| name | est-submission |
| description | Use when running the final pre-submission preflight for Environmental Science & Technology (ES&T) via the ACS Publishing Center / ACS Paragon Plus — article-type and word-limit checks, the mandatory TOC graphic, Supporting Information, data-availability statement, ACS style, ORCID, and ethics/COI declarations. Final checks; it does not draft content. |
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
Files & content
Style & metadata
Compliance
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
