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!
