ACS Publications - Journals

Living up to their reputation as “most trusted, most cited, and most-read,” ACS Journals continued their preeminence in citations and Impact Factors while continuing to develop new and enhanced content and delivery options.

The 2012 Journal Citation Reports® were released by Thomson Reuters in June 2013.  ACS journals continued to perform extremely well, receiving more than 2.2 million total annual citations and posting a #1 ranking in either Impact Factor and/or Total Citations in 15 categories.

Five leading scientists were selected by Editor Search committees convened in accordance with ACS bylaws, appointed by the Board of Directors and contracted by ACS Publications management, commencing respective editorial tenures effective January 2014.

• Dr. Jillian Buriak (University of Alberta) Chemistry of Materials
• Dr. Cynthia J. Burrows (University of Utah) Accounts of Chemical Research
• Dr. Kenneth M. Merz, Jr. (Michigan State University) Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling
• Dr. Vincent M. Rotello (University of Massachusetts-Amherst) Bioconjugate Chemistry
•  Dr. Phillip E. Savage (University of Michigan) Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research

The Publications Division completed the first full calendar year of publication of ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering and embarked upon the early editorial and marketing introduction oftwo new journals prior to their scheduled commercial availability in 2014 - ACS Photonics and Environmental Science & Technology Letters. Dr. Harry A. Atwater (California Institute of Technology) leads ACS Photonics. Drs. Jerald Schnoor (University of Iowa) and Bruce E. Logan (Pennsylvania State University) lead Environmental Science & Technology Letters as Editor and Deputy Editor, respectively.

The latest journals to secure Governing Board approval are in the areas of biomaterials science and engineering, and infectious diseases and therapeutics. Both are planned for introduction in 2015.

In November, ACS Publications announced a multi-pronged strategy to position ACS as an open access publisher. The program consists of 4 components: 1) ACS Central Science, a new journal that will be free to both readers and authors; 2) ACS Editors’ Choice, designed to provide free public access to new research of importance to the global research community; 3) ACS Author Rewards, a loyalty program intended to encourage ACS authors to choose open access, via $60 million in open access publishing credits redeemable over the period 2015-2017; and 4) ACS AuthorChoice, expanded in 2014 to include new and affordable licensing options to help authors meet open access requirements. Full information about the “ACS is Open” is here.

ACS Publications introduced ACS ChemWorx as a novel new free service for research management that combines reference discovery and management, professional networking, group and task management and manuscript preparation in a single interface, accessible from anywhere. ACS ChemWorx includes a Publishing Center developed and hosted by ACS, and is integrated with the ACS Web Editions Platform for journal content delivery, by virtue of a new document viewer,  ACS ActiveView PDF, that has proven to be very popular with end users. The ActiveView PDF display format for ACS articles provides a means of interacting with Reference Quick View, for annotation of the article, and for storage in a user's ACS ChemWorx library. Since the introduction of the feature inside ACS ChemWorx, more than 3 million article views have occurred through ActiveView PDF. Two thirds of visits to ACS ChemWorx have originated outside of the USA, consistent with ACS Publications’ global audience of authors and readers. 

The Web Editions platform saw record web usage in 2013, delivering 83 million full text article downloads.  The platform now provides 137 million free abstract views a year to over 21 million unique visitors. Unique ACS ID registrants logging into the ACS Publications platform totaled over 267,000 in 2013. The ACS Mobile app—available on both Android and iOS devices—has been downloaded over 57,000 times since it was first introduced in 2010.

ACS Publications continued to serve an expanding customer base in Asia, South America, Europe, and the Middle East.  Contingents of ACS editors and Publications staff made extended editorial outreach visits to India and China, where they met with scientists and students to discuss emerging trends in chemical science and the publication of scientific research in ACS journals. 

ACS Publications led and participated in 30 ACS on Campus events held both in the U.S. and around the globe. These cross-divisional events, coordinated with Membership & Scientific Advancement, Chemical Abstracts Service, Education, Office of Public Affairs and Petroleum Research Fund, provide important venues to showcase the Society’s diverse offerings of programs and services, and serve as an important outreach method in strengthening our relationships with librarians, chemistry faculty and students, and in building ties with current and prospective authors and ACS members.