est-submission

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](../../resources/external_tools.md) — reference managers, ACS templates, deposition repositories
• [../../resources/official-source-map.md](../../resources/official-source-map.md) — official ES&T URLs behind every fact in this pack