chemical education today

Chemical Science

Advancing global chemical education through interactive teaching tools.

* Corresponding authors

a Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA E-mail: [email protected]

This perspective highlights our recent efforts to develop interactive resources in chemical education for worldwide usage. First, we highlight online tutorials that connect organic chemistry to medicine and popular culture, along with game-like resources for active learning. Next, we describe efforts to aid students in learning to visualize chemical structures in three dimensions. Finally, we present recent approaches toward engaging children and the general population through organic chemistry coloring and activity books. Collectively, these tools have benefited hundreds of thousands of users worldwide. We hope this perspective promotes a spirit of innovation in chemical education and spurs the development of additional free, interactive, and widely accessible chemical education resources.

• This article is part of the themed collection: 2022 Chemical Science Perspective & Review Collection

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F. M. Ippoliti, J. V. Chari and N. K. Garg, Chem. Sci. , 2022,  13 , 5790 DOI: 10.1039/D2SC01881K

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence . You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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Chemistry Education Research and Practice

The free to access journal for teachers, researchers and other practitioners in chemistry education

You can find details about how to access information remotely in this step-by-step guide . The guide will also help if for any reason you have difficulty accessing the content you want.

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Impact factor: 3.0*

Time to first decision (all decisions): 25.0 days**

Time to first decision (peer reviewed only): 40.0 days***

Editor: Scott Lewis

Chair: David F Treagust

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Chemistry Education Research and Practice (CERP) is the journal for teachers, researchers and other practitioners at all levels of chemistry education. It is published free of charge electronically four times a year, thanks to sponsorship by the Royal Society of Chemistry's Education Division. Coverage includes the following:

• Research, and reviews of research, in chemistry education
• Evaluations of effective innovative practice in the teaching of chemistry
• In-depth analyses of issues of direct relevance to chemistry education

The objectives of the journal:

• To provide researchers with the means to publish their work in full in a journal exclusively dedicated to chemistry education
• To offer teachers of chemistry at all levels a place where they can share effective ideas and methods for the teaching and learning of chemistry
• To bridge the gap between the two groups so that researchers will have their results seen by those who could benefit from using them, and practitioners will gain from encountering the ideas and results of those who have made a particular study of the learning process

Guidance on the nature of acceptable contributions can be found in Recognising quality in reports of chemistry education research and practice .

Meet the team

Find out who is on the editorial and advisory boards for the  Chemistry Education Research and Practice (CERP) journal.

David F Treagust ,  Curtin University of Technology, Australia

Scott  Lewis ,  University of South Florida, USA

Deputy editor

Nicole Graulich , Justus-Liebig Universität Gießen, Germany

Associate editors

Jack Barbera , Portland State University, USA

Mageswary Karpudewan , Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM)

James Nyachwaya , North Dakota State University, USA

Editorial board members

Mei-Hung Chiu , National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan

Resa Kelly , San Jose State University, USA

Gwen Lawrie , University of Queensland, Australia

David Read , University of Southampton, UK

Bill Byers , University of Ulster, UK

Melanie Cooper , Michigan State University, USA

Onno de Jong, University of Utrecht, Netherlands Iztok Devetak , University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

Odilla Finlayson , Dublin City University, Ireland

Loretta Jones , University of Northern Colorado, USA

Orla Catherine Kelly , Church of Ireland College of Education, Ireland

Scott Lewis, Editor, University of South Florida, USA

Iwona Maciejowska, Jagiellonian University, Poland Rachel Mamlok-Naaman , The Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

David McGarvey, Keele University, UK Mansoor Niaz , Universidad de Oriente, Venezuela MaryKay Orgill , University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA George Papageorgiou , Democritus University of Thrace, Greece Ilka Parchmann , University of Kiel, Germany Michael K. Seery , University of Edinburgh, UK

Keith Taber , University of Cambridge, UK Daniel Tan , Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Zoltán Toth , University of Debrecen, Hungary

Georgios Tsaparlis , (Founding Editor), University of Ioannina, Greece

Jan H van Driel , The University of Melbourne, Australia

Mihye Won , Monash University, Australia

Lisa Clatworthy , Managing Editor

Helen Saxton , Editorial Production Manager

Becky Webb , Senior Publishing Editor

Laura Cooper , Publishing Editor

Hannah Dunckley , Publishing Editor

Natalie Ford , Publishing Assistant

Journal specific guidelines

The intended emphasis is on the process of learning, not on the content. Contributions describing alternative ways of presenting chemical information to students (including the description of new demonstrations or laboratory experiments or computer simulations or animations) are unlikely to be considered for publication. All contributions should be written in clear and concise English. Technical language should be kept to the absolute minimum required by accuracy. Authors are urged to pay particular attention to the way references are cited both in the text and in the bibliography.

The journal has three objectives.

First  to provide researchers a means to publish high quality, fully peer reviewed, educational research reports in the special domain of chemistry education. The studies reported should have all features of scholarship in chemistry education, that is they must be:

• original and previously unpublished
• theory based
• supported by empirical data
• of generalisable character.

The last requirement means that the studies should have an interest for and an impact on the global practice of chemistry, and not be simply of a regional character. Contributions must include a review of the research literature relevant to the topic, and state clearly the way(s) the study contributes to our knowledge base. Last but not least, they should conclude with implications for other research and/or the practice of chemistry teaching.

Second   to offer practitioners (teachers of chemistry at all levels) a place where they can share effective ideas and methods for the teaching and learning of chemistry and issues related to these, including assessment.

The emphasis is on effectiveness, the demonstration that the approach described is successful, possibly more so than the alternatives. Contributions are particularly welcome if the subject matter can be applied widely and is concerned with encouraging active, independent or cooperative learning.

Of special interest are methods that increase student motivation for learning, and those that help them to become effective exploiters of their chemical knowledge and understanding. It is highly desirable that such contributions should be demonstrably based, wherever possible, on established educational theory and results.

Third  to help to bridge the gap between educational researchers and practitioners by providing a single platform where both groups can publish high-quality papers with the realistic hope that researchers will find their results seen by those who could benefit from using them.

Also, practitioners will gain from encountering the ideas and results of those who have made a particular study of the learning process in finding better ways to improve their teaching and the learning experience of their students.  

Articles should be submitted using ScholarOne , the Royal Society of Chemistry's article review and submission system. A printed copy of the manuscript will not be required. Your submission will be acknowledged as soon as possible. 

Exceptions to normal Royal Society of Chemistry policy

Submissions to Chemistry Education Research and Practice do not require a table of contents entry. Submissions to the journal should use Harvard referencing.

Citations in the text should therefore be made by use of the surname of the author(s) and the year of the publication, at the appropriate place. Note that with one or two authors the name(s) are given, while if the source has three or more authors, it is cited with the first named author as 'Author et al. '

When more than one source is cited in the text, they should be listed in chronological and then alphabetical order for example, '(Jones, 2001; Smith, 2001; Adams, 2006)'. The references themselves are given at the end of the final printed text, in alphabetical and, if the same author is cited more than once, chronological order. An example of a journal article reference as it would be presented is Taber K. S., (2015), Advancing chemistry education as a field, Chem. Educ. Res. Pract. , 16 (1), 6–8.

Article types

Chemistry Education Research and Practice  publishes:

Perspectives

Review articles.

Perspectives are short readable articles covering current areas of interest. They may take the form of personal accounts of research or a critical analysis of activity in a specialist area. By their nature, they will not be comprehensive reviews of a field of chemistry. Since the readership of Chemistry Education Research and Practice is wide-ranging, the article should be easily comprehensible to a non-specialist in the field, whilst at the same time providing an authoritative discussion of the area concerned.

We welcome submissions of Perspective articles that:

• Communicate new challenges or visions for teaching chemistry framed in current chemistry education research or theories with evidence to support claims.
• Propose frameworks (theoretical, conceptual, curricular), models, pedagogies or practices informed by personal expertise and supported by research outcomes (either the author’s own research or the wider body of education research).
• Argue theoretical stances accompanied by recommendations for how these can be applied in teaching practice or measured in student conceptualisation of knowledge, with examples.

For more information on Perspective articles please see our 2022 Editorial (DOI: 10.1039/D2RP90006H )

These are normally invited by the Editorial Board and editorial office, although suggestions from readers for topics and authors of reviews are welcome.

Reviews must be high-quality, authoritative, state-of-the-art accounts of the selected research field. They should be timely and add to the existing literature, rather than duplicate existing articles, and should be of general interest to the journal's wide readership.

All Reviews and Perspectives undergo rigorous peer review, in the same way as regular research papers.

Review articles published in Chemistry Education Research and Practice include narrative, integrative or systematic reviews and meta-analyses and should align with the goals and scope of the journal.

Thought experiments outlining a theoretical position or personal opinion without including a literature basis, pedagogical recommendations or evidence of implementation are not considered in the journal.

For more information on preparing a review-style article please see our 2021 Editorial (DOI: 10.1039/D1RP90006D )

Full papers contain original scientific work that has not been published previously.

Comments and Replies are a medium for the discussion and exchange of scientific opinions between authors and readers concerning material published in Chemistry Education Research and Practice. 

For publication, a Comment should present an alternative analysis of and/or new insight into the previously published material. Any Reply should further the discussion presented in the original article and the Comment. Comments and Replies that contain any form of personal attack are not suitable for publication. 

Comments that are acceptable for publication will be forwarded to the authors of the work being discussed, and these authors will be given the opportunity to submit a Reply. The Comment and Reply will both be subject to rigorous peer review in consultation with the journal’s Editorial Board where appropriate. The Comment and Reply will be published together.

Readership information

Chemical education researchers and teachers of chemistry in universities and schools

Subscription information

Chemistry Education Research and Practice is free to access thanks to sponsorship by the Royal Society of Chemistry's Education Division

Online only : ISSN 1756-1108

*2022 Journal Citation Reports (Clarivate Analytics, 2023)

**The median time from submission to first decision including manuscripts rejected without peer review from the previous calendar year

***The median time from submission to first decision for peer-reviewed manuscripts from the previous calendar year

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Author guidelines.

Last updated: December 29, 2023

Manuscript Submission Requirements Checklists

Scope of the journal, manuscript types, submit with fast format, document templates and format, acceptable software, file designations, and tex/latex, cover letter, manuscript text components, supporting information, research data policy, data requirements, language and editing services, preparing graphics, figure and illustration services, prior publication policy, editorial policies, providing potential reviewer names, manuscript transfer, proofs via acs direct correct, publication date and patent dates, asap publication, post-publication policies, sharing your published article.

These checklists aid in confirming that a submission is complete, which facilitates the peer-review and editorial process and increases the likelihood of a successful outcome. Incomplete or noncompliant submissions are returned to authors.

Content Expectations

• The content of the manuscript clearly demonstrates relevance to the teaching and learning of chemistry, and the audience is clearly defined.
• The various manuscript types have been reviewed and the appropriate type selected. The submitted manuscript is of appropriate length and includes all components pertaining to the selected manuscript type. Articles that are to be reviewed as Chemical Education Research should follow the Content Requirements for Chemical Education Research Manuscripts .
• A thorough literature review has been conducted in order to place the submission within the context of previously published work, especially with respect to the chemical education literature.

ACS Paragon Plus Submission Requirements

• All files are current and supportable  and have been properly designated by file type  within ACS Paragon Plus.
• Within ACS Paragon Plus, the Custom Questions have been answered, including those about conflict of interest, unpublished work, and previous submissions.
• The ACS Ethical Guidelines  have been read and are understood.
• The abstract field in ACS Paragon Plus has been filled in; no citations or display elements are included in the abstract text.
• The authors’ names in ACS Paragon Plus match those in the manuscript file.
• The required cover letter, addressed to the Editor-in-Chief, describes the relevance of the work and intended audience.

Manuscript File

• The author guidelines have been reviewed, and the document template  has been used. Using the document template helps ensure that necessary components are included; templates for display elements (figures and structures) are also available.
• All markup elements within files such as tracked changes, comments, and highlights have been removed and the track changes feature has been turned off.
• Language and usage are standard. (Authors may wish to improve the language in the manuscript by consulting an English editing service .)
• The manuscript includes an appropriate, descriptive title; names of authors, affiliations, and the corresponding author’s e-mail address; approx. 5-8 keywords; and an abstract.
• A graphical abstract providing a “quick visual representation” of the paper has been provided (if desired) and is original work differentiated from other figures.
• Appropriate headings and subheadings have been included to indicate the overall structure and progression of ideas of the manuscript.
• Citations and references are complete, including article titles and use of DOIs. Previously published material has been cited and has not been excessively used.
• Unpublished work that has been cited has been uploaded for editorial review.

Display Elements

• Display elements appear after their mention in the text and are comprehensible without regard to the text.
• Display elements are numbered sequentially, are correctly designated (e.g., figure, table, equation, scheme, box) in the text, and are appropriately captioned or titled.
• Specifications for display elements have been reviewed and followed.
• Tables include appropriate titles, column headings, and notes; use table footnotes rather than annotating cell entries or table titles to convey details. Tables should be constructed using the table tool or function.
• Permission has been obtained for display elements that have been reproduced or adapted from other sources. Appropriate credit lines have been incorporated into captions, and documentation pertaining to permissions has been uploaded.
• Supporting Information for Publication has been provided separately from the main text and is discussed in the main text, and the contents of each file have been listed and file format(s) designated under an “Associated Content” section in the manuscript (see the document template ). Supporting Information is required for Laboratory Experiment, Activity, and Demonstration manuscripts; provide these materials in an editable format (e.g., a Word file) so that those adopting the lab or activity can adapt them. Supporting Information is optional for the other manuscript types. If the track changes feature was used, ensure that all changes are accepted and comments resolved, and that the track changes feature is off.
• No parts of the main manuscript are duplicated in the Supporting Information.
• The Supporting Information is original material produced by the authors for the purposes of J CE and has not been previously published elsewhere.

Permissions and Copyright

• It is understood that the American Chemical Society has strict policies regarding the use of material from other sources and that “fair use” is not considered to be a sufficient criterion. Material from Wikipedia, Flickr, or similar websites containing material with non-commercial Creative Commons licenses is not acceptable.
• Permissions have been obtained from copyright holders (including those that provide freely available content) to reproduce material not originated by the authors. Such material includes photographs, illustrations, screenshots, images of instrumentation, and materials produced by students. Documentation has been uploaded in ACS Paragon Plus.
• Model releases have been signed by people who are identifiable in photographs (including authors). Releases have been uploaded in ACS Paragon Plus.
• Trademarked product names (whether in images or in the text) have been replaced by descriptive generic names where possible.
• Logos, brand names, trademarks, and company images in screenshots, photographs, and spectra have been obscured by blurring, cropping, or masking.
• Necessary credit lines are included in figure captions and table or box notes.
• Informed consent (and institutional review board [IRB] approval, if applicable) has been obtained for studies involving human subjects , and the manuscript indicates that such consent and approval has been obtained. If student work is used, documentation indicating that students have granted their consent has been provided.

The Journal of Chemical Education   (JCE) is co-published by the ACS Division of Chemical Education and the American Chemical Society Publications division. Launched in 1924, JCE is the world’s premier chemical education journal. JCE is published online and in print and has electronic archival content available from 1924 (Vol. 1) to the present.

The Journal of Chemical Education publishes peer-reviewed articles and related information as a resource to those in the field of chemical education and to those institutions that serve them. The journal typically addresses chemical content, laboratory experiments, instructional methods, and pedagogies. JCE serves as a means of communication among people across the world who are interested in the teaching and learning of chemistry. The global audience includes instructors of chemistry from middle school through graduate school, professional staff who support these teaching activities, as well as some scientists in commerce, industry, and government.

The criteria for a publishable manuscript include these areas of evaluation: scholarship, novelty, pedagogy, utility, and presentation. To be considered for publication by the Journal of Chemical Education , a manuscript must:

• Demonstrate scientific and scholarly rigor, supported by up-to-date citations to relevant literature and guided by a rationale for how the work fits into existing knowledge.
• Exhibit novelty through original scholarship or a creative or innovative practice.
• Have pedagogical content and educational relevance and insight that demonstrate a positive impact on teaching and learning while articulating audience level, use with students, and details for adopting and adapting the material, if applicable.
• Be useful to JCE readers by showing a connection to teaching and learning within the context of curricula or coursework.
• Present well-developed ideas in a comprehensive, organized discussion written in clear, concise English and making effective use of display elements (figures, schemes, tables, etc.).
• Adhere to the requirements and JCE protocols outlined in this document for each respective manuscript type and be submitted according to ACS publishing policies.
• Be submitted electronically using ACS Paragon Plus

JCE does not publish science research papers (or papers exclusively covering scientific content) unless they have a direct link to the teaching and learning of chemistry.

JCE publishes a wide variety of scholarly content categorized by manuscript type. All manuscripts must be designated as a particular type upon submission. Word counts associated with each manuscript type are a recommended word limit; these word counts exclude display elements, manuscript references, and Supporting Information, which is material published separately only online.

An Activity (3000 words) describes a hands-on activity at any level (from elementary through the university level) that can be done in the classroom or laboratory or in an informal setting. Activities are intended to introduce engaging and thought-provoking ideas or topics and to spark discussion. They need to have been done with students in a teaching or outreach setting and to have been evaluated and used several times in order to substantiate claims of success. They should not be proposals.

The ways in which the activity has been implemented in the context of a curriculum should be described. Details such as the total number of students who completed the activity, how long it took students to complete the activity, and whether they worked individually or in groups should be included, as should student results. The range of student results should be stated in addition to typical student results (an average value). Problems that instructors might encounter should be mentioned, and other information that would assist an instructor with implementing the activity should be provided. There should also be an assessment of how the activity improved the learning process of students. Any potential hazards and safety precautions must be addressed in a dedicated Hazards section in the manuscript.

Supporting Information to aid in the use of the activity by others is required—for example, notes for instructors (including sources for materials used) and actual student handouts. Materials used should be inexpensive, nonhazardous, and readily available.

Permissions and documentation are required in order to reproduce material created by students. (See Use of Student Work section.)

An Article (5000 words) describes a novel educational idea or approach, content for the classroom or laboratory, pedagogical advance, or educational research. Invited Articles may review a broad topic area that has wide applicability. Articles can target specific constituencies (i.e., precollege or introductory or advanced college students), address a specific content area, describe a new pedagogy or teaching method, or provide results on an innovation or chemical education research study.

Chemical Education Research

Articles specific to reporting the research pertaining to teaching and learning chemistry (chemical education research, CER) should be identified as such in the cover letter. CER manuscripts must be written and will be reviewed using the Specific Content Requirements for Chemical Education Research Manuscripts . Because of these requirements for CER manuscripts, the recommended word limit for this category of article is 7000.

Scholarly discussions of a topic of interest to the chemical education community that include the opinions of the author(s) are published using the manuscript type Commentary (2,000 words or as agreed to by the editorial office). The manuscript should provide sufficient information for readers to understand the topic or formulate their own opinions.

Communication

Communications (3000 words) generally update or extend topics addressed in manuscripts that have already been published. The ways in which the update is interesting, useful, and novel should be made clear. Manuscripts of this type are not intended as precursors to Articles. For Communications pertaining to laboratory experiments and activities, the focus should be on student experiences and student results with regard to the update. The details of the lab or activity must be included in the Supporting Information, as should materials that have been used with students.

Demonstration

A description, explanation, and procedure for an actual or virtual demonstration for teaching chemistry concepts, Demonstrations (3000 words) must reflect best practices related to safety (i.e., handling and storage of chemicals) and to hazards (i.e., fires, explosions, noxious fumes), as well as provide complete information that will enable others to use the demonstration in their settings. Hazards and safety precautions must be addressed in a dedicated Hazards section. Providing Supporting Information is required; including a video of the demonstration as Supporting Information is encouraged.

Editorials (1000 words) are opinion pieces by the Editor-in-Chief, an Associate Editor, or a guest writer invited by the Editor-in-Chief.

Laboratory Experiment

Laboratory Experiment (4000 words) manuscripts are intended to help readers visualize their students performing an experiment. Thus, labs are expected to have been done by students as part of an actual laboratory course or learning experience and to have been evaluated and used several times in order to substantiate claims of success. They should not be proposals. Labs should be novel and placed within the context of similar experiments that have been published. The pedagogical effectiveness of the reported experiment must be made clear.

Information about how the experiment was conducted with students should be provided, including the number of students who participated, whether the students worked individually or in groups, the number of times the experiment was run, and the time it took to complete the experiment. The focus should not be on procedures; rather, procedures should be summarized and details provided in the Supporting Information. Hazards and safety precautions must be addressed in a dedicated Hazards section in the manuscript.

There should also be an assessment of how the experiment improved the learning process of students and whether the pedagogical goals were achieved. Typical assessments include exam questions, pre- and postlab quizzes, assignments, and laboratory reports. If laboratory reports are used for assessment of achieving the pedagogical goals for an experiment, authors should state what specific information in the lab reports was used to assess achievement of each of the pedagogical goals, and how well students did on those aspects of the reports. Student surveys are not considered adequate tools. Limitations of the experiment (e.g., the use of expensive or uncommon equipment or professionally fabricated materials) should be noted as an indication of whether it can be used in certain settings.

Supporting Information must accompany the manuscript; it should contain material that a reader would find necessary to set up, adapt, and carry out the lab in a particular instructional environment. Materials such as student handouts, instructor notes, detailed procedures, safety information, CAS numbers, pre- and postlab assessments, and data (representative student data; “idealized” author data are optional) are particularly useful. Student handouts and instructor notes should be placed in separate files. It is appropriate to mention developmental work in instructor notes. An editable version of the Supporting Information (i.e., Word document) should be provided; this format is convenient for instructors who adapt or modify the lab.

For experiments involving recombinant DNA work, authors should consult their institutional biosafety committees (IBCs) for the biosafety level (i.e., BSL-1, BSL-2, BSL-3) of the work in the experiment; for student experiments it will probably be BSL-1, but authors should confirm this with the IBC and register the experiment with the committee. For experiments involving study subject animals, please see the ACS Ethical Guidelines .

Letter to the Editor

A manuscript type that allows readers to respond to a piece that has been published in JCE , Letter to the Editor (1000 words) should contribute to or elicit discussion on a subject without overstepping the bounds of professional courtesy. The author(s) of the publication referred to may be invited to submit a reply. Letter to the Editor will typically be peer-reviewed.

Technology Report

A Technology Report (3000 words) provides a scholarly description of a website, software application, media item, or other use of technology that enhances teaching and learning. The technology described should have been used with students and the results reported. The manuscript text describes the item and its intended use with students and provides the URL for Web-based resources, as appropriate. For all other applications described, the file related to the described technology should be included as Supporting Information for publication (e.g., Excel worksheet, Flash animation, specific application codes, scripts, Mathematica program file).

While this document will provide basic information on how to prepare and submit the manuscript as well as other critical information about publishing, we also encourage authors to visit the ACS Publishing Center for additional information on everything that is needed to prepare (and review) manuscripts for ACS journals and partner journals, such as

• Mastering the Art of Scientific Publication , which shares editor tips about a variety of topics including making your paper scientifically effective, preparing excellent graphics, and writing cover letters.
• Resources on how to prepare and submit a manuscript to ACS Paragon Plus, ACS Publications’ manuscript submission and peer review environment, including details on selecting the applicable Journal Publishing Agreement .
• Sharing your research with the public through the ACS Publications open access program.
• ACS Reviewer Lab , a free online course covering best practices for peer review and related ethical considerations. 
• ACS Author Lab , a free online course that empowers authors to prepare and submit strong manuscripts, avoiding errors that could lead to delays in the publication process.
• ACS Inclusivity Style Guide , a guide that helps researchers communicate in ways that recognize and respect diversity in all its forms.

Manuscript Preparation

All ACS journals and partner journals have simplified their formatting requirements in favor of a streamlined and standardized format for an initial manuscript submission. Read more about the requirements and the benefits these serves authors and reviewers here .

Manuscripts submitted for initial consideration must adhere to these standards:

• Submissions must be complete with clearly identified standard sections used to report original research, free of annotations or highlights, and include all numbered and labeled components.
• Figures, charts, tables, schemes, and equations should be embedded in the text at the point of relevance. Separate graphics can be supplied later at revision, if necessary.
• When required by a journal's structure or length limitations, manuscript templates should be used.
• References can be provided in any style, but they must be complete, including titles. For information about the required components of different reference types, please refer to the  ACS Style Quick Guide .
• Supporting Information must be submitted as a separate file(s).

The templates facilitate the peer review process by allowing authors to place artwork and tables close to the point where they are discussed within the text. Learn more about document templates here . 

General information on the preparation of manuscripts may also be found in the ACS Guide to Scholarly Communication .

See the list of Acceptable Software and appropriate File Designations to be sure your file types are compatible with ACS Paragon Plus. Information for manuscripts generated from TeX/LaTeX is also available.

A cover letter must accompany every manuscript submission. During the submission process, you may type it or paste it into the submission system, or you may attach it as a file.

A cover letter for the attention of the Editor-in-Chief describing the relevance of the submission and intended audience should be provided. Any previous manuscript identification numbers should be referenced, and any changes that have been made to the manuscript should be summarized in the cover letter.

The title should clearly and concisely reflect the emphasis and content of the manuscript and be accessible to a broad audience. The title should not contain esoteric terms, symbols, trademark names, institution names, abbreviations, or uncommon acronyms, and part or series numbers. Proscribed terms include “new”, “first”, and “green”. Indicate the audience and the setting if that is significant. A well- crafted title aids in successful information retrieval.

Author List

Include all those who made substantial contributions to the work and to the preparation of the manuscript. To facilitate indexing and retrieval and for unique identification of an author, use given (first) names, initials, and surnames (e.g., John R. Smith) or first initials, second names, and surnames (e.g., J. Robert Smith). Because all author names are automatically imported into the electronic Journal Publishing Agreement, all author names must be entered into ACS Paragon Plus. Do not use only initials with surnames (e.g., J. R. Smith), as this causes indexing and retrieval difficulties and interferes with unique identification of an author.

One author must be designated as the person to whom correspondence should be addressed, indicated by an asterisk after that author’s surname and inclusion of an e-mail address in the manuscript file. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all authors have approved the manuscript before submission and for all subsequent revisions.

Note that all authors listed should have made significant and substantial intellectual contributions to the work. Students should not be listed as coauthors unless their authorship meets the criteria outlined in the ACS Ethical Guidelines : see section B(11) for further details. Students may be recognized in the Acknowledgments section for their contributions.

Author Affiliation

For each author, include an institutional affiliation (department or unit and address) where the work was done. If the present affiliation of an author differs from the one at which the work was done, the new affiliation and address should be given in an author information note at the end of the manuscript file. Authors should ensure that the information in their ACS Paragon Plus account is up to date.

Institution Identification

Many funders and institutions require that institutional affiliations are identified for all authors listed in the work being submitted. ACS facilitates this requirement by collecting institution information during manuscript submission under Step 2: Authors and Affiliations in ACS Paragon Plus.

The abstract (approximately 250 words or fewer) should summarize the important points made in the manuscript. Include the abstract text in the manuscript file. No cited literature or display elements should appear in the abstract. A well-written abstract aids in successful information retrieval and is the first aspect of a submission that will be reviewed.

Keyword Terms

Provide significant keywords to aid the reader in literature retrieval. Please consider the use of words different from those in the title to expand the discoverability of the article. The keywords are published immediately before the text, following the abstract. Note that the keyword term “Chemical Education Research” is reserved for manuscripts that are intended for review using the specific criteria for CER described online .

Manuscript content should adhere to the criteria for the manuscript type selected. The Journal expects that manuscripts will be written in literate, grammatically correct, scientific English; the absence of these qualities inhibits and detracts from the effectiveness of the review and evaluation process and may lead to substantial delays. An informal tone and overuse of first-person pronouns, especially used as adjectives or possessives (e.g., “my”, “mine”, “our”, “ours”) and second-person pronouns (e.g., “you”, “your”) should be avoided.

Text should be presented in one column with numbered pages, and organized using headings and subheadings (without numbers, references, or acronyms in the headings). Abbreviations and acronyms should be used sparingly and should be defined at their first occurrence. Other than headings, present the text in black.

Whenever possible, use systematic nomenclature as recommended by IUPAC for chemical compounds and SI units, including in table column headings. (See the IUPAC “color books” , which include nomenclature and terminology guides.) Present analyzed data in an accurate, complete, yet concise manner. Express results with indications of their reliability. This includes appropriate use of significant figures, as well as statistical parameters (e.g., standard deviation, p-values indicating statistical significance, and measures of effect size). Terms, variables, and symbols should be defined within the text (rather than in a list of abbreviations). The Journal does not publish appendices. Such material should be removed from the main text of the manuscript and uploaded as separate Supporting Information. Authors must emphasize any unexpected, new, and/or significant hazards or risks associated with the reported work. This information should be in a separate Hazards section.

Hazards and Safety Precautions

Any manuscript type should contain a Hazards section if it describes the use of or exposure to hazardous chemicals or the use of equipment or procedures that present health or safety risks. A Hazards section is required in Demonstration and Laboratory Experiment manuscript types and in Communication manuscripts if they pertain to these manuscript types. Hazards and safety precautions relating to the handling or use of chemicals or the manipulation of materials or equipment must be completely and clearly described in this section.

Authors describing laboratory procedures, activities, and demonstrations are urged to consult the following resources to determine the appropriate and accepted standards for chemical laboratory safety practice:

• Prudent Practices in the Laboratory: Handling and Management of Chemical Hazards, Updated Version ,  from the National Research Council details standards for chemical laboratory safety practice.
• The ACS Center for Lab Safety hosts many resources including a laboratory safety resource specifically written for secondary schools and one written specifically for academic institutions from two-year colleges through graduate school.
• Safety Guidelines for Chemical Demonstrations from the ACS Division of Chemical Education outlines current best practices with a checklist of key issues for demonstrators.

The Journal does not publish manuscripts that involve the use of domestic (i.e., kitchen) microwave ovens because such use is potentially hazardous and poses safety concerns. The Journal also does not publish manuscripts in which authors describe the use of or exposure to chemicals known to be toxic, such as n -hexane, benzene, and others, unless the author presents a convincing case that such use or exposure does not pose a risk to health and safety.

In manuscripts that discuss procedures in which products are formed, the author must provide hazard and safety information about these compounds, inasmuch as in some cases they may be more hazardous than the reactants. If the hazards of the products of a reaction are not known, the author should state the hazards or safety concerns that might be assumed.

Display elements (figures, tables, equations, schemes, boxes, charts, structures, and reactions) should be self-explanatory, that is, understandable independent of the text. They must be created using the appropriate tool (e.g., the table tool, equation editor for equations, ChemDraw for chemical structures), numbered sequentially by type using arabic numerals, and cited in the text discussion. Each multipart figure, scheme, or equation must be assembled into a single object, and lines should not be placed around the entire display element. Display elements may be resized during production; for further details about the graphics specifications for display elements, see Appendix 2: Preparing Graphics . Any references that are cited in a caption need to be clarified with a credit line; that is, the caption must make clear whether the graphic has been adapted or reproduced from another source or is original but based on material from another source (see Copyright and Permissions for more information). Display elements in the Supporting Information should be numbered sequentially and discretely from those in the manuscript.

Specifications for preparing graphics are detailed below.

Acknowledgments

Include acknowledgments of grant and other financial support, technical assistance, colleagues’ advice, and so on. Do not use professional titles or honorifics in this section. Persons other than the authors who are acknowledged for having created artwork should also provide documentation granting consent to use their work.

Supporting Information for Publication

Supporting Information (SI) is material (e.g., figures, raw data, movies, media files, lengthy tables, sample computer files, student handouts, details for setting up and performing an Activity, Demonstration, or Laboratory Experiment) separate from the manuscript that will be published only online. Supporting Information, including separate materials for instructors and students, is required for Activities, Demonstrations, and Laboratory Experiments, and is optional for other manuscript types. The Supporting Information should be original material produced by the authors for publication in JCE and not previously published elsewhere or duplicated in the manuscript. Only those materials that are most relevant to the submission should be included, and the Supporting Information must be discussed in the text. If presentations are included, they are subject to the same policies concerning copyright and permissions as is other content.

For supplementary material that is not formally submitted as Supporting Information but is hosted on an author’s website, a description of the material and the URL for the website should be included in a separate paragraph following the list of SI files. In addition, the URL may be provided by citing this material in the manuscript and including a corresponding reference in the References section.

See the Supporting Information section for additional details.

A thorough literature review should be conducted, and the submission should be placed within the context of previously published work, including that which has appeared in JCE . Citations and references should follow the publication style found in The ACS Style Guide . Titles are required for all works cited; please provide complete publication information, including an issue number where applicable, and a DOI. Unpublished work that has been cited should be uploaded for editorial review. Reference call-out numbers in the text should be superscripted sequential Arabic numerals. Journal names are abbreviated according to the Chemical Abstracts Service Source Index (CASSI). Page ranges for articles as well as book citations should also be provided. Rather than providing URLs in the main text of the manuscript, add a citation for each discrete URL and include it sequentially in the References section with an “accessed” statement: “(accessed [Month] 20XX).” References to resources only in a language other than English will be largely inaccessible to JCE readers; including sufficient references to English- language resources will benefit readers and increase the value of the manuscript.

Textual material that might otherwise constitute a footnote or endnote must be incorporated into the References section and presented using complete sentences.

This information is provided to the reviewers during the peer-review process (for Review Only) and is available to readers of the published work (for Publication). Supporting Information must be submitted at the same time as the manuscript. See the list of Acceptable Software by File Designation and confirm that your Supporting Information is viewable .

If the manuscript is accompanied by any supporting information files for publication, these files will be made available to readers. A brief, nonsentence description of the actual contents of each file, including the file type extension, is required. This description should be labeled Supporting Information and should appear before the Acknowledgement and Reference sections.  Examples of sufficient and insufficient descriptions are as follows:

Examples of sufficient descriptions: “Supporting Information: 1 H NMR spectra for all compounds (PDF)” or “Additional experimental details, materials, and methods, including photographs of experimental setup (DOC)”.

Examples of insufficient descriptions: “Supporting Information: Figures S1-S3” or “Additional figures as mentioned in the text”.

When including supporting information for review only, include copies of references that are unpublished or in-press. These files are available only to editors and reviewers.

All ACS journals strongly encourage authors to make the research data underlying their articles publicly available at the time of publication.

Research data is defined as materials and information used in the experiments that enable the validation of the conclusions drawn in the article, including primary data produced by the authors for the study being reported, secondary data reused or analyzed by the authors for the study, and any other materials necessary to reproduce or replicate the results.

The ACS Research Data Policy provides additional information on Data Availability Statements, Data Citation, and Data Repositories.

A well-written paper helps share your results most clearly. ACS Publications’ English Editing Service is designed to help scientists communicate their research effectively. Our subject-matter expert editors will edit your manuscript for grammar, spelling, and other language errors so your ideas are presented at their best.

The quality of illustrations in ACS journals and partner journals depends on the quality of the original files provided by the authors. Figures are not modified or enhanced by journal production staff. All graphics must be prepared and submitted in digital format.

Graphics should be inserted into the main body whenever possible. Please see Appendix 2 for additional information.

Any graphic (figure chart, scheme, or equation) that has appeared in an earlier publication should include a credit line citing the original source. Authors are responsible for obtaining written permission to re-use this material.

The impact of your research is not limited to what you can express with words. Tables and figures such as graphs, photographs, illustrations, diagrams, and other visuals can play a significant role in effectively communicating your findings. Our Artwork Editing and Graphical Abstract services generate publication-ready figures and Table of Contents (TOC) graphics that conform to your chosen journal’s specifications. For figures, this includes changes to file type, resolution, color space, font, scale, line weights, and layout (to improve readability and professional appearance). For TOC graphics, our illustrators can work with a rough sketch or concept or help extract the key findings of your manuscript directly for use as a visual summary of your paper.

Preparing for Submission

Manuscripts, graphics, supporting information, and required forms, as well as manuscript revisions, must all be submitted in digital format through ACS Paragon Plus , which requires an ACS ID to log in. Registering for an ACS ID is fast, free, and does not require an ACS membership. Please refer to Appendix 1 for additional information on preparing your submission

JCE considers for publication only original work that has not been previously published and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Material published jointly by the Journal and the Publications Division of the ACS is subject to the terms of the Journal Publishing Agreement, signed on behalf of all authors. Exceptions to this policy are described below.

Preprints, Theses, and Dissertations

JCE authors are allowed to deposit an initial draft of their manuscript in a preprint repository such as ChemRxiv , arXiv , or bioRxiv . Please note that any use of a preprint server needs to be disclosed in the cover letter during submission and, as appropriate, state how the manuscript has been adjusted/updated between deposition and submission. Upon publication in JCE , authors should add a link from the preprint to the published article via the Digital Object Identifier (DOI). Some preprint servers, including ChemRxiv and bioRxiv, add this link for authors automatically after publication. The ACS Publications policy on theses and dissertations is available online .

Proceedings of Conferences and Symposia

Publication of a preprint or extended abstract in an ACS division meeting preprint book, in either print or electronic format, does not preclude consideration of a manuscript for publication, provided that the manuscript includes significant new information and data beyond what was in the preprint or extended abstract. It is the author’s responsibility to provide the Editor with copies of any relevant preprint(s). The Editors will make the decision on the suitability of the paper for publication. Upon publication in JCE , authors are advised to add a link from the preprint to the published paper via the citation and Digital Object Identifier (DOI).

JCE will consider for publication a paper that has been posted on an electronic site available to the general public, provided that the site is the personal site of the author or that of a funding agency (i.e., government or non-profit foundation) and is not connected to a commercial site that holds copyright to the material. Authors must notify JCE at the time of submission if the material has been available on the Internet or equivalent electronic media.

Initial Processing

JCE editors initially evaluate each submitted manuscript to determine whether it should be sent for peer review based on its meeting publication requirements and adherence to the stated criteria for its Manuscript Type. Submissions that do not comply with protocols will be returned to authors (or “unsubmitted”).

The Journal does not conduct preassessments prior to formal submission, nor are presubmission inquiries regarding proposals considered outside the ACS Paragon Plus environment. The JCE Editorial Office is unable to provide information pertaining to analytics. Authors can track statistics pertaining to their own articles in the ACS Publishing Center .

Using Material from Other Sources

The American Chemical Society has strict policies regarding the use of material from other sources. Permissions are not needed for material that the author produced or that is copyrighted by ACS. Authors must obtain permissions from copyright holders to use figures, illustrations, or photographs from other sources that appear in the author’s manuscript and Supporting Information, even if the author produced the content originally. Documentation must be uploaded into ACS Paragon Plus before a manuscript can be sent to reviewers. See the Copyright and Permissions section for additional information.

Appropriate Material

The following material is suggested for use:

• Photographs, illustrations, and figures created by the authors. Model releases  must be signed by people who are identifiable in photographs, including authors.
• Figures for which ACS owns the copyright and that have been published previously in an ACS journal. Citations and credit lines are needed.
• Work for which formal permission has been obtained (including student work; see the Use of Student Work section). Authors must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Credit lines are needed.

Inappropriate Material

The following material is inappropriate:

• Logos (including commercial and institutional logos, logos on spectra, and logos shown on instrumentation in photographs). These images should be obscured by blurring, cropping, or masking.
• Trademarked product names or brand names (whether in images or in the text). These names should be replaced by generic names wherever possible.
• Stock photography, clip art, and cartoons (even if the images have been paid for).
• Images of currency (paper or coins), postage stamps, or flags from any country.
• Screenshots (or “captures”) from software companies, unless permission has been obtained from the software producer (including those that provide freely available material). Interfaces are considered to be proprietary. Permission also is required for screenshots showing ACS content and content from YouTube and similar Web entities. Note that screenshots cannot show logos, brand names, or other content that has been copyrighted elsewhere.
• Material from Wikipedia, Flickr, or similar websites.
• Creative Commons content. Creative Commons licenses should be carefully scrutinized. Some versions of the license permit the use of material for commercial purposes; others do not. Use of material in ACS journals is considered commercial because ACS sells subscriptions (“educational” use does not qualify). It is the responsibility of authors to carefully review the provisions of Creative Commons licenses, to follow any stipulations of the license, and to provide documentation to the journal's editorial office summarizing the license provisions and the ways in which the requirements have been met (in a letter, for example).
• Material from the Internet (unless produced by the author). Images pulled from the Internet cannot be used without permission from the original source, even if the source is cited.
• Art of unknown provenance that cannot be attributed to a specific source, especially that which has appeared in “old” publications.
• YouTube videos not created by the authors. Links may be included rather than providing videos.

Use of Student Work

If examples of student work (including anonymous work) are provided in the manuscript or the Supporting Information, documentation indicating that students have granted their consent should be uploaded along with the submission files. Documentation may include institutional review board (IRB) forms or permission statements from the students themselves. Full student names should not appear in the manuscript or Supporting Information.

Requests to reproduce content published in JCE are handled via the RightsLink permission system.

Peer Review

Those manuscripts that meet the initial requirements are assigned to an Associate Editor (AE). The AE sends the manuscript to reviewers for them to evaluate according to the following criteria:

• Scholarship (scientific and scholarly rigor)
• Novelty (originality, innovation, creativity)
• Pedagogy (educational relevance, insight)
• Utility (usefulness to readers, rationale)
• Presentation (organization, comprehensiveness, readability)

Reviewers may recommend “publish as is”, “minor revision”, “major revision”, or “do not publish”. After the reviewers have submitted their comments and suggestions, the AE evaluates their arguments and recommendations and makes a decision whether to approve, request a minor or major revision, or reject the manuscript. The AE adjudicates based on the reviewer comments; however, the reviews are not to be considered “votes”, and the review process is not one of “majority rules”. Very few manuscripts are published as originally submitted; nearly all are recommended for revision and are improved in response to reviewer suggestions before being accepted and published.

Because of the many submissions the Journal receives—and because manuscripts are unique and require varying levels of attention—definitive processing times cannot be guaranteed. Authors are notified once their manuscripts proceed to the next stage.

Types of Decisions

Decision types include revision, reject and resubmit, reject, and accept. Decisions are based on reviews and assessments made by the JCE Editorial Office. All resubmissions and revisions must be formally processed via the ACS Paragon Plus environment.

The Editor-in-Chief (EIC) or AE may request a minor or major revision at any point during the peer- review process. The revised manuscript must be accompanied by a cover letter that acknowledges the revision as well as a separate author response document that contains a detailed, itemized list of changes made to the manuscript and reasons why a reviewer’s suggestion or concern does not merit a change. Reiterate reviewer comments and follow each with a response. In this way, the editors can refer to a single document rather than having to revisit separate documents. The author’s response may also be entered or pasted into a text box provided by ACS Paragon Plus for this purpose. Ensure that the latest files have been uploaded and that there are no extraneous files. Files showing changes may be uploaded for review purposes. However, “clean” files should be provided. If the track changes feature in Word has been used, ensure for the manuscript file and Supporting Information file(s) that all changes have been accepted and comments resolved, and that the track changes feature has been turned off.

Reject and Resubmit

The EIC or AE may reject a submission with editorial or external peer review, yet invite a revision based on the merit of the submission. Typically, the decision letter will contain a list of suggested improvements. A thorough cover letter and a document containing itemized responses to reviewer comments must accompany the resubmission. Previous manuscript identification numbers should be referenced, and the changes that have been made to the manuscript should be clearly stated in the cover letter. The revised manuscript will be handled as a new submission and will be given a new receipt date.

The EIC or AE may reject a manuscript based on either editorial or external peer review at any point during the peer-review process after determining that the submission is not within the scope or objectives of the Journal. If there is no invitation to resubmit, permission from the AE should first be sought before resubmitting a previously rejected manuscript. Previous manuscript identification numbers should be referenced, and the changes that have been made to the manuscript should be clearly stated in the cover letter.

When the EIC or AE is satisfied with the submission, it is formally accepted, and the files are forwarded to ACS for production and publication. ACS contacts authors regarding page proofs, which should be reviewed carefully. After page proofs are approved, the manuscript will be published online as an Article ASAP available through the ACS website. Once a manuscript appears on the Web it is considered published. Any change to the manuscript will need to be submitted to the JCE Editorial Office as an Addition and Correction.

When submitting their manuscripts to ACS Paragon Plus, authors may suggest reviewers and are encouraged to provide the names, affiliations, e-mail addresses, and a few words explaining their qualifications to review the manuscript. These reviewers’ names will be added to the unranked list of suggested reviewers for the submission. Editors may choose to invite any, all, or none of the suggested reviewers to evaluate the submission. Including suggested reviewers assists the Journal in expanding its reviewer pool. Authors are encouraged to avoid suggesting reviewers from the authors’ institutions. Do not suggest reviewers who may have a real or perceived conflict of interest . Whenever possible, suggest academic email addresses rather than personal email addresses.

If your submission is declined for publication by this journal, the editors might deem your work to be better suited for another ACS Publications journal or partner journal and suggest that the authors consider transferring the submission. Manuscript Transfer simplifies and shortens the process of submitting to another ACS journal or partner journal, as all the coauthors, suggested reviewers, manuscript files, and responses to submission questions are copied by ACS Paragon Plus to the new draft submission. Authors are free to accept or decline the transfer offer.

Note that each journal is editorially independent. Transferring a manuscript is not a guarantee that the manuscript will be accepted, as the final publication decision will belong to the editor of the next journal.

PRODUCTION AND PUBLICATION

Correction of the galley proofs is the responsibility of the Corresponding Author. The Corresponding Author of an accepted manuscript will receive e-mail notification and complete instructions when page proofs are available for review via ACS Direct Correct . Extensive or important changes on page proofs, including changes to the title or list of authors, are subject to review by the editor.

It is the responsibility of the Corresponding Author to ensure that all authors listed on the manuscript agree with the changes made on the proofs. Galley proofs should be returned within 48 hours in order to ensure timely publication of the manuscript.

Accepted manuscripts will be published on the ACS Publications Web site as soon as page proofs are corrected and all author concerns are resolved. The first date on which the document is published on the Web is considered the publication date.

Publication of manuscripts on the Web may occur weeks in advance of the cover date of the issue of publication. Authors should take this into account when planning their patent and intellectual property activities related to a document and should ensure that all patent information is available at the time of first publication, whether ASAP or issue publication.

All articles published ahead of print receive a unique Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number, which is used to cite the manuscript before and after the paper appears in an issue.

Manuscripts will be published on the “ASAP Articles” page on the web as soon as page proofs are corrected and all author concerns are resolved. ASAP publication usually occurs within a few working days of receipt of page proof corrections, which can be several weeks in advance of the cover date of the issue.

The American Chemical Society follows guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) when considering any ethical concerns regarding a published article, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern.

Additions and Corrections

Additions and Corrections may be requested by the author(s) or initiated by the Editor to address important issues or correct errors and omissions of consequence that arise after publication of an article. All Additions and Corrections are subject to approval by the Editor, and should bring new and directly relevant information and corrections that fix scientific facts. Minor corrections and additions will not be published. Readers who detect errors of consequence in the work of others should contact the corresponding author of that work.

Additions and Corrections must be submitted as new manuscripts via ACS Paragon Plus by the Corresponding Author for publication in the “Addition/Correction” section of the Journal. The corresponding author should obtain approval from all coauthors prior to submitting or provide evidence that such approval has been solicited. The manuscript should include the original article title and author list, citation including DOI, and details of the correction.

Retractions

Articles may be retracted for scientific or ethical reasons and may be requested by the article author(s) or by the journal Editor(s), but are ultimately published at the discretion of the Editor. Articles that contain seriously flawed or erroneous data such that their findings and conclusions cannot be relied upon may be retracted in order to correct the scientific record. When an article is retracted, a notice of Retraction will be published containing information about the reason for the Retraction. The originally published article will remain online except in extraordinary circumstances (e.g. where deemed legally necessary, or if the availability of the published content poses public health risks).

Expressions of Concern

Expressions of Concern may be issued at the discretion of the Editor if:

• there is inconclusive evidence of research or publication misconduct by the authors;
• there is evidence that the findings are unreliable but the authors’ institution will not investigate the case;
• an investigation into alleged misconduct related to the publication either has not been, or would not be, fair and impartial or conclusive;
• an investigation is underway but a judgment will not be available for a considerable time.

Upon completion of any related investigation, and when a final determination is made about the outcome of the article, the Expression of Concern may be replaced with a Retraction notice or Correction.

At ACS Publications, we know it is important for you to be able to share your peer reviewed, published work with colleagues in the global community of scientists. As sharing on sites known as scholarly collaboration networks (SCNs) is becoming increasingly prevalent in today’s scholarly research ecosystem, we would like to remind you of the many ways in which you, a valued ACS author, can share your published work .

Publishing open access makes it easy to share your work with friends, colleagues, and family members. In addition, ACS Publications makes it easy to share your newly published research with ACS Articles on Request (see below). Don’t forget to promote your research and related data on social media, at conferences, and through scholarly communication networks. Increase the impact of your research using the following resources: Altmetrics , Figshare , ACS Certified Deposit

When your article is published in an ACS journal or partner journal, corresponding authors are provided with a link that offers up to 50 free digital prints of the final published work. This link is valid for the first 12 months following online publication, and can be shared via email or an author’s website. After one year, the access restrictions to your article will be lifted, and you can share the Articles on Request URL on social media and other channels. To access all your Articles on Request links, log in to your ACS Publishing Center account and visit the “My Published Manuscripts” page.

Article , journal , and commercial reprints are available to order.

Appendix 1: PREPARING FOR SUBMISSION

We’ve developed ACS’ publishing and editorial policies in consultation with the research communities that we serve, including authors and librarians. Browse our policies below to learn more.

Ethical Guidelines

ACS editors have provided Ethical Guidelines for persons engaged in the publication of chemical research—specifically, for editors, authors, and reviewers. Each journal also has a specific policy on prior publication .

OFAC Compliance

As a U.S.-based non-profit organization, the American Chemical Society (ACS) is required to comply with U.S. sanctions laws and regulations administered by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). While these laws and regulations permit U.S.-based publishers like ACS to engage in publishing-related activities with authors located in sanctioned regions in many cases, ACS may be prohibited under U.S. law from engaging in publishing-related activities in some cases, including, but not limited to, instances where an author or the institution with which an author is affiliated is located in a particular sanctioned region or has been designated by OFAC as a Specially Designated National (SDN) pursuant to certain U.S. sanctions programs. ACS reserves the right to refrain from engaging in any publishing-related activities that ACS determines in its sole discretion may be in violation of U.S. law.

Safety Considerations

Authors must emphasize any unexpected, new, and/or significant hazards or risks associated with the reported work. This information should be in the Experimental Section of a full article and included in the main text of a letter. Statement examples can be found in the Safety Statement Style Sheet  and additional information on communicating safety information from the  ACS Guide to Scholarly Communication is freely available here .

Conflict of Interest Disclosure

A statement describing any financial conflicts of interest or lack thereof is published in each ACS journal and partner journal article.

During the submission process, the Corresponding Author must provide a statement on behalf of all authors of the manuscript, describing all potential sources of bias, including affiliations, funding sources, and financial or management relationships, that may constitute conflicts of interest. If the manuscript is accepted, the statement will be published in the final article.

If the manuscript is accepted and no conflict of interest has been declared, the following statement will be published in the final article: “The authors declare no competing financial interest.”

In publishing only original research, ACS is committed to deterring plagiarism, including self-plagiarism. ACS Publications uses CrossCheck's iThenticate software to screen submitted manuscripts for similarity to published material. Note that your manuscript may be screened during the submission process.

Further information about plagiarism can be found in Part B of the Ethical Guidelines to Publication of Chemical Research . See also the press release regarding ACS' participation in the CrossCheck initiative.

Authorship, Author List, and Coauthor Notification

Authors are required to obtain the consent of all their coauthors prior to submitting a manuscript. The submitting author accepts the responsibility of notifying all coauthors that the manuscript is being submitted.

During manuscript submission, the submitting author must provide contact information (full name, email address, institutional affiliation, and mailing address) for all of the coauthors. Because all of the author names are automatically imported into the electronic Journal Publishing Agreement , the names must be entered into ACS Paragon Plus. (Note that coauthors are not required to register in ACS Paragon Plus.) Author affiliation should reflect where the work was completed, even if the author has since left that institution. Authors may include a note with a current address if their institution has changed since the work was completed.

To expedite the processing of your manuscript, please format your author and affiliation information according the guidelines in this link: https://pubsapp.acs.org/paragonplus/submission/author-address-information.pdf .

Criteria for authorship can be found in Part B of the Ethical Guidelines to Publication of Chemical Research . Artificial intelligence (AI) tools do not qualify for authorship. The use of AI tools for text or image generation should be disclosed in the manuscript within the Acknowledgment section with a description of when and how the tools were used. For more substantial use cases or descriptions of AI tool use, authors should provide full details within the Methods or other appropriate section of the manuscript.

If any change in authorship is necessary after a manuscript has been submitted, confirmation is required that all of the authors (including those being added or removed) have been notified and have agreed to the change. To provide this confirmation, authors are asked to complete and sign an authorship change form and provide the completed form to the appropriate editorial office.

Authors with a single name:  If you, or any of your coauthors, have only one name, please follow these steps for proper submission to ACS Paragon Plus:

• First (Given) Name Field: Enter an asterisk (*) into the "First (Given) Name" field.
• Last (Family) Name Field: Enter your single name into the "Last (Family) Name" field.

If your paper is accepted, the asterisk (*) will be removed from the published version of the paper.

Patent Activities and Intellectual Property

Authors are responsible for ensuring that all patent activities and intellectual property issues are satisfactorily resolved prior to first publication (ASAP or in issue). Acceptance and publication will not be delayed for pending or unresolved issues of this nature.

Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID)

Authors submitting manuscript revisions are required to provide their own personal, validated ORCID iD before completing the submission, if an ORCID iD is not already associated with their ACS Paragon Plus user profiles. This ID may be provided during original manuscript submission or when submitting the manuscript revision. All authors are strongly encouraged to register for an ORCID iD, a unique researcher identifier. The ORCID iD will be displayed in the published article for any author on a manuscript who has a validated ORCID iD associated with ACS when the manuscript is accepted.

ORCID iDs should not be typed into the manuscript. ACS publishes only those ORCID iDs that have been properly verified and linked before the manuscript is accepted . After your ORCID iD is linked, it will be displayed automatically in all subsequently accepted manuscripts for any/all ACS journals. We do not publish ORCID iDs provided during proof review or via other communications after a manuscript is accepted for publication.

With an ORCID iD, you can create a profile of your research activities to distinguish yourself from other researchers with similar names, and make it easier for your colleagues to find your publications. If you do not yet have an ORCID iD, or you wish to associate your existing ORCID iD with your ACS Paragon Plus account, you may do so by clicking on “Edit Your Profile” from your ACS Paragon Plus account homepage and following the ORCID-related links. Learn more at www.orcid.org .

Copyright and Permissions

To obtain forms and guidelines for completing the Journal Publishing Agreement or obtaining permissions from copyright owners, and to explore a Copyright Learning Module for chemists, click here .

Funder Reporting Requirement

Authors are required to report funding sources and grant/award numbers. Enter ALL sources of funding for ALL authors in BOTH the Funder Registry Tool in ACS Paragon Plus and in your manuscript to meet this requirement.

Open Access Compliance

ACS offers options by which authors can fulfill the requirements for open access and deposition into repositories for funded research. Visit our ACS Open Science site to see how to fulfill requirements for specific funders  and to find out if you are eligible to publish under a Read + Publish agreement between ACS and your institution. You can also find out more about Open Access Compliance and ACS Open Science initiatives .

Diversity and Inclusion Statement

During manuscript submission, ACS journal authors have the option to submit a statement sharing information related to diversity and inclusion that is relevant for their paper. If supplying a diversity and inclusion statement, the corresponding author must provide this on behalf of all authors of the manuscript during the submission process. These statements include but are not limited to analysis of citation diversity and acknowledgment of indigenous land on which research was conducted. Statements expressing political beliefs are not permitted and may be removed by the journal office. All statements are subject to final review by the Editor.

• Citation Diversity Statement: The citation diversity statement should appear in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript. ACS recommends including the following: (1) the importance of citation diversity, (2) the proportion of citations by gender and race/ethnicity for the first and last authors, (3) the method used to determine those proportions and its limitations, and (4) steps taken to by the authors to improve citation diversity in the article. We recognize that one limitation of the current methods is that it cannot account for intersex, non-binary, and transgender people, or Indigenous and mixed-race authors. (Adapted from BMES/Springer Guidelines )
• Land acknowledgment: The land acknowledgment statement should appear in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript. The statement should link to the institutions’ formal land acknowledgments on which the research took place, if possible. Further guidance for creating these statements can be found here: https://nativegov.org/news/a-guide-to-indigenous-land-acknowledgment/ .

Appendix 2: Preparing Graphics

Digital graphics pasted into manuscripts should have the following minimum resolutions:

• Black and white line art, 1200 dpi
• Grayscale art, 600 dpi
• Color art, 300 dpi

Graphics must fit a one- or two-column format. Single-column graphics can be sized up to 240 points wide (3.33 in.) and double-column graphics must be sized between 300 and 504 points (4.167 in. and 7 in.). The maximum depth for all graphics is 660 points (9.167 in.) including the caption (allow 12 pts. For each line of caption text). Lettering should be no smaller than 4.5 points in the final published format. The text should be legible when the graphic is viewed full-size. Helvetica or Arial fonts work well for lettering. Lines should be no thinner than 0.5 point.

Color may be used to enhance the clarity of complex structures, figures, spectra, and schemes, etc., and color reproduction of graphics is provided at no additional cost to the author. Graphics intended to appear in black and white or grayscale should not be submitted in color.

Type of Graphics

Table of contents (toc)/abstract graphic.

Consult the Guidelines for Table of Contents/Abstract Graphics for specifications.

Our team of subject-matter experts and graphical designers can also help generate a compelling TOC graphic to convey your key findings. Learn more about our Graphical Abstract service .

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Talented 12: Chemical & Engineering News announces its 2024 rising stars in chemistry

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WASHINGTON, May 17, 2024 — Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), an independent news outlet of the American Chemical Society (ACS), has unveiled its annual Talented 12 list. The list highlights early-career researchers in the chemical sciences who are fearlessly tackling difficult global problems. These intrepid innovators in chemistry are featured in the May 13/20 issue of C&EN; read about the impressive class .

Using a rigorous review process, a group of C&EN editors and staff selected this year’s Talented 12 from an array of nominations, which came from peers, supervisors and self-nominations. The world-changing work by this year’s group includes research with a variety of applications from making better batteries to developing new drugs to tackling climate change.

Below is the list of 2024’s Talented 12 class.

Chibueze Amanchukwu , University of Chicago This electrochemist invents new electrolytes to boost batteries.

Ahmed Badran , Scripps ResearchThis synthetic biologist evolves proteins to tackle global challenges like climate change.

Rachel Carter , U.S. Naval Research Laboratory This mechanical engineer makes batteries safer and more sustainable.

Rob Dennis-Pelcher , The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company This materials scientist scouts out technologies to improve tire performance and sustainability.

Samantha M. Gateman , University of Western Ontario This analytical chemist studies metals at the atomic level to prevent corrosion.

Alisha Jones , New York University This biophysical chemist pairs computational and experimental tools to unravel RNA structure.

Outi Keinänen , University of Alabama at Birmingham This radiochemist tracks how microplastics move through the body.

Sarah Lovelock , University of Manchester This biological chemist streamlines oligonucleotide synthesis.

Jesus Moreno , Bristol Myers Squibb This medicinal chemist designs and develops targeted protein degraders.

Nako Nakatsuka , Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) This neurotechnologist integrates aptamers and transistors to monitor brain chemistry.

Michael Skinnider , Princeton University This computational chemist combines mass spectrometry and machine learning to uncover metabolites.

Julian West , Rice University This organic chemist harnesses the catalytic power of iron with light.

“Each of these chemists is doing important work, contributing to positive changes in our health, societies and environment,” says Nick Ishmael-Perkins, C&EN editor in chief. “They are also, all of them, compelling personalities, demonstrating that science takes talent and creativity as much as it does rigor and expertise. These are exactly the kind of stories of inspiration that C&EN wanted to showcase when it started the Talented 12 feature ten years ago.”

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New advances in technology are upending education, from the recent debut of new artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots like ChatGPT to the growing accessibility of virtual-reality tools that expand the boundaries of the classroom. For educators, at the heart of it all is the hope that every learner gets an equal chance to develop the skills they need to succeed. But that promise is not without its pitfalls.

“Technology is a game-changer for education – it offers the prospect of universal access to high-quality learning experiences, and it creates fundamentally new ways of teaching,” said Dan Schwartz, dean of Stanford Graduate School of Education (GSE), who is also a professor of educational technology at the GSE and faculty director of the Stanford Accelerator for Learning . “But there are a lot of ways we teach that aren’t great, and a big fear with AI in particular is that we just get more efficient at teaching badly. This is a moment to pay attention, to do things differently.”

For K-12 schools, this year also marks the end of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding program, which has provided pandemic recovery funds that many districts used to invest in educational software and systems. With these funds running out in September 2024, schools are trying to determine their best use of technology as they face the prospect of diminishing resources.

Here, Schwartz and other Stanford education scholars weigh in on some of the technology trends taking center stage in the classroom this year.

AI in the classroom

In 2023, the big story in technology and education was generative AI, following the introduction of ChatGPT and other chatbots that produce text seemingly written by a human in response to a question or prompt. Educators immediately worried that students would use the chatbot to cheat by trying to pass its writing off as their own. As schools move to adopt policies around students’ use of the tool, many are also beginning to explore potential opportunities – for example, to generate reading assignments or coach students during the writing process.

AI can also help automate tasks like grading and lesson planning, freeing teachers to do the human work that drew them into the profession in the first place, said Victor Lee, an associate professor at the GSE and faculty lead for the AI + Education initiative at the Stanford Accelerator for Learning. “I’m heartened to see some movement toward creating AI tools that make teachers’ lives better – not to replace them, but to give them the time to do the work that only teachers are able to do,” he said. “I hope to see more on that front.”

He also emphasized the need to teach students now to begin questioning and critiquing the development and use of AI. “AI is not going away,” said Lee, who is also director of CRAFT (Classroom-Ready Resources about AI for Teaching), which provides free resources to help teach AI literacy to high school students across subject areas. “We need to teach students how to understand and think critically about this technology.”

Immersive environments

The use of immersive technologies like augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality is also expected to surge in the classroom, especially as new high-profile devices integrating these realities hit the marketplace in 2024.

The educational possibilities now go beyond putting on a headset and experiencing life in a distant location. With new technologies, students can create their own local interactive 360-degree scenarios, using just a cell phone or inexpensive camera and simple online tools.

“This is an area that’s really going to explode over the next couple of years,” said Kristen Pilner Blair, director of research for the Digital Learning initiative at the Stanford Accelerator for Learning, which runs a program exploring the use of virtual field trips to promote learning. “Students can learn about the effects of climate change, say, by virtually experiencing the impact on a particular environment. But they can also become creators, documenting and sharing immersive media that shows the effects where they live.”

Integrating AI into virtual simulations could also soon take the experience to another level, Schwartz said. “If your VR experience brings me to a redwood tree, you could have a window pop up that allows me to ask questions about the tree, and AI can deliver the answers.”

Gamification

Another trend expected to intensify this year is the gamification of learning activities, often featuring dynamic videos with interactive elements to engage and hold students’ attention.

“Gamification is a good motivator, because one key aspect is reward, which is very powerful,” said Schwartz. The downside? Rewards are specific to the activity at hand, which may not extend to learning more generally. “If I get rewarded for doing math in a space-age video game, it doesn’t mean I’m going to be motivated to do math anywhere else.”

Gamification sometimes tries to make “chocolate-covered broccoli,” Schwartz said, by adding art and rewards to make speeded response tasks involving single-answer, factual questions more fun. He hopes to see more creative play patterns that give students points for rethinking an approach or adapting their strategy, rather than only rewarding them for quickly producing a correct response.

Data-gathering and analysis

The growing use of technology in schools is producing massive amounts of data on students’ activities in the classroom and online. “We’re now able to capture moment-to-moment data, every keystroke a kid makes,” said Schwartz – data that can reveal areas of struggle and different learning opportunities, from solving a math problem to approaching a writing assignment.

But outside of research settings, he said, that type of granular data – now owned by tech companies – is more likely used to refine the design of the software than to provide teachers with actionable information.

The promise of personalized learning is being able to generate content aligned with students’ interests and skill levels, and making lessons more accessible for multilingual learners and students with disabilities. Realizing that promise requires that educators can make sense of the data that’s being collected, said Schwartz – and while advances in AI are making it easier to identify patterns and findings, the data also needs to be in a system and form educators can access and analyze for decision-making. Developing a usable infrastructure for that data, Schwartz said, is an important next step.

With the accumulation of student data comes privacy concerns: How is the data being collected? Are there regulations or guidelines around its use in decision-making? What steps are being taken to prevent unauthorized access? In 2023 K-12 schools experienced a rise in cyberattacks, underscoring the need to implement strong systems to safeguard student data.

Technology is “requiring people to check their assumptions about education,” said Schwartz, noting that AI in particular is very efficient at replicating biases and automating the way things have been done in the past, including poor models of instruction. “But it’s also opening up new possibilities for students producing material, and for being able to identify children who are not average so we can customize toward them. It’s an opportunity to think of entirely new ways of teaching – this is the path I hope to see.”

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High school students, frustrated by lack of climate education, press for change

Youth activists pushing for more climate education in Minnesota schools say working with peers to draft legislation gives them hope for a future under threat. (AP Video: Mark Vancleave)

B Rosas, left, Lucia Everist, center, and Libby Kramer, of Climate Generation, speak to the Minnesota Youth Council, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, in St. Paul, Minn. The advocates called on the council, a liaison between young people and state lawmakers, to support a bill requiring schools to teach more about climate change. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

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Libby Kramer, left, Lucia Everist, center, and B Rosas, of Climate Generation, speak to the Minnesota Youth Council, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, in St. Paul, Minn. The advocates called on the council, a liaison between young people and state lawmakers, to support a bill requiring schools to teach more about climate change. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Lucia Everist, of Climate Generation, center, speaks to the Minnesota Youth Council, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, in St. Paul, Minn. The advocates called on the council, a liaison between young people and state lawmakers, to support a bill requiring schools to teach more about climate change. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

FILE - Water floods a damaged trailer park in Fort Myers, Fla., Oct. 1, 2022, after Hurricane Ian passed by the area. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)

Minnesota Sen. Nicole Mitchell, left, sits with members of Climate Generation, from second left, B Rosas, Lucia Everist, Libby Kramer and Minnesota Rep. Larry Kraft, right, as they speak the Minnesota Youth Council, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, in St. Paul, Minn. The advocates called on the council, a liaison between young people and state lawmakers, to support a bill requiring schools to teach more about climate change. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Libby Kramer, of Climate Generation, right, speaks to the Minnesota Youth Council, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, in St. Paul, Minn. The advocates called on the council, a liaison between young people and state lawmakers, to support a bill requiring schools to teach more about climate change. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

B Rosas, back left, Lucia Everist, back center, and Libby Kramer, back right, of Climate Generation, speak to the Minnesota Youth Council, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, in St. Paul, Minn. The advocates called on the council, a liaison between young people and state lawmakers, to support a bill requiring schools to teach more about climate change. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Several dozen young people wearing light blue T-shirts imprinted with #teachclimate filled a hearing room in the Minnesota Capitol in St. Paul in late February. It was a cold and windy day, in contrast to the state’s nearly snowless, warm winter.

The high school and college students and other advocates, part of group Climate Generation, called on the Minnesota Youth Council, a liaison between young people and state lawmakers, to support a bill requiring schools to teach more about climate change .

Ethan Vue, who grew up with droughts and extreme temperatures in California, now lives in Minnesota and is a high school senior pushing for the bill.

“I just remember seeing my classmates always sweating, and they’d even drench themselves in water from the water fountains,” Vue said in a phone interview, noting climate change is making heat waves longer and hotter, but they didn’t learn about that in school.

“The topic is brushed on. If anything, we just learn about, there’s global warming, the planet’s warming up.”

Libby Kramer, left, Lucia Everist, center, and B Rosas, of Climate Generation, speak to the Minnesota Youth Council, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

In places that teach to standards formulated by the National Science Teachers Association, state governments and other organizations, many kids learn about air quality, ecosystems, biodiversity and land and water in Earth and environmental science classes.

But students and advocates say that is insufficient. They are demanding districts, boards and state lawmakers require more teaching about the planet’s warming and would like it woven into more subjects.

Some states and school districts have moved in the opposite direction. In Texas , the board of education turned down books with climate information. In Florida, school materials deny climate change .

“Someone could theoretically go through middle school and high school without really ever acknowledging the climate crisis,” said Jacob Friedman, a high school senior in Florida who hasn’t learned about climate except for in elective classes. “Or even acknowledging that there is an issue of global warming.”

That’s bizarre to Friedman, who experienced firsthand when Hurricane Ian closed nearby schools and submerged homes in 2022.

A study conducted after the storm found that climate change added at least 10% more rain to Hurricane Ian. Experts also say hurricanes are intensifying faster because of the extra greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that are collecting heat and warming the oceans.

“What an unfair reality to have a young person graduate from high school,” said Leah Qusba, executive director of nonprofit Action for the Climate Emergency, “without knowing about the biggest existential threat that they’re going to face in their lifetime.”

Some places are adding more instruction on the subject. In 2020, New Jersey required teaching climate change at all grade levels. Connecticut followed, then California. More than two dozen new measures across 10 states were introduced last year, according to the National Center for Science Education.

Libby Kramer, of Climate Generation, right, speaks to the Minnesota Youth Council, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Where some proposals require teaching the basic science and human causes of climate change , the Minnesota bill goes further, requiring state officials to guide schools on teaching climate justice, including the idea that the changes hit disadvantaged communities harder .

Some legislators say they’ve heard from school administrators and teachers who say that goes too far.

“What was said to me is: ‘Why are we pushing a political perspective, a political agenda?’” Minnesota Rep. Ben Bakeberg, a Republican, said during a House Education Policy Committee hearing in March 2023. “That’s a reality.”

The bill didn’t advance in the 2023 session. Now it hasn’t this year either. Supporters say they will try again next year.

Aware of such opposition, some students interested in climate opt to campaign at their schools rather than through the legislative process.

Three years ago, floods destroyed Ariela Lara’s mom’s village in Oaxaca, Mexico, while they were visiting. Then Lara came home to California and was hit by smoke-filled skies caused by wildfires that pushed thousands to evacuate or be stuck inside for weeks.

Yet despite what she was seeing, Lara felt in school she was only taught about recycling and carbon footprints, a measure of a person’s personal greenhouse gas emissions.

So she went to the board of education.

“I had to really think about how I could go to the people in power to really rewrite the curriculum we were learning,” Lara said. “It would get so tiresome because for me, I was the one that was really trying to enforce it.”

By the time her school offered Advanced Placement Environmental Science, Lara was too senior to enroll in it. AP Enviro does cover climate change , according to the College Board, but it’s also more broad.

B Rosas, back left, Lucia Everist, back center, and Libby Kramer, back right, of Climate Generation, speak to the Minnesota Youth Council, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

When targeted efforts don’t work, some students feel they’re on their own.

For high school junior Siyeon Joo, climate education seems like a no-brainer where she lives in Lafayette, Louisiana, which was hit hard by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and has been affected by several other intense storms and heat waves.

But Joo wasn’t exposed to climate change at her public middle school and an educator there once told her it wasn’t real.

“I remember sitting in that classroom,” the now-16-year-old said, “being really angry that that was the system that was being forced upon me at the time.”

It took enrolling in a private school for Joo to learn about these topics. Many students don’t have that option.

Experts say climate material could be worked into lessons without burdening schools or putting the onus on students. But much like with legislation, that will take time students say they don’t have.

“I was part of these communities that were really just affirming how much is at stake if we don’t take action,” said Lara, the student in California, recalling how important to her it would have been to receive education about her experiences. “You should be able to go to school and learn about the gravity which the climate crisis is at.”

Alexa St. John reported from Detroit and Doug Glass reported from St. Paul, Minn.

Alexa St. John is an Associated Press climate solutions reporter. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, @alexa_stjohn . Reach her at [email protected] .

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org .

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• Published: 08 February 2024

Rethinking chemical engineering education

• Jinlong Gong 1 ,
• David C. Shallcross 2 ,
• Yan Jiao 3 ,
• Venkat Venkatasubramanian 4 ,
• Richard Davis 5 &
• Christopher G. Arges 6 , 7  

Nature Chemical Engineering volume  1 ,  pages 127–133 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China

Jinlong Gong

Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

David C. Shallcross

School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Department of Chemical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

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After yearslong fight and dozens of deaths, EPA broadens ban on deadly chemical

An initial epa proposal to ban the paint-stripping chemical was shelved by the trump administration despite more deaths. it took a sustained campaign by families and safety groups to turn the tide..

It can kill on the spot or years after prolonged exposure. 

When methylene chloride’s fumes build up, the chemical switches off the brain’s respiratory center, asphyxiating its victims if it doesn’t trigger a heart attack first. At lower levels, the federal government says, it increases the risk of multiple types of cancer. And despite a 2019 ban keeping it out of consumer paint-stripping products, the chemical is still widely available in other items – from aerosol degreasers to sealants.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced on April 30 that it is  banning methylene chloride  in all consumer uses and most workplace settings.

The move is the most sweeping since a 2015  Center for Public Integrity investigation  connected dozens of deaths to the chemical and showed that experts had warned of its dangers for decades. At the time, paint strippers with methylene chloride could be bought at home improvement stores nationwide.

An initial EPA proposal to ban such uses was  shelved by the Trump administration  despite more deaths. It took a  sustained campaign by families of recent victims  and chemical safety groups to turn the tide.

Deadly delays: A chemical paint stripper killed their kids. Inside their heroic fight to have it banned.

“I feel like we moved an ocean, I really do,” said Lauren Atkins, whose 31-year-old son, Joshua, died in 2018 while refinishing his bike with paint stripper. “It’s a good rule. I think it could be better, I think it could have gone farther, but it’s a whole lot better than what we had.”

She and Brian Wynne, whose brother Drew died in 2017 while refinishing the floor of his business’ walk-in refrigerator, wish the government had acted more quickly. Methylene chloride deaths were recorded at least as far back as the 1940s. A  1976 medical journal piece  detailed the chemical’s dangers and criticized the EPA and the Consumer Product Safety Commission for not acting.

In 2016, the EPA put methylene chloride on a  list of 10 chemicals  it intended to evaluate because of their known risks. 

“Let’s look at the toxic 10 and start whittling down all of them,” Wynne said. “I think we can all agree that anything labeled as part of the toxic 10 shouldn’t be part of our daily lives.”

The EPA cited at least 85 deaths and long-term health dangers when it concluded that methylene chloride posed “unreasonable risks.” But the new restrictions are not immediate. The agency is giving businesses time to phase out certain uses and phase in protections for people who will continue to work with the chemical.  

Consumer sales will be fully banned in a year under the  new rule . Most commercial and industrial uses will have to stop in two years. Exceptions include a 10-year extension for certain emergency uses by NASA.

Atkins, the Wynne family and Wendy Hartley, whose 21-year-old son, Kevin, died refinishing a bathtub with a methylene chloride product in 2017, worked together for years to make that happen.

They had to counter EPA resistance – top officials under the Trump administration were intent on  rolling back protections , not adding more – and overcome sustained lobbying by manufacturers. Atkins called it “the longest, hardest, probably most important fight of my life.” 

She hopes other people will take up the torch for safety in a world awash with harmful chemicals. 

“Persistence is key,” Wynne said. “The takeaway should be: If something’s not right, don’t be afraid to raise your voice.”

Jamie Smith Hopkins is a reporter for the Center for Public Integrity , a nonprofit newsroom that investigates inequality.

Welch Foundation, Jon Hagler Commit $15 Million To Texas A&M Foundation

Breakthroughs in chemistry will play a crucial part in solving many of the world’s most complex challenges, such as finding a cure for Alzheimer’s disease, cleaning up the world’s water supply or traveling safely to Mars.

Now thanks to major philanthropic commitments by the Robert A. Welch Foundation and Jon Hagler ’58, Texas A&M University’s Hagler Institute for Advanced Study will bring some of the world’s top chemistry researchers to campus. These leading scholars will work with Texas A&M faculty and students to further foster an innovative research culture that will position the university to be at the forefront of chemistry.

Each of these contributions are earmarked for specific but complementary purposes. The Welch Foundation’s $10 million grant will create the Welch-Hagler Fellows, who will be selected from national academy-level researchers in chemistry and allied fields where advances in chemistry enable multidisciplinary research. “To create a partnership like this with Texas A&M’s Hagler Institute is a compelling opportunity for the Welch Foundation,” said Fred Brazelton, chair of its Board of Directors. “With this funding, we hope to make a meaningful and enduring impact on the students, faculty and future research at the institute.”

Hagler’s $5 million matching investment establishes an endowed chair position that will provide financial support to a Welch-Hagler Fellow who comes to Texas A&M for up to one year to collaborate with faculty and students. “Texas A&M’s chemistry department is nationally ranked,” Hagler said, “and this is an opportunity for it to get even better.”

Additionally, the university has allocated $200,000 per year for at least 10 years to support fellowships for graduate students working directly with the Welch-Hagler Fellows. “These fellowships enable our world-class faculty to pursue their cutting-edge research while also investing in the future through supporting graduate students who will go on to expand the field,” said Dr. Alan Sams, executive vice president and provost for Texas A&M University. “Partnerships like the Welch-Hagler Fellows enable Texas A&M to amplify and broaden the reach of our research impact.”

Overall, this multimillion-dollar investment will enable the institute to build incredible synergy that will enhance faculty research productivity as well as graduate and undergraduate education. And given the far-reaching nature of chemistry and allied interdisciplinary research, the Welch-Hagler Fellows will accelerate researchers in numerous academic units, including chemistry, chemical engineering, biomedical engineering, materials science, medicine and biomedical sciences.

Tyson Voelkel ’96, president and CEO of the Texas A&M Foundation, expressed his gratitude for the monumental contribution. “It’s incredibly exciting to visualize the opportunities this funding will enable at Texas A&M,” he said. “Aggieland will be home to industry-leading research that will build a brighter future for our world. The Foundation’s gratitude cannot be overstated for the transformative impact it will make for our university.”

Bringing More World-Class Minds To Texas A&M

The Hagler Institute uses an innovative model to invite the best research minds in the world to engage with Texas A&M by having tenured faculty members who work in departments with graduate programs nominate world-class researchers for a Hagler Fellowship.

A committee of Texas A&M’s senior faculty members evaluate candidates’ scholarly work as well as their commitment to mentoring young faculty and students. “We want to further enhance our legacy of accelerating young people and collaboration across disciplines,” Junkins explained.

Once the committee’s decision is finalized, Junkins offers the approved scholars what he describes as “the mother of all sabbatical opportunities” for the researcher to come to Texas A&M. More often than not, his invitation is accepted.

Since its inception in 2010, the Hagler Institute has attracted 116 Hagler Fellows and 10 Distinguished Lecturers to the university. The Hagler Fellows have included six Nobel Laureates, two Wolf Prize winners, an awardee of the Hubbell Medal in Literature for Lifetime Achievement, an Academy Award winner, and recipients of the National Medal of Science, the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the National Humanities Medal, the State Prize of Russia, and a lifetime achievement award in architecture.

The Institute’s streamlined structure not only brings big academic names to the university but also helps the university’s academic programs continue to move to the top tier of national universities. As a result, the university is well positioned to continue to be a global academic and research leader.

Texas A&M’s faculty and students have benefited from the institute’s work. For example, its efforts to bring Hagler Fellows to the university has elevated Texas A&M faculty’s research output, helping them be elected to national academies.

The institute has also proven to be an excellent recruiting mechanism to bring top talent to Texas A&M. More than 20% of Fellows who completed their time in the institute decided to join the university’s permanent faculty. And their presence has been a game changer, opening the door for the recruitment of additional national academy-level scholars to the university’s faculty.

Reaching The Next Level

This latest funding marks a significant milestone for the institute. “The Welch Foundation endowment and matching funds will enable the Hagler Institute to average about 12 Fellows and 24 graduate students per year for the immediate future, as compared with an average of about nine Hagler Fellows and 18 graduate students per year during the institute’s first decade,” Junkins said.

Hagler, who has played an important role at Texas A&M both as a philanthropist and a strategic thinker over the years, believes this combined funding will help the institute continue to enhance faculty quality, strengthen the graduate and undergraduate experience, and build the arts and sciences core at a time when many higher education institutions are struggling.

“Serving as co-chair of Vision 2020 in the late 1990s gave me an enhanced appreciation for the difficulty of pursuing academic excellence and the fragility of that excellence,” Hagler explained. “Fortunately for Texas A&M, the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study encourages scholars from all over the country and the world to come to our campus, which strengthens our graduate program and becomes a virtuous cycle of thinking outside the box.”

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Police use gas, rubber bullets to break up 2nd encampment at University of Arizona

TUCSON — For the second time this month, protesters gathered by the university’s main gate to build an encampment supporting Gaza.

And for the second time, tension rose in the late-night hours and law enforcement again used chemical irritants and rubber bullets to break up a gathering of about 100 protesters. State troopers were among the law enforcement agencies deployed to the scene.

Convocations and graduation celebrations were in full swing at the university Thursday, with the big commencement ceremony scheduled Friday.

What began as a small gathering at Catalina Park around 5 p.m. grew to 200 people as protesters walked a few blocks to the university.

Faculty with signs saying “Keeping students safe” led the march. Carol Brochin, a UA faculty member and the media liaison for the faculty group, told The Arizona Republic at least two faculty members were arrested.

Students Against Apartheid, the group that organized the encampment, condemned the university’s treatment of student protesters and demanded the university release a public statement calling for a cease-fire in Gaza and asked that the university divest from companies profiting off the conflict.

By 7:30 p.m., protesters had built a wall of wooden pallet boards, held together with nails and zip ties. The makeshift wall surrounded a dozen tents.

As they began to build their encampment, protest organizers said they had been told not to return to campus after an encampment and subsequent protest May 1 that resulted in violent clashes with law enforcement .

At 11:45 p.m., UA police and law enforcement from other agencies in riot gear lined up across from the encampment, inching forward and telling the crowd to leave. They threatened to use tear gas, pepper spray and pepper-spray balls on the remaining protesters. At that point, UA administration had given those in the encampment at least two warnings to disperse.

"We want you to leave peacefully," police told protesters through a loudspeaker.

"This is peaceful, go away," chanted faculty members in response to the police presence.

Another line of law enforcement officers, also in riot gear, quietly approached the encampment from another side as two tactical law enforcement trucks drove down Park Avenue toward the university's main gate.

Within minutes, protesters began throwing barricades, orange cones and their own tents and gear in front of the large trucks. The protesters eventually poured onto the street, facing off in front of officers, trying to stop them from advancing.

Shortly after midnight, the sound of projectiles being launched filled the streets in front of the university. Officers also deployed gas canisters, clearing the encampment and moving the protesters down University Boulevard away from campus. Observers said they saw law enforcement deploy rubber bullets.

"University President Robert C. Robbins has initiated a zero-tolerance approach to enforcing its campus use policy to protect the campus, students, faculty, visitors, and university events," according to a statement issued by the university early Friday.

"This evening, police vehicles have been spiked, and rocks and water bottles have been thrown at officers and university staff. Those who have violated the law are subject to arrest and prosecution. University officials have taken action to ensure the safety of Centennial Hall convocation attendees."

Last week, a similar protest ended in similar fashion. On May 1, police in riot gear deployed rubber bullets and chemical irritants against protesters, leading faculty and student groups to decry the use of force.

However, Robbins disagreed. He said protesters resisted arrest and threw "projectiles" at law enforcement and said the protesters and counter-protesters created a "volatile" environment on Park Avenue leading law enforcement to clear the street.

Reach the reporter at  [email protected] . The Republic’s coverage of southern Arizona is funded, in part, with a grant from Report for America. Support Arizona news coverage with a tax-deductible donation at  supportjournalism.azcentral.com.