General Chemistry
  Guidelines for Authors
Updated January 2024

General Chemistry is an international peer-reviewed and open-accessed electronic journal published in English. It publishes original research work in all fields of chemistry in the form of Highlights, Accounts, Reviews, Minireviews, Reports, Perspectives, Hot Papers, Essays, Profiles, Meeting Abstracts, Meeting Hots, Meeting Reports, and News. General Chemistry is a journal published in the form of Open Access four times every year. The goal of launching this journal is to provide a good platform for chemists, promote academic communication, and disseminate novel discoveries of chemistry more efficiently. General Chemistry is available online at www.genchemistry.org

Authors are solely responsible for the contents of their contribution. It is assumed that they have the necessary authority for publication. The contents of manuscripts submitted to General Chemistry must not have been submitted to any other journal in parallel or published previously. Any manuscript already available on personal/group web pages will be considered by the Editor as already published and will not be accepted. The authors must inform the Editor of manuscripts submitted to, soon to be submitted to, or in press at other journals that have a bearing on the manuscript being submitted. Authors should reveal all sources of funding for the work presented in the manuscript and should declare any conflict of interest.

All articles must be written in English. Authors less familiar with the English language should seek assistance from proficient colleagues in order to produce grammatically and semantically correct manuscripts. English spelling may be British or American, but consistency should be maintained throughout the manuscript.

All submitted manuscripts that are suitable for consideration will be sent to independent and international referees. Manuscripts which are clearly inappropriate for the journal can be rejected without consulting referees. Authors are encouraged to suggest suitable referees (full names and affiliations including e-mail address). However, the referees that are contacted will not be limited to those nominated by the authors. All accepted manuscripts are edited before publication to ensure scientific consistency, clarity of presentation, and uniformity of style.

2 Submission of Manuscripts

         General Chemistry offers web-based manuscript submission and peer-review. This service guarantees fast and safe submission of manuscripts and rapid assessment processes. Online submission is mandatory, and conventional submission of manuscripts via courier service or e-mail is no longer accepted. Please prepare your manuscript in keeping with the guidelines given below.

         For the submission of new/revised/accepted manuscripts, a single Word DOC file containing graphical abstract, text, tables and all graphics should be uploaded as “Main Document” on the File Upload screen. Tables and all graphics need to be embedded in the text of the DOC file where they belong (not collected at the end). MS Word templates, which can be used for preparation of new manuscripts, are available at www.genchemistry.org under “Guidelines for Authors”. Supporting Information is uploaded as a single, separate PDF file with all graphics embedded by choosing the file designation “Supporting Information”.

         For the submission of revised manuscripts, the files of "Response to Decision Letter" and "An Additional Copy Indicating Changes by Highlighting" should be uploaded for re-review.

3 Types of Manuscripts

Highlights are concise summaries and academic comments on very important recent achievements in chemistry by a third person from a viewpoint to instruct and highlight their significance including only about 8000 characters, essential formulas/figures and a maximum of 15 references in two formatted Journal pages.

Perspectives are personal reviews on the trends of the latest chemistry with wide interests including assessment of the current status of the field and discussions of key advances being made or those advances that are needed. Perspectives should not be more than four formatted Journal pages with essential figures/tables and a maximum of 15 references.

Accounts are summaries of significant recent research work and new developments from the research group of the principal author. Photographs and resumes of all authors will be included.

Reviews describe timely research topics of broad interest. Authors’ own research works may be included; moreover, unsolved problems and possible developments should be discussed in the section of “Conclusions and Outlook”.

Minireviews presents current topics in a concise review style and offer the flexibility to treat topics at a time when a Review would still be premature or inappropriate.  A Minireview should not be more than five formatted Journal pages.

Reports report new, significant, innovative and original findings that must be either of current general interest or of great significance to a more specialized readership.

Hot Papers publish very important articles with research breakthroughs.

Essays describe the philosophy or history of chemistry.

Book Reviews are personal reviews on new books in chemistry and should not be more than two formatted Journal page with a maximum of 15 references.

Meeting Reports are concise articles in very important recent conferences in chemistry.

News reports recent events in the international community of chemistry.

4 Preparation of Manuscripts

General Authors are encouraged to consult recent issues of General Chemistry for examples of format. Manuscripts should be prepared using the templates of General Chemistry (MS Word for Win/Mac), which are available on the journal homepage at www.genchemistry.org under “Download Templates”. Tthe manuscript file should be in Word DOC format with tables and all graphics embedded in the text where they belong (graphics prepared with ChemDraw or Excel need to be embedded into the Word file and linked to those programs). Supporting Information should be submitted as a separate PDF file. For clarity manuscripts should be subdivided into sections such as Introduction, Experimental, Results and Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgement and References.

Cover Letter: Authors should provide cover letters for the Editor. The cover letters contain several points as followed:

(1) The corresponding author’s name, postal and e-mail addresses, telephone and fax numbers.

(2) The title of the manuscript and a brief paragraph explaining significance of the work.

(3) Type of manuscript.

(4) A statement that the submitted manuscript is an original and unpublished work of authors and is not under simultaneous consideration for publication by any another journal.

(5) Any conflict of interest.

(6) The names, institutional affiliations, and postal and email addresses of three or more qualified reviewers.

Title should be as short as possible, clearly and accurately indicate the contents of the paper and be expressed in adequate scientific terms.

Author and Address: The full name(s) of the author(s) and full postal address(es) of the institutions where the research was done should appear under the title. Use the italic symbols a, b, c, etc., as superscripts to relate the authors to the corresponding address and an asterisk to indicate the author(s) to whom correspondence should be addressed. The General Chemistry is against any change of Author(s) and Address(es). In order to speed up the reviewing and publication process, authors are requested to provide their telephone number, fax number and e-mail address.

Abstract: Authors of Highlights, Accounts, Reviews, Minireviews,  Reports, Perspectives, Hot Papers, Essays, Interviews, and News are required to submit a short abstract. Abstracts should briefly state the reasons why the work was conducted, the significant results and conclusions.

Keywords: Please provide 3-5 keywords or phrases that will assist readers and indices in cross-indexing this study.

Formulae and Equations: Subscripts and especially superscripts should be written with care, and exponents should be arranged on a single line, e.g., e^-60/RT. Organic structural drawings should be submitted in a form suitable for direct photographic reproduction and should fill space economically. Do not use structures when a simple formula will suffice. Do not use multiple lines unnecessarily. Please type formulae and equations as normal text in the body of the text as far as possible.

Introduction should describe the significance and novelty of this work, and it should include relevant references.

Experimental section should be given in sufficient detail to enable others to repeat your work. In theoretical papers, some technical details such as computational methods should be confined to an appropriately named section.

Characterization: The physical and chemical parameters of new compounds should be given in the following order and style: m.p. 239—240 ^OC, +134.4 (c 0.50, CH₃OH),  1.3941; UV-Vis (EtOH) l_max: 238, 258 nm; ¹H NMR (CDCl₃, 300 MHz) d: 0.78 (t, J = 8 Hz, 3H), 1.07 (d, J = 8 Hz, 3H), 2.96 (s, 1H), 3.80—4.00 (m, 1H), 6.90—7.10 (m, 1H); IR (KBr) ν: 3420, 3380, 1675, 1683, 1610, 1588, 1500l cm^-1; MS (70 eV) m/z (%): 525 (M⁺, 46), 507 (30), 43 (100). Anal. calcd for C₁₂H₁₁N: C 85.70, H 6.55, N 8.27; found C 85.24, H 6.56, N 8.15 (HRMS calcd for C₁₇H₂₀O₂ 266.1458, found 266.1460). Note that the correct order of characterization data should be as follows: UV, NMR, IR, MS and elemental analysis. The data of new compounds should include HRMS or elemental analysis data and the melting point ranges of new solid compounds are necessary. In addition, the related references should be cited for known compounds.
Statistics about device properties are required for authors in material chemistry in the following:
(a) The number of devices examined and the range of results. This can be conveyed in bar graphs (histograms) to represent data for a statistically meaningful number of samples, or could be reported as a specific number of samples with an accompanying specified standard deviation.. The journal will not accept a single result that appears to be the best obtained. It is important to emphasize typical results and the degree of variation so that reviewers and future readers can assess reproducibility, and hence the validity, of the work.
(b) Sufficient experimental data to reproduce the results and enable valid comparisons with other work. Manuscripts that report devices must provide additional important characteristics beyond those above to enable comparison with prior work by the authors or others. For example, efficiency depends on, but is not limited to, the area and architecture of a photovoltaic device; such parameters should be included in the manuscript, either in the main body or supporting information. .
(c) Careful attention must be given to significant figures of experimental results. The final result cannot exceed the precision of the measurement with the smallest number of significant figures.

Manuscripts containing animal experiments must include a statement in the Experimental Section to state that permission was obtained from the relevant national or local authorities. The institutional committees that have approved the experiments must be identified and the accreditation number of the laboratory or of the investigator given where applicable. If no such rule or permission is in place in the country where the experiments were performed, then this must also be clearly stated. Manuscripts with experiments with human subjects or tissue samples from human subjects must contain a disclaimer in the Experimental Section to state that informed signed consent was obtained from either the patient or from next of kin.

Computer-aided image enhancement is often unavoidable. However, such manipulation cannot result in data that are less relevant or unrepresentative being shown and/or genuine and significant signals being lost. A clear relationship must remain between the original data and the electronic images that result from those data. If an image has been electronically modified, the form of the modification shall be given in the Figure caption. If computer-aided processing or modification of an image is a fundamental part of the experimental work, then the form this processing takes must be clearly described in the Experimental Section.

Results and Discussion should describe experimental results, explain its analysis and draw new conclusions.

Conclusions should summarize the results obtained, propose further improvements and predict possible applications.

Acknowledgments: Personal acknowledgments about the source(s) of financial support will be published.

References: The author is responsible for correct citations. In the text the numbers should be typed as superscripts (e.g., Smith³) and, if applicable, after punctuation. Journal titles should be abbreviated according to the Chemical Abstracts Service Source Index (CASSI), available on our homepage in the section “Author Guidelines”. Unpublished results and lectures should only be cited for exceptional reasons. If a paper has been published online but has not appeared in print yet, it is cited by listing the author names and then the abbreviated title of the journal and year followed by the DOI number. Literature references should be arranged and formatted as follows:

1  Journals: Lehnherr, D.; Lam, Y. H.; Nicastri, M. C.; Liu, J. C.; Newman, J. A.; Regalado, E. L.; DiRocco, D. A.; Rovis, T. Electrochemical Synthesis of Hindered Primary and Secondary Amines via Proton-Coupled Electron Transfer. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2023, 143, 468-478.

    Books (with editor): (b) Bobbitt, J. M.; Brückner, C.; Merbouh, N. In Organic Reactions, Ed.: Denmark, S. E., Wiley, New York, 2023, Vol. 74, p. 103.

3  Conferences: Darwich, C.; Klaptke, T. M. In New Trends in Research of Energetic Materials, Proceedings of the Seminar, 9th, Pardubice, Czech Republic, 2023, p. 551.

4  Patents: Huynh, M. H. V. US 2008200688, 2023 [Chem. Abstr. 2023, 150, 290617].

Graphical Abstract: Authors are required to provide a separate sheet containing a small diagram in color or other informative illustration (scheme or figure) showing the most important aspect of the paper. The words or sentences in the diagram must be concise.

Legends: Each figure and scheme should have a legend. In the final accepted manuscript, the legends should be listed together after the reference section of the text file and not be included with the drawings in the separate graphic files.

Tables must have a brief title and should only be subdivided by three horizontal lines (head rule, neck rule, foot rule). Footnotes in the tables are denoted as superscripts by a, b, etc., and presented at the bottom of the table. Tables should be constructed using the table function in Word; do not make tables using the tabulator. Tables should be prepared to fit the page format of the journal (width of the columns is 8.4 cm; width of the pages is 17.6 cm). When a table consists mainly of graphic elements, the entire table should be prepared with Word DOC file rather than a drawing program. At this time, graphic elements linked to ChemDraw programs should be inserted to the table.

Illustrations include figures and schemes, and they should be designed for reduction to a one-column (8.4 cm wide) or two-column format (17.6 cm wide) with a resolution of 300 dpi or higher. The General Chemistry does not use charts, which should be converted into figures or schemes.

Figures of chemical structures should be drawn using ChemDraw according to the ACS-1996 standard as follows: chain angle, 120°; bond spacing, 18% of length; fixed length, 0.508 cm (14.4 pt); bold width, 0.071 cm (2.0 pt); line width, 0.021 cm (0.6 pt); margin width, 0.056 cm (1.6 pt); hash spacing, 0.088 cm (2.5 pt).

Curve graphics should be drawn by Origin and their parameters are as follows: font, Times New Roman; letter size, 8.0 pt; curve line width, 0.5 pt; symbol, 3.0 pt; width of graphics, 5.5 cm; height of graphics, 4.5 cm.

Figures of crystal structures should present all atomic labeling using Arial, a size of 7.5 pt with parentheses such as N(2), O(3), etc. If the table of the parameters of anisotropic displacements is not printed, at least one figure should show the displacement ellipsoids. Figures showing the crystal packing should not be overcrowded and should not show sections larger than necessary. Usually, one unit cell and a few adjacent atoms are sufficient. Include and label the outlines of the unit cell. Avoid the depiction of several translation-equivalent atoms in the viewing direction. If lines intersect, it should be clear which one is in front of the other.

Schemes: Multiple-step reactions should be regarded as Schemes, and their reaction conditions should be given above the arrows rather than in the caption.

Scanned pictures or color pictures should be readable with a resolution of 600 dpi.

Symbols: Use only characters from the Symbol and Normal Text fonts, especially when inserting Greek letters and characters with umlauts, accents, tildes, etc.: α, à . Symbols of physical quantities, stereochemical information (cis, Z, R, etc.), locants (N-methyl, α-amino), symmetry designations (C_2v) should be italicized. Chemical formulae should be numbered with boldface Arabic numerals (e.g., 1). If physical quantities are listed as numerical values without their units, e.g., in tables or for labels of axes in figures, the units must be specified after a slash or with a power of -1, e.g., T/K, c/(mol.L^-1). Abbreviations such as Me, Et, n-Bu, i-Pr, s-Bu, t-Bu and Ph may be used in formulae. General substituents should be indicated by R¹, R² (not R₂, which means 2R) or R, R’. The spatial arrangement of the substituents should be indicated by hatched lines and a wedge. The Symbol font should be used for minus signs.

Abbreviations and acronyms should be used sparingly and consistently, following the system of abbreviations and symbols recommended by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. Where they first appear in the text, they should be defined (apart from the most common ones such as NMR, HPLC, and THF).

Nomenclature must be consistent, clear, and unambiguous, and in keeping with the rules established by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, the International Union of Biochemistry, and Chemical Abstracts Service.

5 Crystal Structural Analysis

Authors must check the correctness of the X-ray data and the reported structure by using the Checkcif utility at http://checkcif.iucr.org prior to submission. Submitting a copy of the output as Supporting Information for Review is mandatory. Authors with appropriate software may alternatively use IUCRVAL or the CHECK validation tool in PLATON. Prior to manuscript submission, the author(s) must deposit their data or update data already available, so that referees can retrieve the information electronically directly from the database. Crystallographic data should be deposited with either the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC) for organic and organometallic compounds or with the Fachinformationszentrum Karlsruhe (FIZ) for inorganic compounds, elements, metals, and minerals. If a crystal structure analysis is an essential part of the paper, crystallographic data should be given in an order as follows: monoclinic, space group P21/n with cell dimensions of a＝1.2342(2) nm, b＝1.862(2) nm, c＝1.0042(2) nm, b＝105.80(1)°, V＝2.2205 nm³, Z＝2, m＝15.854 cm^-1.

6 Supporting Information

Supporting Information may be included for deposition on the WWW. The author bears full responsibility for the content of the Supporting Information, and must keep a copy to make available to readers who do not have access to the WWW. Supporting Information may consist of original data that relate to the paper, e.g., additional or color illustrations, tables, supplemental experimental details, and characterization data, or may include information that is more convenient in electronic form, such as coordinates, spectral data, etc., or that cannot be printed: animations, audio recordings, and videos. This material should be included in the original submission for peer-review. All original spectra of newly synthesized compounds (such as ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, etc.) that are not contained in the main article should be submitted as Supporting Information for review and will be published online.

7 Revised Version

Authors will be informed of the Editor-in-Chief’s decision as soon as the corresponding referee reports have been received. If a revision is requested or in the case of acceptance or provisional acceptance, authors should respond to the referees’ comments and return the revised version without delay, or let the Editor know immediately if the response is likely to be delayed. Authors should answer the comments one by one in "Response to Decision Letter" and highlight the corrections made in the manuscript by hightlighting. The files of "Response to Decision Letter" and "An Additional Copy Indicating Changes by Highlighting" should be uploaded for re-review.
 

8 Proofs

Checking of the page proofs is solely the author’s responsibility. Please follow the instructions accompanying the proofs. All corrections, revisions, and additions must be made directly on the proofs. In particular, check all tables, equations and formulae. No article will normally be released for printing until the author’s proof has been received. The Editor, however, reserves the right to give the imprimatur for publication if the corrected proofs are not returned to the Editorial Office in the given time limit. Extensive changes, have to be avoided, but if necessary, must be subject to editorial review.

9 Publication

Accepted manuscripts will be published online ahead of time in the form of Early Edition with detailed page numbers. The invited manuscripts submitted to special issues will be published immediately as "Virtual Special Issues".

10 Copyright

Authors retain copyright with a Creative Commons license.