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Scope of the Journal

ACS Nanoscience Au is an open access journal that publishes original, fundamental, and applied research on nanoscience and nanotechnology research at the interfaces of chemistry, biology, medicine, materials science, physics, and engineering.

 

The journal publishes short letters, comprehensive articles, reviews, and perspectives on all aspects of nanoscience and nanotechnology:

  • synthesis, assembly, characterization, theory, modeling, and simulation of nanostructures, nanomaterials, and nanoscale devices
  • design, fabrication, and applications of organic, inorganic, polymer, hybrid, and biological nanostructures
  • experimental and theoretical studies of nanoscale chemical, physical, and biological phenomena
  • methods and tools for nanoscience and nanotechnology
  • self- and directed-assembly
  • zero-, one-, and two-dimensional materials
  • nanostructures and nano-engineered devices with advanced performance
  • nanobiotechnology
  • nanomedicine and nanotoxicology

 

ACS Nanoscience Au also publishes original experimental and theoretical research of an applied nature that integrates knowledge in the areas of materials, engineering, physics, bioscience, and chemistry into important applications of nanomaterials.

Manuscript Types

Articles

Concise, yet comprehensive reports of original research that constitute a significant advance in the field(s) that they cover. Articles must be of high scientific quality, originality, significance, and conceptual novelty. Articles are not intended to be follow-up papers, unless they contain new and extensive information that will advance the understanding of the field. Articles include separate Introduction, Results and Discussion, Conclusions, and Methods sections.

Letters

Short publications that report especially important results that benefit from being distributed rapidly to the nanoscale science and engineering community. Letters are limited to 3000 words (not including references, abstract, or captions), contain a brief ~150 word abstract, and include up to 5 figures; no section headings are used. Special efforts will be made to expedite the review and the publication of Letters, and the time for proofreading the galley proofs is relatively short. A template for Letters is available.

Reviews

Topical, forward looking, and of general interest to the readership. Length is flexible (6–20 or more pages). 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.

Perspectives

Brief reports, reviews, or viewpoints summarizing research of interest to nanoscientists and nanotechnologists. Perspectives are focused rather than comprehensive and often elaborate on important unanswered questions and approaches being taken to address them. The primary goal of a Perspective is to inspire and help direct future research efforts. Most Perspectives will be invited by the Editor. Perspectives are expected to be less than five printed journal pages, contain a brief (<150 word) abstract, and ~20 references.

Authors interested in contributing a Review or Perspective should email the Deputy Editor, Raymond Schaak (schaak-office@nanoau.acs.org), providing a single document that includes the following information for consideration:

  1. Proposed Review or Perspective title
  2. Corresponding author names, affiliations, and websites
  3. A short (~400 word) description of the focused topic
  4. A list of 5-10 lead references that will form the foundation of the manuscript
  5. A list of recent review articles published on this topic, written by the submitting authors or others, and an explanation of how the proposed review will differ in focus and advance the literature on the subject.

Correspondence/Rebuttal

Correspondence is a technical contribution providing, with supporting material, a respectful but alternative point of view to a publication that has appeared in ACS Nanoscience Au. The author of the original publication may be invited to write a Rebuttal. The Correspondence and Rebuttal will appear in the same issue of the journal, when possible.

ACS Publishing Center

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 the ACS Publishing Center for additional information on everything that is needed to prepare (and review) manuscripts for ACS journals and partner journals, such as

  • Mastering the Art of Scientific Publication, which shares editor tips about a variety of topics including making your paper scientifically effective, preparing excellent graphics, and writing cover letters.
  • Resources on how to prepare and submit a manuscript to ACS Paragon Plus, ACS Publications’ manuscript submission and peer review environment, including details on selecting the applicable Journal Publishing Agreement.
  • Sharing your research with the public through the ACS Publications open access program.
  • ACS Reviewer Lab, a free online course covering best practices for peer review and related ethical considerations. 
  • ACS Author Lab, a free online course that empowers authors to prepare and submit strong manuscripts, avoiding errors that could lead to delays in the publication process.
  • ACS Inclusivity Style Guide, a guide that helps researchers communicate in ways that recognize and respect diversity in all its forms.

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

ACS Nanoscience Au does not require the use of any document templates. General information on the preparation of manuscripts may 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 ACS Paragon Plus. 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.

 

The cover letter should contain the following information:

  • Manuscript title
  • Names of all authors, as they appear on the manuscript
  • Name and contact information (including email address) of the corresponding author
  • Statement describing the significance, impact, novelty, and urgency (for Letters) of the manuscript
  • Suggestions for 6–8 potential reviewers (with locations and e-mail addresses). Reviewers must not be at the same institution as any of the manuscript authors and must not have conflicts of interest with any of the authors.
  • A statement explicitly assuring that the manuscript is not under consideration for publication elsewhere and that it has not been previously published.

 

Please note any submission to a preprint server such as ChemRxiv, bioRxiv, or arXiv 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. Please refer to the Prior Publication Policy section of these guidelines for additional information on using preprint servers.

 

If the manuscript was discussed with an ACS Nanoscience Au editor prior to submission, please also note that in the cover letter.

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 words like “First”, “New”, or “Novel”, nor any part number or series number. 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 (i.e. RNA, DNA, 2D, 3D, etc.). Titles should not be phrased as a question.

 

Author List. Include the name and institutional affiliation of all those who have made substantial contributions to the work. The full names and e-mail addresses of all co-authors must be provided on the Authors and Affiliations page upon submission of the manuscript in ACS Paragon Plus. Use of ORCID identifiers is encouraged. Deceased persons who meet the criteria for inclusion as coauthors should be included, with an Author Information note indicating the date of death. 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. To facilitate indexing and retrieval and for unique identification of an author, use first names, initials, and surnames (e.g., Jody R. Smith) or first initials, second names, and last names (e.g., J. Riley Smith). At least one author must be designated with an asterisk as the person to whom correspondence should be addressed.

 

Abstract. All Articles, Letters, Reviews, and Perspectives must contain an abstract and a Table of Contents (TOC) graphic. Abstracts should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results, and major conclusions. Abstracts should not contain claims of novelty. Abstracts for Articles and Reviews should be no more than 300 words and abstracts for Letters and Perspectives should be no more than 150 words.

 

Keywords. All Articles, Letters, and Perspectives must be accompanied by 5–8 keywords. 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.

 

Text. Articles include section headings (Results and Discussion, Conclusions, Methods or Experimental Section); subheadings are encouraged, and the “Introduction” heading is not used. Letters do not include section headings. Articles and Letters should both begin with introductory text that clearly and concisely explains the purpose and significance of the research and puts it into context with earlier work in the area. For Articles, the length should generally be ≤1000 words, and shorter for Letters. Avoid historical summaries and extensive literature surveys; be strategic (but accurate and complete) with literature discussions and citations. The results, and a discussion of the results, should follow and be accompanied by schemes and figures with well-composed captions. The main point(s) of the manuscript should be briefly summarized in a Conclusions section (for Articles) or at the end of the manuscript (for Letters), along with a forward-looking perspective on how these conclusions relate to the field(s) of study and what may come next. A complete Methods or Experimental section appears at the end of an Article or in the Supporting Information of a Letter. This section should include sufficient detail for other researchers to reproduce the work, as well as notes about potential hazards or safety considerations. Creative ways of presenting experimental details are encouraged, including troubleshooting tips, short videos, and step-by-step instructions.

 

Safety. Authors must emphasize any unexpected, new, and/or significant hazards or risks associated with the reported work in the Experimental Section of an Article or the main text of a Letter, at a minimum. Further information may be included or re-introduced in the main text or Supporting Information.

 

Appendices. Appendix sections, if needed, must be placed 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. Notes acknowledging financial or professional assistance to the conduct of research should be brief and placed in the Acknowledgment section. All dedications must appear in the Acknowledgment section and are subject to approval by the Editor.

 

Author Information Notes. The e-mail address(es) of the corresponding author(s) 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. Author contributions to the work or equal contributions of work should be included as a separate statement.

 

References. References to the literature are cited by superscript numbers at appropriate locations in the text. All literature citations are compiled in a numbered References list at the end of the manuscript text, in the order of their first citation in the text. Each numbered reference may contain only one literature citation. In the published version of the paper on the Web, many of them will be linked to other Web resources, such as the corresponding abstracts in Chemical Abstracts and the full text on publisher Web sites. Because of this electronic linking, and because the references are not checked in detail by editors or reviewers, it is crucial that authors verify their accuracy. Unnecessarily long lists of references and excessive self-citation are to be avoided; however, authors must reference all previous publications in which portions of the present work have appeared. Additional data and peripheral discussion should be placed in the Supporting Information rather than in references; footnotes are discouraged. Supplementary references may be placed in Supporting Information. 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. Please use the following reference styles:

 

Example of a journal reference:

Koo, W.-T.; Millstone, J.E.; Weiss, P.S.; Kim, I.-D. The Design and Science of Polyelemental Nanoparticles. ACS Nano 2020, 14, 6407–6413.

 

Example of an in-press journal reference:

Camargo, F.V.A.; Ben-Shahar, Y.; Nagahara, T.; Panfil, Y.E.; Russo, M.; Banin, U.; Cerullo, G. Visualizing Ultrafast Electron Transfer Processes in Semiconductor–Metal Hybrid Nanoparticles: Toward Excitonic–Plasmonic Light Harvesting. Nano Lett. 2021, DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c04614.

 

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:

Craighead, H. G. Nanostructures in Electronics. In Nanomaterials: Synthesis, Properties and Applications; Edelstein, A., Cammatata, R., Eds.; Taylor and Francis: New York, 1998; pp 565–566.

 

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.

ACS Nanoscience Au 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.

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

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.

Data Requirements

Within research papers, authors are expected to provide firm evidence to establish both the identity and the purity of new substances. ACS Nanoscience Au adheres to the Guidelines for Characterization of Organic Compounds set forth by Journal of the American Chemical Society and Journal of Organic Chemistry. Include the completed J. Org. Chem. Excel spreadsheet with the submitted manuscript. The criteria for other substances vary, but may include spectroscopic, crystallographic, chromatographic, electrophoretic, or other analytical methods. Supply sequencing or functional data for all biological constructs, such as fusion proteins, plasmids, etc.

 

Crystal and NMR Structures. Small molecular crystallographic data should be submitted, prior to publication in ACS Nanoscience Au, to the Cambridge Structural Database (www.ccdc.cam.ac.uk). For papers reporting macromolecular NMR or crystal structures, the atomic coordinates must be deposited in the Protein Data Bank (PDB) (www.rcsb.org/pdb) or the Nucleic Acid Database (http://ndbserver.rutgers.edu). In all cases, the accession code(s) must be listed in the published paper. These coordinates must be designated “for immediate release upon publication”. Authors of papers reporting X-ray crystal structures are encouraged to deposit the structure factor files in the PDB. No formal requirement exists for deposition of NMR assignments and constraints (see Biological Magnetic Resonance Data Bank at www.bmrb.wisc.edu). Description and presentation of NMR spectra must adhere to the requirements outlined in the NMR Guidelines.

 

Electron Microscopy Data. No formal requirement exists for deposition of molecular envelope reconstruction from electron microscopy data, but authors are encouraged to deposit relevant information in appropriate databases. Approved databases for deposition of electron microscopy data are the Worldwide Protein Data Bank (www.wwpdb.org), the Protein Data Bank Japan (www.pdbj.org), or the Protein Data Bank in Europe (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/pdbe).

 

Single-Crystal Diffraction Data. Manuscripts reporting the determination of one or more structures by X-ray diffraction must adhere to the following requirements:

 

Abstract. The abstract may summarize geometric features of unusual interest but should not contain unit cell parameters.

 

Main Body of Manuscript. Tables of essential interatomic distances and angles are not required but may be submitted (metric information for standard structural components should not be included).

 

For structures with anisotropically refined atoms, a figure displaying the thermal ellipsoids should ordinarily be presented; a spherical-atom representation may be substituted if necessary for clarity. If a spherical-atom view is chosen for the manuscript, a thermal ellipsoid figure should be included in the Supporting Information. In cases where intermolecular interactions are relevant to the discussion, a view of the unit cell may be included.

 

An Article should list for each structure the formula, formula weight, crystal system, space group, color of crystal, unit-cell parameters, temperature of data collection, and values of Z, R, and GOF; a brief description of data collection, and solution and refinement of the structure, should be placed in the Methods section. Tables of atom coordinates and thermal parameters will not be printed.

 

Supporting Information. Complete detailed data for each structure must be submitted in the electronic Crystallographic Information File (CIF) format. Deposition of CIF files in the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC) does not eliminate the ACS Nanoscience Au requirement to submit the CIF files as Supporting Information.

 

A separate CIF file for each structure should be uploaded. ACS Nanoscience Au requires authors to run the CheckCIF program for each crystallographic structure and to correct any syntax errors in the CIF files prior to submission.

 

Structure factors (except for proteins and nucleic acids) should not be submitted as Supporting Information. However, one printed table of structure factors should be retained in case it is requested by the Editor for review purposes only.

 

Powder Diffraction Data. The presentation of X-ray powder diffraction data for new materials or for materials previously uncharacterized by this technique is encouraged. Data from X-ray powder measurements should be accompanied by details of the experimental technique: source of X-rays, the radiation, its wavelength, filters or monochromators, camera diameter, the type of X-ray recording, and the technique for measuring intensities. In cases of unindexed listing of the data, the d spacings of all observed lines should be listed in sequence, together with their relative intensities. In cases where filtered radiation is used, every effort should be made to identify residual β lines. Where resolution into α1-α2 doublets occurs, the identification of the d spacing for each line as dα1, dα2 gives a measure of the quality of the diffraction pattern. When an indexing of the data is offered, the observed and calculated 1/d2 values should be listed along with the observed relative intensities (it is superfluous to give d spacings in this instance). All calculated 1/d2 values should be listed (exclusive of systematic absences), to the limit of the data quoted. If possible, the crystal system should be specified. Possible space groups may also be listed if the data warrant it. Relevant information about the specimen used should be included.

 

Magnetic Measurements. Fits of magnetic data [X(T), X-1(T), XT(T), μ(T), M(H), etc.] to an analytical expression must include both the Hamiltonian from which the analytical expression is derived and the final analytical expression and fitting parameters. When the value of an exchange coupling constant, J, is given in the abstract, the form of the Hamiltonian must also be included. The expressions may be included in the manuscript or, if long and complex, as Supporting Information; if the latter method is used, it should be noted in the “Supporting Information Available” paragraph at the end of the manuscript. In addition, how the sample was measured (in a gelatin capsule, Teflon capsule, etc.) and the diamagnetic correction for the sample holder, as well as the diamagnetic correction for the material, must be provided and the manner in which it was calculated (Pascal’s constants) or measured must be stated.

 

Computations. When computational results are an essential part of a manuscript, sufficient detail must be given, either within the paper or in the Supporting Information, to enable readers to reproduce the calculations. This includes data such as force field parameters and equations defining the model (or references to where such material is available in the open literature). Authors who report the results of electronic structure calculations are requested to provide as Supporting Information the geometries (either as Cartesian coordinates or Z matrices) of all the stationary points whose relative energies are given in the manuscript. The absolute energies in hartrees that are computed at these geometries should not be given in the manuscript but should be included in the Supporting Information. Where applicable, the number of imaginary frequencies should be reported to identify stable structures and transition states.

 

Large datasets for which an approved database has not yet been established must be housed as online Supporting Information at ACS Nanoscience Au.

 

ACS Math Style. Authors including math, display or in-text, in their manuscripts are encouraged to consult the ACS Guidelines for Presenting Mathematical Information. This style sheet provides brief discussion of formatting related to the presentation of mathematical formulas, complete with examples of ACS style and layout. This document was developed to help authors anticipate how mathematical expressions will be formatted in the published version of the paper.

 

Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT)

 

CRediT is a high-level taxonomy used to identify and acknowledge the roles played by contributors to scientific scholarly output. During original submission and/or revision, there are 14 standard roles from which the submitting author can select to describe the specific contributions of each author. At this time, CRediT is optional for authors. Please note that author CRediT information will not transfer if the manuscript is transferred to a non-pilot journal. Click here to learn more about the ACS CRediT pilot.

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 Paragon Plus, 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 ACS Nanoscience Au 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.

 

ACS Nanoscience Au 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 ACS Nanoscience Au. 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 ACS Nanoscience Au, 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 ACS Nanoscience Au:

ACS Nanoscience Au 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 ACS Nanoscience Au. The default license for authors will be CC BY-NC-ND, with the option to upgrade to CC BY. Discounts are available for ACS Members and further 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.

 

Anonymity of Peer Review

All manuscripts are subject to critical, single-anonymized peer review. It is to be understood that the final decision relating to a manuscript’s suitability rests solely with the Editor. The journal disapproves of attempts by authors to determine the identity of reviewers. This journal’s policy is to neither confirm nor deny speculation about the identities of reviewers.

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 ACS Nanoscience Au readers are sent for external evaluation. Authors are required to suggest a minimum of six to eight persons competent to review the manuscript. Suggested referees may not be at the same institution as any of the manuscript authors and they may not have a conflict of interest with any of the authors. An author may request that a certain person not be used as a reviewer. The request will generally be honored by the Editor, unless the Editor feels this individual’s opinion, in conjunction with the opinions of other reviewers, is vital in the evaluation of the particular manuscript.

 

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, blind 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.

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 by ACS Paragon Plus 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 typically occurs within 1-2 working days of receipt of page proof corrections (provided payment has been resolved), which can be a few 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 ACS Paragon Plus 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 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 ACS Paragon Plus. (Note that coauthors are not required to register in ACS Paragon Plus.) 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 link: https://pubsapp.acs.org/paragonplus/submission/author-address-information.pdf.

 

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 ACS Paragon Plus:

  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 Paragon Plus 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 Paragon Plus account, you may do so by clicking on “Edit Your Profile” from your ACS Paragon Plus account homepage 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 ACS Paragon Plus and in your manuscript to meet this requirement.

Open Access Compliance

Authors publishing in ACS Nanoscience Au 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 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 to 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

ACS Nanoscience Au 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 (20.80 cm) wide × 10 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 ACS Paragon Plus with their revised manuscript.

 

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 ACS Paragon Plus. 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 ACS Paragon Plus with ‘Web Enhanced Object’ selected as the file designation. Consult the list of compatible WEO formats.