Znd. Eng. Chem. Res. 1992,3 1 , l
EDITORIAL
A New Category for Correlations Correlations of physical properties, process rate coefficients, etc. have and will continue to be valuable aids to practicing engineers and chemists. They are used extensively in research, development, design, and analysis. Accordingly, we are creating a new category entitled Correlations for papers that are based solely on correlation of existing data using an empirical or semiempirical mathematical framework where what is important is the final equation or relationship. These papers are expected to be short and to the point. Data already available in the literature will not be reproduced. Tables or figures used to develop or demonstrate the correlation should be held to the absolute minimum needed; however, additional tables, figures, or other supporting information can be incorporated into Supplementary Material that will be available to interested readers (see Guide for Authors for details on preparation and access to Supplementary Material). Accuracy should be documented using standard statistical measures. We will judge the suitability of papers for publication in this category in terms of the following criteria: 1. Is the proposed correlation likely to be useful to practicing engineers or chemists? 2. Is the correlation demonstrably more accurate than existing ones over a broad range of data? 3. Is the correlation likely to be able to predict with reasonable accuracy data outside the set used to fit the parameters of the correlation? The ideal presentation would allow readers to easily see the answers to these queations. These papers will be peer-reviewed in the usual way except that our reviewers will be asked to answer these questions when they make their evaluations. However, manuscripts that clearly do not meet our criteria will be returned to the author without outside review in order to reduce the burden on our reviewers and to expedite an inevitable decision. We anticipate some gray areas in deciding whether particular work should be considered for publication as a regular-length research paper or in the abbreviated form we now designate Correlations. We would welcome inquiries or comments from potential authors in these cases. In general, our other categories are reserved for papers that present new information, insight, or methodology; whereas, this new category is for papers where the main result is an organization of existing information into a useful and compact relationship. John L. Anderson Milorad P. Dudukovic Donald R. Paul* J. D. Seader Jerome A. Seiner
0888-5885/92/2631-0001$03.00/0
0 1992 American Chemical Society
