Chemistry: ACS Recommended Journals

From the ACS Guidelines for Bachelor’s Degree Programs (2015)

4.4 Chemical Information Resources. (page 8) A broad range of the peer-reviewed chemical literature must be readily accessible to both faculty and students.

• An approved program must provide immediate institutional access to no fewer than 14 current and archival, peer-reviewed journals whose subject matter spans the chemical sciences. At least three of the journals must have a general focus (for example, Science, JACS, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Chemistry – A European Journal, Chemical Communications, etc.), and at least one must come from each area of analytical chemistry, biochemistry, inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, physical chemistry, and chemistry education. In addition, the library must provide timely access to journal articles that are not available on site by a mechanism such as interlibrary loan or a document delivery service.
• Students must have access to technical databases and other resources that enable development of skills in searching the literature, including structure-based searching, and support research and instructional activities.

7.2 Chemical Literature and Information Management Skills. (Page 17-18) Essential student skills include the ability to retrieve information efficiently and effectively by searching the chemical literature, evaluate technical articles critically, and manage many types of chemical information. Students must be instructed in effective methods for performing and assessing the quality of searches using keywords, authors, abstracts, citations, patents, and structures/substructures.  

The program should provide ready access to technical databases with sufficient depth and breadth of the chemical literature for effective searching. Students' ability to read, analyze, interpret, and cite the chemical literature as applied to answering chemical questions should be assessed throughout the curriculum. Instruction should also be provided in data management and archiving, record keeping (electronic and otherwise), and managing citations and related information. This includes notebooks, data storage, information and bibliographic management and formatting. Undergraduate research and/or individual or group projects provide excellent opportunities for development and assessment of literature searching and information management skills. A stand-alone course can be an effective means of imparting information-retrieval skills, though such a course usually would not qualify as an in-depth course.