Chemical Society Reviews journal

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Impact factor: 40.4*

Time to first decision (all decisions): 11.0 days**

Time to first decision (peer reviewed only): 26.0 days***

Editor-in-chief: Duncan Graham

Indexed in MEDLINE and Science Citation Index

Open access publishing options available

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Meet the team

Chem Soc Rev (Chemical Society Reviews) is the Royal Society of Chemistry's leading reviews journal. We publish high-impact, authoritative and reader-friendly review articles covering important topics at the forefront of the chemical sciences.

We welcome and encourage proposals for reviews from members of the research community:

To write a review, please download a proposal form
To propose a tutorial, please download a tutorial proposal form
If you are interested in submitting a Viewpoint, please contact us and we will provide further guidance.

Journal scope

Chem Soc Rev publishes review articles covering important topics at the forefront of the chemical sciences. Reviews should be of the very highest quality and international impact. We particularly encourage international and multidisciplinary collaborations among our authors.

Our scope covers the breadth of the chemical sciences, including interdisciplinary topics where the article has a basis in chemistry. Topics include:

Analytical chemistry
Biomaterials chemistry
Bioorganic/medicinal chemistry
Catalysis
Chemical Biology
Coordination Chemistry
Crystal Engineering
Energy
Sustainable chemistry
Green chemistry
Inorganic chemistry

Inorganic materials
Main group chemistry
Nanoscience
Organic chemistry
Organic materials
Organometallics
Physical chemistry
Supramolecular chemistry
Synthetic methodology
Theoretical and computational chemistry

ChemSocRev Pioneering Investigator Lectureship

This award recognises mid-career scientists who have firmly established themselves in their independent careers and continuously publish innovative and pioneering work.

Nominations for the ChemSocRev Pioneering Investigator Lectureship are now open until 31st May 2025

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

Meet the team

Find out who is on the editorial and advisory boards for the Chem Soc Rev journal.

Editor-In-Chief

Duncan Graham, University of Strathclyde, UK

Associate Editors

Louise Berben, University of California Davis, USA

Vy Dong, University of California, Irvine

Rebecca Goss, University of St Andrews, UK

Xian-He Bu, Nankai University, China

Editorial Board Members

Giulia Grancini, University of Pavia, Italy

Osamu Ishitani, Hiroshima University, Japan

Tatjana Parac-Vogt, KU Leuven, Belgium

Raghavan B. Sunoj, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India

David Amabilino, Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona

Ruchi Anand, IIT Bombay

Ivan Aprahamian, Dartmouth College

Parisa A. Ariya, McGill University

Robert Baker, Trinity College Dublin

Tom Baker, University of Ottawa

Rahul Banerjee, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Kolkata, India

Gonçalo Bernardes, University of Cambridge

Barry Blight, University of New Brunswick

Anne-Marie Caminade, University of Toulouse

Araceli Campaña, University of Granada

Rui Cao, Shaanxi Normal University

Hong Chen, Soochow University

Yong Cui, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Abhishek Dey, IACS

Huw Davies, Emory University

Wim Dehaen, Catholic University of Leuven

Yves Dufrêne, Université catholique de Louvain

Antonio Echavarren, Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia

Pui Lai Rachel Ee, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Elena Fernández, Universitat Rovira i Virgili

Miriam Freedman, Pennsylvania State University, USA

Philip A Gale, The University of Sydney, Australia

Debashree Ghosh, IACS

Stefan Grimme, Universität Bonn

Frances Houle, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Ashlee Howarth, Concordia University

Feihe Huang, Zhejiang University

Masako Kato, Kwansei Gakuin University

Jong Seung Kim, Korea University

Rafal Klajn, Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), Austria

Chung-Wei Kung, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan

Daniele Leonori, RWTH Aachen University

Chao-Jun Li, McGill University

Jinghong Li, Tsinghua University

Yan Li, Peking University, China

Yunling Liu,Jilin University, China

Zhuang Liu, Soochow University

Norberto Peporine Lopes, CEMMO

Bettina Lotsch, Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research

Connie Lu, University of Minnesota

Cara Lubner, NREL

Rafael Luque, King Saud University

Uday Maitra, Indian Institute of Science

Nazario Martín, Complutense University of Madrid

Feliu Maseras, Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia

Fiona Meldrum, University of Leeds

Amanda Morris, Virginia Tech

Simona Mura, Institut Galien Paris-Saclay

Brenno Neto, University of Brasilia

Martin Oestreich, Technische Universität Berlin

Elisa Orth, Federal University of Paraná

Mario Pagliaro, National Research Council (NRC)

Atul Parikh, University of California Davis

Kanyi Pu, Nanyang Technological University

Eric Rivard, University of Alberta

Gregory Robinson, University of Georgia

Peter Roesky, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Vincent Rotello, University of Massachusetts

Joanna Sadler, University of Edinburgh

Paolo Samori, University of Strasbourg

D.D. Sarma, Indian Institute of Science

Clément Sanchez, Pierre and Marie Curie University

Jennifer Schaefer, Notre Dame

Injae Shin, Yonsei University

David Spring, University of Cambridge

Jin Suntivich, Cornell University

Kana Sureshan, IISER Thiruvananthapuram

Qunwei Tang, Shandong University of Science and Technology

Andrea Trabocchi, University of Florence

James Tucker, University of Birmingham

Leyong Wang, Nanjing University

Peng Wang, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry

Bert Weckhuysen, Utrecht University

Helma Wennemers, ETH Zurich

Stephen Withers, University of British Columbia

Frank Würthner, Universität Würzburg

Yujie Xiong, University of Science and Technology of China

Makoto Yamashita, Nagoya University

Juyoung Yoon, Ewha Womans University

Shuli You, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Guihua Yu, University of Texas at Austin

Claudio Zannoni, University of Bologna

Haoli Zhang, Lanzhou University

Qiang Zhang, Tsinghua University

Yong Zhang, City University of Hong Kong

Yiping Zhao, University of Georgia

Jiang Zhou, Central South University

Hongli Zhu, Northeastern University

Article types

Chem Soc Rev publishes:

Tutorial reviews
Reviews
Viewpoints

All articles should consist of original text and interpretation. If other authors’ material is used - either text or graphics - permission must be sought by the author from the publisher of the original source and must be made clear in the manuscript.

Reviews and Tutorial Reviews should focus on key developments in a field, with the author providing their own analysis and insight throughout on developments, trends and future directions. Articles which simply summarise research in the topic with minimal or no analysis or insight from the author are not suitable for publication in Chem Soc Rev. To achieve this goal we respectfully ask authors of Reviews and Tutorial Reviews to use new graphics where possible (by redrawing schemes for example) and to aim for no more than 20% of graphics in their article to be reused from previously published work. We understand that in some cases it is necessary to include more previously published graphics (for example, where graphs or microscope images are shown). In these cases we ask authors to provide a very brief justification on submission.

Authors may supply videos, PowerPoint slides, soundbites, pictures and other additional material as electronic supplementary information (ESI) to complement and enhance their articles. Please contact the editorial office for more details.

Guidance on specific article types is below.

See more information about these article types

Tutorial Reviews

Tutorial Reviews are concise, accessible and authoritative overviews of important contemporary topics in the chemical sciences. They should appeal to advanced undergraduates, the general research chemist who is new to the field, as well as the expert. They provide a solid introduction to the development of a subject, the latest breakthrough results and their implications for the wider scientific community. Tutorial Reviews should not contain unpublished research.

Tutorial reviews must fulfil the following criteria.

Accessible

Appeal to advanced undergraduate students and beyond. Tutorial reviews are often used in advanced undergraduate and Master’s studies.

Authoritative

Provide an essential introduction to the field which will lay the foundation of knowledge in the area, followed by the most important recent advances. Authors should include throughout the article their own insights into the development of the field and its future potential.

Exciting

In particular highlight areas where there has been a significant recent advance.

Concise

There is no strict reference limit; however please include only the most important historical and recent research, referencing the major contributions (with the “and references cited therein” addition where appropriate). Tutorial Reviews are typically up to 15 journal pages in length.

Jargon-free

Specialist terms and symbols should be defined and fundamental ideas simply explained.

Tutorial reviews should include a 'key learning points' box, containing up to five key learning points that a reader should expect to gain from reading the review. These should be provided on submission, either at the beginning of the review or as a separate document.

Reviews

Reviews provide an authoritative and in-depth understanding of important topics in the chemical sciences. They give a very high-quality state-of-the-art account of the subject matter and a balanced assessment of the current primary literature. The implications of recent developments for the wider scientific community are emphasised and authors should aim to stimulate progress in the field. Chem Soc Rev Reviews should not contain original, unpublished research.

Reviews must fulfil the following criteria.

Accessible

Of general interest and enticing to the journal’s wide, community-spanning readership.

Appealing

A timely account is needed which genuinely adds to the existing literature.

Carefully referenced

References should be selected to give a balanced view of the field.

Jargon-free

Specialist terms and symbols should be defined and fundamental ideas simply explained.

Viewpoints

Viewpoints are short, opinion-based articles where the author gives their view on a challenge, issue or key development in an important area of chemistry research.

A Viewpoint is not intended to be a mini-review. The focus should be on the opinion of the author; however, the article should be scholarly and the arguments made should be supported by appropriate references.

A typical Viewpoint:

is up to four journal pages in length
contains up to three display item

If you are interested in submitting a Viewpoint, please contact chemsocrev-rsc@rsc.org and we will be able to provide further guidance.

Journal guidelines

The following guidelines are journal specific. For general guidance on preparing an article please visit our Prepare your article and Resources for authors pages, the content of which is relevant to all of our journals.

For accepted proposals or invited submissions, authors are encouraged to submit their full manuscript on the Royal Society of Chemistry article template, which is available to download here.

Open access publishing options

Chem Soc Rev 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, Chem Soc Rev 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 Chem Soc Rev 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.

Readership information

Chem Soc Rev has a truly international readership, from emerging investigators to eminent scientists working in across all areas of the chemical sciences.

Subscription information

Chemical Society Reviews is part of collections RSC Gold and General Chemistry.

Online only 2025: ISSN 1460-4744, £1,379 / $2,189

*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

Chem Soc Rev

What would you like to know about this journal?

Journal scope

ChemSocRev Pioneering Investigator Lectureship

Meet the team

Editor-In-Chief

Associate Editors

Editorial Board Members

Article types

Tutorial Reviews

Accessible

Authoritative

Exciting

Concise

Jargon-free

Reviews

Accessible

Appealing

Carefully referenced

Jargon-free

Viewpoints

Journal guidelines

Open access publishing options

Gold open access

Open access agreements

Traditional subscription model

Readership information

Subscription information

Journals, books & databases

Contact us

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