Environmental Science & Technology Formatting Requirements: Complete Author Guide

ES&T uses a concise, unstructured abstract format.

• Word limit: 150-200 words for Research Articles, Reviews, Policy Analysis and Perspectives (Features use a shorter 3-5 sentence abstract; Viewpoints need none)

• Structure: Unstructured (single paragraph)

• Citations: Not allowed

• Abbreviations: Define any abbreviations or acronyms used in the abstract

• TOC graphic: Required with most article types (described separately below)

The abstract should describe the purpose, the methods or procedures, the significant new results and their implications, with major quantitative data where they can be stated briefly. ACS says not to include background material. ES&T abstracts should explicitly connect the findings to environmental relevance. Don't leave the "so what" for the reader to figure out.

Keywords: Research Articles, Policy Analysis, Reviews, Perspectives and Features must be accompanied by 5-8 keywords, published immediately before the text, following the abstract. ACS encourages authors to include significant keywords that do not appear in the title.

Count carefully: the abstract has to run between 150 and 200 words.

The TOC (Table of Contents) graphic is required for Research Articles, Features, Reviews, Perspectives and Policy Analysis manuscripts. Viewpoints, Spotlights, Letters to the Editor and Correspondence/Rebuttals do not need one.

Specifications:

ACS uses the graphic for display in the table of contents and the abstract, and says it should capture the reader's attention and give a quick visual impression of the essence of the manuscript without providing specific results. A good TOC graphic should be self-explanatory and visually convey the key finding or concept of the paper.

What works: A schematic showing the environmental process studied, key data (like a bar chart or trend line), or a conceptual diagram linking the lab work to the environmental context.

What doesn't work: A photograph of your lab equipment, a cropped figure panel from the paper, or text-heavy diagrams that are unreadable at thumbnail size.

The graphic must be entirely original, unpublished artwork created by one of the coauthors, and AI-generated images should not be used in it. It should not include a photograph, drawing, or caricature of any person, or trademarked items such as company logos.

A graphic sized for another journal's format may not fit. Create it at the actual size to be used, so that it fits within 3.25 x 1.75 inches.

ES&T follows ACS figure formatting standards with some environmental-science-specific conventions.

Figure specifications:

Table formatting: Each table needs a brief (one phrase or sentence) title that describes its contents and is understandable without the text. Put details in footnotes, not in the title. Keep tables simple and concise, and avoid merging or splitting cells.

ACS provides color reproduction of graphics at no additional cost to the author. Graphics intended to appear in black and white or grayscale should not be submitted in color, and ACS asks authors not to rely on color alone to convey information, so design figures that stay interpretable for readers with color vision deficiency.

Environmental data visualization conventions: ES&T papers frequently include maps, time-series data, and spatial distribution plots. For maps, include scale bars, north arrows, and clear boundary delineations. For concentration data, use consistent units throughout all figures. Reviewers will flag inconsistent unit usage across figures.

Error bars and uncertainty: Always include error bars or confidence intervals on quantitative plots. Describe in the caption what the error bars represent (standard deviation, standard error, 95% CI). ES&T reviewers are particularly attentive to statistical presentation.

ES&T references follow ACS conventions, with numbered citations.

In-text citations: Literature references in ES&T must be numbered in order of appearance, with the corresponding numbers placed in the text as superscripted numerals. For the initial submission, ACS says references can be provided in any style as long as they are complete, including titles.

Reference list format (numbered style). A worked ACS-style reference, with the journal name italicized and the year in bold:

(1) Smith, J. K.; Chen, L.; Okoro, A. B. Sorption of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances onto Activated Carbon. *Environ. Sci. Technol.* **2024**, 58, 1234-1245. DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.4c01234

Key formatting details:

• Author names: Last name, then initials (e.g., "Smith, J. K.").

• Semicolons between authors.

• Article title in plain text (not italicized, not in quotes for the numbered style).

• Journal names abbreviated and italicized.

• Year in bold.

• DOIs are recommended, and mandatory if the DOI is the only identifying information available (for example, for recently published articles).

• Use "et al." only when ten or more authors are listed, placing a semicolon after the 10th name.

ACS reference formatting is handled automatically if you use the achemso LaTeX package or the ACS EndNote/Zotero style files. Don't format references manually if you can avoid it; the ACS style has too many small details to get right by hand.

ES&T does not publish a reference limit for Research Articles. Research Articles typically cite 40 to 70 sources. Reviews regularly exceed 100.

Supporting Information (SI) is where ACS tells authors to put details that are not essential for understanding the paper. The SI is provided to reviewers during peer review and is available free of charge to readers of the published work.

What goes in the SI:

• Detailed experimental methods (sample collection, analytical procedures, QA/QC)

• Additional figures and tables that support but aren't essential to the main narrative

• Raw data or extended datasets

• Model descriptions and parameterizations

• Statistical analysis details

• Site descriptions and maps

SI requirements from ACS:

• Submit the SI at the same time as the manuscript, as separate file(s)

• Add a brief, nonsentence description of each file, including the file type extension, labeled Supporting Information and placed before the Acknowledgment and References

Common SI practice (ACS does not publish the points below as requirements):

• Compiled as a single PDF document

• Pages numbered sequentially (S1, S2, S3...)

• Figures labeled "Figure S1, S2, S3..."

• Tables labeled "Table S1, S2, S3..."

• Often has its own reference list (can reference the main text's references by number)

• Often includes a table of contents at the beginning of the SI document

SI review: ACS provides the SI to reviewers during peer review, so treat it as part of the evidence. Don't treat SI as a dumping ground for poor-quality content.

A practical tip: most ES&T Research Articles have SI documents that are 10 to 30 pages long. Some have SI documents longer than the main paper. This is normal and expected. Moving appropriate content to the SI is how you stay within the 7,000-word limit while still providing the methodological detail that environmental science demands.

For large datasets (monitoring data, field measurements), consider depositing in a public repository (EPA Environmental Dataset Gateway, Zenodo, Figshare) and citing the DOI in the paper rather than including everything in the SI.

These are the details that experienced ES&T authors know:

Cover letter rationale. ES&T asks every cover letter to give a rationale for publication in ES&T that makes the environmental relevance clear, because a substantial fraction of submissions is not sent out for review when an editor concludes that the manuscript does not meet the journal's standards for novelty, scientific merit, or environmental importance. Write it for a broad environmental science audience, not specialists in your subfield.

Section headings. ES&T lists Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results and Discussion, Acknowledgment and References. Do not add a separate Conclusion; concluding statements go under Results and Discussion. Do not include a separate Abbreviations list, and note that ES&T does not allow footnotes apart from an author information footnote on the title page and table footnotes.

Supporting Information description. If you include SI, add a brief, nonsentence description of each file, with the file type extension, labeled Supporting Information and placed before the Acknowledgment and References. For example: "Supporting Information: 1H NMR spectra for all compounds (PDF)."

Author Information section. A section entitled Author Information may be included, as needed, to give details such as authors who contributed equally. The corresponding author's name carries an asterisk, and an email address is provided for the corresponding author. Authors submitting manuscript revisions must provide their own validated ORCID iD through their ACS Publishing Center profile; ORCID iDs should not be typed into the manuscript.

Conflicts of interest. The corresponding author provides a conflict of interest statement during submission, on behalf of all authors. If the manuscript is accepted and no conflict has been declared, ACS publishes "The authors declare no competing financial interest."

Acknowledgments. Place after the main text and before the References, with the Supporting Information description before the Acknowledgment. Include only essential credits; sources of financial support must be acknowledged, and ACS also asks for all funding sources in the Funder Registry Tool in the submission system and in the manuscript.

Units and chemical nomenclature. Use SI units. Chemical compounds should be named following IUPAC nomenclature. Use standard chemical abbreviations (e.g., DOC for dissolved organic carbon, PM2.5 for particulate matter). Define all abbreviations at first use.

Environmental data reporting. When reporting concentrations, specify the matrix (water, soil, air), detection limits, and analytical method. ES&T reviewers are rigorous about environmental data quality and will push back on results reported without adequate QA/QC documentation.

For manuscripts targeting Environmental Science & Technology, four patterns generate the most consistent desk-rejection outcomes.

TOC/Abstract art missing or sized wrongly. ES&T requires a TOC graphic for Research Articles that fits within 3.25 inches by 1.75 inches (TIF at 300 dpi for color and 1200 dpi for black and white, or EPS). We see missing TOC graphics and graphics sized for another publisher's portrait format, both of which are avoidable problems.

Environmental exposure or fate data incomplete. ES&T reviewers expect papers on contaminants, pollutants, or environmental processes to include data on environmental concentrations, fate and transport, or exposure pathways, not only laboratory toxicity or degradation measurements. Papers that measure an effect in a controlled laboratory system without placing it in an environmentally relevant concentration context are flagged as lacking ecological interpretability.

Analytical methods not validated or LOD/LOQ not reported. ES&T applies strict analytical chemistry standards. Papers reporting trace contaminant measurements without reporting limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ), method validation (spike recovery, matrix effects), and quality control sample data are returned before peer review. The expectation applies to all studies measuring environmental concentrations.

Scope is material synthesis or device fabrication with no environmental application. ES&T is strictly an environmental science and engineering journal. Papers on photocatalyst synthesis, membrane fabrication, or adsorbent development that do not demonstrate performance in environmentally relevant matrices (natural water, soil, wastewater) and do not address environmental fate of the material itself are rejected for scope.

Across these four patterns, the common thread in our review work is that the analytical methods and the figures are usually technically competent, but the environmental framing is missing. The data exists, the statistics are run, and the experimental section is complete, yet the manuscript never connects concentrations, fate, and exposure to a decision an environmental scientist or regulator could act on. That framing gap, not the chemistry, is what an ES&T editor reads for first.

A Environmental Science & Technology submission readiness check evaluates manuscript scope, analytical reporting standards, and environmental relevance against these desk-rejection patterns.