What is the impact factor of ACS Catalysis?

ACS Catalysis has an impact factor of 13.1 (2024). This places it among the top-tier journals in its field with ACS Catalysis published by the American Chemical Society is a premier journal for catalysis research and catalytic chemistry.

How long does ACS Catal. take to review?

ACS Catalysis typically takes ~100-130 days median. The full review process involves 5 main stages: manuscript preparation, submission via acs system, and peer review.

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ACS Catalysis Impact Factor 13.1: Publishing Guide

Q: What is the acceptance rate of ACS Catalysis?

ACS Catalysis has an acceptance rate of ~20-30%. A common reason for rejection is catalyst characterization without demonstrating catalytic activity or mechanism. Characterizing catalyst structure alone insufficient. Show catalytic performance: turnover, selectivity, mechanism. What reaction does this catalyst enable?

Q: Is ACS Catalysis peer reviewed?

Yes, ACS Catalysis is fully peer reviewed. All submissions undergo rigorous peer review by 2-3 catalysis experts assess catalyst novelty, characterization rigor, catalytic performance, mechanistic understanding, and scope. First decision 100-130 days..

Q: What should I know before submitting to ACS Catal.?

Selective oxidation and green catalysis highly competitive. Catalysts enabling selective transformations with high atom economy align with green chemistry priorities.

Catalysis: efficient reactions, selective transformation, and green chemistry

13.1

Impact Factor (2024)

~20-30%

Acceptance Rate

~100-130 days median

Time to First Decision

What ACS Catal. Publishes

ACS Catalysis published by the American Chemical Society is a premier journal for catalysis research and catalytic chemistry. With JIF 13.1 and Q1 ranking in Catalysis, ACSC emphasizes research on novel catalysts, catalytic mechanisms, and catalytic applications. The journal publishes research on heterogeneous catalysis, homogeneous catalysis, biocatalysis, and photocatalysis. Critically: ACSC values catalysts with demonstrated performance advantages. Catalyst characterization without activity or mechanistic data is less competitive. The journal seeks papers showing how catalysts enable efficient, selective reactions.

Heterogeneous catalysis: solid catalysts, surface chemistry, reaction mechanism
Homogeneous catalysis: organometallic catalysts, molecular mechanisms, selectivity
Biocatalysis: enzymes, enzyme engineering, biocatalytic reactions
Photocatalysis: light-driven reactions, photocatalytic materials, solar chemistry
Electrocatalysis: electrodes, electrocatalytic conversion, electrochemical processes
Environmental catalysis: pollutant removal, emission control, water treatment
Selective oxidation: selective transformations, atom economy, green catalysis
C-H activation and functionalization: direct transformations, catalytic selectivity

Editor Insight

“ACS Catalysis publishes catalysis advancing chemical transformation. We seek catalysts demonstrating superior performance with rigorous mechanistic understanding and broad substrate scope.”

What ACS Catal. Editors Look For

Novel catalyst or catalytic system showing superior activity or selectivity

Present catalyst enabling efficient, selective reaction. Higher turnover? Better selectivity? Novel feedstock conversion? Demonstrate exceptional catalytic performance with quantified metrics.

Complete catalyst characterization and structure-activity relationship

Thoroughly characterize catalyst: microscopy, spectroscopy, surface area, porosity. Show how structure relates to catalytic activity and selectivity.

Mechanistic understanding of catalytic process and reaction pathway

Explain catalytic mechanism. What surfaces or sites drive reaction? What rate-limiting steps control activity? Mechanistic insight crucial for catalysis papers.

Catalyst performance testing with multiple substrates demonstrating generality

Test catalyst scope with different substrates showing broad applicability. Demonstrating reactivity across substrate class proves useful catalyst, not isolated example.

Practical feasibility and scalability assessment

Address catalyst cost, synthesis scalability, and practical implementation. Show catalytic system feasible for real chemical processes.

Why Papers Get Rejected

These patterns appear repeatedly in manuscripts that don't make it past ACS Catal.'s editorial review:

Catalyst characterization without demonstrating catalytic activity or mechanism

Characterizing catalyst structure alone insufficient. Show catalytic performance: turnover, selectivity, mechanism. What reaction does this catalyst enable?

Testing single substrate without demonstrating catalyst scope or generality

Isolated example less compelling than demonstrating broad reactivity. Test multiple substrates proving catalyst utility.

Claims of high catalytic activity without proper mechanistic support

Activity claims require mechanistic explanation. Why is catalyst active? Understanding mechanism strengthens catalyst importance.

No comparison with existing catalysts or industry standards

Show catalyst outperforms existing approaches. How much more active? More selective? Why is catalytic advance important?

Ignoring catalyst deactivation and lifetime

Practical catalysts must survive extended use. Address catalyst stability, fouling, and lifetime under realistic conditions.

Does your manuscript avoid these patterns?

The quick diagnostic reads your full manuscript against ACS Catal.'s criteria and flags the specific issues most likely to cause rejection.

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Insider Tips from ACS Catal. Authors

Selective oxidation and green catalysis highly competitive

Catalysts enabling selective transformations with high atom economy align with green chemistry priorities.

C-H activation and direct functionalization increasingly valued

Catalysts enabling direct C-H transformations bypassing traditional synthetic steps receive strong interest.

Electrocatalysis for CO2 reduction and water splitting trending

Electrocatalysts enabling sustainable chemical transformations increasingly important for decarbonization.

Single-atom and highly dispersed catalysts gaining prominence

Catalysts with isolated active sites or high dispersion showing exceptional performance increasingly competitive.

Machine learning for catalyst design emerging field

Using computational methods or ML to design or predict catalyst performance increasingly valued.

The ACS Catal. Submission Process

Manuscript preparation

Prep

6,000-9,000 words with 6-8 figures. Include catalyst synthesis and characterization, catalytic testing with multiple substrates, mechanistic studies, structure-activity relationships, comparison with existing catalysts, stability/lifetime data.

Submission via ACS system

Day 0

Submit at https://pubs.acs.org/. Required: manuscript emphasizing catalyst novelty and activity, figures showing characterization and catalytic performance, cover letter highlighting advantages.

Editorial assessment

1-2 weeks

Editor assesses catalyst novelty and catalytic significance. Papers lacking activity data or mechanistic insight face rejection. Selective desk rejection ~40-50%.

Peer review

100-130 days

2-3 catalysis experts assess catalyst novelty, characterization rigor, catalytic performance, mechanistic understanding, and scope. First decision 100-130 days.

Revision and publication

Revision: 4-8 weeks

Revisions often request additional mechanistic studies, substrate scope, or stability data. Publication 2-4 weeks after acceptance.

ACS Catal. by the Numbers

2024 Impact Factor	12.3
5-Year Impact Factor	12.8
Acceptance rate	~20-30%
Desk rejection rate	~40-50%
Median first decision	~115 days
Open access option	$3,500 USD
Publisher	American Chemical Society
Founded	2011

Before you submit

ACS Catal. accepts a small fraction of submissions. Make your attempt count.

The pre-submission diagnostic runs a live literature search, scores your manuscript section by section, and gives you a prioritized fix list calibrated to ACS Catal.. ~30 minutes.

Run Free Readiness Scan See a sample report

Article Types

Research Article

6,000-9,000 words

Novel catalyst with full characterization and mechanistic studies

Perspective

4,000-5,000 words

Catalysis topic perspective (usually invited)

Landmark ACS Catal. Papers

Papers that defined fields and changed science:

Palladium catalysis and C-C coupling (1990s-2000s) - revolutionized organic synthesis
Selective oxidation catalysis (various) - efficient transformations
Electrocatalysis for CO2 reduction (2010s+) - sustainable chemistry
Single-atom catalyst design (2010s+) - atomic-level catalyst engineering

Preparing a ACS Catal. Submission?

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Primary Fields

Heterogeneous CatalysisHomogeneous CatalysisElectrocatalysisPhotocatalysisGreen CatalysisC-H Activation

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