APPLIED SURFACE SCIENCE

The surface catalysis calculations in Applied Surface Science are simply disastrous. The magnetic systems do not exhibit magnetism, the transition states do not converge, the +U term is not included, and the force convergence is set to 0.2 eV/A in the articles, which are abundant in every issue. The computational studies published in the journal often claim certain pathways without providing any comparisons. In terms of experiments, the journal accepts many ultra-high vacuum (UHV) and electrocatalysis studies with high uncertainty, yet without even an error bar. Many articles of poor quality that cannot even reach the fourth quartile are published in ASS.

Foreign peers in the field of surface catalysis strongly resist this journal, as they believe that publishing an article in it can greatly affect their reputation. For instance, a friend collaborated with a catalysis materials expert from the Max Planck Institute and submitted an article to ASS. After receiving the submission email, the expert was very angry and directly requested the author to withdraw the manuscript and submit it to another journal.

Furthermore, this year the self-citation rate of this journal is outrageously high, and its impact factor is supported by some reviews. To be objective, the journal is only at the level of the fourth quartile. It is astonishing that it has been elevated to the first quartile in China. It is truly incomprehensible.

2022/2/21 submitted to journal;
2022/2/28 with editor;
2022/3/1 under review, unable to find reviewers who agreed to review, typically only one reviewer accepted every week, took 40 days to receive comments from three reviewers on 4/8, notified corresponding author of minor revisions on the same day;
2022/4/8 major revise, two major revisions and one minor revision, editor provided a two-month timeframe for revisions, but delayed the process by conducting other experiments, started revisions around May 10th, took two weeks to complete experiments and calculations;
2022/5/23 revision submitted to journal;
2022/5/24 under review, however, two out of three initial reviewers declined the review invitation, editor notified on 6/10 that one reviewer agreed to review;
2022/6/14 accept, the only reviewer who agreed to review provided an acceptance decision on 6/14, editor made the decision to accept on the same day.
The editor is Dr. Ian Shuttleworth from the UK, he is very efficient, taking no more than a day to send for review or make a decision on acceptance. It is possible that finding suitable reviewers in my specific field took longer, resulting in a longer review process. If I had made revisions more quickly, it would have been sufficient to receive acceptance within three months.