Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics journal

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Impact factor: 2.9*

Eigenfactor Score: 0.07224*

Time to first decision (all decisions): 28.0 days**

Time to first decision (peer reviewed only): 34.0 days***

CiteScore: 5.5****

Indexed in MEDLINE and Web of Science

Chair: Anouk Rijs
Deputy Chair: Henry Schaefer

Article submissions (2023): 6335

Article publications (2022): 3016

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Meet the team

Journal scope

Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (PCCP) is an international journal co-owned by 19 physical chemistry and physics societies from around the world. This journal publishes original, cutting-edge research in physical chemistry, chemical physics and biophysical chemistry. To be suitable for publication in PCCP, articles must include significant innovation and/or insight into physical chemistry; this is the most important criterion that reviewers and Editors will judge against when evaluating submissions.

The journal has a broad scope and welcomes contributions spanning experiment, theory, computation and data science. All contributions, including computational ones, should be based on up-to-date approaches. Topical coverage includes spectroscopy, dynamics, kinetics, statistical mechanics, thermodynamics, electrochemistry, catalysis, surface science, quantum mechanics, quantum computing and machine learning. Interdisciplinary research areas such as polymers and soft matter, materials, nanoscience, energy, surfaces/interfaces, and biophysical chemistry are welcomed if they demonstrate significant innovation and/or insight into physical chemistry. Joint experimental/theoretical studies are particularly appreciated when complementary.

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Discover the PCCP Owner Societies

PCCP is co-owned by a group of 19 chemistry, physical chemistry and physics societies from around the world.

Explore the PCCP Owner Societies

PCCP Emerging Investigator Lectureship

This lectureship recognises early career researchers, who have made a significant contribution to physical chemistry, chemical physics, or biophysical chemistry, in their independent academic careers.

Nominations are currently open until 5 April 2025, with a new winner being announced mid 2025.

Read about eligibility, how to nominate, and see all previous winners

See who's on the team

Meet the PCCP Chair and other board members.

Chair

Anouk Rijs, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam,The Netherlands

Deputy chair

Henry Schaefer, University of Georgia, USA

Associate editors

Maria Lucia Curri, University of Bari, Italy

Wolfgang Ernst, Graz University of Technology, Austria

Keith Gordon, University of Otago, New Zealand

Lars Goerigk, The University of Melbourne, Australia

Hiroshi Kondoh, Keio University, Japan

Jer-Lai Kuo, Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taiwan

Sabrina Leslie, Michael Smith Laboratories, Canada

Prabal Maiti, Indian Institute of Science, India

Spiridoula Matsika, Temple University, USA

Andrea Russell, Southampton University, UK

Isaac Tamblyn, University of Ottawa, Canada

Yunjie Xu, University of Alberta, Canada

Guochun Yang, Yanshan University, China

C Adamo, ENSCP Chimie Paris Tech, France

Hans Ågren, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden

Ayyappanpillai Ajayaghosh, CSIR-National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (NIIST), India

Bo Albinsson, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden

Katsuhiko Ariga, National Institute for Materials Science, Japan

Paul Ayers, McMaster University, Canada

Piero Baglioni, University of Florence, Italy

Luis Bañares, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain

Vincenzo Barone, Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, Italy

Malgorzata Biczysko, Wroclaw University, Poland

Evan Bieske, University of Melbourne, Australia

Julie Biteen, University of Michigan, USA

David Casanova, Donostia International Physics Center, Spain

Piergiorgio Casavecchia FRSC, University of Perugia, Italy

Ove Christiansen, University of Aarhus, Denmark

G Andres Cisneros, University of North Texas, USA

Sonia Coriani, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark

Chantal Daniel, Institute of Chemistry, University of Strasbourg, France

Mattanjah DeVries, University of California Santa Barbara, USA

Cristina Díaz, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain

Jairton Dupont, University of Nottingham, UK

Shirin Faraji, University of Groningen, Netherlands

Daan Frenkel, University of Cambridge, UK

Asuka Fujii, Tohoku University, Japan

Laura Gagliardi, University of Minnesota, USA

Marie-Pierre Gaigeot, Universite d'Evry val d'Essonne, France

Subi George, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), India

Robert (Benny) Gerber, Hebrew University Jerusalem, Israel

Debashree Ghosh, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, India

Daniella Goldfarb, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

Stefan Grimme, University of Bonn, Germany

Martina Havenith, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany

Krister Holmberg, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden

Yasuhiro Iwasawa, University of Tokyo, Japan

Denis Jacquemin, Université de Nantes, France

Thomas Jagau, KU Leuven, Belgium

Erin Johnson, Dalhousie University, Canada

Seong Keun Kim, Seoul National University, Korea

Julie MacPherson, University of Warwick, UK

Hedi Mattoussi, Florida State University, USA

Frank Neese, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion, Germany

David Nesbitt, University of Colorado, USA

Dan Neumark, UC Berkeley, USA

Modesto Orozco, IRB Barcelona - Parc Científic de Barcelona, Spain

Katya Pas, Monash University, Australia

G Naresh Patwari, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India

Marie-Paule Pileni, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, France

Martin Pumera, Central European Institute of Technology, Brno, Czechia

Pekka Pyykkö, University of Helsinki, Finland

Mary Rodgers, Wayne State University, USA

Srinivasan Sampath, Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, India

Ruth Signorell, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Timothy Schmidt, University of New South Wales, Australia

Martin Suhm FRSC, University of Göttingen, Germany

Arthur Suits, University of Missouri, USA

Dage Sundholm, University of Helsinki, Finland

Toshinori Suzuki, Kyoto University, Japan

Alessandro Troisi, University of Liverpool, UK

Shimon Vega, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

David Waldeck, University of Pittsburgh, USA

Li-jun Wan, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Bert Weckhuysen FRSC, Utrecht University, The Netherlands

Xueming Yang, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Anne Zehnacker-Rentien, Université Paris-Sud 11, France

John Zhang, NYU Shanghai, China

Article types

PCCP publishes:

Communications
Full papers
Reviews
Tutorial Reviews
Perspectives
Comments

See more information about these article types

Communications

These are urgent reports of highly original and significant work likely to have a high impact on the community and of such importance that rapid publication is justified.

Communications are given priority treatment, are fast-tracked through the publication process and appear prominently at the front of the journal in a dedicated Communications section.

At the time of submission authors should supply a short statement justifying why the work merits urgent publication as a Communication. Reviewers will be asked to judge the work on these grounds.

It is recommended that Communications do not exceed four printed journal pages, authors may find the Communications template useful for preparing their submissions.

Section headings, lengthy introductions and discussion, extensive data, and excessive experimental details should not be included. Figures and tables should be essential to understanding the paper. The experimental evidence necessary to support a Communication should be supplied for the referees and eventual publication as supplementary information (SI).

Full papers

Full papers contain original scientific work that has not been published previously. They must demonstrate significant new insight into physical chemistry; this is the prime criterion that reviewers and the Editors will judge against when evaluating submissions.

Full papers based on Communications are encouraged provided that they represent a substantial extension of the original material. There are no restrictions on the length of a paper. Authors should include a brief discussion in the Introduction that sets the context for the new work and gives their motivation for carrying out the study.

All review types guidance

There are no strict length requirements, but as a general guide Perspectives and Reviews are typically between six and 20 pages in length, whilst some Tutorial Reviews are more in-depth. Shorter Perspective articles of three to four journal pages highlighting a topical area or important new development in an established field will also be considered.

Perspectives, Reviews and Tutorial Reviews are commissioned by the PCCP Editorial Board and Editorial Office and we welcome suggestions of topics and authors. We also welcome direct submissions. Enquiries regarding the submission of these article types, including those about which article type best fits your manuscript, should be directed to the Editorial Office.

All Review-type articles undergo full and rigorous peer review, in the same way as regular PCCP research papers.

Reviews

Concise and critical reviews of important or emerging topics in physical chemistry, chemical physics and biophysical chemistry. Reviews should be easy to read and cover current areas of interest, rather than comprehensive reviews of the literature, and may include a limited amount of unpublished research. Simple literature surveys will not be accepted for publication.

Tutorial Reviews

Tutorial reviews provide an essential introduction to a particular area of physical chemistry, chemical physics or biophysical chemistry. The article should introduce the development of a subject, its current state and indications of future directions the field is expected to take.

Tutorial reviews are intended to interest a wide range of readers and should be written at a level that could be understood by an advanced undergraduate student. The article should have particular appeal to early career researchers, as well as established researchers seeking new fields to explore. Some previously unpublished research may be included in a Tutorial Review.

Perspectives

Perspectives are high profile articles that present an authoritative state-of-the-art account of the selected research field. Perspectives should provide critical evaluation of areas of current interest. These articles can take a wide variety of forms:

Personal accounts of research, placing any personal work in the context of the wider literature
Critical analyses of topics of current interest
Roundtable discussion of the development of a field of research
Roadmaps and accounts looking to the future of a field

Simple literature surveys will not be accepted for publication. Some new unpublished research may be included.

Comments

Comments and Replies are a medium for the discussion and exchange of scientific opinions between authors and readers concerning material published in PCCP.

For publication, a Comment should present an alternative analysis of and/or new insight into the previously published material. Any Reply should further the discussion presented in the original article and the Comment. Comments and Replies that contain any form of personal attack are not suitable for publication.

Comments that are acceptable for publication will be forwarded to the authors of the work being discussed, and these authors will be given the opportunity to submit a Reply. The Comment and Reply will both be subject to rigorous peer review in consultation with the journal’s Editorial Board where appropriate. The Comment and Reply will be published together.

Article templates

To help authors publish their research with us we host our PCCP LaTeX template in the Overleaf authoring tool. Overleaf simplifies LaTeX authorship by enabling collaborators to easily prepare and edit their manuscripts with real-time format previewing, simple document sharing and collaboration, and user support and LaTeX help.

With one click, the PDF of your manuscript and a ZIP file of the LaTeX source files are sent directly to the PCCP submission system without the need to download and re-upload files, making the process quicker and easier.

A free introductory course is available to authors who are new to LaTeX and Overleaf. Our Microsoft Word templates are located in our author guidelines.

Journal specific guidelines

Papers that contain insufficient information to ensure reproducibility or material which actively promotes the interest of a process, instrument, software or other intellectual property of actual or potential commercial value will not be considered suitable for publication in PCCP.

For more information about experimental details and characterisation requirements, including details of computational methods, please see the RSC experimental reporting requirements.

Open access publishing options

PCCP is a hybrid journal and gives authors the choice of publishing their research either via the traditional subscription-based model or instead by choosing our gold open access option.

Gold open access

For authors who want to publish their article gold open access, PCCP charges an article processing charge (APC) of £3,000 (+ any applicable tax). Our APC is all-inclusive and makes your article freely available online immediately, permanently, and includes your choice of Creative Commons licence (CC BY or CC BY-NC) at no extra cost. It is not a submission charge, so you only pay if your article is accepted for publication.

Learn more about publishing open access.

Open access agreements

If your institution has an RSC open access agreement or APCs for gold open access, publishing in this journal may already be covered.

Use our journal finder to check if your institution has an open access agreement with us.

Please use your official institutional email address to submit your manuscript and check you are assigned as the corresponding author; this helps us to identify if you are eligible under an open access agreement or other APC discounts.

Traditional subscription model

Authors can also publish in PCCP via the traditional subscription model without needing to pay an APC. Articles published via this route are available to institutions and individuals who subscribe to the journal. Our standard licence allows you to make the accepted manuscript of your article freely available after a 12-month embargo period. This is known as the green route to open access.

Learn more about green open access.

Themed Collections

PCCP publishes a number of themed collections every year, guest edited by members of the physical chemistry community on timely and important topics. Selected festschrift collections in honour of a notable scientist within the field are also published. Themed collections are available to read here.

Members of the community are welcome to submit proposals for themed collections that would be of interest to the PCCP readership. Please use the form below to submit a proposal. All proposals will be considered by the Editorial Board and assessed based on the timeliness and relevance of the topic to PCCP readers.

Suggest a topic

Readership information

PCCP has a large and international readership, which spans many communities in the broad fields of physical chemistry, chemical physics and biophysical chemistry.

Subscription information

PCCP is part of RSC Gold and Core Chemistry subscription packages.

Online only 2025: ISSN 1463-9084, £4,884 / $8,605

*2023 Journal Citation Reports (Clarivate Analytics, 2024)

**The median time from submission to first decision including manuscripts rejected without peer review from the previous calendar year

***The median time from submission to first decision for peer-reviewed manuscripts from the previous calendar year

****CiteScore™ 2023 available at www.scopus.com/sources

What would you like to know about this journal?

Journal scope

Discover the PCCP Owner Societies

PCCP Emerging Investigator Lectureship

Read about eligibility, how to nominate, and see all previous winners

See who's on the team

Chair

Deputy chair

Associate editors

Article types

Communications

Full papers

All review types guidance

Reviews

Tutorial Reviews

Perspectives

Comments

Article templates

Journal specific guidelines

Open access publishing options

Gold open access

Open access agreements

Traditional subscription model

Themed Collections

Your details

About your suggestion

Terms and conditions

Readership information

Subscription information

PCCP

PCCP

What would you like to know about this journal?

Journal scope

Discover the PCCP Owner Societies

PCCP Emerging Investigator Lectureship

Read about eligibility, how to nominate, and see all previous winners

See who's on the team

Chair

Deputy chair

Associate editors

Article types

Communications

Full papers

All review types guidance

Reviews

Tutorial Reviews

Perspectives

Comments

Article templates

Journal specific guidelines

Open access publishing options

Gold open access

Open access agreements

Traditional subscription model

Themed Collections

Your details

About your suggestion

Terms and conditions

Readership information

Subscription information

Journals, books & databases

PCCP

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