Guidelines for Referees for Communications

1. 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 Angewandte Chemie. In rare cases it can happen that we select an inappropriate referee—if this occurs, please inform us immediately.

Time is a scarce resource—especially for referees—therefore, initially we do not ask more than two or three referees. If a referee is not able to review a manuscript at all, or in time, they should inform us immediately so that an alternative referee can be found—suggestions for suitable alternative referees are greatly appreciated. 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.

2. The evaluation form

2.1. How important are the results?

Naturally, the judgment of the importance of a paper is to a certain extent subjective. Please note, we ask for an evaluation of the importance only with regard to publication in Angewandte Chemie. Thus, a paper can be considered to be important for a broad and heterogeneous readership and is thus suitable for publication in Angewandte Chemie or it may be "only" important to a particular area and thus is more suitable for journals catering to a more specific audience. We expect that reports are formulated in a polite form, even when heavy criticism is being delivered. Referees should give reasons for their judgment of the importance in line with the following guidelines:

Based on our experience, we anticipate that: The top 5% of the submitted manuscripts are very important:

• The results are highly innovative and of such significance as to attract the interest of the vast majority of the readers of Angewandte Chemie.
• The results corroborate or lead to a new important theory or mechanism, or repudiate an established important theory or mechanism.
• The scientific community has been waiting for such results for a long time.
• When two referees rate the Communication as "very important" it is denoted as being a "very important paper" (VIP).

Approximately 20% of the submitted manuscripts are highly important:

• The work is conceptually new.
• The work is a very significant step forward for an important and/or wider field of research.

Another 20% of the submitted manuscripts are important:

• The work is important for a wider field of chemistry, but is not suitable for Angewandte Chemie. It is more suitable for publication either as a Communication or—after expansion of the manuscript—as a Full Paper in journals such as Chemistry – A European Journal or Chemistry – An Asian Journal.

A third 20% of the submitted manuscripts are important but too specialized:

• The work is of limited interest for a broad and heterogeneous readership.
• The work is more suitable for journals catering for a more specific audience, such as one of Angewandte's sister journals: Eur. J. Inorg. Chem., Eur. J. Org. Chem., ChemBioChem, ChemPhysChem, ChemMedChem, ChemSusChem, ChemCatChem, or ChemPlusChem.

We also receive manuscripts that are less important and ill suited for Angewandte Chemie or its sister journals. Most of these are directly rejected by the editors.

2.2. Do the data obtained by experiment or calculation verify the hypothesis and conclusions?

Assumptions and hypotheses brought forward in a manuscript must be in accord with the experimental and/or theoretical results. The identity and purity of all new compounds must be fully characterized by appropriate analytical methods (e.g. NMR spectroscopy, X-ray crystal-structure analysis, elemental analysis, etc.). These data should be given in the Supporting Information in the event that they exceed the scope of the Experimental Section. The term "Supporting Information" should be taken literally: Readers must be able to read a Communication without needing to retrieve the Supporting Information.

2.3. Is the length of the manuscript appropriate to its contents?

The maximum length of a Communication in Angewandte Chemie should not exceed 15,000 characters (this corresponds to a complete manuscript that is about three pages long in the Angewandte Chemie template). Longer Communications will be accepted only in exceptional cases if their quality warrants special consideration. A manuscript might be considered too short if a crucial experiment is missing or too long if it contains parts that are disconnected from the main topic. Details that are of importance to specialists, but not to most of the readers, should be submitted as Supporting Information, which will be made accessible on the Web.

2.4. Should the article be accepted?

Referees should give an overall recommendation as to whether a manuscript should be published without, with minor, or with major alterations, or should be rejected. In the latter case they can recommend a different journal, for example one of Angewandte's sister journals given in Section 2.5. This procedure should have benefits for both authors and reviewers by facilitating the publication process. With the referee's approval we would pass on their report in an anonymous form to the appropriate editorial office.

Minor alterations include:

• To correct references or add more references;
• To improve the quality of graphics;
• To give more accurate explanations for some of the results;
• To include (more) results of experiments that can easily be performed or to give more data that can easily be obtained;
• To shorten the manuscript;
• To correct typos or other minor mistakes.

Major alterations include:

• To include results of more sophisticated experiments/calculations that could take several weeks;
• To completely rewrite the manuscript.

Manuscripts that require major alterations will usually be re-evaluated by the referee(s).

2.5. Indicating another journal if the article is not suitable for Angewandte Chemie

Manuscripts that cannot be accepted for publication in Angewandte Chemie could perhaps be acceptable after minor or major improvements—either without further refereeing at all or after further refereeing by the same referees—for publication in one of Angewandte Chemie's sister journals (see Section 2.1). These are:

• Chemistry – A European Journal: publishes Communications, Full Papers, Concepts, and Reviews in all areas of chemistry.
• Chemistry – An Asian Journal: publishes Full Papers, Communications, and Focus Reviews in all areas of chemistry.
• European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry: publishes Communications, Full Papers, and Microreviews.
• European Journal of Organic Chemistry: publishes Communications, Full Papers, and Microreviews.
• ChemBioChem: publishes Communications, Full Papers, Highlights, Concepts, Reviews, and Minireviews in chemical biology, bioorganic and bioinorganic chemistry.
• ChemMedChem: publishes Communications, Full Papers, Highlights, Concepts, Reviews, and Minireviews in medicinal chemistry.
• ChemPhysChem: publishes Communications, Articles, Highlights, Concepts, Reviews, and Minireviews in physical chemistry and chemical physics.
• ChemSusChem: publishes Communications, Full Papers, Highlights, Concepts, Reviews, and Minireviews in chemistry and materials related to sustainability and energy.
• ChemCatChem: publishes Communications, Full Papers, Highlights, Concepts, Reviews, and Minireviews in homogeneous, heterogenous, and biocatalysis.
• ChemPlusChem: publishes Communications, Full Papers, Reviews, and Minireviews in genuinely multidisciplinary chemistry.

3. 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.

-

*** Referee Report for Angewandte Chemie - International Edition ***

Referee's name: Essential: fill in your name!
Referee's e-mail:
Manuscript no.:
Abbreviated title:
Correspondence author(s):
1) How important do you consider the results reported?
	nothing selected very important highly important important important but too specialized less important
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 Angewandte Chemie - International Edition, please feel free to indicate which other journal, perhaps from the family of listed journals, you consider more appropriate.
	nothing selected Chemistry - A European Journal Chemistry - An Asian Journal European Journal of Organic Chemistry European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry ChemCatChem ChemBioChem ChemMedChem ChemPhysChem ChemSusChem Advanced Materials Small None
6) Is the work described in the context of previous publications and are they appropriately cited?
	nothing selected Yes No *)
*) 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 -