Royal Society of Chemistry offers 5 powerful ways to explore chemistry resources, professional opportunities, education, research, and career development for aspiring and experienced chemists.
ROYAL SOCIETY OF CHEMISTRY
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Get started in the chemistry profession with RSC student membership, where you will meet other chemists worldwide and access valuable resources. Royal Society of Chemistry, Get career advice, networking and academic assistance to help you do well in your studies and beyond. From inspiration, to mentorship, to professional development, we will be with you along the way.
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Write a journal article
From finding the right journal to maximizing the impact of your work, we’re with you every step of the way. Royal Society of Chemistry.
The publishing journals is a cover image.
However many times you have done it, it’s an amazing feeling to publish an article. It’s a moment to cherish that all the months, perhaps years, of hard work come to an end and now they’re finally ready to leave the nest and get recognised for what they have accomplished!
We do our utmost to help you get there in a seamless way. We will be there for you on your journey of being a published author, helping you to be an optimum version of yourself. Royal Society of Chemistry.
This is the information needed for experimental details and characterisation that can be used for journal articles. Royal Society of Chemistry.
Guidance on reporting the experimental technique and characterisation of compounds.
We are dedicated to the principles of “Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable” (FAIR) of data, where applicable, to support other researchers in reproducing and extending the research in a manuscript. The authors will be strongly encouraged to share the data that support their research in suitable repositories and make it as open source as feasible.
All submission to our journals will require that such data necessary to understand and verify the research contained in an article be furnished on submission. In order to fulfill this requirement, we recommend that the authors place their data in an appropriate data repository.
If this is not possible we ask authors to use the data as part of the article Supplementary Information. If necessary data are not made available, authors may be requested to provide these as part of the peer-review process, or in light of any post-publication concerns.
For further information about specific types of data, and where they should be shared, please refer to our data sharing guidance and policy. Royal Society of Chemistry.
Other journals may also have extra requirements for sharing and/or publishing supporting materials as well, so be sure to check the journal’s guidelines. Royal Society of Chemistry.
On this page
General guidance
Experimental data are presented
Processing Data after acquisition
Both third-party data and analysis are utilized.
How to cite data and software.
Human and animal welfare
Batteries
Biomolecules
Catalysts
The Chemical characterisation of compounds and materials.
Computational studies and modelling.
Electrophoretic gels and blots. Royal Society of Chemistry
Fluorescence sensors
Inorganic and organometallic compounds.
Macromolecular structure and sequence data are presented.The structure and sequence data of macromolecules are presented. Royal Society of Chemistry
Magnetic measurements
Nanomaterials
Organic compounds
Polymers and macromolecules
Synthetic procedures. Royal Society of Chemistry
System models Royal Society of Chemistry
X-Ray crystallography
General guidance
The experimental reporting requirements shall be applicable for all new compounds and also for known compounds which are prepared by a new or modified method.
The authors will be responsible for giving a description of the experiments of sufficient detail for other competent workers to reproduce the work. Royal Society of Chemistry
In the experimental part of the manuscript, the experimental procedures, compound characterization data, research materials required to replicate the experiment and references to related literature should be included.
Common methods and procedures should be summarized at the start of the experimental portion of the report; descriptions of these are unnecessary. Royal Society of Chemistry
Where a compound has been prepared using a published method, the author(s) should cite previously published characterization data. Royal Society of Chemistry
The sources of the starting materials used do not need to be specified unless the starting material is not generally available, or the source is essential to the outcome of the experiment. Only non-standard apparatus should be described and commercially available instruments can be referred to by their stock numbers.
Accuracies of primary measurements should be indicated. Error bars should be included for figures as appropriate, and experimental uncertainty should be analyzed for results. Should be used to report the proper number of significant figures throughout the manuscript.
Any unusual hazards associated with the chemicals, procedures or equipment should be clearly identified. Royal Society of Chemistry
For studies that involve the use of live animals or human subjects please refer to our Human and Animal Welfare policy. Royal Society of Chemistry
For specific types of data, please refer to the sections below for detailed information about how to present. Royal Society of Chemistry
Data to be presented from experiments.
The data should follow the description of the preparation of the compound to which it is related by means of the name of the compound itself. When comparing with literature values, these should be enclosed in parentheses – eg. mp 157 °C (from chloroform) (lit.,19 156 °C), or νmax/cm-1 2020 and 1592 (lit.,24 2015 and 1600).
The following order is suggested for the most common data for a new compound:
Yield
Melting point
Optical rotation
Refractive index
Elemental analysis
UV absorptions
IR absorptions
NMR spectrum
Mass spectrum
See details below about each of these: Royal Society of Chemistry
Guidance about how to present experimental data.
Software that can handle the analysis of data after it is acquired.
During the peer review process authors may be requested to submit the raw data to the editor/reviewer of the journal.
It is important to specify in the manuscript all image acquisition and processing tools (and their settings). The amount of post-acquisition processing of data should be kept to a minimum. Any type of alteration such as image processing, cropping and groupings should be clearly stated in the figure caption and the Supplementary Information (SI) – clearly describing the process of alteration. Data manipulation (for example, normalisation or handling of missing values) should be noted.
Any image processing changes should be done to the whole picture and all other pictures it is compared to. Processed images should still contain all of the original data (not lose any data) and there should be no data touched up.
Genuine and relevant signals in spectra should not be lost due to image enhancement.
Images of cells from various fields should not be compared but be provided as single images (at least as part of the data deposited or in SI). Royal Society of Chemistry.
This is a third party data and analysis.
If a third party is involved in the generation or analysis of some or all of the data shown in the research, this disclosure should be made in the Experimental section. All of the data in the published manuscript are the responsibility of the authors for their accuracy and validity (see our author guidelines for more information).
Data and software citation
Using datasets and code to communicate research effectively and robustly. It is strongly recommended that any datasets which are associated with an article be cited formally as a bibliographic reference by the Royal Society of Chemistry author.
Doing this will:
help readers to discover your data
Enable funders to readily connect with articles and data that they fund.
Credit to repositories and data producers.
The welfare of man and animals
Authors using live animal subjects should follow the guidelines implemented by the ‘Animal Research: Reporting In Vivo Experiments’ (ARRIVE) 2.0. If human subjects are involved in a study, authors are required to follow the general principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.
The author(s) are requested to state in the ‘methods/experimental’ section of the manuscript that the experiments have been carried out according to the appropriate guidelines. The statement should include the name of the institutional (local) ethics committee that has approved the study, and, if available, the date of approval or case number. Details of all guidelines followed should be provided. All studies with human subjects must include a statement of informed consent. If concerns are raised, the reviewers may be asked to give specific feedback on cases that concern them.
Authors are encouraged to submit completed ARRIVE 2.0 checklist, where appropriate, during the peer-review process, for example on the ESI or in the deposited item.
The journals’ editorial teams reserve the right to request additional information in relation to experiments on vertebrates or higher invertebrates as necessary for the evaluation of the manuscript e.g., in the context of appropriate animal welfare or studies that involve death as an experimental endpoint.
Batteries
The following guidelines should be observed by authors and referees of reports of electrochemical data and battery setup. The following information is obligatory and is the responsibility of the authors if presented in the main manuscript or Supplementary Information as appropriate.
The setup used for electrochemical testing should be clearly specified in the Experimental Information. For instance, full cells/half cells, reference electrode (if applicable), testing temperature etc.
Biomolecules
The authors must present evidence of identity and purity for biomolecules such as enzymes, proteins, DNA/RNA, oligosaccharides, oligonucleotides etc. described.
The identity of the biomolecule should be substantiated by employing at least one appropriate method, which may include one or more of the following:
Mass spectrometry
LC-MS
Sequencing data (for proteins and oligonucleotides)
NMR at high magnetic field of 1H or 13C.
X-Ray crystallography
The purity should be determined by one or more of the following:
HPLC
Gel electrophoresis
LC-MS
Capillary electrophoresis
Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy with high field.
In molecular biology, sequence verification should also be done for all mutants of nucleic acids, and for new protein or gene sequences, the entire sequence should be given. In the case of organic synthesis including of DNA or RNA oligonucleotides and their derivatives or mimics, HPLC and mass spectrometry at the very least, should be used to determine purity.
Catalysts
Authors should report a mass balance in all new catalysts screened (if applicable) using an internal standard in the analysis technique. Recycling efficiencies should be based on reaction rates measurements and not product yield as a function of cycle. The reaction rate for the catalysts is highly desirable to report as turnover frequency or mass-specific activity or for a heterogeneous catalyst as surface-specific activity.
Identification of compounds and materials.
The authors are responsible for giving complete convincing proof of homogeneity and identity of all the compounds made in their description. To prove the properties and constants reported were the properties and constants of a compound as claimed, evidence of purity and identity is needed.
The numerical analysis and modelling of the system.
Authors should include a sufficient amount of information so that others are able to repeat any calculations made. If calculations have been performed using software, they should be properly mentioned in the references if the software is generally available. The software should also be accompanied by references to the methods used in the software.
Equations, data, geometric parameters and/or coordinates, or numerical parameters as needed for reproducing the computational results (or suitable references if such information is available in the open literature) should be supplied. The authors of papers reporting results of electronic structure calculations should also provide absolute energies calculated directly from the output of the calculations. These can either be deposited in an appropriate repository and cited or supplied in Supplementary Information (SI).
The Electrophoretic gel and blots.
It is the author’s responsibility to provide the raw data for all electrophoretic gel and blot data that supports the conclusions drawn and provide sufficient evidence.
All western blots and other electrophoresis data must have supporting raw images. The complete image of the gel blot (not cropped or processed) should be provided upon submission. We recommend that authors submit their data to a suitable data repository. If this is not possible, we request the author to provide the data as a part of the Supplementary Information. All samples and controls used for a comparative analysis should be run on the same gel or blot.
Cropping or rearranging lanes in an image should be explained in the figure legend and lane boundaries should be marked clearly in the image. Changes should be made only to the extent necessary to clarify.
All the images should be properly labeled with the closest molecular mass markers and lanes labeled. All details must be visible – gels and blots should not be over or underexposed. All authors should have the ability to share raw data for all replicated experiments upon request.
Fluorescence sensors
The following factors should be considered for studies on fluorescence sensor systems: When testing, a titration should be performed over a complete concentration range of analyte from zero (no analyte present) to a stoichiometric excess.
If the analyte shows significant absorption at the excitation or emission frequencies corrections should be carried out for Inner Filter Effects (IFEs). (note: fluorescence probes, which rely upon the Inner Filter Effect (IFE) as the response mechanism, cannot be published in NJC)
When the sensing mechanism is based on association, a plateau should be observed for the high concentration of analytes on the intensity vs. concentration plot.
The experimental data should be supported with Calculated Limits of Detection (LoD) at similar concentration.
The intensity vs. concentration relationship should be fitted using suitable software. The Benesi-Hildebrand linearization method for the determination of the association constant must be applied with careful consideration of the limitations that are associated with its use (see Chemical Society Reviews Tutorial 10.1039/C0CS00062K for more details).
Plots of the Stern-Volmer relationship (I°/I vs. concentration; this should be the same for the reciprocal, I/I°) should have an intercept of 1. This is not acceptable if there is a lot of difference.
The Stern-Volmer relationship should be justified by reference to an appropriate quenching mechanism, e.g. dynamic quenching should show a linear relationship, while static quenching can present an upward curvature for relatively high association constants (see Chemical Society Reviews Tutorial 10.1039/D1CS00422K for further discussion)
The performance of all sensor systems should be compared to the present state-of-the-art sensors for the same analyte and the differences in requirements (e.g. solvent system) should be clearly stated; an appropriate (and justified) set of interferences should also be performed and discussed.
Inorganic and organometallic compounds
The composition and structure of the new chemical substance/molecule or extended solid should be homogeneous. If the compound is molecular, authors should give evidence that unequivocally shows the homogeneity, purity and identification of the compound as described above.
This should generally contain elemental analyses, or reasons why this data is not included.