ACS Omega: The Inaugural Year in Perspective

ACS Omega was launched in April 2016 as an open-access global journal for publication of original research articles of any length that describe new findings in chemistry and interfacing areas of science, without any evaluation of perceived immediate impact. The scientific scope of ACS Omega encompasses topics covered by all ACS journals, including interfacing areas between chemistry and other fields of science. The openaccess mandate of ACS Omega makes the published knowledge immediately available to academic researchers, industry, media, policy makers, and the general public, thereby returning scientific outcomes to society. This ensures inclusiveness of researchers in the global scientific effort, by making every article accessible to anyone upon publication and in perpetuity, thereby permitting authors to reach a broad readership beyond the traditional academic environment. In addition to direct submissions, an important benefit of ACS Omega is the full consideration of manuscripts transferred from other peerreviewed sister ACS journals, where immediate impact is often evaluated, offering authors the opportunity to stay within the ACS portfolio. ACS Omega strongly recognizes the value of new and original science in areas without established significance or apparent lack of immediate impact, thus encouraging authors to venture into innovative research, without enforced conventional boundaries for publication acceptance. The editorial line developed by ACS Omega thus supports inventive science based on concepts not previously described; such originality is central to innovation and advancing the frontiers of science. ACS Omega is intended to emerge as a home for various forms of research such as methods, algorithms, comprehensive data, interdisciplinary research, and negative results that point to further areas of inquiry. Stating the reasoning behind the research reported in the manuscript in an explicit and justifiable manner is vital for readers to comprehend the motivation of the work described. By virtue of the fact that ACS Omega encourages manuscripts with connections to other fields beyond chemistry, many of the submitted papers are interdisciplinary in nature. The wide range of topics covered by ACS Omega, with chemical relevance and covering the scope of all ACS journals, is reflected in the composition of our team of Associate Editors and Editorial Advisory Board members, with a broad expertise drawn from as many as 18 countries around the globe. To meet the expectations of the global chemistry community, the journal has put in place a transparent and simple submission process and expedites fair decision-making workflows that take into account previous reviews for transferred manuscripts from sister ACS journals. Interdisciplinary publications demand upholding quality metrics for the reported science of each of the constituted disciplines, conforming to the expectation for scientific rigor associated with ACS journals. ACS Omega initially published exclusively research articles of any length, in recognition that research work without justification for either rapid publication or of immediate impact, but presenting valid and useful data, is valuable for the growth of science and deserves to be published. In addition to research articles, ACS Omega has recently initiated invited Guest Editorials on topics of current relevance, such as Open Access: Principles, Practice, and Potential, and Perspectives on emerging scientific fields, for example, Recent Progress in the Photocatalytic Reduction of Carbon Dioxide. While the editorials are written by scientific thought leaders and intended to make readers aware of various scientific issues, perspectives by established authors focus on the most recent developments in emerging areas with pointers to future directions. The author diversity of articles submitted to ACS Omega meets our objective of attracting science from around the world (Figure 1). We are also proud to note our reviewer pool is