Chemical Engineering Journal Submission Guide: Requirements, Formatting and What Editors Want

Chemical Engineering Journal is an Elsevier journal covering applied chemical engineering and applied chemistry. The 2024 JIF is 13.2 (JCR 2024), Q1 in Chemical Engineering, ranked 3rd out of 83 journals in its primary category. That positions it well above generalist engineering journals and firmly in the first tier of chemical engineering-specific publications.

This guide covers what editors and reviewers actually want to see.

What the journal publishes

CEJ covers:

• Reaction engineering: Kinetics, reactor design, catalysis (heterogeneous and homogeneous), photocatalysis
• Separation and purification: Membrane processes, adsorption, extraction, crystallization
• Materials: Functional materials for engineering applications, composites, nanostructured materials
• Environmental engineering: Wastewater treatment, air pollution control, CO2 capture, remediation
• Process intensification: Microreactors, hybrid processes, heat and mass transfer enhancement
• Bioengineering: Bioprocesses, bioreactors, enzyme engineering where applied chemistry connects

What it doesn't publish: purely theoretical materials science without an engineering application angle, clinical or medical research, basic inorganic chemistry without process relevance.

Manuscript types

Most authors should submit Research Articles. Short Communications are for genuinely urgent findings where speed to publication matters and the story can be told concisely. Review articles at CEJ are often invited; if you want to submit an unsolicited review, email the editors first.

Submission requirements

Manuscript format:

• Double-spaced text, 12-point font
• Line numbers throughout (required for review)
• Figures and tables can be embedded in the text or supplied separately
• References in numbered format (Elsevier's standard Vancouver style for citations in text)

Abstract: Structured or unstructured, maximum 250 words. CEJ doesn't mandate structured abstracts, but a clear four-part flow (background/problem, approach, key results, significance) works better than a narrative abstract.

Highlights: 3-5 bullet points, each under 85 characters. These appear in the journal's table of contents and are indexed separately. Write them last, after you know exactly what your paper proved.

Keywords: 6-10 keywords. Include the main process type, the material or system studied, and the application area. Avoid broad terms like "chemical engineering" or "nanoparticles" that don't differentiate your paper.

Graphical abstract: Required for all submissions. One image (preferably 200x200 mm at 300 dpi) summarizing the visual story of the paper. This gets indexed in databases and appears in search results.

Data availability statement: Mandatory as of 2023. You need to specify where data is deposited (Mendeley Data, Zenodo, or similar) or explain why public deposition isn't feasible.

Ethics statement: Required if human subjects or animals are involved. Clinical data requires IRB or equivalent documentation.

Cover letter

The cover letter matters more at CEJ than at lower-impact journals. Editors use it to assess novelty and significance before reading the paper. Your cover letter should:

1. State the scientific problem and why it matters to chemical engineering practice
2. Summarize what you did and what you found (not what you set out to do)
3. Explain explicitly why this result is new -- not "this has not been studied before" but "the closest related work is X, and we show Y, which is different because Z"
4. Confirm no competing submissions and complete data availability

Skip generic statements about how the paper "fits the scope of CEJ." That's obvious. Use the space to make the case for novelty.

What editors screen for at the desk

CEJ's desk rejection rate is estimated at 30-40%. Common triggers:

Incremental optimization without mechanistic insight. A study showing that your catalyst achieves 5% higher yield under slightly different conditions, without explaining why, won't meet the CEJ bar. The journal expects engineering-relevant insights, not parameter sweeps.

Missing application relevance. Pure materials synthesis papers need to connect to a practical engineering application. If you've made a new adsorbent, show adsorption performance under realistic conditions, not just BET surface area and XRD patterns.

Weak comparison to state of the art. CEJ reviewers check your results against the recent literature. Papers that don't compare against the best published performance in the relevant area get flagged immediately. Your discussion needs to address why your results are better than or different from what's already published.

Insufficient characterization. For materials-based papers, editors want comprehensive characterization before they see results. Skipping standard characterization (surface area, particle size, crystal structure, functional group analysis where relevant) signals incomplete work.

What reviewers look for

CEJ reviewers are applied chemical engineers. They're evaluating:

1. Technical rigor: Are the experiments well-designed? Are there enough data points? Is the statistical treatment appropriate? Are error bars shown?

1. Reproducibility: Can someone repeat this work from your methods section? Missing synthesis details, unspecified equipment, or incomplete analytical conditions are red flags.

1. Engineering relevance: Does the paper address a real problem in chemical engineering practice? Basic science is fine if it connects to an engineering context.

1. Comparison and benchmarking: Does the paper situate results relative to published state of the art? This is non-negotiable at a Q1 journal.

1. Claims matched to data: CEJ reviewers will push back on overclaimed conclusions. If your data shows "promising results," don't write "demonstrates superior performance."

Review timeline

Most CEJ first decisions come in 4-8 weeks:

• Desk decision: 1-2 weeks
• Reviewer assignment: 1-2 weeks
• External review: 3-5 weeks
• First decision: 4-8 weeks total

Elsevier's Editorial Manager gives clear status updates. If your paper stays at "With Editor" for more than 3 weeks, a polite inquiry is appropriate.

Common revision requests

• Add comparison to recent (last 3 years) state-of-the-art results
• Provide additional characterization data
• Clarify or soften overstated conclusions
• Expand the discussion of limitations
• Add a figure showing the reaction/process mechanism
• Improve writing clarity in methods and results

Alternatives if CEJ desk-rejects

AIChE Journal (JIF 4.2): Narrower scope, more process-focused. Good for mass transfer, fluid dynamics, and reaction engineering without materials emphasis.

Chemical Engineering Science (JIF 4.8, Elsevier): Broader but less selective. Good for foundational chemical engineering work.

Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research (JIF 4.2, ACS): Large-volume journal, good for applied work not quite at CEJ level.

Journal of Hazardous Materials (JIF 13.6, Elsevier): If your work is environmental with a CEJ overlap, this is a strong alternative.

For the full journal overview, see the Chemical Engineering Journal journal page. Use our pre-submission manuscript review if you're preparing a submission to CEJ or a comparable Q1 engineering journal. Compare submission requirements across journals at our review timelines database.

Impact factor source: Clarivate Journal Citation Reports, JCR 2024.