Acta Physico-Chimica Sinica is an academic journal supervised by the China Association for Science and Technology, jointly organized by the Chinese Chemical Society and Peking University, and edited and published by the Editorial Department of the Journal of Physical Chemistry at the College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University. It is a monthly publication distributed publicly both domestically and internationally, featuring original research results in the field of physical chemistry. Following international publishing practices, the journal operates under the responsibility of the Editor-in-Chief and Associate Editors, with all published articles subject to peer review. It has been indexed in SCI since 1997.
1. Manuscript Format
Acta Physico-Chimica Sinica accepts various types of articles, including communications, perspectives, reviews, and papers. All types of articles should include abstracts, keywords, introductions, conclusions, and a table of contents (TOC).
1.1 Communication: Rapid publication of original and significant research results in physical chemistry, with an ideal length of 3000-4000 words. Authors should specify the reason for submitting as a communication to aid peer review.
1.2 Perspective: In-depth analysis of recent research hotspots, highlighting potential directions for significant progress or challenges based on important contributors and literature. Perspectives can address controversies or propose speculative hypotheses without length restrictions.
1.3 Review: Systematic and comprehensive review and evaluation of the research progress in physical chemistry by the author and their research group over the years, providing insights into the development of related fields. The main content should focus on the author's research work and academic achievements, with some comparison to others' research. Authors should address potential controversies, development directions, and the significance in the field of physical chemistry without length restrictions.
1.4 Review: In-depth review and commentary on an active and rapidly developing field of physical chemistry based on the author's research work, excluding literature summaries. There are no length restrictions for reviews.
1.5 Paper: Reporting original research results with potential impact in the field of physical chemistry. Research papers based on communications must offer substantial extensions rather than just detailed information or increased sample sizes. Manuscripts should comprehensively, clearly, and concisely describe the research process and results without length restrictions.
2. Manuscript Preparation
2.1 Acceptance of manuscripts written in English or Chinese. For ease of inclusion in domestic and international databases, both Chinese and English manuscripts should include titles, author names and affiliations, abstracts, and keywords in both languages. Double-blind peer review is implemented, with the main text and author information separated. Please refer to the article template on the official website.
2.1.1 Article titles should be clear and concise, highlighting the main content and uniqueness of the article. Chinese and English titles should have consistent meanings. Avoid using words like ""study,"" ""explore,"" or ""initial exploration"" in the title. The initial letters of substantive words in English titles should be capitalized, with the rest in lowercase.
2.1.2 Chinese Pinyin for author names should have the surname capitalized followed by the given name in uppercase. Avoid hyphens between the two names, e.g., Guobin Ouyang. Please mark an asterisk () above the name of the corresponding author. Author affiliations in English should be written in full without abbreviations.
2.1.3 Provide the email address and phone number of the corresponding author in the footer of the article. If the work reported in the manuscript received funding, please specify the accurate funding name and approval number in both Chinese and English in the footer.
2.1.4 The Chinese abstract should concisely and accurately describe the main content of the article, including research objectives, methods, results, and conclusions, with a recommended length of 200-400 words. To enhance international impact, authors should provide a detailed English abstract, elaborating on the innovative content, research methods, key experimental procedures, important results, and main conclusions, with a recommended length of 200-400 words. Avoid complex chemical structures, images, and formulas in the abstract. Avoid citing references in the abstract unless the article confirms or refutes previously published results.
2.1.5 English keywords should correspond to the Chinese keywords, with 5-8 keywords reflecting the characteristics of the article, avoiding repetition of words already in the title.
2.1.6 The introduction should discuss the results of previously reported literature relevant to the article's content. It should not simply describe what someone did and what results and conclusions were obtained but should provide a deep summary and analysis. The introduction should clearly and concisely state the research objectives without detailing specific results or conclusions.
2.1.7 To facilitate interested readers in replicating experimental (computational) results: the experimental section should provide sufficient experimental details and potential hazards; special reagents should include the manufacturer and purity, while common reagents only need purity information; major instruments should include the manufacturer's name, location, country, model, and key experimental parameters; the computational section should detail the program used, version, calculation steps, methods, and parameters.
2.1.8 The results and discussion section should accurately present the main results, ensuring logical consistency between data and text. It should provide in-depth discussion based on literature results, rather than just describing the results, and discuss whether the results achieve the research objectives stated in the introduction.
2.1.9 The conclusion section should present the conclusions of the study, provide appropriate comments on the importance, innovation, new contributions to the field, and unresolved issues.
2.2 Abbreviations, acronyms, or codes for professional terms should be fully spelled out or explained upon their first occurrence.
2.3 Physical quantities (symbols should be italicized) and units in the manuscript are recommended to be expressed according to the provisions of the National Standard of the People's Republic of China GB3100-3102.93 for quantities and units. When using compound units, please use a dot multiplication symbol between units, such as J·K-1·mol-1. For physical quantities requiring superscripts or subscripts, the positioning of characters should be clearly distinguished, e.g., SBET、rn, etc.
2.4 Longer or emphasized formulas in the text are recommended to be placed on a separate line. Organic compounds and general complexes should preferably not be represented by structural formulas. Especially when used in text and tables, simple chemical formulas or appropriate chemical names should be used. For complex structural formulas, the compound can be assigned a figure number and referenced by this number in the text and tables.
2.5 When writing formulas containing fractions in the text, use slanted fraction lines, e.g., ΔS = Qr/T, θ = b/(1 + b). Formulas with square roots should be expressed in exponent form, e.g., F(α) = 1- (1-α)-1/2. For more complex exponential functions with the base e, use the exp form, e.g., exp(-Ea/RT).
2.6 It is recommended to format manuscripts using WORD 2016 or later versions, with font size 12, using SimSun for Chinese text and Times New Roman for English text. Font color should be black, with bold titles and headings, and 1.5 line spacing. Avoid using formula editors for simple letters, symbols, and formulas. Insert Greek letters (such as α, β) directly without converting English letters (a, b) to Symbol characters (α, β) to prevent display issues due to font conversion.
2.7 Figures and Tables
2.7.1 Figures and tables should be numbered sequentially in the order they appear in the text using Arabic numerals (e.g., Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3...; Table 1, Table 2, Table 3...) and all figures and tables must be referenced in the text in the same order.
2.7.2 For the understanding of international readers, figures and tables should be self-explanatory. Figures and tables should have corresponding titles in both Chinese and English (English articles do not require Chinese titles), with titles kept concise. Explanatory text and symbol explanations should be placed in the figure caption or table note. Figure captions, table notes, and all text within figures and tables should be in English only.
2.7.3 Figures can be in .TIF, .JPG, .PCX formats, with a preference for .TIF. Line graphs are recommended to be created using Origin (version 8.0 and above), then converted to .TIF format and inserted into a Word document. The maximum width for single-column images is 8 cm, and for full-column images is 17 cm. The resolution of figures should meet the following standards: 600 dpi for black and white line graphs, 300 dpi for grayscale images, and 300 dpi for color images. Please provide clear original image files whenever possible.
2.7.4 Figures should have uniform black lines, with curves positioned centrally and aesthetically pleasing. The thickness of curves should be twice that of the axes. If differentiation is needed for multiple curves, consider using alphabetical labeling. All text in figures should be in Arial font. Coordinate scales in figures should face inwards. Photographs should have clear contrast and distinct layers; microscopic images should indicate size proportions.
2.7.5 Tables should follow the three-line table format, with appropriate column configurations.
2.7.6 Coordinate axes and table headers should use the symbol for the physical quantity (avoid complex English terms) along with the unit symbol ratio, such as ΔG/(kJ·mol-1), T/K, t/s. Coordinate scales in figures and numerical values in tables should be listed.
2.7.7 Figures and tables in the text should be essential for conveying the article's theme. Repetition of the same batch of experimental data in figures and tables should be avoided, and irrelevant figures and tables should not be included to increase length. Supplementary figures and tables that support the article's theme can be published as ""Supporting Information"" on the website.
2.7.8 Please provide color images whenever possible to facilitate the creation of color PDF documents. When working with articles containing a mix of text and images in Word, embed the images at the appropriate locations to prevent unpredictable movement.
2.8 References
2.8.1 For the convenience of domestic and international database indexing, Chinese references should be recorded in both English and Chinese. If a reference has fewer than 10 authors, all authors should be listed. If a reference has more than 10 authors, only the first 10 should be listed, with ""et al."" used for the rest. When citing articles recently published in physical chemistry and chemical physics journals, it should emphasize the significance of the manuscript to readers of Acta Physico-Chimica Sinica.
2.8.2 The reference format should follow The Journal of Physical Chemistry A/B/C. When using software like Endnote, Reference Manager, ProCite for inserting and managing references, please use The Journal of Physical Chemistry A/B/C citation style. Below are specific examples, for more detailed information, refer to The ACS Style Guide.
2.8.3 References should be numbered sequentially from 1 based on their appearance in the text (references cited in figures and tables should also be cited in the main text). In-text citations should be indicated with superscript numbers without parentheses at appropriate locations in the sentence. All references in the reference list should be mentioned in the main text, not solely in figures or tables. When citing authors, place the reference number after the last name of the cited author. For 2 authors, list both authors (e.g., Zhang and Li^3); for 3 or more authors, list as 'First author + et al.' or 'Corresponding author + et al.' When citing multiple references, separate them with commas without spaces, and for 3 or more consecutive references, use an en dash to connect the first and last reference numbers. Reference numbers in the reference list should be enclosed in parentheses (e.g., (8)).
2.8.4 Journal: List in the order of a) Author. Journal Abbreviation. Year, Volume, Page; b) For journals with page numbering starting from 1 in each issue, provide the volume number in the format Volume (Issue); c) For supplements, use Volume (Suppl. Issue) format; d) For journals without volume numbers, especially those with page numbering starting from 1 in each issue, use No. Issue format. Journal abbreviations should follow CASSI (Chemical Abstract Service Source Index) or can be checked on the SCI website (isiknowledge.com/jcr) for ISO abbreviation forms of SCI-indexed journals. Single-word journal titles do not need abbreviation. Documents with DOI numbers need to include the DOI number.
Example 1a Sahu, S.; Goldberg, D. P. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2016, 138, 11410. doi: 10.1021/jacs.6b05251
Example 1b Hulling, P. Chem. Eng. News 2005, 83 (42), 7.
Example 1c Ao, B. Y.; Ye, X. Q.; Chen, P. H. Acta Phys. -Chim. Sin. 2015, 31 (Suppl. 1), 3. [敖冰云, 叶小球, 陈丕恒. 物理化学学报, 2015, 31 (Suppl. 1), 3.] doi: 10.3866/PKU.WHXB2014Ac01
Example 1d Goldberg, I.; Bernstein, J. Chem. Commun. 2007, No. 2, 132. doi: 10.1039/b609263b
2.8.5 Monographs, Translations: Author. Title of Work, Edition; Publisher: City, Country of Publisher, Year of Publication; Volume, Page Range. List in sequential order.
Example 2 Schmickler, W.; Santos, E. Interfacial Electrochemistry, 2nd ed.; Springer: Heidelberg, Germany, 2010; pp. 99–113.
Example 3 Oyama, M.; Umar, A. A.; Zhang, J. D. Recent Advances in Metal Nanoparticle-Attached Electodes. In Advanced
Nanomaterials; Geckeler, K. E., Nishide, H. Eds.; Wiley: San Francisco, CA, USA, 2010; pp. 171–188.
Example 4 Casser, R. P. H. An Introduction to Chemisorption and Catalysis by Metals; Peking University Press: Beijing, 1991; pp. 228–241; translated by Zhao, B. Y., Wu, N. Z., Bu, N. Y. [Casser, R. P. H. 金属的化学吸附和催化作用导论. 赵璧英, 吴念祖, 卜乃瑜, 译. 北京: 北京大学出版社, 1991: 228–241.]
2.8.6 Conference Papers: Conference proceedings must be formal publications to be listed as references. They should be cited as Author(s). Title. In Book Title, Conference Name, Conference Location, Conference Date; Editor(s), Eds.; Publisher: City, Country of Publisher, Year of Publication; Page Range. List in sequential order.
Example 5 Zhao, X. S.; Ugliengo, P. Cataluminescence Performance on Catalysts of Graphene Supported Platinum. In Structure and Reactivity of Surfaces, Proceedings of the European Conference, Trieste, Italy, Sept 13–20, 2008; Zecchina, G., Cost, P., Morterra, D., Eds.; Elsevier: Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2009.
2.8.7 Patents: Record in the following order: ""Inventor. Patent Title. Patent Number, Publication Date or Public Announcement Date.""
Example 6 Li, X. H.; Geng, W. G.; Pan, W. P.; Duan, H. L. Synthesis of 1-Diester-3-alkylimidazolium Ionic Liquids. CN Patent 10032669.X, 2005-01-04. [李雪辉, 耿卫国, 潘微平, 段红丽. 1-双酯基-3-烷基咪唑离子液体及其制备方法. 中国, CN10032669.X[P]. 2005-01-04.]
Example 7 Jantschoff, K.; Lensen, F. C.; Kiudrowski, P.; Mossing, W. Pt/FTO Counter Electrode for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Prepared by Sputtering-Displacement. Eur. Pat. Appl. 7458483, 2009.
2.8.8 Thesis/Dissertation: Author. Title. Degree, Granting Institution Name, Location of Granting Institution, Year of Granting. Listed in order.
Example 8 Liao, W. Study on Novel Protein Chip and Biosensors Based on FTIR-ATR. Ph. D. Dissertation, Peking University, Beijing, 2005. [廖玮. 新型蛋白质芯片及基于全反射红外的生物传感器的研究[博士学位论文]. 北京: 北京大学, 2005.]
Example 9 Cao, P. Z. Simulations of the PEMFC Catalyst Layer by Monte Carlo Method. M. S. Dissertation, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 2007. [曹鹏贞. PEMFC催化层的Monte Carlo模拟[硕士学位论文]. 天津: 天津大学, 2007.]
2.8.9 Electronic Documents: Listed in order by access or retrieval path (Access Date).
Example 10 http://www.whxb.pku.edu.cn/EN/1000-6818/home.shtml (accessed on Oct 9, 2020).
2.8.10 Software: Author. Software Name, Version; Publisher: Place of Publication, Year of Publication. Listed in order.
Example 11 Frisch, M. J.; Trucks, G. W.; Schlegel, H. B.; Scuseria, G. E.; Robb, M. A.; Cheeseman, J. R.; Montgomery, J. A., Jr.; Vreven, T.; Kudin, K. N.; Burant, J. C.; et al. Gaussian 03, Revision B.05; Gaussian Inc.: Wallingford, CT, USA, 2004.
2.9 Author Contributions
Each author should have made substantial contributions to the paper, including the design or conception of the study, data acquisition, analysis or interpretation, creation of new software used in the paper, drafting or substantial revision of the manuscript; and have participated in the final approval of the submitted version (and any significantly modified version by journal editors) and agree to be accountable for their contributions and ensure the accuracy or integrity of the manuscript, including parts they did not personally participate in. For research papers with multiple authors, a brief statement should be provided outlining the specific contributions of each author. The following statement should be used: ""Conceptualization, X.X. and Y.Y.; Methodology, X.X.; Software, X.X.; Validation, X.X., Y.Y. and Z.Z.; Formal Analysis, X.X.; Investigation, X.X.; Resources, X.X.; Data Curation, X.X.; Writing – Original Draft Preparation, X.X.; Writing – Review & Editing, X.X.; Visualization, X.X.; Supervision, X.X.; Project Administration, X.X.; Funding Acquisition, Y.Y.”
3. Submission
3.1. We recommend submitting online at (https://www.whxb.pku.edu.cn). If you encounter difficulties with online submission, please send your manuscript to the editorial department's email inbox (whxb@pku.edu.cn).
3.2. Please include a Cover Letter with your submission, highlighting the article's key points (innovations), providing contact information for the corresponding author (should be the academic responsible person for the article or a stable individual from the unit), and contact details for all authors (mailing address, postal code, phone, email). Recommend at least three expert reviewers and confirm that there are no disputes regarding the unit and authorship. For articles with foreign authors, include a letter (or email) from the individual consenting to the publication of the article in our journal.
4. Manuscript Review and Fees
4.1. Within one week of receiving the manuscript, the Editor-in-Chief and Associate Editors will conduct an initial review. When the manuscript is under external review, please submit a copyright authorization letter signed by the corresponding author. The average peer review period is 14 days, but at times, due to busy reviewers, the review process may take longer, generally not exceeding 3 weeks. For manuscripts recommended for publication after review, the handling editor will provide the peer review comments and formatting suggestions to the authors.
4.2. After revisions based on the review comments and further editing, the manuscript will enter the typesetting and layout stage (accessible for tracking in the submission system). If an acceptance certificate is required, please contact the handling editor.
4.3. Starting from 2008, manuscript review fees (registration fees) have been discontinued.
4.4. Starting from July 2015, page charges have been discontinued. There are no charges for online color images; however, for color printing in the print version, a cost of 800 RMB per printed page is applicable. Upon publication, each author will receive one copy of the current issue.
Bank: Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Haidian West District Branch, Beijing
Account Name: Peking University
Account Number: 0200004509089131151 (Please indicate ""Acta Physico-chimica Sinica + Manuscript Number (or Corresponding Author's Name)"" on the remittance form)
4.5. Articles published in our journal are freely abstracted by abstracting journals and indexing agencies (such as ISI, CA, Chinese Academic Journal Abstracts), and the full-text electronic version is publicly available on our journal website and online journal databases (such as Wanfang Data, China Academic Journals Network, VIP Full-text Electronic Journals, and Taiwan's CEPS). If you have any objections, please declare them in advance when submitting.
5. Contact Address: Editorial Department of Acta Physico-chimica Sinica, School of Chemistry, Peking University, Postal Code: 100871
Tel: +86-10-62751724, 62756388, Email: whxb@pku.edu.cn
Journal Website: https://www.whxb.pku.edu.cn