Shelley D. Minteer named editor in chief of ACS Au journals

Shelley D. Minteer, Dale and Susan Poulter endowed chair of biological chemistry and associate chair of chemistry at the University of Utah, has been named editor in chief of the ACS Au portfolio of 9 fully open access journals, which the American Chemical Society will launch in 2021.

These journals include ACS Bio & Med Chem Au, ACS Engineering Au, ACS Environmental Au, ACS Materials Au, ACS Measurement Science Au, ACS Nanoscience Au, ACS Organic & Inorganic Au, ACS Physical Chemistry Au, and ACS Polymers Au. Submissions will open in January 2021.

“I am very honored to be named the editor in chief of these new journals,” Minteer says. “Open access is clearly the future of scientific publishing, so I am excited about the opportunity to help ACS journals move in this new direction with a new set of subdiscipline specific journals.”

Minteer’s immediate plans are to appoint deputy editors for each of the 9 journals and to work with them to appoint associate editors. “These choices are critical to building the reputation and communities for these journals. Similarly, choosing strong and supportive Editorial Advisory Boards and Early Career Advisory Boards is critical to the first year of the journal,” she says. “The long term goal is to have 9 journals with similar impact factors and respect as their sister hybrid journals.”

Minteer earned a BS in chemistry from Western Illinois University and a PhD in chemistry from the University of Iowa. Her research interests include electrocatalysis, batteries, organic electrosynthesis, synthetic biology, and biosensors. “The breadth of my research program provides me with insight into many of the existing subdiscipline-specific chemistry communities of the 9 new journal areas,” Minteer says.

“This ambitious portfolio is a significant investment in ACS’s belief in an open access future, and a new commitment to our authors,” says James Milne, president of ACS Publications in a press release. “As more of our author community wants or needs to publish in gold open access journals, we are dedicated to providing them with a range of high-quality publications in which to propel their research forward.”

“ACS has a fantastic reputation in the chemistry community for its high-quality and dependable peer review and speedy publication times,” says Minteer. “My vision is to translate these qualities to each of the open access journals.”