Manuscript Style Guide

The Chemist will not consider any paper or part of a paper that has been published or is under consideration for publication anywhere else. If you can any questions please contact the Publisher of The Chemist via e-mail aicoffice@theaic.org or by phone at (215) 873-8224.

Categories of Submissions

The submissions may be in any one of the following forms.

• Research Papers (up to ~5000 words) that are original will only be accepted. Research Papers are peer-reviewed and include an abstract, an introduction, up to 5 figures or tables, sections with brief subheadings and a maximum of approximately 30 references.
  
  
• Reports (up to ~3000 words) present new research results of broad interest to the chemistry community. Reports are peer- reviewed and include an abstract, an introductory paragraph, up to 3 figures or tables, and a maximum of approximately 15 references.
  
  
• Brief Reports (up to ~1500 words) are short papers that are peer-reviewed and present novel techniques or results of interest to the chemistry community.
  
  
• Review Articles (up to ~6000 words) describe new or existing areas of interest to the chemistry community. Review Articles are peer-reviewed and include an abstract, an introduction that outlines the main point, brief subheadings for each section and up to 80 references.
  
  
• Letters (up to ~500 words) discuss material published in The Chemist in the last 8 months or issues of general interest to the chemistry community.
  
  
• Book Reviews (up to ~ 500 words) will be accepted.

Manuscript Preparation

RESEARCH PAPERS, REPORTS, BRIEF REPORTS & REVIEW ARTICLES

• The first page should contain the title, authors and their respective institutions/affiliations and the corresponding author. The general area of chemistry the article represents should also be indicated, i.e. General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Physical Chemistry, Chemical Education, etc.
  
  
• Titles should be 55 characters or less for Research Papers, Reports, and Brief Reports. Review articles should have a title of up to 80 characters.
  
  
• Abstracts explain to the reader why the research was conducted and why it is important to the field. The abstract should be 100-150 words and convey the main point of the paper along with an outline of the results and conclusions.
  
  
• Text should start with a brief introduction highlighting the paper’s significance and should be understood to readers of all chemistry disciplines. All symbols, abbreviations, and acronyms should be defined the first time they are used. All tables and figures should be cited in numerical order.
  
  
• References and notes should be numbered in the order in which they are cited, starting with the text and then through the table and figure legends. Each reference should have a unique number and any references to unpublished data should be given a number in the text and referred to in the references. References should follow the standards presented in the AIC Reference Style Guidelines below.

REFERENCE STYLE GUIDELINES

References should be cited as numbers within square brackets [] at the appropriate place in the text. The reference numbers should be cited in the correct order throughout the text (including those in tables and figure captions, numbered according to where the table or figure is designated to appear). The references themselves are listed in numerical order at the end of the final printed text along with any Notes. Journal abbreviations should be consistent with those presented in Chemical Abstracts Service Source Index (CASSI) (http://www.cas.org) guide available at most academic libraries.The submissions may be in any one of the following forms.

• Names and initials of all authors should always be given in the reference and must not be replaced by the phrase et al. This does not preclude one from referring to them by the first author, et al in the text.
  
  
• Tables should be in numerical order as they appear in the text and they should not duplicate the text. Tables should be completely understandable without reading the text. Every table should have a title. Table titles should be placed above the respective tables.

Table 1. Bond Lengths (Å) of 2-aminophenol


• Figure legends should be in numerical order as they appear in the text. Legends should be limited to 250 words.

  Figure 1. PVC Melt Flow Characterized by Analytical Structural Method

• Letters and Book Reviews should be clearly indicated as such when being submitted. They are not peer-reviewed and are published as submitted. Legends should be placed after/under the respective figures.
  
  
• Journals - The general format for citations should be in the order: author(s), journal, year, volume, page. Page number ranges are preferred over single values, but either format is acceptable. Where page numbers are not yet known, articles may be cited by DOI (Digital Object Identifier). For example:

  Booth DE, Isenhour TL. The Chemist, 2000, 77(6), 7-14.

• Books - For example:

  Turner GK in Chemiluminescence: Applications, ed. Knox Van Dyke, CRC Press, Boca Raton, 1985, vol 1, ch. 3, pp 43-78.

• Patents should be indicated in the following form:

  McCapra F, Tutt D, Topping RM, UK Patent Number 1 461 877, 1973.

• Reports and bulletins, etc. - For example:

  Smith AB, Jones CD, “Environmental Impact Report for the US”, final report to the National Science Foundation on Grant AAA-999999, Any University, Philadelphia, PA, 2006.

• Material presented at meetings - For example:

  Smith AB. Presented at the Pittsburgh Conference, Atlantic City, NJ, March 1983, paper 101.

• Theses - For example:

  Jones AB, Ph.D. Thesis, Columbia University, 2004.

REFERENCE TO UNPUBLISHED MATERIAL

• For material presented at a meeting, congress or before a Society, etc., but not published, the following form should be used:

  Jones AB, presented in part at the 20th American Institute of Chemists National Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, June, 2004.

• For material accepted for publication, but not yet published, the following form should be used:

  Smith AB. Anal. Chem., in press

• For material submitted for publication but not yet accepted the following form should be used:

  Jones AB, Anal. Chem. submitted for publication.

• For personal communications the following should be used:

  Smith AB, personal communication.

• If material is to be published but has not yet been submitted the following form should be used:

  Smith AB, unpublished work.

• Reference to unpublished work should not be made without the permission of those by whom the work was performed.

Manuscript Selection

The submission and review process is completely electronic. Submitted papers are assigned by the Editors, when appropriate, to at least two external reviewers anonymously. Reviewers will have approximately 10 days to submit their comments. In selected situations the review process can be expedited. Selected papers will be edited for clarity, accuracy, or to shorten, if necessary. The Editor-in-Chief will have final say over the acceptance of submissions. Most papers are published in the next issue after acceptance. Proofs will be sent to the corresponding author for review and approval. Authors will be charged for excessive alterations at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief

Conditions of Acceptance

When a paper is accepted by The Chemist for publication, it is understood that:

• Any reasonable request for materials to verify the conclusions or experiments will be honored.
  
  
• Authors retain copyright but agree to allow The Chemist to exclusive license to publish the submission in print or online.
  
  
• Authors agree to disclose all affiliations, funding sources, and financial or management relationships that could be perceived as potential conflicts of interest or biases.
  
  
• The submission will remain a privileged document and will not be released to the public or press before publication.
  
  
• The authors certify that all information described in their submission is original research reported for the first time within the submission and that the data and conclusions reported are correct and ethically obtained.
  
  
• The Chemist, the referees, and the AIC bear no responsibility for accuracy or validity of the submission.

Authorship

By submitting a manuscript, the corresponding author accepts the responsibility that all authors have agreed to be listed and have seen and approved of all aspects of the manuscript including its submission to The Chemist.

Submissions

Authors are required to submit their manuscripts, book reviews and letters electronically. They can be submitted via e-mail at aicoffice@theaic.org with “Submission for consideration in The Chemist” in the subject line. All submissions should be in Microsoft® Word format.

Copyright Assignment & Warranty Form for The Chemist

It is the policy of The Chemist to require all contributors to transfer the copyright for their contributions (hereafter referred to as the manuscript) to The American Institute of Chemists, Inc. (hereafter referred to as The AIC) the official publisher of The Chemist. By signing this agreement you assign to The AIC to consider publishing your manuscript the exclusive, royalty-free, irrevocable copyright in any medium internationally for the full term of the copyright. This agreement shall permit The AIC to publish, distribute, create derivative works, and otherwise use any materials accepted for publication in The Chemist internationally. A copy of the Copyright and Warranty Form for The Chemist will be sent to the author(s) whose manuscript is accepted for publication. The AIC will not publish any accepted manuscript in The Chemist without its author(s) fully complying with this requirement.