Chemistry of Materials Submission Guide: Editors, Fit & Bidirectional Routing

Submissions start from the journal-specific ACS author instructions and then route into the ACS upload workflow:

Chemistry of Materials author guidelines

Author checklist PDF: ACS author checklist PDF.

All article types route through the ACS Publishing Center. The author guidelines require CCDC deposition for new crystal structures before submission, a TOC graphic with each manuscript, and a safety statement for any unexpected, new, or significant hazards; the submitting author's ORCID is required at revision.

This is the most avoidable Chemistry of Materials technical requirement and it applies even to strong submissions:

Manuscripts reporting new crystal structures must deposit the CIF file at CCDC and obtain a deposition number BEFORE submission. The ACS guidelines require all CIFs, structure factor tables, and checkCIF reports to be submitted to the CCDC prior to manuscript submission.

The workflow:

1. Deposit the CIF at CCDC deposition portal

1. Run CheckCIF and address any A or B alerts

1. Capture the CCDC deposition number

1. Enter the number when the ACS submission system prompts for it

1. Only then submit through the ACS upload workflow

The ACS author guidelines list five manuscript types and give a length for only some of them:

• Article: a full-length study that should be original, significant, and complete, with a detailed experimental section; the guidelines give no page, word, or figure limit

• Review: usually invited by the Editor, limited to approximately 50 pages of double-spaced manuscript, including tables, figures, and references

• Comment: a technical contribution with new information or an alternative perspective on a prior publication in the journal

• Perspective: submitted only by invitation of the Editor-in-Chief, suggested to be shorter than 10 published journal pages, with a brief biographical sketch of under 75 words

• Methods/Protocols: no set length

Table of Contents graphic: no larger than 3.25 inches by 1.75 inches (approximately 8.25 cm by 4.45 cm). The submitting author's ORCID is required at revision, and all authors are strongly encouraged to register an ORCID iD.

Source: ACS Chemistry of Materials Author Guidelines.

ACS reports these median days for Chemistry of Materials (2025 data): 4.9 days from submission to a first editorial decision without peer review, 30.4 days to a first decision for manuscripts that received peer review, 84.2 days from submission to acceptance (including revision time), and 9 days from acceptance to ASAP publication. The structure-property integration bar in this guide is Manusights analysis of how the first editorial screen is applied.

Initial editorial screen

Per the ACS guidelines, on receipt every paper is reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief and one other Editor to determine whether it is appropriate for the journal in terms of subject matter, overall quality, and significance. Papers that do not meet the description of a significant advance in approach and/or fundamental understanding that is likely to be of broad interest to the materials chemistry community are returned to the author without further evaluation.

Early editorial returns

ACS reports a median of 4.9 days from submission to a first editorial decision without peer review. Early returns arrive for incremental synthesis without significant advance, property characterization without mechanism, applied-materials work with device-performance emphasis (route to AMI), or general-chemistry-with-materials-examples (route to JACS).

Second screen and external review

After assignment to a subject Editor, further screening is carried out, and generally, after both levels of screening, less than one-half of the papers received are sent to external reviewers for a detailed technical evaluation. ACS reports a median of 30.4 days from submission to a first decision for manuscripts that received peer review, and ACS journals use single-anonymized review. ACS publishes no reviewer count for individual manuscripts. The review tradition expects substantive engagement with synthesis, structure characterization, and property measurement.

First decision

Reviewers are asked to determine whether the paper constitutes a significant advancement in the state of understanding, or development, of the particular area of materials chemistry concerned. The guidelines say papers judged to be of high quality but of a more routine or incremental nature are generally referred elsewhere for publication.

Revision and final decision

Authors return revised manuscripts for further evaluation. ACS reports a median of 84.2 days from submission to acceptance for accepted manuscripts, including the time authors take to revise.

Source: ACS Journal Metrics and the ACS Chemistry of Materials author guidelines, accessed October 10, 2026.

The single most consequential decision before submission is which ACS materials or chemistry venue to target. Chemistry of Materials sits at the fundamental-materials intersection with bidirectional rerouting risk:

• JACS sits above it when the claim has broader chemistry significance.

• ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces sits below it when the work is mainly device-performance applied.

• ACS Nano sits on a different axis: length scale, not chemistry contribution.

The bidirectional routing rule: general-chemistry-with-materials-examples routes UP to JACS where chemistry contribution justifies broader audience; device-performance and applied-materials work routes DOWN to AMI where applied focus is the journal's center. ACS Nano comparisons are the wrong axis (defined by length scale, not chemistry contribution).

Chem Mater editors screen on three operational signals beyond the CCDC and technical gates:

1. Structure-property integration explicit. The cover letter and abstract must name both a structural contribution (synthesis, crystallography, electronic structure, bonding) AND a property contribution (electronic, optical, magnetic, catalytic, mechanical) AND the integration between them. Single-property work routes to specialty venues; structure-only work routes to crystallography venues.

1. Materials-specific, not general chemistry. The contribution must be materials-chemistry-specific. General chemistry with materials-examples routes UP to JACS at the ACS-internal screen.

1. Fundamental, not device-applied. The contribution must be at the fundamental structure-property level. Device-performance work with applied-materials framing routes DOWN to ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

Recent issues span solid-state inorganic materials, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and covalent-organic frameworks (COFs), perovskite materials, two-dimensional materials, magnetic materials, photonic materials, energy-storage materials, catalytic materials with structure-property integration, biomaterials with chemistry focus, and emerging materials-chemistry topics including machine-learning-assisted materials design.

For specific recent papers, see Chemistry of Materials on ACS Publications.

This guide tells you what Chemistry of Materials editors look for before reviewer assignment, and Manusights checks whether your paper passes the structure-property, TOC-graphic, CCDC, Supporting Information, mechanism-evidence, cover-letter, and ACS-routing tests that official ACS guidance cannot evaluate from a generic checklist. Paid Manusights reviews are covered by a 60-day money-back guarantee, and we never train on submitted manuscripts.

Across materials-chemistry manuscripts targeting Chemistry of Materials, three specific rejection patterns recur because Chem Mater is neither a general chemistry journal nor an applied device-performance journal. (Per ACS guidance, the journal wants a significant materials-chemistry advance, not incremental work on well-known compound families, and manuscripts with new crystal structures must clear the CCDC and CheckCIF package before submission.) These patterns are testable in the title, abstract, cover letter, TOC graphic, figures, Experimental Section, Supporting Information, references, and ACS sibling-journal routing before upload.

New composition or synthesis series without a significant materials-chemistry advance

Across Chemistry of Materials-targeted manuscripts, the most common first-read failure is a paper that reports a new compound, framework, polymer, film, catalyst, perovskite, MOF, COF, or nanostructured material but never proves why the new entry changes materials chemistry.

The title and abstract often sound plausible because they name synthesis, characterization, and a measured property, but the cover letter does not identify the significant advance over prior work.

The figures show XRD, SEM, TEM, FTIR, XPS, UV-vis, electrochemistry, or magnetic data, yet the argument remains "we made another member of this family." Chemistry of Materials is a poor target when the manuscript's novelty is only composition expansion, dopant substitution, morphology tuning, or an optimized processing condition.

The failing components are usually the cover letter, introduction comparison paragraph, structure table, property benchmark figure, and references. Editors and reviewers ask whether the manuscript teaches a new structure-property principle, reveals a mechanism, opens a property regime, or changes how the material class should be designed.

If not, the work often routes better to Inorganic Chemistry, Journal of Materials Chemistry C, Materials Advances, Dalton Transactions, CrystEngComm, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, or a specialty solid-state venue. The fix is to make the advance visible before the results section: name the structural feature, mechanistic insight, design principle, or property regime that was not available from the closest prior materials.

Check whether your Chemistry of Materials advance is specific enough →

Property table or device result without mechanism connecting structure to performance

In our pre-submission review work, the second recurring pattern is a manuscript with a strong measurement package but a weak materials-chemistry explanation. The paper reports conductivity, band gap, catalytic rate, magnetization, mechanical strength, adsorption capacity, battery cycling, sensor response, photoluminescence, or device efficiency, but the abstract and figure sequence do not explain how synthesis changed structure and how structure created the property.

The manuscript components that usually fail are the mechanism paragraph, control experiments, in-situ or operando evidence, DFT or bonding analysis, comparative benchmark table, and Supporting Information. Chemistry of Materials can publish device-adjacent work, but the device cannot be the protagonist. A solar-cell, battery, sensor, catalyst, membrane, or photodetector manuscript belongs at Chem Mater only when the primary claim is a fundamental structure-property relationship.

If the best sentence in the cover letter is "the device achieved X performance," ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, ACS Applied Energy Materials, ACS Energy Letters, Advanced Functional Materials, Journal of Power Sources, or a specialist catalysis or sensor journal may be cleaner.

The fix is to reorganize the manuscript so Figure 1 establishes the structural or chemical design move, Figures 2 and 3 prove the structure, and later figures show property or device behavior as consequence rather than headline.

Check whether your structure-property mechanism is ready for Chemistry of Materials →

Wrong ACS routing between Chemistry of Materials, JACS, ACS AMI, and ACS Nano

For Chemistry of Materials submissions, the third pattern is wrong-journal routing inside the ACS materials and chemistry portfolio. Chem Mater is defined by fundamental materials chemistry. JACS is the better target when the chemistry discovery speaks across subfields and the material is one example of a broader chemical principle.

ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces is the better target when application validation, device performance, interface behavior, coating performance, or biomedical function is the main result. ACS Nano is not the default peer for Chem Mater simply because the material is nanoscale; it is a length-scale and nanoscience venue, not the fundamental-versus-applied routing axis.

The mismatch appears in the cover letter, TOC graphic, first paragraph of the abstract, figure order, and reference set. Manuscripts that open with device metrics often need ACS AMI or ACS Applied Energy Materials. Manuscripts that open with general molecular discovery may need JACS, Angewandte Chemie, Chemical Science, or Nature Chemistry.

Manuscripts whose only nanoscale signal is particle size may still be Chem Mater if the structure-property argument is fundamental. The fix is to write one first cover-letter sentence that threads both needles: the contribution is materials-specific enough not to be JACS, and fundamental enough not to be ACS AMI.

Check whether your ACS routing fits Chemistry of Materials →

Check whether your Chemistry of Materials manuscript is submission-ready →

• Chemistry of Materials overview

• Is Chemistry of Materials a good journal?

• JACS Submission Guide

• ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces Submission Guide

• ACS Nano Submission Guide

We reviewed the Chemistry of Materials page on ACS Publications, the ACS Author Guidelines, the ACS submission workflow, and the ACS journal metrics. The bidirectional routing pattern and the structure-property integration bar above are Manusights analysis built on the scope ACS publishes: forefront, fundamental research at the interface of chemistry, chemical engineering, and materials science.

Evidence boundary: official ACS pages explain submission mechanics, article types, CCDC deposition, and author artifacts, but they do not spell out the failure patterns that make a materials manuscript read as too applied for Chemistry of Materials or too general for the journal.

In our pre-submission review work we see a failure pattern in the first cover-letter sentence: the draft must be materials-specific enough not to route up to JACS and fundamental enough not to route down to ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. Editors specifically screen for that structure-property routing signal, and editors routinely return manuscripts whose device result or general chemistry claim is stronger than the materials-chemistry mechanism.

Official guidance leaves that routing decision to authors, so this page focuses on the abstract, cover letter, figures, Supporting Information, mechanism evidence, and ACS sibling-journal redirects that determine editorial fit before upload.

Last verified: October 10, 2026 against Chemistry of Materials editorial pages and current ACS metrics.