ACS Speeds Web Publication

Yesterday, the American Chemical Society began a pilot program that will make some journal papers available online about two to seven weeks quicker than was the case previously. Authors publishing in ACS Chemical Biology, Biochemistry, Journal of Proteome Research, and Molecular Pharmaceutics can opt to have their peer-reviewed, accepted manuscripts posted on the ACS Publications website within three days of acceptance. These "Just Accepted" manuscripts, (see example here) which are free to all readers, are assigned a digital object identifier (DOI) that can be used to cite the papers. "ACS is providing this service to expedite the dissemination of scientific information in a fully citable format," says Evelyn Jabri, senior acquisitions editor and project leader.

A "Just Accepted" manuscript then proceeds through the usual ACS production process: Technical editors edit and format it for the Web, and authors approve galleys. The final published article retains the same DOI as the "Just Accepted" manuscript, ensuring that citations link to the final scientific article of record when it becomes available.

Biochemistry Editor Richard N. Armstrong says the "Just Accepted" program moves a paper into the public domain as rapidly as possible. That's particularly useful for grant applicants, who can cite these papers as being already published. But some authors are leery about releasing a paper before it's in its final form, Armstrong says.

ACS, which is C&EN's publisher, will monitor the number of authors and readers who use the feature and will assess the impact of the public availability of accepted manuscripts, Jabri says.

Armstrong notes that "some of our stiffest competition in the biological realm of chemistry" offer a similar service. The American Society for Biochemistry & Molecular Biology (ASBMB), for instance, has offered such a program for its journals, including Journal of Biological Chemistry , since 2002.

ASBMB's "Papers in Press" program reduces the time from acceptance to publication by six to eight weeks, Director of Publications Nancy Rodnan says. The society places each accepted manuscript in a permanent, publicly accessible archive on the respective journal's website, but this free access hasn't eroded subscription demand, she notes.