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Contributor guidelines & copyright

Chemistry in Australia is the magazine of The Royal Australian Chemical Institute Inc. (RACI). Our full colour, 44-page magazine is published 6 times per year.

We publish more than chemistry

Our editorial content reflects the diversity and character of chemistry and the RACI community, and we welcome contributions along these lines. Our content includes not only chemistry but also topics of interest and importance to chemists and all RACI members, including:

  • general features on themes that affect and engage chemists 
  • research, industry and general news
  • letters to the Editor
  • regular views and reviews on topics such as media, climate change, education and networking
  • special features covering careers in chemistry.

 

We are particularly interested in receiving feature articles in the following contexts: 

  • careers
  • opinion and debate
  • education
  • biography
  • cross-disciplinary, e.g. with arts, business, management, other enabling sciences
  • history
  • problems and challenges in chemistry and science
  • innovation and ‘big picture’ science
  • future trends.

What we are not

Chemistry in Australia is not a peer-reviewed journal. Contributions of a highly specialist or technical nature, with extensive reference lists, should be submitted to appropriate scientific and technical journals.

Preparing feature material

Our preferred article length is usually 1600 words (although our Q&A features are shorter). You should write for a general chemistry audience, in a relatively informal style, for example using the first person (‘we/I’). Your feature should start with one or two catchy ‘leader’ sentences, to engage the reader. Follow with the main contention or theme of the article; try to avoid extensive background, method or materials. Refrain from specialist terms where possible and define them clearly if they are included.

Reference lists should be avoided; instead, contributors should include essential citations within the text, e.g. ‘J. Smith and colleagues found that … (Chem. Aust. 2010, 7, 2)’. Alternatively, a short url or digital object identifier (DOI) can be used for online sources. If the information is accessible at several sources, the citation should be omitted altogether. 

Your article may be sent in confidence to our features subcommittee or to another reviewer before your submission is accepted.

Artwork

We welcome photographs and line illustrations. 

We require clearly named electronic files of photographs or line illustrations as high-resolution .jpg files (preferably 1300 pixels wide). 

Author proofs

If your article has been accepted for publication, it will be edited and typeset. We will then email or fax you a proof to check before the magazine is printed. Note that in-house proofreading of your article will happen concurrently at this stage. We may need to make changes to your article for the purposes of clarity or space.

Copyright

Unless otherwise stated, copyright of the text of Chemistry in Australia is held by the publisher, RACI. Permission to use part or all of a published article should be obtained from the RACI through Chemistry in Australia. We require that all contributors acknowledge and agree to the terms and conditions of the copyright transfer agreement (see panel). Note that by proceeding you will be acknowledging and accepting the copyright transfer agreement.

If you are submitting previously published text or images for which you do not hold copyright, you must obtain and supply written republication permission from the relevant copyright holder(s), and pay any associated fees, before submission to us.

Deadlines

Please contact the Editor for feature deadlines; however, your contribution may be scheduled for a later edition, depending on available space. The Editor can advise you when you make your submission.

Sending your contribution

Please email the following to the Editor, Sally Woollett at editor@raci.org.au:

  • the text of your article, in Microsoft Word 
  • any electronic artwork, as individual .jpg files
  • names, titles and affiliations of all authors.

 

 

Book and software reviews

To offer your services as a book or software reviewer for Chemistry in Australia, please contact Damien Blackwell at damo34@internode.on.net