Guidelines for Referees

Guidelines for Referees

General

We try to ensure that the referees we select are experts in the relevant field(s), do not have a conflict of interest, and can thus assist us in evaluating whether a manuscript is suitable for publication in EurJOC. In rare cases it can happen that we select an inappropriate referee—if this occurs, please inform us immediately. The journal is owned by ChemPubSoc Europe, a consortium of 14 European chemical societies. These Societies insist on very high quality to maintain their responsible position as advisors to their governments. At present the Impact Factor of EurJOC is 3.329.

Types of Articles

EurJOC publishes short highly focused reviews (the Microreview), Full Papers, and Short Communications in the field of organic, bioorganic, and physical-organic chemistry. Full Papers are high-quality original contributions with a complete experimental section. We do not want to publish peripheral contributions, such as simply more examples of well-explored chemistry, or non-essential variations on a research theme, so your recommendation to us should be based on both the significance of the results and the solidity of the experimental foundation.

The Short Communication is defined as a very important paper on a highly significant topic for organic chemists that therefore needs rapid publication. It is not a depository for short papers to wrap up research that is not going anywhere or where funds have run out! These we call a "Note", and recommend publication in a journal of lesser impact. In general we discourage publication of such papers to avoid fragmentation of research into many short papers and recommend expansion of the content into a full paper. If the paper falls into the category "Note" the author will either be unable or unwilling to do this. For Short Communications and Full Papers you will have two weeks for the peer review. For a review-type article, the time is extended by one week. A short extension of the refereeing deadline is certainly possible; please let us know if this is required. If we do not hear from a referee we assume that a referee report will be sent in time. As your refereeing must be strictly confidential, please contact us if you wish to seek the advice of a colleague and identify this person by name. You may be assured that we will keep your identity as a referee anonymous; however, the author will be provided with your comments unless you specifically request otherwise.

Importance Criteria

It is difficult to give you hard and fast rules what to look for in your area of expertise. In general, the paper must move the field on significantly. Most important is the authors' discussion of the relevance of the work (for organic chemists) and comparison to other similar compounds or methodologies (if applicable). Also, proper characterization of new compounds by appropriate methods is necessary. If you consider the importance minor (1–2 on a scale of 5, where 5 is very important), you should recommend rejection. If less important (2.5–3.5 in a scale of 5) you should state what is needed to improve the paper for EurJOC, say what other community (or journal) would be more interested (heterocyclic chemistry, catalysis, etc), or mention the point that makes the paper acceptable for EurJOC in spite of its lesser importance in general. If you think the work is publishable, but rather in a different journal, please click rejection, but give this information in the comments.

Submitting your Referee Report

Please submit your report through manuscriptXpress. Please note that your login will time out after a while so we recommend you prepare your report in a word processor and then copy it into the web form. Go to www.manuscriptxpress.org now.

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*** Referee Report for European Journal of Organic Chemistry ***

Referee's name: Essential: fill in your name!
Referee's e-mail:
Do you wish to remain anonymous:	Yes No
Manuscript no.:
Abbreviated title:
Correspondence author(s):
1) How important do you consider the results reported?
	nothing selected very important important less important unimportant
2) Do the data obtained by experiment or calculation verify the hypotheses and conclusions?
	nothing selected Yes No *)
3) Is the length of the manuscript appropriate to its contents?
	nothing selected Yes No, the manuscript is too long *) No, the manuscript is too short *)
4) Do you recommend acceptance of the article?
	nothing selected Yes, without alterations Yes, after minor alterations *) Yes, but only after major alterations *) No *)
5) If you are of the opinion that the contribution is not suitable for publication in European Journal of Organic Chemistry, please indicate which other journal you consider more appropriate.
*) Please give comments here:
For your archives, print or save the confirmation of this report (which comes immediately on submission) with your browser print or save function. You will also receive a copy of your report to your e-mail account. - Thanks -