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 Katherine Bujold, Sabrina Conoci, Tierui Zhang and Junpei Yuasa. We asked our reviewers a few questions about what they enjoy about reviewing, and their thoughts on how to provide a useful review.

Katherine Bujold, McMaster University. Katherine’s research group focuses on the synthesis and development of chemically modified DNA nanostructures for biological applications. More specifically, the group is studying how backbone modifications and biocompatible ligands can facilitate the cell entry and/or cell surface of nucleic acid-based nanostructures.

Tierui Zhang, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Tierui’s research focuses on the discovery of novel solar-responsive nanomaterials for the sustainable conversion of resource molecules such as water, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen into fuels and valuable chemicals.

Sabrina Conoci, University of Messina. Sabrina’s work involves the development of bio-nano-technologies for medical applications including PCR-free nucleic acids detection, cancer research and regenerative medicine

Junpei Yuasa, Tokyo University of Science. Junpei’s research interests include metal assemblies exhibiting chiroptical properties, such as circularly polarized luminescence (CPL).

What encouraged you to review for Chemical Science?

Sabrina Conoci: I was encouraged to review because Chemical Science is a top journal with cutting-edge research papers.

What piece of advice would you give your past self when preparing your first review?

Tierui Zhang:  I would like to suggest my past self develops his review skills by learning from excellent reviews. He should treat every manuscript with care and respect and give comments clearly, thoughtfully, and productively.

What do you enjoy most about reviewing?

Junpei Yuasa: I am always happy to review papers from Chemical Science, because I can learn a lot of new techniques and chemistry insights from the high quality manuscripts submitted to the journal.

Tierui Zhang: By reviewing, I can catch up with the state-of-the-art works in research fields I am interested in, which is important to identify the orientation and direction of my research.

What has been your biggest learning point from reviewing?

Katherine Bujold: It is important to give clear and constructive feedback for suggested improvements to the paper. This way, the authors will have an easier time making the proposed changes to their manuscript.

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 Esther Heid, Nicholas White, Sarit Agasti and Sharon Neufeldt. We asked our reviewers a few questions about what they enjoy about reviewing, and their thoughts on how to provide a useful review.

Esther Heid, Technische Universität Wien. Esther’s research focuses on machine learning and heuristics to describe the properties of molecules and chemical reactions.

Nicholas White, Australian National University. Nicholas’ group are focussed on supramolecular chemistry. They are particularly interested in systems that can self-assemble in water, for example cage molecules and hydrogen bonded frameworks.

Sarit Agasti, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR). The central theme of Sarit’s research is ‘Molecular recognition in synthetic systems. Areas of application include super-resolution imaging, sensing, and developing new approaches for delivering and activating therapeutic materials.

Sharon Neufeldt, Montana State University. The Neufeldt lab’s research focuses on mechanistic organometallic chemistry, with a particular interest in controlling the selectivity of transition metal catalysts.

What encouraged you to review for Chemical Science?

Sharon Neufeldt: Chemical Science publishes a lot of work that is relevant to my group’s research interests, so I am generally interested in supporting this journal through peer review. Furthermore, my experience publishing in Chem. Sci. was really amazing – we received the most constructive and thorough reviewer comments I’ve ever had, which gave me a deeper appreciation of this journal’s review process.

Nicholas White: I think reviewing is an important part of the job. I submit papers and expect people to review them, so it’s only fair that I return the favour. I really like reviewing for Chemical Science in particular because most of the papers I review are high quality and interesting – they’re papers I’ll end up reading any way so it’s fun to review them.

What do you enjoy most about reviewing?

Esther Heid: I enjoy helping researchers improve their work by providing constructive comments. Furthermore, it is exciting to read about the newest research before it is actually published.

Sarit Agasti: Besides reading science first-hand, I enjoy giving critical thinking to an experimental outcome or an unusual finding. The thing about being a reviewer is that you get to clarify your doubts directly from the authors-which is precious.

What advice would you give a first-time author looking to maximise their chances of successful peer review?

Nicholas White: Minimise the hype! Reviewers are researchers themselves and can see through it straight away. Personally, if a paper starts with two paragraphs of hyperbole about improbable applications or changing the world or “paradigm shifts,” I get pretty grumpy. I’d much rather read a paper that probes an important question, is open about its limitations and comes to valid conclusions than one that makes outlandish claims. I’d also suggest being selective with your citations, huge lists of citations just make it harder to find the really relevant prior work.

Sharon Neufeldt: It’s so important to clearly articulate why your research matters and how it represents an advance in knowledge or application. If a reviewer happens to be one of the small number of other researchers in the world working on nearly the same thing, they will immediately recognize the importance without you having to spell it out. However, it’s more likely that one or more of your reviewers will be pretty unfamiliar with the specifics of the research area and can’t easily appreciate why your work is exciting unless you make it obvious.

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

Esther Heid: In my opinion, high-quality manuscripts should be compelling, reproducible, and supported by data. A great piece of research might not get published if it is written poorly, has no clear message or is described insufficiently, thus constructing a compelling story is a must. A manuscript that is not reproducible due to missing information or code cannot produce a large impact on the community. Finally, a bold conclusion that is not or only partially supported by data might prove false later and hinder scientific advancement.

What has been your biggest learning point from reviewing?

Esther Heid: When writing a manuscript, I try to look at it also from the perspective of a reviewer: Is the message clear, interesting, and supported by data? Is the given information enough to reproduce all results? Through reviewing, I learned to focus on these important points.

How do you balance reviewing with your other activities?

Sarit Agasti: I usually give a few thorough readings before I am ready to write the comments. I try to include the reading part within my daily schedule of reading newly published articles. Once I am prepared to write the comments, I book the earliest empty slot in my calendar and finish the review.

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 Venkat Kapil, Shina Kamerlin, Douglas Stephan and Ruth Brenk. We asked our reviewers a few questions about what they enjoy about reviewing, and their thoughts on how to provide a useful review.

Venkat Kapil, University of Cambridge. I develop advanced computational methods in the domains of high-end electronic structure, statistical mechanics, and machine learning to push the accuracy and efficiency of first-principles simulations. I apply them to study molecular systems at bulk, interfaces and in nanoscale confinement.

Shina Kamerlin, Georgia Institute of Technology. I’m a computational biochemist, my research group uses a variety of molecular simulation approaches to understand the chemical basis for complex biological problems. We are particularly interested in understanding how new proteins evolve, and how they can be engineered to be used in biomedical and industrial applications.

Douglas Stephan, University of Toronto. Our research is focused on frustrated Lewis pairs and main group Lewis acids in the activation of small molecules and derived applications in catalytic reactions and organic synthesis.

Ruth Brenk, University of Bergen. In my group, we make use of the 3D structures of target molecules to design new ligands that have the potential to be further developed to new drugs. Currently, we work on RNA and protein targets, mainly in the field of antibiotics.

What encouraged you to review for Chemical Science?

Shina Kamerlin: I want to support the journal. As a long-time RSC member, I very much value our society, and supporting the RSC including through peer review for RSC journals is important to me. Furthermore, Chemical Science has been a great success story as a flagship journal for the RSC, publishing excellent science, as well as providing a best-practice template for what a high-quality Diamond Open Access journal could look like.

Douglas Stephan: Chem Sci is a journal focused on a broad range of exceptional chemistry where the editorial standards rank with the best in chemistry.

What do you enjoy most about reviewing?

Venkat Kapil: I learn a lot about the latest advances in the field.

Douglas Stephan: I always learn something from reviewing a paper. It may be new techniques, new reagents, or simply new chemistry.

Ruth Brenk: I enjoy reviewing high quality science about topics that interest me. It is also fun if I can give some advice on how to improve an article, but for sure, it’s most fun if I can recommend an article for publication without any further revisions needed.

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

Shina Kamerlin: First of all, scientific rigor is really important to me as a reviewer. Is the work done to the highest quality standards in the author’s field? Are there any glaring technical errors that need to be addressed? Secondly, does the paper push forward the boundaries science? Are there important conceptual or methodological advances in the work? I am also mindful of the broad readership Chemical Science, and consider whether this is a manuscript that will be appreciated also by other chemists (and chemistry-adjacent scientists from other disciplines), not just those within the authors’ immediate area of expertise? Finally, a well-written paper that reads well is important, in that the paper is ideally well-structured with arguments that can be followed in a logical way, without confusing the readers, especially those that are not experts in the immediate area of the paper.

Venkat Kapil: New scientific discoveries or innovative methods that advance the state-of-the-art in the broad subject of Chemistry. In terms of the scientific methods, I set the same benchmarks that I set for myself. I also emphasize the need to provide data / code for reproducibility.

What advice would you give a first-time author looking to maximise their chances of successful peer review?

Ruth Brenk: 1) Put a lot of effort in the writing and using precise language. A reviewer is not an editing service. 2) Chose a journal in which your article fits in. Find out in which journal similar articles have been published, they are probably a good start.

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

Douglas Stephan: As I mentioned the standards are very high, so I would encourage authors to be thorough, in the chemistry, the writing and referencing. In addition, I would say be your own worst critic, so you can see the flaws before the referees.

Are there any steps that reviewers can undertake to improve the quality of their review?

Shina Kamerlin: It’s important that reviewers remember that even if they don’t necessarily know the authors personally, these are colleagues. The authors may include students as well, for some of whom this may be their first paper and experience publishing. It is important to be mindful of the fact that one is interacting with real people during the review process, and even if one disagrees with methodology or conclusions of the paper, the aim is to be constructive in conveying this information. Think about how you would feel if you were the one receiving the report you are writing, and write the kind of report you would like to receive yourself. The ideal report will highlight strengths and weaknesses of the paper, be specific when it comes to weaknesses (rather than vague or generalized comments that can be hard for the authors to improve from), and ideally provide suggestions as to how the weaknesses can be addressed and improved upon. The hoped for outcome would be that upon receiving the review, the authors receive the information they need to improve their work to the level that it is either suitable for publication in Chemical Science, or another high-quality specialist journal, as relevant.

How do you balance reviewing with your other activities?

Douglas Stephan: I often use weekends or evenings as a great time for reviewing. You read something interesting and offer a constructive assessment, while trying to place the work in larger context for the editor, and at the same time trying to help the authors make an even better paper.

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!