all the coauthors, suggested reviewers, manuscript files, and responses to submission questions are copied to the new draft submission. Authors are free to accept or decline the transfer offer.

 

Note that each journal is editorially independent. Transferring a manuscript is not a guarantee that the manuscript will be accepted, as the final publication decision will belong to the editor of the next journal.

PRODUCTION AND PUBLICATION

Proofs via ACS Direct Correct

Correction of the galley proofs is the responsibility of the Corresponding Author. The Corresponding Author of an accepted manuscript will receive e-mail notification and complete instructions when page proofs are available for review via ACS Direct Correct. Extensive or important changes on page proofs, including changes to the title or list of authors, are subject to review by the editor.

 

It is the responsibility of the Corresponding Author to ensure that all authors listed on the manuscript agree with the changes made on the proofs. Galley proofs should be returned within 48 hours in order to ensure timely publication of the manuscript.

Publication Date and Patent Dates

Accepted manuscripts will be published on the ACS Publications Web site as soon as page proofs are corrected and all author concerns are resolved. The first date on which the document is published on the Web is considered the publication date.

 

Publication of manuscripts on the Web may occur weeks in advance of the cover date of the issue of publication. Authors should take this into account when planning their patent and intellectual property activities related to a document and should ensure that all patent information is available at the time of first publication, whether ASAP or issue publication.

 

All articles published ahead of print receive a unique Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number, which is used to cite the manuscript before and after the paper appears in an issue. Additionally, any supplemental information submitted along with the manuscript will automatically be assigned a DOI and hosted on Figshare to promote open data discoverability and use of your research outputs.

ASAP Publication

Manuscripts will be published on the "ASAP Articles" page on the web as soon as page proofs are corrected, all author concerns are resolved, and payment has been received. ASAP publication usually occurs within a few working days of receipt of page proof corrections (provided payment has been resolved), which can be several weeks in advance of the cover date of the issue.

Post-Publication Policies

The American Chemical Society follows guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) when considering any ethical concerns regarding a published article, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern.

Additions and Corrections

Additions and Corrections may be requested by the author(s) or initiated by the Editor to address important issues or correct errors and omissions of consequence that arise after publication of an article. All Additions and Corrections are subject to approval by the Editor, and should bring new and directly relevant information and corrections that fix scientific facts. Minor corrections and additions will not be published. Readers who detect errors of consequence in the work of others should contact the corresponding author of that work.

 

Additions and Corrections must be submitted as new manuscripts via the ACS Publishing Center by the Corresponding Author for publication in the “Addition/Correction” section of the Journal. The corresponding author should obtain approval from all coauthors prior to submitting or provide evidence that such approval has been solicited. The manuscript should include the original article title and author list, citation including DOI, and details of the correction.

Retractions

Articles may be retracted for scientific or ethical reasons and may be requested by the article author(s) or by the journal Editor(s), but are ultimately published at the discretion of the Editor. Articles that contain seriously flawed or erroneous data such that their findings and conclusions cannot be relied upon may be retracted in order to correct the scientific record. When an article is retracted, a notice of Retraction will be published containing information about the reason for the Retraction. The originally published article will remain online except in extraordinary circumstances (e.g. where deemed legally necessary, or if the availability of the published content poses public health risks).

Expressions of Concern

Expressions of Concern may be issued at the discretion of the Editor if:

  • there is inconclusive evidence of research or publication misconduct by the authors;
  • there is evidence that the findings are unreliable but the authors’ institution will not investigate the case;
  • an investigation into alleged misconduct related to the publication either has not been, or would not be, fair and impartial or conclusive;
  • an investigation is underway but a judgment will not be available for a considerable time.

 

Upon completion of any related investigation, and when a final determination is made about the outcome of the article, the Expression of Concern may be replaced with a Retraction notice or Correction.

Appendix 1: PREPARING FOR SUBMISSION

We’ve developed ACS’ publishing and editorial policies in consultation with the research communities that we serve, including authors and librarians. Browse our policies below to learn more.

Ethical Guidelines

ACS editors have provided Ethical Guidelines for persons engaged in the publication of chemical research—specifically, for editors, authors, and reviewers. Each journal also has a specific policy on prior publication.

OFAC Compliance

As a U.S.-based non-profit organization, the American Chemical Society (ACS) is required to comply with U.S. sanctions laws and regulations administered by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). While these laws and regulations permit U.S.-based publishers like ACS to engage in publishing-related activities with authors located in sanctioned regions in many cases, ACS may be prohibited under U.S. law from engaging in publishing-related activities in some cases, including, but not limited to, instances where an author or the institution with which an author is affiliated is located in a particular sanctioned region or has been designated by OFAC as a Specially Designated National (SDN) pursuant to certain U.S. sanctions programs. ACS reserves the right to refrain from engaging in any publishing-related activities that ACS determines in its sole discretion may be in violation of U.S. law.

 

Safety Considerations

Authors must emphasize any unexpected, new, and/or significant hazards or risks associated with the reported work. This information should be in the Experimental Section of a full article and included in the main text of a communication or letter. Statement examples can be found in the Safety Statement Style Sheet and additional information on communicating safety information from the ACS Guide to Scholarly Communication is freely available here.

Conflict of Interest Disclosure

A statement describing any financial conflicts of interest or lack thereof is published in each ACS journal and partner journal article.

 

During the submission process, the Corresponding Author must provide a statement on behalf of all authors of the manuscript, describing all potential sources of bias, including affiliations, funding sources, and financial or management relationships, that may constitute conflicts of interest. If the manuscript is accepted, the statement will be published in the final article.

 

If the manuscript is accepted and no conflict of interest has been declared, the following statement will be published in the final article: “The authors declare no competing financial interest.”

Plagiarism

In publishing only original research, ACS is committed to deterring plagiarism, including self-plagiarism. ACS Publications uses CrossCheck's iThenticate software to screen submitted manuscripts for similarity to published material. Note that your manuscript may be screened during the submission process.

 

Further information about plagiarism can be found in Part B of the Ethical Guidelines to Publication of Chemical Research. See also the press release regarding ACS' participation in the CrossCheck initiative.

Authorship, Author List, and Coauthor Notification

Authors are required to obtain the consent of all their coauthors prior to submitting a manuscript. The submitting author accepts the responsibility of notifying all coauthors that the manuscript is being submitted.

 

During manuscript submission, the submitting author must provide contact information (full name, email address, institutional affiliation, and mailing address) for all of the coauthors. Because all of the author names are automatically imported into the electronic Journal Publishing Agreement, the names must be entered into the submission system. (Note that coauthors are not required to register in the ACS Publishing Center.) Author affiliation should reflect where the work was completed, even if the author has since left that institution. Authors may include a note with a current address if their institution has changed since the work was completed.

 

To expedite the processing of your manuscript, please format your author and affiliation information according the guidelines in this document.

 

Criteria for authorship can be found in Part B of the Ethical Guidelines to Publication of Chemical Research. Artificial intelligence (AI) tools do not qualify for authorship. The use of AI tools for text or image generation should be disclosed in the manuscript within the Acknowledgment section with a description of when and how the tools were used. For more substantial use cases or descriptions of AI tool use, authors should provide full details within the Methods or other appropriate section of the manuscript.

 

If any change in authorship is necessary after a manuscript has been submitted, confirmation is required that all of the authors (including those being added or removed) have been notified and have agreed to the change. To provide this confirmation, authors are asked to complete and sign an authorship change form and provide the completed form to the appropriate editorial office.

 

Authors with a single name: If you, or any of your coauthors, have only one name, please follow these steps for proper submission to the ACS Publishing Center:

  1. First (Given) Name Field: Enter an asterisk (*) into the "First (Given) Name" field.
  2. Last (Family) Name Field: Enter your single name into the "Last (Family) Name" field.

If your paper is accepted, the asterisk (*) will be removed from the published version of the paper.

 

 

Patent Activities and Intellectual Property

Authors are responsible for ensuring that all patent activities and intellectual property issues are satisfactorily resolved prior to first publication (ASAP or in issue). Acceptance and publication will not be delayed for pending or unresolved issues of this nature.

Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID)

Authors submitting manuscript revisions are required to provide their own personal, validated ORCID iD before completing the submission, if an ORCID iD is not already associated with their ACS Publishing Center user profiles. This ID may be provided during original manuscript submission or when submitting the manuscript revision. All authors are strongly encouraged to register for an ORCID iD, a unique researcher identifier. The ORCID iD will be displayed in the published article for any author on a manuscript who has a validated ORCID iD associated with ACS when the manuscript is accepted.

 

ORCID iDs should not be typed into the manuscript. ACS publishes only those ORCID iDs that have been properly verified and linked before the manuscript is accepted. After your ORCID iD is linked, it will be displayed automatically in all subsequently accepted manuscripts for any/all ACS journals. We do not publish ORCID iDs provided during proof review or via other communications after a manuscript is accepted for publication.

 

With an ORCID iD, you can create a profile of your research activities to distinguish yourself from other researchers with similar names, and make it easier for your colleagues to find your publications. If you do not yet have an ORCID iD, or you wish to associate your existing ORCID iD with your ACS Publishing Center account, you may do so by clicking on “Profile” from your ACS Publishing Center dashboard and following the ORCID-related links. Learn more at www.orcid.org.

To obtain forms and guidelines for completing the Journal Publishing Agreement or obtaining permissions from copyright owners, and to explore a Copyright Learning Module for chemists, click here.

Funder Reporting Requirement

Authors are required to report funding sources and grant/award numbers. Enter ALL sources of funding for ALL authors in BOTH the Funder Registry Tool in the submission system and in your manuscript to meet this requirement.

Open Access Compliance

Authors publishing in E&H retain copyright of their published research and may publish via a choice of CC BY-NC-ND or CC BY license. ACS offers options by which authors can fulfill the requirements for open access and deposition into repositories for funded research. Visit our ACS Open Science site to see how to fulfill requirements for specific funders and to find out if you are eligible to publish under a read and publish agreement between ACS and your institution. You can also find out more about Open Access Compliance and ACS Open Science initiatives.

Diversity and Inclusion Statement

During manuscript submission, ACS journal authors have the option to submit a statement sharing information related to diversity and inclusion that is relevant for their paper. If supplying a diversity and inclusion statement, the corresponding author must provide this on behalf of all authors of the manuscript during the submission process. These statements include but are not limited to analysis of citation diversity and acknowledgment of indigenous land on which research was conducted. Statements expressing political beliefs are not permitted and may be removed by the journal office. All statements are subject to final review by the Editor.

  • Citation Diversity Statement:The citation diversity statement should appear in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript. ACS recommends including the following: (1) the importance of citation diversity, (2) the proportion of citations by gender and race/ethnicity for the first and last authors, (3) the method used to determine those proportions and its limitations, and (4) steps taken by the authors to improve citation diversity in the article. We recognize that one limitation of the current methods is that it cannot account for intersex, non-binary, and transgender people, or Indigenous and mixed-race authors. (Adapted from BMES/Springer Guidelines)
  • Land acknowledgment:The land acknowledgment statement should appear in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript. The statement should link to the institutions’ formal land acknowledgments on which the research took place, if possible. Further guidance for creating these statements can be found here: https://nativegov.org/news/a-guide-to-indigenous-land-acknowledgment/.

 

Appendix 2: Preparing Graphics

Resolution

Digital graphics pasted into manuscripts should have the following minimum resolutions:

  • Black and white line art, 1200 dpi
  • Grayscale art, 600 dpi
  • Color art, 300 dpi

Size

Graphics must fit a one- or two-column format. Single-column graphics can be sized up to 240 points wide (3.33 in.) and double-column graphics must be sized between 300 and 504 points (4.167 in. and 7 in.). The maximum depth for all graphics is 660 points (9.167 in.) including the caption (allow 12 pts. For each line of caption text). Lettering should be no smaller than 4.5 points in the final published format. The text should be legible when the graphic is viewed full-size. Helvetica or Arial fonts work well for lettering. Lines should be no thinner than 0.5 point.

Color

Color may be used to enhance the clarity of complex structures, figures, spectra, and schemes, etc., and color reproduction of graphics is provided at no additional cost to the author. Graphics intended to appear in black and white or grayscale should not be submitted in color.

Type of Graphics

Table of Contents (TOC)/Abstract Graphic

Consult the Guidelines for Table of Contents/Abstract Graphics for specifications.

Our team of subject-matter experts and graphical designers can also help generate a compelling TOC graphic to convey your key findings. Learn more about our Graphical Abstract service.

Figures

A caption giving the figure number and a brief description must be included below each figure. The caption should be understandable without reference to the text. It is preferable to place any key to symbols used in the artwork itself, not in the caption. Ensure that any symbols and abbreviations used in the text agree with those in the artwork.

Charts

Charts (groups of structures that do not show reactions) may have a brief caption describing their contents.

Tables

Each table must have a brief (one phrase or sentence) title that describes the contents. The title should be understandable without reference to the text. Details should be put in footnotes, not in the title. Tables should be used when the data cannot be presented clearly in the narrative, when many numbers must be presented, or when more meaningful inter-relationships can be conveyed by the tabular format. Tables should supplement, not duplicate, information presented in the text and figures. Tables should be simple and concise.

Schemes

Each scheme (sequences of reactions) may have a brief caption describing its contents.

Chemical Structures

Chemical structures should be produced with the use of a drawing program such as ChemDraw.

Cover Art

E&H authors are encouraged to submit images to be considered for use on the journal’s front cover or Supplementary Covers at the time of the submission of their revised manuscript. If your article is accepted for publication, your suggestion may also be selected for use on one of the journal’s covers. If your art is selected for front cover, ACS will send you information about how to request one complimentary 18” by 24” printed poster featuring your work. Images chosen for the front cover will be published at no cost to the author.

 

Cover image submissions should be colorful and visually engaging, with minimal text. The cover image should not resemble a graphical abstract or data figure, but rather should be an artistic and scientifically accurate representation of the manuscript.

 

Image files should be submitted as TIF, JPG, PNG, or EPS files (not PDF or PPT) with a resolution of at least 300 dpi for pixel-based images. Cover art should be 8.19 inches (20.8 cm) wide × 10.00 inches (25.4 cm) high at 300 ppi, and submission of “layered” artwork is encouraged. The journal’s logo will obscure the top 2.5 inches (6.35 cm) of the image. Authors should submit the cover image, along with a short (<50-word), clear legend explaining the image, as supplementary files to the ACS Publishing Center with their revised manuscript. Any use of AI tools must comply with ACS Artificial Intelligence Best Practices and be disclosed in the cover caption. For any questions about AI use in cover art, please contact ACSPubsMultimedia@acs.org.

 

If you wish to be considered only for the front cover, and not a paid supplementary cover, please respond NO accordingly to the Supplementary Cover Art question in the submission system. For more information on the Supplementary Covers program, please see this webpage. All art submitted for consideration for a supplementary cover will also be considered for a front cover.

Web Enhanced Objects (WEO)

The Web editions of ACS journals allow readers to view multimedia attachments such as animations and movies that complement understanding of the research being reported.

 

WEOs should be uploaded in the submission system with ‘Web Enhanced Object’ selected as the file designation. Consult the list of compatible WEO formats.

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