ACS Journal Finder

ACS Bio & Med Chem Au is an open access journal publishing work on all aspects of biological and medicinal chemistry. Studies providing fundamental insights or describing novel syntheses, as well as clinical or other applications-based work, are welcomed. The broad scope includes experimental and theoretical studies on the chemical, physical, mechanistic, and/or structural basis of biological or cell function, as well as medicinal chemistry and infection disease research.

Biological chemistry and chemical biology

• Chemical biology
• Enzymology
• Metallobiochemistry
• Synthetic biology
• Disease biology
• Cell biology
• Agriculture and food
• Natural products research
• Nucleic acid biology
• Neuroscience
• Structural biology
• Biophysics

Medicinal Chemistry

• Compound design and optimization
• Biological evaluation
• Molecular mechanistic understanding of drug delivery and drug delivery systems
• Imaging agents
• Pharmacology and translational science of small and large bioactive molecules
• Novel computational, cheminformatics, and structural studies for the identification (or structure-activity relationship analysis) of bioactive molecules, ligands, and their targets
• Computational studies applying established methods will be considered only in combination with novel experimental data (e.g., in cases where new compounds have been designed and tested).

Infectious Disease Research

• Pathogens
• Host-pathogen interactions
• Therapeutics
• Diagnostics
• Vaccines
• Drug-delivery systems
• Other biomedical technology development pertaining to infectious diseases

ACS Chemical Neuroscience publishes high-quality research articles and reviews that showcase chemical, quantitative biological, biophysical and bioengineering approaches to the understanding of the nervous system and to the development of new treatments for neurological disorders. Research in the journal focuses on aspects of chemical neurobiology and bio-neurochemistry such as the following:

• Neurotransmitters and receptors
• Neuropharmaceuticals and therapeutics
• Neural development—Plasticity, and degeneration
• Chemical, physical, and computational methods in neuroscience
• Neuronal diseases—basis, detection, and treatment
• Mechanism of aging, learning, memory, and behavior
• Pain and sensory processing
• Neurotoxins
• Neuroscience-inspired bioengineering
• Development of methods in chemical neurobiology
• Neuroimaging agents and technologies
• Animal models for central nervous system diseases
• Behavioral research

Research articles reporting the identification of general principles that govern how information is processed by neuronal circuits; or using genetic model systems in conjunction with computational biology, imaging, electrophysiological, and computational neuroscience (neuroinformatics) are also welcomed.

ACS Infectious Diseases is the first journal to highlight chemistry and its role in the multidisciplinary and collaborative field of infectious disease research. With editors well-versed in both chemistry and the biology of infectious diseases, the journal aims to bridge the gap between these two disciplines. ACS Infectious Diseases welcomes submission of articles reporting investigations into chemistry and biology of infectious diseases, and encourages discussions centered on specific pathogen- and disease-related issues relating to bacteria, viruses, parasites, and fungi.

Topics covered by the journal include but are not limited to the following:

• Therapeutics
• Diagnostics
• Anti-infective Biomaterials and Drug Delivery Systems
• Drug Resistance
• Pathogens and Host-Pathogen Interactions
• Vaccines

ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters is interested in receiving manuscripts that discuss various aspects of medicinal chemistry. The journal will publish studies that pertain to a broad range of subject matter, including compound design and optimization, biological evaluation, drug delivery, imaging agents, drug interactome studies, and pharmacology of both small and large bioactive molecules.

Specific areas include but are not limited to:

• Identification, synthesis, and optimization of lead biologically active molecules and drugs (small molecules and biologics)
• Biological characterization of new molecular entities in the context of drug discovery towards delineating structure-activity relationship (SAR) trends
• Computational, cheminformatics, and structural studies for the identification or SAR analysis of bioactive molecules, ligands, and their targets, etc.
• Use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in drug discovery
• Novel and improved methodologies, including radiation biochemistry, with broad application to medicinal chemistry if the methods have been tested on relevant molecules. (e.g., DNA-encoded libraries, high-throughput experimentation, high-throughput parallel synthesis- compound library production, fragment-based drug discovery, covalent modulators.)
• New developments in discovery screening and bioassay technologies for biologically active molecules from both synthetic and natural (plant and other) sources.
• Chemistry patents relevant to the medicinal chemistry field
• Studies involving proximity-inducing agents including targeted protein degradation and molecular glues.

ACS Pharmacology & Translational Science publishes high quality, innovative, and impactful research across the broad spectrum of biological sciences, covering basic and molecular sciences through to translational preclinical studies. Clinical studies that address novel mechanisms of action, and methodological papers that provide innovation, and advance translation, will also be considered. We give priority to studies that fully integrate basic pharmacological and/or biochemical findings into physiological processes that have translational potential in a broad range of biomedical disciplines. Therefore, studies that employ a complementary blend of in vitro and in vivo systems are of particular interest to the journal. Nonetheless, all innovative and impactful research that has an articulated translational relevance will be considered.

ACS Pharmacology & Translational Science does not publish research on biological extracts that have unknown concentration or unknown chemical composition.

Authors are encouraged to use the pre-submission inquiry mechanism to ensure relevance and appropriateness of research.

Chemical Research in Toxicology publishes on a wide range of topics in Toxicology that inform a chemical and molecular understanding and capacity to predict biological outcomes on the basis of structures and processes. The overarching goal of activities reported in the Journal is to provide knowledge and innovative approaches needed to promote intelligent solutions for human safety and ecosystem preservation. The journal emphasizes insight concerning mechanisms of toxicity over phenomenological observations. It upholds rigorous chemical, physical and mathematical standards for characterization and application of modern techniques. Representative research includes:

• Studies concerning the molecular mechanisms by which physical, chemical, or biological agents or materials, interact with and perturb the normal function and/or structure of biological systems, including living organisms, cells, or biomolecules.
• Studies that address hypotheses concerning mechanisms of adverse or therapeutic responses or contribute to the development of models of toxic/biological function on the basis of quantifying chemical, molecular and cellular responses to physical, chemical, or biological agents or materials.
• Studies involving data resulting from high content characterization of molecular responses to agents from the use of bioanalytical approaches such as proteomics, metabolomics, lipidomics, genomics, high content imaging, multi-omics, etc. to characterize targeted patterns or global cellular responses, as well as studies that use novel or existing data to create new models for quantifying exposures or building predictive models of biological pathways or networks.
• The identification and characterization of potentially hazardous agents such as environmental contaminants, industrial chemicals, drugs and drug-like molecules, natural products, biological toxins and engineered nanomaterials, and the development and application of novel methodologies for their detection and/or characterizations of their interactions with biological systems or biomolecules.
• Studies concerning pathological biochemistry and molecular mechanisms of disease etiology involving exogenous as well as endogenous agents and/or molecular pathways or networks.

In the case of uncertainty regarding the suitability of a manuscript, authors may send a pre-submission inquiry to the Editor that includes an abstract and cover letter indicating the intended manuscript format by e-mail (eic@crt.acs.org).

The Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling (JCIM) is a bi-weekly peer-reviewed journal that publishes papers reporting new methodologies in chemical informatics and molecular modeling and its application and validation by experimental means. As a member of this community – author, reader, or reviewer -- you’ll stay abreast of advances and applications in molecular simulation, developments in multi-scale modeling, artificial intelligence, and machine learning models applied to chemical and biological data, computer science techniques applied to chemical problems, pattern recognition, clustering, computer-aided molecular design of new materials, catalysts, or ligands, development of new computational methods and algorithms and their implementation in software, and analysis of chemical and physical data.

• Computer simulation using molecular dynamics and free energy methods
• Machine learning models of chemical and biological data
• Combined quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM) multi-scale simulations
• Computer-aided molecular design of new materials, catalysts, or ligands
• Development of new computational methods or efficient algorithms implemented in software
• Biopharmaceutical chemistry, including analyses of biological activity and other applications related to drug discovery 

The journal does not consider straightforward applications of molecular docking methods to a single target system without adequate experimental validation.

Journal of Medicinal Chemistry publishes studies that contribute to an understanding of the relationship between molecular structure and biological activity or mode of action.

Some specific areas that are appropriate include the following:

• Design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of novel biologically active compounds, diagnostic agents, or labeled ligands employed as pharmacological tools.
• Molecular modifications of reported series that lead to a significantly improved understanding of their structure-activity relationships (SAR). Routine extensions of existing series that do not utilize novel chemical or biological approaches or do not add significantly to a basic understanding of the SAR of the series will normally not be accepted for publication.
• Structural biological studies (X-ray, NMR, etc.) of relevant ligands and targets with the aim of investigating molecular recognition processes in the action of biologically active compounds.
• Molecular biological studies (e.g., site-directed mutagenesis) of macromolecular targets that lead to an improved understanding of molecular recognition.
• Computational studies that provide fresh insight into the SAR of compound series that are of current general interest or analysis of other available data that subsequently advance medicinal chemistry knowledge.
• Substantially novel computational chemistry methods with demonstrated value for the identification, optimization, or target interaction analysis of bioactive molecules.
• Effect of molecular structure on the distribution, pharmacokinetics, and metabolic transformation of biologically active compounds. This may include design, synthesis, and evaluation of novel types of prodrugs.
• Novel methodology with broad application to medicinal chemistry, but only if the methods have been tested on relevant molecules.

The Journal of Natural Products invites and publishes papers that make substantial and scholarly contributions to the area of natural products research. Contributions may relate to the chemistry and/or biochemistry of naturally occurring compounds or the biology of living systems from which they are obtained. When new compounds are reported, manuscripts describing their biological activity are much preferred.

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

• Secondary metabolites of microorganisms, including antibiotics and mycotoxins
• Physiologically active compounds from terrestrial and marine plants and animals
• Biochemical studies, including biosynthesis and microbiological transformations
• Fermentation and plant tissue culture
• Isolation, structure elucidation, and chemical synthesis of novel compounds from nature
• Pharmacology of compounds of natural origin 

Manuscripts that focus on biological properties of chemically complex extracts, mixtures, or essential oils are outside the scope of the journal.

Molecular Pharmaceutics publishes original theoretical and experimental research that contributes significantly to the molecular mechanistic understanding of drug delivery and drug delivery systems. Modalities of interest include small molecules, imaging agents, proteins, peptides, vaccines, cell and gene-based therapies, and their characterization, formulation, and delivery. Scientific areas within the scope of the journal include:

• Modelling and simulation to aid mechanistic insights into drug delivery
• Molecular understanding of formulations
• Formulation performance under physiological conditions
• Materials science as it relates to drug, excipients, and drug delivery system efficacy.
• Emerging techniques and technologies for drug delivery including theranostics, precision medicine, and artificial intelligence

Submission of a manuscript to Molecular Pharmaceutics implies that the same work has not been previously published, including as part of a public electronic database (preprint servers like bioRxiv and ChemRxiv are permissible), and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. In addition, there must be no legal restrictions to publication, e.g., patent activities, at the time of submission.