Chemical Science Blog

To further thank and recognise the support from our excellent reviewer community, we are highlighting reviewers who have provided exceptional support to the journal over the past year.

This month, we’ll be highlighting Dr Arundhati Deshmukh, Dr Zhiliang Wang and Professor Biplab Maji. We asked our reviewers a few questions about what they enjoy about reviewing, and their thoughts on how to provide a useful review.

Dr Arundhati Deshmukh, Stanford University. My current research is related to the broad family of halide perovskites. I design new derivatives of the original perovskites structures, specifically layered perovskites that can emit broadband white-light through a complex excited state landscape.

Dr Zhiliang Wang, the University of Queensland. My research focuses on materials innovation and mechanism understanding in solar energy conversion, such as photoelectrocatalysis, photocatalysis and electrocatalysis.

Professor Biplab Maji, IISER Kolkata. My research focuses on developing diverse catalytic strategies using cheap and abundant resources for environmentally benign and economically sound catalytic transformations.

What encouraged you to review for Chemical Science?

Dr Zhiliang Wang: My first paper was published in Chemical Science. The high requirement and professional peer-review impress me a lot. The paper published in this journal has a high quality. The peer-review for Chemical Science gives me a good chance to get the very first taste of some potential eye-catching researches.

Dr Arundhati Deshmukh: I have always followed the journal for its interdisciplinary showcase, it’s a great way to get acquainted with interesting work outside of your sub-discipline. So, when I received a review request and the paper looked interesting to me, I didn’t even have to think twice.

What do you enjoy most about reviewing?

Professor Biplab Maji: What I particularly enjoy about reviewing manuscripts is the opportunity to engage with the latest research findings and contribute to advancing knowledge in the field.

Dr Zhiliang Wang: I enjoy the comments-reply very much because it provides a channel to have a critical communication about science. It is much like a scientific argument, during which it will deepen my understanding about the research topic.

Do you have any advice to our readers seeking publication in Chemical Science on what makes a good paper?

Professor Biplab Maji: First, ensure your work’s originality and clarity, and always try to get peer feedback from your colleagues, mentors, or collaborators before submitting your paper.

What are you looking for in a paper that you can recommend for acceptance in Chemical Science?

Dr Arundhati Deshmukh: I love seeing papers where fundamental chemistry or a chemical insight/principle is directly related to an impactful solution to current challenges or discovers a new and interesting phenomenon. Of course, it goes without saying that the work has to be sound and well-written, and the findings sufficiently substantiated.

Tune in next month to meet our next group of #ChemSciReviewers!

If you want to learn more about how we support our reviewers, check out our Reviewer Hub.

Interested in joining our ever-growing reviewer community? Apply here now!

To further thank and recognise the support from our excellent reviewer community, we are highlighting reviewers who have provided exceptional support to the journal over the past year.

This month, we’ll be highlighting Dr Zachariah Page, Professor Selvan Demir, and Professor Vicent Moliner. We asked our reviewers a few questions about what they enjoy about reviewing, and their thoughts on how to provide a useful review.

Dr Zachariah Page, University of Texas at Austin. Dr Page’s research group uses light as an energy source to rapidly and efficiently create next generation “smart” plastics that are more mechanically robust than existing materials.

Professor Selvan Demir, Michigan State University. Professor Demir’s research has a strong emphasis on organometallic rare earth metal and actinide chemistry to develop compounds that are relevant for the design of next generation single-molecule magnets and qubits, with potential applications in high-density information storage and quantum computing.

Professor Vicent Moliner, Jaume I University. Professor Moliner’s research interests are in theoretical studies of biological processes, particularly enzyme-catalyzed processes, by means of multiscale simulations. The major lines of research in his group are devoted to the design of artificial enzymes and the design of enzyme inhibitors.

What encouraged you to review for Chemical Science?

Dr Zachariah Page: Chemical Science is a premier journal that covers a wide breadth of cutting-edge chemistry research, including within the field of polymer science that is my area of expertise. Reviewing for this journal allows me to give back to the scientific community in a meaningful way.

Professor Selvan Demir: I consider reviewing a responsible and crucial service to the research community and I strive to provide authors with useful feedback based on my expertise. Personally, I truly appreciate receiving insightful comments on my articles.

Professor Vicent Moliner: Despite it taking a lot of our time, reviewing is part of our job as members of the scientific community. By the same token, we expect our manuscripts to be reviewed in a fair and professional manner by other colleagues.

What do you enjoy most about reviewing?

Dr Zachariah Page: It is always exciting to get a sneak peak of up and coming science before it has become publicly available, which reviewing allows for.

Professor Selvan Demir: I enjoy reading about new discoveries, extraordinary results, and inspiring concepts. Reviewing a paper allows me to delve into the new findings and thoroughly learn about them.

Professor Vicent Moliner: I always learn by reviewing high level manuscripts that are submitted to Chemical Science. In addition, the discussions established with the authors are usually debates of quality.

What makes a paper truly stand out for you when reviewing a paper?

Dr Zachariah Page: The papers that stand out the most to me are those where the figures clearly tell the story and when the results (e.g., metrics) are placed into context with state-of-the-art examples, either commercial or academic.

Did reviewing for Chemical Science affect how you approached preparation of your previous publications with us?

Professor Selvan Demir: For sure. I pay more attention to the accessibility of the paper to a broad readership. This ranges from implementing a clear language to providing sufficient scientific evidence for the reported science and drawn conclusions. Chemical Science is one of the leading journals last but not least because the papers are available to many scientists around the world through the Diamond Open Access which is yet another motivation to both review for and publish in this outstanding journal.

What are you looking for in a paper that you can recommend for acceptance in Chemical Science?

Professor Vicent Moliner: A real new contribution to the field, with relevant conclusions, originality, good practice, and reproducibility of the experimental/computational part.

Tune in next month to meet our next group of #ChemSciReviewers!

If you want to learn more about how we support our reviewers, check out our Reviewer Hub.

Interested in joining our ever-growing reviewer community? Apply here now!