Editorial pubs.acs.org/jced
New Procedures for Articles Reporting Thermophysical Properties he Journal of Chemical & Engineering Data, along with other journals in the field, collaborate with the Thermodynamics Research Center (TRC) of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for the purpose of ensuring the quality of published experimental data. In a joint statement,1−5 the Editors of the five journals outlined the rationale for the cooperation that ensures authors and reviewers alike are aware of previously published literature for the properties and systems that are in the NIST database and relevant to those studied. The process involves NIST “capturing” the new experimental data, comparing it against existing values in the NIST data archive, and providing a report that (a) lists relevant literature sources and (b) highlights any obvious discrepancies in the new data. The Journal of Chemical & Engineering Data is primarily concerned with the publication of original results and in this regard it is incumbent upon authors to validate their methods by comparison with existing data. To streamline the process and to further enhance the quality of published articles, changes have been made to the NIST cooperation that were effective March 2013 and these are outlined in the following: First, NIST will no longer provide a Literature Report for each submitted article. In place of this service, NIST has created and will maintain the free online tool ThermoLit (http://trc.nist.gov/thermolit/) that allows any user to create a Literature Report on demand. This will eliminate NIST’s role in providing the report, thus reducing the time required for review. In addition, ThermoLit can be used as a resource by authors and reviewers to, for example, plan an experimental program. The Journal of Chemical & Engineering Data expects all authors to use ThermoLit to identify relevant literature data with which to compare their new results. ThermoLit is designed as an aid to the traditional methods used to obtain a comprehensive literature search and cannot be used as a substitute for these methods because the NIST data archive does not contain data from all journals and publications. NIST will, however, continue to provide data evaluation (the so-called NIST Data Report), at the end of the review process, but immediately prior to final acceptance of the article. This evaluation will include comparison of the reported data with values within the NIST Data Archive. It will also highlight any unexpectedly large discrepancies, such as those arising from typographical errors. Matters that require further attention from the authors will be returned for revision. Although the data evaluation has not changed, we use this opportunity to remind authors that results with uncertainties must be tabulated as described in the Guide for Authors, which is obtainable from http://trc.nist.gov/JCED-Support.html, and the links contained therein. It is mandatory that tables be self-contained and include the uncertainties of all reported quantities (variables, constraints, and properties). In addition, authors are required to present the purity and other details of their samples in tabular form. Example tables and figures have been prepared by NIST and are available (http://trc.nist.gov/JCED-Support.html). Authors need to consult these examples and the presubmission
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check-list, also available at http://trc.nist.gov/JournalCoop/ JCED/Reporting_Guidelines_JCED.html, prior to submission of their manuscript to ensure that publication is not delayed owing to table format or content problems. In 2012, IUPAC guidelines for the reporting of phase equilibrium measurements were published (Pure Appl. Chem. 2012, 84(8), 1785), and the requirements of this journal are consistent with those recommendations. We are certain that the new ThermoLit tool and the procedures described here will further enhance the already high quality of articles published in the Journal of Chemical & Engineering Data. These same revised instructions have been published by the other four journals involved in the collaboration with NIST.
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Joan F. Brennecke, Editor-in-Chief Anthony R. H. Goodwin, Associate Editor Paul Mathias, Associate Editor Jiangtao Wu, Associate Editor AUTHOR INFORMATION
Notes
Views expressed in this editorial are those of the authors and not necessarily the views of the ACS.
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REFERENCES
(1) Cummings, P. T.; de Loos, T.; O’Connell, J. P.; Haynes, W. M.; Friend, D. G.; Mandelis, A.; Marsh, K. N.; Brown, P. L.; Chirico, R. D.; Goodwin, A. R. H.; Wu, J.; Weir, R. D.; Trusler, J. P. M.; P_adua, A.; Rives, V.; Schick, C.; Vyazovkin, S.; Hansen, L. D. Fluid Phase Equilib. 2009, 276, 165. (2) Cummings, P. T.; de Loos, T.; O’Connell, J. P.; Haynes, W. M.; Friend, D. G.; Mandelis, A.; Marsh, K. N.; Brown, P. L.; Chirico, R. D.; Goodwin, A. R. H.; Wu, J.; Weir, R. D.; Trusler, J. P. M.; P_adua, A.; Rives, V.; Schick, C.; Vyazovkin, S.; Hansen, L. D. Int. J. Thermophys. 2009, 30, 371. (3) Cummings, P. T.; de Loos, T.; O’Connell, J. P.; Haynes, W. M.; Friend, D. G.; Mandelis, A.; Marsh, K. N.; Brown, P. L.; Chirico, R. D.; Goodwin, A. R. H.; Wu, J.; Weir, R. D.; Trusler, J. P. M.; P_adua, A.; Rives, V.; Schick, C.; Vyazovkin, S.; Hansen, L. D. J. Chem. Eng. Data 2009, 54, 2. (4) Cummings, P. T.; de Loos, T.; O’Connell, J. P.; Haynes, W. M.; Friend, D. G.; Mandelis, A.; Marsh, K. N.; Brown, P. L.; Chirico, R. D.; Goodwin, A. R. H.; Wu, J.; Weir, R. D.; Trusler, J. P. M.; P_adua, A.; Rives, V.; Schick, C.; Vyazovkin, S.; Hansen, L. D. J. Chem. Thermodyn. 2009, 41, 575. (5) Cummings, P. T.; de Loos, T.; O’Connell, J. P.; Haynes, W. M.; Friend, D. G.; Mandelis, A.; Marsh, K. N.; Brown, P. L.; Chirico, R. D.; Goodwin, A. R. H.; Wu, J.; Weir, R. D.; Trusler, J. P. M.; P_adua, A.; Rives, V.; Schick, C.; Vyazovkin, S.; Hansen, L. D. Thermochim. Acta 2008, 484, vii.
Published: May 9, 2013 1069
dx.doi.org/10.1021/je4003674 | J. Chem. Eng. Data 2013, 58, 1069−1069
