Paper Review · Chemistry and materials
A pre-submission review for chemistry and materials papers.
Choose the chemistry and materials profile at upload and the four reviewers ask what a synthetic or materials referee asks: is it characterized, reproducible, and supported by more than one run?
The chemistry and materials profile
What the reviewers look for
These are the instructions the profile adds to the review, in plain words. Each finding in the report quotes the passage it is about and says what would fix it.
- Yields. Whether a synthesis was repeated, or the yield is a single best run.
- Characterization. New compounds supported by enough independent techniques (NMR, MS, IR, elemental analysis), and CCDC numbers for crystal structures.
- Catalysis. Turnover numbers and frequencies with no leaching test, mercury drop test or recyclability data.
- Computation. DFT with the basis set, functional or solvation model left unstated.
- Spectra. Chromatograms or spectra cropped in a way that hides side peaks.
- Sample preparation. Materials properties measured on samples whose preparation is not described well enough to repeat.
- Stability. Stability claims from a single short measurement.
- Framing. "Green" claims with no solvent or atom-economy figures, and scale-up addressed or waved away.
What a finding looks like
An example from the report
Illustrative, not from a real manuscript: this is the shape each finding takes. The full sample report shows every section.
Catalytic claim without a heterogeneity test.
Quoted: "The catalyst reached a TON of 4,200 with no loss of activity."
Surfaced by: Data Integrity Officer.
Fix: Add a mercury drop or hot filtration test and recyclability over several runs, or soften the claim to the conditions tested.
In every review
The rest of the report
- Four reviewers: a Methodology Critic, a Statistical Skeptic, a Data Integrity Officer and an Editor-in-Chief, with findings more than one of them raise listed first.
- Every reference checked against CrossRef, and for the most important claims, the cited paper's abstract read to see whether it supports the sentence citing it.
- A figure and table scan for integrity and presentation problems.
- An anonymity scan for double-blind submission.
- A prioritized checklist, as a Markdown report and an annotated PDF with comments on the pages they refer to.
- The Journal Pack ($11) adds a check against one venue's submission rules. In chemistry and materials it covers JACS, Angewandte Chemie, Nature Materials, Nature Chemistry, ACS Nano and Advanced Materials. All 25 venues.
Questions
Does it check my supporting information?
How do I choose this profile?
What happens to the manuscript?
How long does it take and what does it cost?
Read it before Reviewer 2 does.
From $9, usually back in 4 to 8 minutes. No account, no subscription.
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