China and Japan sign up to chemistry preprint effort

The chemistry preprint server ChemRxiv, launched by the American Chemical Society (ACS) in 2017 to share research ahead of peer review, is now co-owned by the Chinese Chemical Society and the Chemical Society of Japan. The RSC and the German Chemical Society became co-proprietors of the high-profile initiative last year.

At ChemRxiv’s inception, there was great enthusiasm from chemists about having their own dedicated preprint server, but some worried about the venture being led by a single publisher.

‘Through the establishment of this strong international alliance, ChemRxiv is supported, developed and led by the societies representing the global chemistry research community,’ the ACS announced on 23 August. ‘Close collaboration between the five societies ensures the sustainability of this service and presents a clear path to broader engagement with authors and readers.’

ChemRxiv’s new ‘direct journal transfer’ feature allows authors to easily submit their preprint articles to journals published by the ACS, the RSC and the German Chemical Society. The ACS said the new agreement means that journals published by the Chinese Chemical Society and the Chemical Society of Japan will be added to the server in the near future.

‘With the backing of the Chinese Chemical Society and the Chemical Society of Japan, we can ensure that ChemRxiv is truly the global preprint server for chemistry,’ said the RSC’s director of publishing Emma Wilson, who chairs ChemRxiv’s governing board.