Dalton Transactions journal

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Dalton Transactions is a Transformative Journal, and Plan S compliant

Impact factor: 3.5*

Time to first decision (all decisions): 16.0 days**

Time to first decision (peer reviewed only): 22.0 days***

Chair: Russell Morris

Indexed in Web of Science, Scopus, and MEDLINE/PubMed

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Meet the team

Calls for papers

Dalton Transactions frequently has open calls for papers for upcoming themed collections. Explore our current calls for papers to contribute your best research or reviews. Follow the link for details about the scope and deadlines for each collection.

If you are interested in submitting to one of our themed collections, please email dalton-rsc@rsc.org.

Journal scope

Dalton Transactions is a journal for all areas of inorganic chemistry, which encompasses the organometallic, bioinorganic and materials chemistry of the elements, with applications including synthesis, catalysis, energy conversion/storage, electrical devices and medicine. Dalton Transactions welcomes high-quality, original submissions in all of these areas and more, where the advancement of knowledge in inorganic chemistry is significant. Specific guidance for some areas of our scope is given below.

Solid-state inorganic materials (including nanomaterials)

We encourage work in the area of solid-state, materials and nano-chemistry that includes a significant inorganic chemistry component. Contributions could include the synthesis, characterisation, and applications of new inorganic or inorganic-organic hybrid solids, together with studies of their properties. However, studies of properties of known compounds are only encouraged if there is a clear advance in the inorganic chemistry, and where this forms a major component of both the novelty and significance in the paper.

Catalysis

Studies that utilize well-characterized inorganic and organometallic compounds as catalysts for chemical transformations are welcome but must emphasize the advancement of knowledge in inorganic chemistry. This would include catalyst design and synthesis, structure-activity relationships and/or mechanistic studies.

Work reporting new catalysts for well-studied reactions must contextualize the reported results within the state-of-the-art to demonstrate impact and advancement. Studies that generate ill-defined species in situ and/or report tables of catalytic data without appropriate comparison with existing catalysts will not be considered at Dalton Transactions.

Bioinorganic and medicinal inorganic chemistry

We welcome work on model compounds of metalloenzymes and biologically active inorganic compounds, including reports on their synthesis, characterization and studies of their applications. Spectroscopic or computational work on metalloenzymes, or pure biochemical, biological, or biomedical studies on inorganic compounds are only encouraged if they clearly relate to specific properties of the metals or metalloid elements involved, and significantly further our understanding of inorganic chemistry.

The same applies to papers related to the sensing and visualization of biorelevant metal ions. Such work is expected to have its focus on inorganic aspects and must completely characterize the inorganic compounds involved.

Theoretical and computational studies

We welcome studies that report new models of reactivity, selectivity, bonding or structure, or new computational methods, that have relevance for the design of subsequent experiments.

This is most clearly demonstrated by the description of testable predictions derived from the results of the reported theoretical work; the tests of these predictions could be contained in the same paper in which the predictions are described. Computational research that merely reproduces experimental data is not normally suitable for Dalton Transactions.

Analytical/separation studies and sensor development

Analytical studies on inorganic species are encouraged provided there is significant insight into the chemistry of the inorganic component. Speciation and separation studies that are primarily based around kinetic and thermodynamic models are not considered suitable for Dalton Transactions. Organic sensors in which the primary insight is the synthesis or behaviour of the sensor, rather than an inorganic chemistry advance, will not normally be considered.

Dalton Transactions expects complete characterization of all new compounds/materials by state of the art methods, and that the purity of any compound or material used or reported must be adequately demonstrated (please refer to our Journal Specific Guidelines below for detailed information).

Meet the team

Find out who is on the editorial and advisory boards for the Dalton Transactions journal.

Chair

Russell Morris, University of St Andrews, UK

Associate editors

Paola Ceroni, University of Bologna, Italy

Vadapalli Chandrasekhar, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Hyderabad, India

Maarit Karppinen, Aalto University, Finland

Mi Hee Lim, KAIST, South Korea

Neal Mankad, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA

Eric Rivard, University of Alberta, Canada

Wolfgang Tremel, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Germany

Takashi Uemura, University of Tokyo, Japan

Li-Min Zheng, Nanjing University, China

Editorial board members

Jaqueline L. Kiplinger, Los Alamos National Laboratory USA

Sascha Ott, Uppsala University, Sweden

Simon Aldridge, Oxford University, UK

Santiago Alvarez, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain

John Arnold, University of California, Berkeley, USA

Mu-Hyun Baik, KAIST, Korea

Jitendra Bera, IIT Kanpur, India

Claudia Bizzarri, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany

Eszter Borbas, Uppsala University, Sweden

Holger Braunschweig, University of Wuerzburg, Germany

Xian-He Bu, Nankai University, China

Raffaella Buonsanti, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland

Claire Carmalt, University College London, UK

Eric Clot, University of Montpellier, France

Catherine Constable-Housecroft, University of Basel, Switzerland

Ömer Dag, Bilkent University, Turkey

Amitava Das, Indian Institute of Science and Education Research Kolkata, India

Jillian Dempsey, University of North Carolina, USA

Anjana Devi, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany

Rasika Dias, The University of Texas at Arlington, USA

Roman Dobrovetsky, Tel Aviv University, Israel

Jairton Dupont, UFRGS, Brazil

William Evans, University of California, USA

Harry B Gray, California Institute of Technology, USA

Zijian Guo, Nanjing University, China

Michael Hayward, University of Oxford, UK

Todd W Hudnall, Texas State University, USA

Ilich Ibarra, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico

Cameron Jones, Monash University, Australia

Masako Kato, Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan

Takahiko Kojima, University of Tsukuba, Japan

Jian-Ping Lang, Suzhou University, China

Jennifer Love, University of British Columbia, Canada

Stuart Macgregor, University of St Andrews, UK

Celia Machado Ronconi, Federal Fluminense University, Brazil

Ahmed Mansour, Cairo University, Egypt

Laurent Maron, Universite Paul Sabatier, France

E Matson, Rochester University, USA

Marinella Mazzanti, EPFL, Switzerland

Nils Metzler-Nolte, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany

Barbara Milani, University of Trieste, Italy

Georgii Nikonov, Brock University, Canada

Seiji Ogo, Kyushu University, Japan

Gerard Parkin, Columbia University, USA

Warren Piers, University of Calgary, Canada

Douglas Stephan, University of Toronto, Canada

Tim Storr, Simon Fraser University, Canada

Matthias Tamm, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany

Jinkui Tang, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, China

Thomas Teets, University of Houston, USA

Christine Thomas, The Ohio State University, USA

Ajay Venugopal, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram, India

Claudio N Verani, Wayne State University, USA

Wai-Yeung Wong, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China

Zhiguo Xia, South China University of Technology, China

Zuowei Xie, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China

Lin Xu, East China Normal University, China

Sally Howells-Wyllie, Executive Editor

Mike Andrews, Deputy Editor, ORCID 0000-0003-3762-8523

Michelle Canning, Development Editor

Emily Cuffin-Munday, Development Editor

Lilybelle Wyatt, Editorial Manager

Gaia De Angelis, Publishing Editor

Debora Giovanelli, Publishing Editor

Helen Lunn, Publishing Editor

Samuel Oldknow, Publishing Editor

Daphne Houston, Editorial Assistant

Huw Hedges, Publishing Assistant

Sam Keltie, Publisher, ORCID 0000-0002-9369-8414

Article types

Dalton Transactions publishes:

Communications
Full papers
Perspectives
Frontiers
Comments

See more information about these article types

Communications

Preliminary accounts of original and significant work of such importance that rapid publication is justified may be published in Communication form.

Material intended for Communications should be of specific specialist interest to inorganic chemists. Full papers based upon Communications will be acceptable provided that they represent a substantial amplification and extension of the original material.

Communications should be between 1500 and 2500 words (about four typeset pages) and may include one table and/or up to four figures. Additional tables and figures may be included in the article’s Supplementary Information (SI).

Full papers

Full papers contain original scientific work that has not been published previously. However, work that builds upon research that has been previously published in a short form such as a Dalton Transactions Communication or in ChemComm is normally acceptable, provided that it represents a substantial amplification and extension of the original material.

Perspectives

Perspectives are normally published by invitation. However, suggestions from authors are welcome and enquiries regarding the submission of Perspectives should be directed to the editor.

Perspectives are short readable articles covering current areas of interest for an inorganic chemistry audience; they may take the form of personal accounts of research or a critical analysis of activity in a specialist area. By their nature they will not be comprehensive reviews of a field of chemistry, they are typically less than 10,000 words in length. Perspectives should not include new or unpublished data as this will mean that the data cannot be re-published in any subsequent original research paper.

Since the readership of Dalton Transactions is wide-ranging the article should be easily comprehensible to a non-specialist in the field, whilst at the same time providing an authoritative discussion of the area concerned.

Frontiers

Frontiers are normally published by invitation. However, suggestions from authors are welcome and enquiries regarding the submission of Frontiers should be directed to the editor.

Frontiers are short articles that highlight recent important new developments in all areas of inorganic and organometallic chemistry, including biological inorganic chemistry and solid-state inorganic chemistry. They should explain the significance of these developments and also identify where further work is urgently required or where challenges are still faced. Frontiers should not include new or unpublished data as this will mean that the data cannot be re-published in any subsequent original research paper. Frontiers articles can be short, personal accounts of a new area of research and can be speculative in nature, putting a new area in perspective.

Frontiers articles should be approximately 3000-4000 words in length, although this may vary slightly depending on the nature of the article. Dalton Transactions Perspective articles are a more appropriate format for longer articles.

Comments

Dalton Transactions offers Comments and Replies as a medium for the discussion and exchange of scientific opinions between authors and readers concerning material published in the journal.

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.

Journal specific 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.

It is the responsibility of authors to provide fully convincing evidence for the homogeneity, purity and identity of all compounds they claim as new. This evidence is required to establish that the properties and constants reported are those of the compound with the new structure claimed. Editors and reviewers will assess, as a whole, the evidence presented in support of the claims made by the authors.

All submissions to Dalton Transactions must include a file of the “integrated manuscript”: this is a file with all of the tables and artwork integrated into the text at a point close to where the table/figure/scheme, etc., is first mentioned.

Tables should be complete with the table number and title above the table and footnotes below. Please place the table in the text at a point where the entire table can fit on a single page (unless the table is longer than a single page).
Figures/schemes/charts should have the number and caption below the artwork. Avoid splitting the graphic over two pages (when possible) by placing it appropriately in the text.

To avoid the shifting of inserted graphics/tables during generation of the pdf file that is read by the editors and reviewers, authors are encouraged to upload a pdf version of their “integrated manuscript” in addition to the native file.

Characterisation of new compounds

Inorganic and organometallic compounds

A new chemical substance (molecule or extended solid) should have a homogeneous composition and structure. Where the compound is molecular, authors must provide data to unequivocally establish its homogeneity, purity and identification. In general, this should include elemental analyses that agree to within ±0.4% of the calculated values.

Elemental analyses

In cases where elemental analyses cannot be obtained (for example, for thermally unstable compounds), justification for the omission of this data should be provided. Note that an X-ray crystal structure is not sufficient for the characterisation of a new material, since the crystal used in this analysis does not necessarily represent the bulk sample. In rare cases, it may be possible to substitute elemental analyses with high-resolution mass spectrometric molecular weights. This is appropriate, for example, with trivial derivatives of thoroughly characterised substances or routine synthetic intermediates.

Relevant spectroscopic data

In all cases, relevant spectroscopic data (NMR, IR, UV-vis, etc.) should be provided in tabulated form or as reproduced spectra. These may be relegated to the electronic supplementary information (ESI) to conserve journal space. However, it should be noted that, in general, mass spectrometric and spectroscopic data do not constitute proof of purity, and, in the absence of elemental analyses, additional evidence of purity should be provided (melting points, PXRD data, etc).

Evidence of bulk homogeneity

Where the compound is an extended solid, it is important to unequivocally establish the chemical structure and bulk composition. Single crystal diffraction does not determine the bulk structure. Referees will normally look to see evidence of bulk homogeneity.

A fully indexed powder diffraction pattern that agrees with single crystal data may be used as evidence of a bulk homogeneous structure and chemical analysis may be used to establish purity and homogeneous composition.

Material performance comparisons

Where a manuscript is reporting inorganic materials for electrochemical or photocatalytic applications (e.g. batteries, supercapacitors, dye degradation, etc), we strongly encourage and may require authors to include material performance comparisons against state-of the-art literature in the field. Comparison data which showcases the novelty and impact of the study over existing literature is considered particularly relevant.

Transparent peer review

As part of our commitment to transparency and open science, Dalton Transactions is now offering authors the option of transparent peer review, where the editor’s decision letter, reviewers’ comments and authors’ response for all versions of the manuscript will be published alongside the article under an Open Access Creative Commons licence (CC-BY).

Reviewers will remain anonymous unless they choose to sign their report.

Find out more about our transparent peer review policy

Open access publishing options

Dalton Transactions is a hybrid (transformative) 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. Find out more about our Transformative Journals. which are Plan S compliant.

Gold open access

For authors who want to publish their article gold open access, Dalton Transactions charges an article processing charge (APC) of £2,750 (+ 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.

Read & Publish

If your institution has a Read & Publish agreement in place with the Royal Society of Chemistry, APCs for gold open access publishing in Dalton Transactions 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 for Read & Publish or other APC discounts.

Traditional subscription model

Authors can also publish in Dalton Transactions 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

All researchers working in inorganic and organometallic chemistry, including biological inorganic chemistry.

Subscription information

Dalton Transactions is part of RSC Gold and Core Chemistry subscription packages.

Online only 2025: ISSN 1477-9234 £4,687 / $8,415

*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