Contributor Guidelines & Copyright

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We publish more than chemistry

Our platform reflects the diversity and character of chemistry and the RACI community. We welcome contributions on a wide range of topics — not just chemistry itself, but also issues and stories relevant to chemists and all RACI members. You can submit:

  • general features on themes that affect and engage chemists 
  • research, industry and general news
  • regular views and reviews on topics such as media, climate change, education and networking
  • special features covering careers in chemistry.

What we are not

Any content published is not peer-reviewed by the RACI. Contributions of a highly specialist or technical nature, with extensive reference lists, should be submitted to appropriate scientific and technical journals. You can however publish content that informs people of such work with links to external sources. 


Preparing feature material

  • Length: Preferred article length is around 1800 words.
  • Audience: Write for a general chemistry audience in a relatively informal style (first person is welcome).
  • Structure: Start with one or two catchy sentences to engage readers, then present your main theme or argument. Avoid lengthy background, methods, or materials sections.
  • Language: Minimise specialist terms; define them clearly if used.
  • References: Avoid reference lists. Instead, include essential citations within the text with a DOI link (e.g. “Smith and colleagues found that … (https://doi.org/insert-doi-identifier-here)”). If information is widely available, you may omit the citation.


Artwork

We welcome photographs and line illustrations.

We require clearly named electronic files of photographs or line illustrations as high-resolution .jpg or .png files (preferably 1300 pixels wide). 


Author proofs

If your content has been accepted for publication, it will be edited and typeset. We will then email a proof to check before the content is published. Note that in-house proofreading of your article will happen concurrently at this stage. We may need to make changes to your content for the purposes of clarity or space.


Copyright

Unless otherwise stated, copyright of all text is held by the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI). By submitting, you acknowledge and accept our copyright transfer agreement. If you submit previously published text or images for which you do not hold copyright, you must obtain and supply written permission from the copyright holder(s) before submission.


Deadlines

You may submit at any time.


Sending your contribution

Please use the form below to submit your article and any artwork.

Copyright statement

The content herein (encompassing artwork, images, logos, text, drawings, designs, methodologies, processes, software codes, patents, trade secrets, proprietary information, marketing strategies, and other data) (hereinafter ‘Material”) is the exclusive property of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute and is protected under copyright law.

Unauthorised use, reproduction, modification, distribution, transmission, replication, or any form of dissemination of this Material, in whole or in part, without explicit prior written consent from the copyright owner, is strictly prohibited and may result in legal action.

Copyright transfer agreement

Authors submitting content for publication to The Royal Australian Chemical Institute platforms are requested to transfer copyright of their article to the publisher, The Royal Australian Chemical Institute Inc. 


For publication to proceed, authors must acknowledge and agree to the terms and conditions in this document. In practice, the RACI does not decline reasonable requests to republish feature articles in other publications, but we wish to keep track of and be appropriately cited in republished material.


Please read the copyright transfer information and note that by proceeding with publication you will be acknowledging and accepting its content.


I, the principal author, declare the following with regard to the submission of the above-named article:

  • The text or parts thereof has not been published and is not being considered for publication elsewhere.
  • The text represents original work and its publication will not infringe the copyright or any other intellectual property right (including a right in the nature of a trade secret) of any entity or individual.
  • I am the copyright holder of, or have permission to reproduce, images, line art or text excerpts supplied. (Parental consent should be obtained/confirmed for images of minors.)
  • All authors have agreed to this submission (if more than one author). I also understand and agree on behalf of all above-named authors (either in my own right or as an agent for my employer) to the following terms and conditions of transfer: 
  • The author(s) assigns to The Royal Australian Chemical Institute Inc. the entire copyright in the text of the article. 
  • No payment will be made by The Royal Australian Chemical Institute Inc. to the author for producing the article or for transferring copyright.
  • The Royal Australian Chemical Institute Inc. grants the author(s) a non-exclusive licence to reproduce the text of the article for their own internal purposes, research and public presentations. 
  • Creators of any artwork and research data to be reproduced will retain their copyright. 
  • The author(s) grants The Royal Australian Chemical Institute Inc. a non-exclusive licence to reproduce in whole or in part the artwork and research data in the article, and to permit third parties to reproduce in whole or in part any such materials contained in the article. 
  • The Royal Australian Chemical Institute Inc. may reproduce the article in all forms and media including online and electronic publications. 
  • After publication, the text of the content may be uploaded by the author(s) to their own website(s) or to an online institutional repository, provided that the Royal Australian Chemical Institute Inc. is acknowledged as the copyright holder.
  • When exercising any of the rights granted in this agreement, each party must appropriately acknowledge the contribution made by the other party to the published article. 
  • This agreement is not a guarantee that the article will be published. Copyright in the article will revert to the author(s) if the article is not published within one year of the date of this agreement.