Royal Society of Chemistry Advances

Royal Society of Chemistry Advances
Title	Royal Society of Chemistry Advances
Discipline	Chemistry
Publisher	Royal Society of Chemistry
Country	United Kingdom
History	2010–present
Frequency	Continuous
Openaccess	Hybrid

Royal Society of Chemistry Advances Royal Society of Chemistry Advances is a peer-reviewed chemistry journal published by the Royal Society of Chemistry. Founded to broaden dissemination of chemical research, it sits alongside publishers and institutions such as the Royal Society, American Chemical Society, Nature Publishing Group, Springer Nature, and Wiley-Blackwell in the global scholarly communication landscape. The journal engages readers from institutions like University of Cambridge, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Oxford, Stanford University, and Peking University while competing with titles such as Chemical Communications, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Angewandte Chemie, Chemistry—A European Journal, and Nature Chemistry.

History and Establishment

The journal was established amid changes in publishing led by organizations including the Wellcome Trust, European Research Council, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and advocacy around policies from the Open Society Foundations and directives such as the Plan S initiative. Its launch paralleled shifts observed at publishers like Elsevier, Taylor & Francis, and SAGE Publications, and intersected with debates involving funders like the National Institutes of Health, UK Research and Innovation, and European Commission. Early editorial choices reflected models used by titles managed by the Royal Society of Chemistry and discussions among editorial boards from institutions such as Imperial College London and University College London.

Scope and Aims

The journal covers core areas represented at conferences and societies such as the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, including research topics pursued at California Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich, Columbia University, and Tsinghua University. Aims mirror priorities cited by bodies like the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and align with thematic emphases found in journals from Royal Society Publishing, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and specialty outlets such as Organic Letters, Inorganic Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry, and Physical Review Letters. The scope spans fields with practitioners at laboratories like Los Alamos National Laboratory, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Max Planck Society, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Editorial Structure and Peer Review

Editorial governance follows conventions seen at Nature Research, Cell Press, Proceedings of the Royal Society A, and society publishers including American Chemical Society Publications and Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. Boards have included academics affiliated with University of California, Berkeley, University of Tokyo, University of Melbourne, Seoul National University, and Indian Institute of Science. Peer review workflows interact with platforms developed by firms such as Editorial Manager, ScholarOne, and community initiatives linked to arXiv and bioRxiv, and are subject to standards advocated by organizations like the Committee on Publication Ethics and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.

Publication Model and Access Policies

The journal adopted a hybrid open-access model, reflecting policies debated by funders including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, National Science Foundation, and the Wellcome Trust, and echoing transformative agreements negotiated with consortia such as COAR and cOAlition S. Pricing and institutional subscriptions have involved negotiations with university libraries represented by groups like the Association of Research Libraries and national consortia such as Jisc. Licensing options reference models used by publishers including PLOS, Frontiers Media, MDPI, and Elsevier.

Abstracting, Indexing, and Impact

The journal is indexed alongside titles listed in databases operated by Clarivate Analytics, Scopus, PubMed Central, and specialized services such as Chemical Abstracts Service and Directory of Open Access Journals. Impact measures are compared with indicators published by Journal Citation Reports, bibliometric studies from Leiden University, and citation databases maintained by Google Scholar and Dimensions. Metrics and rankings place the journal within the competitive landscape including journals from ACS Publications, Wiley, and Royal Society Publishing.

Notable Articles and Special Issues

Notable contributions have addressed topics pursued at research centers like Scripps Research Institute, Broad Institute, Max Planck Institute for Coal Research, and RIKEN and include work related to technologies and themes prominent at conferences such as the American Chemical Society National Meeting, Gordon Research Conferences, and International Conference on Chemical Engineering. Special issues have been guest-edited by scholars from ETH Zurich, Harvard University, Princeton University, and University of California, San Diego and have focused on themes similar to collections in Nature Materials, Chemical Reviews, and Advanced Materials.

Controversies and Criticism

Criticism of the journal has mirrored broader debates involving publishers like Elsevier and Springer Nature over topics highlighted by advocates such as Aaron Swartz and commentators associated with Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition; issues include article processing charges, editorial decisions reminiscent of disputes seen at Science and Nature, and questions about reproducibility emphasized by initiatives from the Reproducibility Project and discussions in venues like Retraction Watch. Responses have involved policy updates comparable to those implemented by PLOS and adoption of best practices promoted by the Committee on Publication Ethics.

Category:Chemistry journals