brycewang-stanford Article vs Communication and Format Norms (jacs-length-management)
When to trigger
- You must decide Article vs Communication
- The manuscript feels over- or under-length for the chosen format
- You are unsure what moves to the SI to fit format norms
- Figure/scheme count is high and needs disciplining
Choosing the format
| Question | Communication | Article |
|---|---|---|
| Is the core advance a single, urgent, high-impact result? | Yes | Often part of a larger story |
| Can full proof live in the SI with a concise main text? | Yes | No — needs full main-text treatment |
| Is broad scope / multi-system / deep mechanism central to the claim? | No | Yes |
| Timeliness vs completeness | Timeliness dominates | Completeness dominates |
Verify the current article types, length, figure, and word limits on the JACS author page — these change and differ by format. Do not hard-code limits.
Right-sizing the main text
- Lead with the advance; the introduction should be tight (frame the gap, state the thesis).
- Results & Discussion carries only what proves the claim and its generality/mechanism; exhaustive variation goes to the SI.
- One headline scheme/figure per major point; merge panels rather than adding figures.
- Conclusion is short: what is established and what is now enabled.
What stays vs what moves to SI
| Keep in main text | Move to SI |
|---|---|
| Central scheme/result and one scope figure | Full substrate tables and optimization grids |
| Key mechanism figure + decisive evidence | Complete kinetic/labeling datasets |
| Crystal-structure figure + CCDC # | Full crystallographic tables, checkCIF |
| One or two essential spectra (if needed) | All spectra copies, procedures |
Trimming tactics (without losing rigor)
- Convert prose describing a table into the table; delete the prose.
- Remove optimization narration; cite the SI optimization table for the chosen conditions.
- Cut redundant restatements between intro, results, and conclusion.
- Combine related schemes; move "also worked" examples to the SI scope table.
Checklist
- Format chosen with an explicit reason (urgency/impact vs completeness)
- Main text contains only claim-essential evidence; rest in SI
- Figure/scheme count disciplined; panels merged where possible
- No section repeats another; conclusion is not the abstract again
- Current JACS format/limit norms verified on the author page
- If Communication: the claim is fully supported by SI + concise main text
Anti-patterns
- Choosing Communication for a story that needs Article-level support
- Padding an Article with optimization narration better suited to the SI
- Figure sprawl: many near-duplicate schemes instead of merged panels
- Hard-coding outdated word/figure limits instead of checking current norms
- Trimming so hard that a key claim loses its supporting evidence
Operating pass for Journal of the American Chemical Society
Treat this skill as an executable review pass, not a prose hint. First lock the chemical novelty, characterization chain, controls, and scope or mechanism evidence; then judge whether the current manuscript answers the venue's real reader: chemistry reviewers who expect a molecule/material/reaction claim to be supported by rigorous characterization and mechanistic insight.
- Do the pass: Return a claim-evidence-risk ledger rather than a prose-only diagnosis; every recommendation must point to a manuscript location or missing artifact.
- Return a ledger: give
claim / evidence / risk / manuscript locationrows, so the next agent can edit rather than rediscover the issue. - Sibling guard: compare against ACS Central Science for broad conceptual reach, Angewandte for communication style, specialized ACS journals for narrower chemistry; if a sibling owns the contribution, recommend re-routing before polishing format.
- Stop condition: do not give submission-ready advice until the pack's
resources/official-source-map.mdhas been checked for volatile rules and the manuscript has one concrete fix for the largest venue-specific risk.
Output format
【Format】Article / Communication (+ reason)
【Main-text load】essential only? Y/N — move to SI: [...]
【Figure count】N; merges suggested: [...]
【Limits verified】Y/N (on JACS author page)
【Next】jacs-cover-letter → jacs-submission
Related resources
../jacs-submission/templates/manuscript_template.md— section skeleton for both formats