CHINESE CHEMICAL LETTERS

Recently, I published a review article. After submitting it to a journal with an impact factor of 10.0, I received two positive and one negative review. Originally, I planned to submit it to another 10.0 impact factor journal, but later I contacted the editor of CCL and submitted it as a commissioned article. To my surprise, even as a commissioned article, they still found four reviewers. After making the necessary revisions based on the unanimous acceptance of the four reviewers, my article was accepted.

The impact factor of CCL has been increasing rapidly. The impact factor for 2020, announced in June this year, is around 6.4-6.5. Based on the current instant impact factor, the impact factor to be announced next year is estimated to be more than twice that of J. Org. Chem., which means that if this trend continues and the impact factor of J. Org. Chem. remains stable at around 4, it is expected that the impact factor of CCL will surpass 8 and possibly even reach 9. This trend suggests that it is possible for the impact factor to surpass 10 in the following years.

During the conference, the editor-in-chief mentioned that the goal was CC, but in fact, CCL has already surpassed CC this year. The target for CCL should be JACS. In terms of impact factor alone, it is also highly possible for the impact factor of CCL to exceed that of JACS. As a rapid communication journal, CCL emphasizes novelty, leading to a higher impact factor compared to journals that publish full-length articles.

Currently, among the comprehensive chemistry journals in China, CCL ranks second in terms of impact factor, only behind Science China Chemistry. However, with a higher number of articles and citations, the future influence of CCL is still enormous.

This journal is easier to submit within the research group. The journal has a large editorial board and a young editorial board. Previously, my boss was a member of the editorial board. When he asked me to review manuscripts for other journals, he required me to recommend citing 2-3 articles from CCL in the review comments. He said the editorial board had a task and it must be done to improve the impact factor. So, every time I reviewed a manuscript, I recommended several CCL articles for the authors to cite. Over the course of a year, my boss contributed dozens of citations to CCL. One time, my boss said the journal wanted to pay us to write a review and include more citations from CCL articles. Then, we would publish the article in another journal, in an attempt to lower the self-citation rate. Later, when I submitted to this journal after completing my PhD, it took half a month for the editor to make a decision, but it was rejected without being sent for review... Sigh, it's difficult to submit if you're not part of the inner circle.