ACS Journal Finder

Accounts of Chemical Research presents short, concise, and critical articles offering easy-to-read overviews of basic research and applications in all areas of chemistry and in allied fields in which chemical approaches play a key role. Each Account focuses on research from the author’s own laboratory, and they are designed to teach the reader about a research project. 

Each Account can be thought of as a “seminar in print,” as the authors tell the research story of their lab and give readers insight into both the science itself as well as the people behind it.

Accounts are only considered for publication by invitation, but prospective authors are encouraged to submit a Proposal which, if accepted, will result in an invitation to submit a full Account. The journal considers submissions in core fields such as, but not limited to:

• Analytical, physical, inorganic, and organic chemistry
• Biological and medicinal chemistry, and biotechnology
• Sustainable and environmental chemistry
• Computational and theoretical chemistry
• Materials and nanoscience
• Energy and catalysis
• Chemical engineering
• Earth, atmospheric and space chemistry
• Chemical education

ACS Environmental Au is an open access journal publishing experimental research and theoretical results in all aspects of environmental science and technology, both fundamental and applied. Topics include:

• Alternative energy
• Anthropogenic impacts on atmosphere, soil, or water
• Biogeochemical cycling
• Biomass or wastes as resources
• Contaminants in aquatic and terrestrial environments
• Environmental applications and implications of synthetic biology
• Environmental data science
• Environmental justice and equality
• Ecotoxicology and public health
• Energy and climate
• Environmental modeling, processes, and measurement methods and technologies
• Environmental nanotechnology and biotechnology
• Green chemistry
• Green manufacturing and engineering
• Risk assessment, regulatory frameworks, and life-cycle assessments
• Systems engineering and quantitative sustainability
• Treatment and resource recovery and waste management

Environment & Health, a peer-reviewed, open access journal, is committed to exploring the relationship between the environment and human health. 

As a premier journal for multidisciplinary research, Environment & Health reports the health consequences for individuals and communities of changing and hazardous environmental factors. In supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the journal aims to help formulate policies to create a healthier world.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Air, water, and soil pollution
• Exposomics
• Environmental epidemiology
• Innovative analytical methodology and instrumentation
• Environmental toxicology
• Environmental microbiology, pathogen, and environmental transmission mechanisms of diseases
• Environmental modeling, bioinformatics, and artificial intelligence
• Emerging contaminants
• Climate change and related health effects
• Health impacts of energy evolution and carbon neutralization
• Food and drinking water safety
• Occupational exposure and medicine
• Innovations in environmental technologies for better health
• Policies and international relations concerned with environmental health

Authors who submit their manuscripts by December 31, 2025, may apply for an APC waiver if their paper is accepted after peer review.

ACS Central Science publishes the most compelling, important primary reports on research in chemistry and in allied fields, wherein chemical approaches play a key role. It is also the first fully open access journal published by the American Chemical Society. 

The term "central science" is frequently used to describe chemistry's focal role in bridging the physical and life sciences, and the basic sciences with applied disciplines such as medicine and engineering.

ACS Central Science is a multi- and inter-disciplinary journal that publishes articles of exceptional quality and interest to the broad chemistry and scientific community. The journal addresses important advances in fundamental areas of chemistry, as well as applied and interdisciplinary research highlighting the seminal role of chemistry in a wide range of other scientific disciplines. The journal considers submissions in core fields such as, but not limited to:

• Analytical, physical, inorganic, and organic chemistry
• Biological and medicinal chemistry, and biotechnology
• Sustainable and environmental chemistry
• Computational and theoretical chemistry
• Materials and nanoscience
• Energy and catalysis
• Chemical engineering
• Earth, atmospheric and space chemistry
• Chemical education

The journal also publishes inter- and multidisciplinary research applicable to allied fields across the physical sciences, life sciences, engineering, medicine, and beyond. 

ACS Photonics is an interdisciplinary forum to communicate on the latest advances in the field of photonics, all the way from basic research to applied research and technology. Embracing the transversality of photonics, it connects scientists and technologists from a broad scientific spectrum, at the interface between physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering. It also aims at bridging the gap between the academic and industrial worlds.

The first goal of ACS Photonics is to publish original and timely research which addresses important questions in the field of photonics. Novelty, high technical quality, significance, potential impact, and readability are among the main criteria considered for acceptance.

Areas targeted by the journal include the following:

• Nanophotonics, including plasmonics and polaritonics, optical metamaterials and metasurfaces
• Optical materials, including quantum/topological materials, 2D materials and phase change materials
• AI for photonics (e.g., inverse design) and photonics for AI (e.g., optical computing)
• Integrated photonics
• Light sources including new classes of lasing devices and LED with improved performance and new integration strategies
• Photodetection including new device principles, device physics and device architectures
• Nonlinear optics
• Quantum photonics
• Photonics-based wearables
• Virtual and augmented reality
• Photonics for energy, including photonic enhancement to solar energy harvesting, waste heat harvesting (thermophotovoltaics), and wireless photonic energy transmission
• Biophotonics, advanced optical imaging, photonics-based biosensing
• Optical trapping and optical manipulation
• Optomechanics
• Fundamentals of light-matter interaction
• Electron-beam spectroscopies and ultrafast electron microscopy
• Terahertz Photonics, including devices, imaging and spectroscopy

ACS Food Science & Technology is an international forum for cutting-edge original research in all areas of food science, technology, engineering, and nutrition.

This interdisciplinary journal is focused on reports of new research related to characterization, development, processing, and safety of foods, as well as food waste and byproducts as sources of food additives. The journal encourages submissions across all areas of fundamental and applied research in food sciences, with a special emphasis on topics including, but not limited to, areas of:

• Food security: Food science and microbiology; food toxicology and chemical food safety; nutrition; novel foods.
• Food preservation: Food quality and authenticity/origin; food engineering; food processing and packaging; nanotechnology and materials science in food.
• Health-promoting food ingredients: Functional foods; bioavailability and microbiome.

The Most Cited Journal in Analytical Chemistry

Analytical Chemistry is a peer-reviewed research journal that is devoted to the dissemination of new and original knowledge in all branches of analytical chemistry. Articles fit our scope that describe new or expanded chemical measurement approaches or that uniquely address the principles and performance of existing approaches. Articles may be theoretical or they may report experimental results. Papers dealing with established analytical methods must offer a significantly improved, original application of the method.

Subfields covered in Analytical Chemistry can include the following, as long as the manuscript focuses on improving our understanding of chemical measurements:

• Analytical operations (e.g., sampling, measurements, data analysis)
• Bioanalytical chemistry
• Bioengineering
• Chemical analysis
• Environmental sciences
• Forensics
• Materials Science
• Medical Sciences

Topics include but are not limited to:

• Chemical reactions and selectivity
• Chemometrics and data processing
• Computation, machine learning, and informatics
• Electrochemistry
• Elemental and molecular characterization
• Imaging
• Immunoassays, enzyme assays, and related technologies
• Instrumentation
• Mass Spectrometry
• Microscale and nanoscale analytical systems
• Nuclear magnetic resonance
• Omics research (e.g., proteomics, metabolomics, genomics, lipidomics)
• Sensing science
• Separations
• Spectroscopy
• Surface Analysis

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 Applied Electronic Materials is an interdisciplinary journal publishing original research covering all aspects of electronic materials. The journal is devoted to reports of new and original experimental and theoretical research of an applied nature that integrate knowledge in the areas of materials science, engineering, optics, physics, and chemistry into important applications of electronic materials. Sample research topics that span the journal's scope are inorganic, organic, ionic, and polymeric materials with properties that include conducting, semiconducting, superconducting, insulating, dielectric, magnetic, optoelectronic, piezoelectric, ferroelectric, and thermoelectric.
Example applications include:
• Diodes and transistors
• Memory devices and memristors
• Energy storage
• Optoelectronic devices
• Spintronic devices
• Photonic & plasmonic devices
• Molecular devices
• Flexible devices
• Sensors/detectors and Quantum detectors
• Quantum computing
• Soft actuators
• Electromechanical systems
• Bioelectronics
• Neuromorphic system
• Solid-state battery and supercapacitor
• Power devices
• Subthreshhold electronics
• Theory, modeling, and simulation of electronic materials
• Micro/nano-electronic fabrication and
• Other novel preparation and characterization of electronic materials and devices

Biomacromolecules is the leading forum for the dissemination of cutting-edge research at the interface of polymer science and biology. Submissions to Biomacromolecules should contain strong elements of innovation in terms of macromolecular design, synthesis and characterization, or in the application of polymer materials to biology and medicine.

Topics covered by Biomacromolecules include, but are not exclusively limited to:

• Sustainable polymers
• Natural and renewable polymers
• Chitin, chitosan, lignin, tannin, and polyaromatic polymers
• Degradable and recyclable polymers
• Polymer conjugates
• Polymeric drugs
• Polymers in biocatalysis
• Biomacromolecular assembly
• Biomimetic polymers
• Polymer-biomineral hybrids
• Bioactive polymer surfaces
• Original polymer design for biomedical applications
• Polymers in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine
• Polymeric scaffolds
• Hydrogels for cell culture and delivery

The Journal of Physical Chemistry A: Molecules, Clusters, and Aerosols; New Tools and Methods in Experiment and Theory

The Journal of Physical Chemistry A (JPC A) publishes experimental, theoretical, and computational research on the physical chemistry of molecules, ions, radicals, clusters, and aerosols. JPC A emphasizes applications in the areas of atmospheric and environmental chemistry, aerosol processes, molecular geochemistry, combustion, astrochemistry, plasmas, cold molecules, catalysis, and energetic materials, among others. JPC A also publishes manuscripts that describe new tools or methods that are of broad interest to the physical chemistry community. 

An essential criterion for acceptance of research articles in the Journal is that they provide new physical insight. Please refer to this Collection on what constitutes new physical insight. Manuscripts that are essentially reporting data or applications of data are, in general, not suitable for publication in JPC A. However, section A4 includes articles on New Tools and Methods in Experiment and Theory where the requirement for new physical insights is relaxed.

Sections:

• A1 Structure, Spectroscopy, and Reactivity of Molecules and Clusters
• A2 Aerosols; Environmental and Atmospheric Chemistry; Astrochemistry
• A3 Combustion and Plasma Chemistry
• A4 New Tools and Methods in Experiment and Theory

If you are unsure about whether your manuscript fits within the scope of JPC A, please contact the Editor-in-Chief (eic@jpc.acs.org). This Collection provides tips for creating high impact experimental and theory/computational manuscripts. Editorials with guidelines on computational and theory research can be found below:

• Characteristics of Impactful Computational Contributions to The Journal of Physical Chemistry A
• New Physical Insights in Theoretical and Computational Studies

ACS Sustainable Resource Management is an interdisciplinary journal publishing original research describing the science and practice in the sustainable use of natural and waste resources. The journal seeks to report advances, promote discussion among various stakeholders including academic scientists, industrial practitioners and government agencies and regulators, that together help in the implementation of strategies to achieve the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals. 

Submissions covering fundamental and applied research in science and engineering of the circularity of effluent streams (gaseous, liquid, or solid forms) through the conversion to useful compounds or feedstocks are welcome. Discussions integrating systems thinking, planetary boundaries and metrics-based approaches are encouraged to ensure that the envisioned circular approaches are indeed sustainable in terms of reducing environmental footprint and toxicity. Examples of resources and applications/processes/methods that fit the scope include:

Resources

• Activated sludges
• Agriculture, aquatic & marine ecologies, forest residues (biomass, pesticides, fertilizers, nutrients, etc.)
• Biochars
• Biofuels and fossil fuels
• Biological molecules
• Contaminated soils
• Electronic and urban wastes
• EMI shielding (including microwave absorbers)
• Foods, dyes and textile effluents
• Heavy, trace, catalytic and energy metals
• Industrial effluents (solvents, chemicals pharmaceuticals, flame retardants, etc.)
• Microplastics
• Nanomaterials
• Plastics, membranes, resins, etc.
• Radioactive wastes
• Solid wastes including end-of-use solar panels
• Toxic compounds
• Waste energy
• Water (groundwater, wastewater and oily wastewater, drinking water)
• Green Chemistry
• Green Manufacturing and Engineering
• Biomass or Wastes as Resources
• Alternative Energy
• Life-Cycle Assessment

Applications/ Methods/Processes

• Adsorption technologies
• Advanced oxidation processes
• Aerobic and anaerobic digestions
• Artificial intelligence/big data in resource management
• Biogas production
• Biomass-based catalysis, organocatalysis electrocatalysis, photoelectrocatalysis, photocatalysis, single atom catalysis
• Bioprocesses (biodegradation, biofiltration, bioremediation biosorption, biotreatment)
• Chemical processing of wastes
• Circular and net-zero economy
• CO₂ capture and utilization
• Eco-design for the environment and ecosystem restoration
• Electrochemical methods and processes
• Emulsion separation and oil spill remediation
• Gasification and pyrolysis
• Governance, legislation, and policy for sustainable resource management
• Green processes for waste management
• Industrial symbiosis
• Membrane technology and separation processes
• Mining of waste resources
• Phytoremediation
• Redox processes and hydrolysis
• Sensors and analytical methods for resource recovery
• Sustainability metrics in resource management
• Sustainable metallurgy
• Thermal energy storage/conversion technologies
• Upcycling and recycling processes

With a focus on the science, engineering and management of resources using sustainable approaches, ACS Sustainable Resource Management complements ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, and strengthens the overall portfolio of some ACS publications such as ACS Agricultural Science & Technology, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces (ACS AMI) and other ACS AMI family of journals, ACS Catalysis, ACS ES&T Engineering, ACS ES&T Water, ACS Food Science & Technology, Energy & Fuels, Langmuir, Macromolecules, Biomacromolecules, Environmental Science & Technology, Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, and Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

ACS Organic & Inorganic Au is an open access journal publishing original experimental and theoretical/computational studies on organic, organometallic, inorganic, crystal growth and engineering, and organic process chemistry. Topics include:

Organic chemistry:

• Physical and theoretical organic chemistry, including mechanistic studies
• Natural product isolation, identification, and synthesis
• New synthetic methodology, including single or multistep reactions, total synthesis and electrosynthesis
• Bioorganic and medicinal chemistry
• Materials science: Polymer chemistry and studies on functional molecules and systems

Organometallic chemistry:

• Synthesis, structure, bonding, chemical reactivity, and reaction mechanisms for a variety of applications, including catalyst design and catalytic processes
• All aspects of main-group, transition-metal, and lanthanide and actinide metal chemistry
• Synthetic aspects of polymer science and materials science
• Bioorganometallic chemistry

Inorganic Chemistry:

• Coordination chemistry involving transition metals, lanthanides, and actinides
• Main-group and organometallic chemistry
• Bioinorganic chemistry
• Catalyst design and catalytic processes, including electrocatalysis
• Solid-state/materials/nanoscale chemistry

Organic Process chemistry:

• Practical applications of organic chemistry that enable the safe, environmentally benign, and ultimately economical manufacturing of organic compounds at large-scale

Crystal Growth and Engineering:

• Organic, inorganic, hybrid solids, biological substances (e.g., biomineralization)

The scope of ACS Earth and Space Chemistry includes the application of analytical, experimental, and theoretical chemistry to investigate research questions relevant to the Earth and Space. The journal encompasses the highly interdisciplinary nature of research in this area, while emphasizing chemistry and chemical research tools as the unifying theme. The journal publishes broadly in the domains of high- and low-temperature geochemistry, atmospheric chemistry, marine chemistry, planetary chemistry, astrochemistry, and analytical geochemistry.

Among the areas the journal covers are:

Earth Interior

• High pressure experiments
• Core and mantle investigations
• Studies of planetary Interiors
• Mineral-melt phase equilibria, partitioning, and kinetics
• Mineralogy and mineral physics
• Igneous and metamorphic petrology, petrogenesis, and geochronology

Earth Surface

• Mineral-microbe-water reactions, thermodynamics, and kinetics
• Reactive transport modeling and colloid transport
• Multiscale science and scaling of geochemical and biogeochemical reactions

Atmosphere

• Atmospheric composition and reaction pathways
• Chemistry-climate interactions
• Biogeochemical cycles

Ocean

• Chemical fluxes and marine trace element chemistry
• Effects of global change on marine chemistry and the cryosphere
• Chemistry of the paleo-environment

Space

• Chemistry of planetary atmospheres and surfaces
• Investigations of meteorites and tektites
• Properties of cometary and interstellar materials
• Spectroscopy and chemistry of stars, interstellar clouds, and planetary formation

Analytical

• Analytical methods for characterization of Earth and Space materials

ACS Applied Bio Materials is an interdisciplinary journal publishing original research covering all aspects of biomaterials and biointerfaces including and beyond the traditional biosensing, biomedical and therapeutic applications.

The journal is devoted to reports of new and original experimental and theoretical research of an applied nature that integrates knowledge in the areas of materials, engineering, physics, bioscience, and chemistry into important bio applications. The journal is specifically interested in work that addresses the relationship between structure and function and assesses the stability and degradation of materials under relevant environmental and biological conditions.

Sample research topics:

• Inorganic, hybrid, and organic materials for bio applications
• Antibacterial/antimicrobial and anticancer materials
• Biofouling and antifouling materials
• Biomolecular imaging/sensing materials
• Biomimetic materials
• Self-healing materials and bio-assembly materials
• Sustainable biomaterials
• Novel approaches to synthesis of new and existing materials for drug delivery/targeting, photodynamic/photothermal therapy.
• Materials for Bioenergy and biocatalysis
• Bioaerosols
• Bioelectronics materials & devices
• Biomaterials for environmental and water safety applications

ACS Applied Polymer Materials is an interdisciplinary journal publishing original research covering all aspects of engineering, chemistry, physics, and biology relevant to applications of polymers.

The journal is devoted to reports of new and original experimental and theoretical research of an applied nature that integrates fundamental knowledge in the areas of materials, engineering, physics, bioscience, polymer science and chemistry into important polymer applications. The journal is specifically interested in work that addresses relationships among structure, processing, morphology, chemistry, properties, and function as well as work that provide insights into mechanisms critical to the performance of the polymer for applications. Sample research topics that span the journal's scope are but not limited to:

• Polymer applications in energy storage and conversion
• Separations
• Membranes
• Adhesives
• Functional coatings
• Sensing
• Adaptive and reconfigurable materials

The journal also considers novel approaches to the synthesis of new and existing polymers that are designed for specific applications.

ACS Agricultural Science & Technology is an international forum for cutting-edge original research in all areas of agricultural science, technology, and engineering. The journal aspires to highlight the role of agricultural science and technology to address challenges facing humankind and the planet. The journal welcomes submissions across fundamental and applied research in agricultural sciences, with topics spanning but not limited to:

• Plant Science including Crop Protection, Biotechnology, Informatics, and Analytical Technologies
• Chemical and Biological Agricultural Inputs
• Soil and Environmental Science including Sustainable Agriculture and Conservation
• Agricultural Engineering including Digital and Precision Agriculture
• Material Science and Nanotechnology Applications in Agriculture
• Analytical Technologies and Sensors to improve agricultural production and sustainability.
• Advances in chemistry, toxicology, biotechnology, and modeling in support of science-based regulation including Risk Assessment, Risk Management, Policy, and Trade

ACS Applied Optical Materials is an international and interdisciplinary forum to publish original experimental and theoretical, including simulation and modeling, research in optical materials, complementing the ACS Applied Materials portfolio. With a focus on innovative applications, ACS Applied Optical Materials also complements and expands the scope of existing ACS publications that focus on fundamental aspects of the interaction between light and matter in materials science. 

The scope of ACS Applied Optical Materials includes high quality research of an applied nature that integrates knowledge in materials science, chemistry, physics, optical science, and engineering.

Examples of materials and applications that fit the scope of the journal include:

Materials

• Photonic Crystals
• Disordered and amorphous photonic materials
• Structured Colored Materials
• Phosphors
• Fluorophores and light-emitting and absorbing materials
• Metamaterials
• Semiconductors and Heterostructured materials
• Low-dimensional Quantum Confined Materials, Quantum dots, wells, and rods
• Light-Manipulating Micro- and Nanostructures
• 2-D Materials
• Carbon materials and Organic Functional Materials
• Plasmonic materials
• Photochromes and Electrochromes
• Up-conversion and Down-conversion Materials
• MOFs, COFs and HOFs as Optical Materials
• Perovskites
• Solar Absorbers and Concentrators

Applications

• LEDs, OLEDs, OLETs and Optically Switchable OLEDs
• Lasers and Non-Linear Optics
• Confinement and waveguiding
• Quantum photonic applications
• Photochromics and Electrochromics
• Bio-inspired Optical Materials and Devices
• Imaging and Bioimaging
• Detectors, switches and Sensors
• Optoelectronics, THz Optoelectronics
• Optical computing and Data Storage
• Stealth and Chameleon
• Optical Encryption and Security, Optical Communications
• Holography, Anti-Forgery, and Physically Unclonable Functions
• QD electroluminescence
• Photoluminescent materials and devices
• Optics in AR, VR, XR systems
• Color science and applications

Manuscripts that are essentially reporting data or applications of data are, in general, not suitable for publication in ACS Applied Optical Materials. All manuscripts are subject to critical, anonymous peer review. It is to be understood that the final decision relating to a manuscript's suitability rests solely with the Editor.

ACS Materials Au is an open access journal publishing high-quality research at the forefront of fundamental and applied research, and at the interface between materials and other disciplines, such as chemistry, engineering, and biology. Manuscripts that showcase multidisciplinary and innovative materials research addressing global challenges are especially welcome. Topics include, but are not limited to:

• Design, synthesis, characterization, and evaluation of forefront and emerging materials
• Understanding structure, property, performance relationships and their underlying mechanisms
• Development of materials for energy, environmental, biomedical, electronic, and catalytic applications