brycewang-stanford Submission Preflight (est-submission)
The last check before pressing submit on the ACS Publishing Center (peer-review environment: ACS Paragon Plus). The most common avoidable failures at ES&T are a missing TOC graphic, an over-limit word count, or an absent data-availability statement. Verify volatile specifics on the official page before relying on them.
When to trigger
- "Submitting tomorrow" — last pass before upload
- Unsure which files/metadata the ACS submission system expects
- Confirming the article type's caps are met and the TOC graphic + SI are ready
Process facts (verify volatile items on the official page)
- Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS).
- Portal: ACS Publishing Center / ACS Paragon Plus (confirm current entry URL — 待核实).
- Article types & caps (待核实 on exact numbers): Research Article
7,000; Feature ~5,000; Review (Critical Review) ~10,000; Perspective ~4,000; Policy Analysis ~7,000; Viewpoint ~1,000 (+≤5 refs); Letter to the Editor ~500. Figures/tables may count as word-equivalents (300/600 — 待核实). - TOC graphic: required for Research Articles, Critical Reviews, Features, Perspectives, and Policy Analysis; not for Viewpoints/Spotlights/Letters.
- Supporting Information: submitted simultaneously as separate file(s), with an SI paragraph describing contents and file type.
- Data availability: a data-availability statement plus deposition of data/materials/protocols
in public databases (see
est-reporting-and-reproducibility). - Style: ACS (numbered citations); SI units; ACS chemical conventions.
- Ethics: COI disclosure; coauthor consent; iThenticate screening; safety hazards in Methods; AI-use disclosed in Acknowledgments; ORCID for the corresponding author (待核实 on exact requirement).
Preflight checklist
Type & length
- Article type chosen; word count within its cap (counting figure/table word-equivalents)
- Abstract present and within type norms
- TOC graphic prepared (required for this type) and meeting ACS size/format specs
Files & content
- Main manuscript + separate Supporting Information file(s); SI paragraph written
- Data-availability statement with accession/DOI; data/code deposited
- Figures/tables self-contained, accessible (see
est-figures-and-tables)
Style & metadata
- ACS numbered citation style; SI units; consistent nomenclature
- Corresponding-author ORCID ready (待核实)
- Suggested reviewers (≥4, non-conflicted) and cover letter ready (see
est-cover-letter)
Compliance
- COI disclosure; coauthor consent; ethics/IRB or animal (ARRIVE) statements if relevant
- Safety/hazard reporting in Methods; AI-use disclosure if applicable
- Plagiarism self-check; preprint status checked against ACS policy
Avoidable rejection-at-upload table
These are the failures that bounce a manuscript at or just after upload — before science is judged. Each line is a hard gate; confirm the volatile specifics on the live ACS page (待核实):
| Gate | Pass condition | Where it is fixed |
|---|---|---|
| TOC graphic | present + spec-compliant for this article type | est-figures-and-tables |
| Word count | within cap incl. figure/table word-equivalents | est-writing-style |
| Supporting Information | separate file(s) + SI paragraph | est-reporting-and-reproducibility |
| Data-availability statement | present with accession/DOI | est-reporting-and-reproducibility |
| Citation style | ACS numbered throughout | est-writing-style |
| Declarations | COI, coauthor consent, safety, AI-use | this skill |
Worked micro-example (illustrative — final preflight on an emissions-inventory paper)
A Research Article on basin methane attribution, the night before upload (illustrative):
- Type & length: Research Article; body 6,200 words + two figures counted as word-equivalents (~600 illustrative) → ~6,800, under the ~7,000 cap. Pass.
- TOC graphic: a basin schematic with super-emitter sites highlighted — a concept, not a clone of the flux map. Pass.
- SI + data: aircraft flux retrievals, the inversion configuration, and uncertainty budget in the SI; processed fluxes and inversion code on Zenodo with a DOI; data-availability statement written.
- Declarations: COI none; all coauthors consented; no human/animal subjects; AI-use disclosed in Acknowledgments; corresponding-author ORCID linked (待核实 on exact requirement).
- The one easy miss: the two figures' word-equivalents were nearly forgotten — counting them is what keeps the paper under cap. This is the single most common avoidable over-limit failure.
Anti-patterns
- Submitting without the required TOC graphic
- Over the word cap because exhibits' word-equivalents were not counted
- No data-availability statement or undeposited data
- SI uploaded with no SI paragraph describing its contents
- Non-ACS citation style; missing COI/coauthor-consent declarations
Output format
【Type】Research Article / Critical Review / Feature / Perspective / Policy Analysis (cap met? Y/N)
【TOC graphic】required + present + spec-compliant? [Y/N]
【SI + data-availability statement】present, with accession/DOI? [Y/N]
【ACS style + ORCID】[Y/N]
【Ethics/COI/safety】declared? [Y/N]
【Cover letter + ≥4 reviewers】ready? [Y/N]
【Next】await decision → est-revision-and-rebuttal
Supplementary resources
../../resources/external_tools.md— reference managers, ACS templates, deposition repositories../../resources/official-source-map.md— official ES&T URLs behind every fact in this pack