Frequently Asked Questions

• What is the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry?
• What is the Beilstein-Institut?
• Are all articles of the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry peer reviewed and who is responsible for the journal content?
• Are all articles of the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry Open Access?
• Are publication and access to all articles of the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry really free of charge and who pays the production costs?
• Does a printed version of the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry exist?
• What about the copyright of an article published in the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry?
• How are articles published in the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry cited?
• How visible are articles published in the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry?
• Is a long term accessibility of articles published in the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry guaranteed?
• What are the requirements for submitting an article to the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry?
• How can I update my personal details?
• What is a corresponding author?
• When do I receive online access to my article?
• How do I become a referee for the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry?
• What should I do in case of problems during file upload or download?
• How can I withdraw my manuscript?
• How can I delete an incomplete submission?
• How do I submit my revised manuscript?
• Why is it necessary to select a subject area for my manuscript during submission?
• Why is it necessary to assign an editor for my manuscript during submission?
• Is it possible to interrupt a submission and to continue with it later?
• Can I upload Zip Files?
• Why are special characters (such as alpha and beta) in the email alerts for an article not displayed correctly in my web browser?

What is the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry?

The Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry is a peer reviewed, Open Access journal which started publication in August 2005. It covers all areas of organic chemistry, including organic synthesis, organic reactions, natural product chemistry, structural investigations, supramolecular chemistry and chemical biology. The content is freely accessible online immediately upon publication and is publicly archived in the major Open Access repositories.

The Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry is published and completely funded by the Beilstein-Institut, a non-profit foundation located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Editor-in-chief is Professor Jonathan Clayden, University of Manchester. Currently, there are 46 scientists from all over the world, including several Nobel Prize laureates, who support the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry as Editorial Board members.

• Open Access
• peer review
• no publication fee
• no page limit
• rapid publication
• author retains copyright
• archived in PubMed Central and other repositories
• detailed experimental data

For more information please see The Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry.

What is the Beilstein-Institut?

The Beilstein-Institut zur Förderung der Chemischen Wissenschaften (Beilstein-Institut for the Advancement of Chemical Sciences) is a non-profit foundation located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

For more information please see http://www.beilstein-institut.de.

Are all articles of the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry peer reviewed and who is responsible for the journal content?

Manuscripts, which are within the scope of the journal and potentially suitable for publication, according to Beilstein´s publication criteria (high quality, originality, novelty and importance), are sent for formal review. Detailed information about the review process is given in the Instructions for Referees. The editor-in-chief or an associate editor makes a final decision on the manuscript based on the referees’ recommendations.

Are all articles of the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry Open Access?

All articles published in the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry are Open Access. They are freely and universally accessible online for everyone immediately upon publication without any registration.

Are publication and access to all articles of the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry really free of charge and who pays the production costs?

Access and publication of articles in the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry is free of charge. The journal is financed completely by the Beilstein-Institut, thus making it free for both authors and readers. The Beilstein-Institut is committed to financing the journal on an ongoing basis. Uniquely in organic chemistry, the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry has no financial barriers for scientists to publish in or read the journal.

Does a printed version of the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry exist?

The Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry is an online journal. We are planning to print an annual archival edition, which will be available at cost price.
For more information interested persons should send an e-mail to

What about the copyright of an article published in the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry?

Authors retain copyright of their article. The articles of the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

How are articles published in the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry cited?

Articles in the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry should be cited according to the ACS Style Guide (Coghill, A. M.; Garson, L. R. Eds. The ACS Style Guide Effective Communication of Scientific Information, 3rd ed.; Oxford University Press, Inc.: New York, 2006.). As an online Journal, the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry has neither issue numbers nor page numbers. The page numbers printed in the PDFs are not for citation purposes, since every article starts with the page number 1. Instead, articles have unique article numbers.

The articles of the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry should be cited as shown in the following example:

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2005, 1, No. 7.

This citation refers to the seventh article from volume 1 published in 2005. Each volume corresponds to a calendar year.

How visible are articles published in the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry?

All articles published in the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry are highly visible. The articles will be listed in PubMed immediately upon acceptance, and will be covered by PubMed Central, Thomson Scientific (ISI), the Beilstein Database, CAS (CODEN: BJOCBH) and others.

Is a long term accessibility of articles published in the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry guaranteed?

Long term accessibility of the articles published in the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry is guaranteed. Articles of the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry are archived in PubMed Central, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) free digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature, in UK PubMed Central, the British equivalent of PubMed Central, in e-Depot, the digital archive of all electronic publications of the national Library of the Netherlands, in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), and in the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, the national German archive of publications.

What are the requirements for submitting an article to the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry?

Manuscripts should fall within the scope of the journal and meet Beilstein´s publication criteria: high quality, originality, novelty and importance. All relevant materials should be prepared according to the Instructions for Authors. A Submission Checklist is available to help authors to provide all relevant data and information. For more information about the submission process please see Help for Authors.

How can I update my personal details?

To update personal details the registered person must log in to the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry. After choosing “My Journal” from the main menu and “My Details” from the submenu, personal details are shown as they were entered at registration or saved after the last update. To edit the personal details the “Edit” button must be clicked on. Before leaving the page any changes must be saved by clicking the “Save” button.

What is a corresponding author?

The corresponding author is the author of an article to whom questions concerning the scientific content of an article should be addressed after publication. He/she is the person who is most familiar with and responsible for the scientific content of the published article.

When do I receive online access to my article?

On acceptance, new articles are posted online immediately as a provisional PDF file once the submitting author returns a corrected proof of the manuscript. The Beilstein-Institut will publish the paper finally as a formatted PDF file and full text HTML version within a short period of time. The submitting author is informed by e-mail as soon as the provisional or final PDF file is made public.

How do I become a referee for the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry?

Referees are invited by the editor to perform the peer-review of a manuscript. Only scientists with experience in the respective area of interest are chosen for the review process. If an author is interested in reviewing for the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry he/she should contact the editorial office to express his/her interest and to communicate his/her specialist area ().

What should I do in case of problems during file upload or download?

If there is a problem during file upload or download, and the problem can not be resolved by trying the up- or download a second time, please contact the technical support at the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry ().

How can I withdraw my manuscript?

To withdraw a manuscript, the submitting author must log in to the Beilstein Publishing System at https://www.beilstein-journals.org/bps/. The manuscript overview page opens and gives an overview of all manuscripts submitted to the journal by that author. After opening the details section of the relevant manuscript, the author can click on the action “Withdraw” in the action list provided that the manuscript has not yet been accepted for publication. He/she will be asked to enter a reason for the withdrawal in a text field before the status change can be performed.

How can I delete an incomplete submission?

Incomplete submissions may be removed at any point in time. The submitting author must log in to the Beilstein Publishing System at https://www.beilstein-journals.org/bps/. The manuscript overview page opens and gives an overview of all manuscripts submitted to the journal by that author. After opening the details section of the corresponding incomplete submission, the author can click on the action “Remove Submission” in the action list and then must confirm the intention to delete all data provided.

How do I submit my revised manuscript?

To submit a revised manuscript, the submitting author must log in to the Beilstein Publishing System at https://www.beilstein-journals.org/bps/. The manuscript overview page opens and gives an overview of all manuscripts submitted to the journal by that author. Manuscripts for which an editor has requested revision are listed with the status “Revision”. After opening the details section of such a manuscript the author can choose the action “Upload Revision” from the action list. This opens a resubmission form which allows the author to replace an existing file with a new version or to add any new file. An author is also asked to provide a point-by-point response to the requested changes explaining what revisions have been made or why any requested changes have not been made. For more information see Help for Authors.

Why is it necessary to select a subject area for my manuscript during submission?

A subject area for a manuscript should be selected to enable the editor to invite referees who have expertise in an area identical or similar to that described in the manuscript.

Why is it necessary to assign an editor for my manuscript during submission?

Concerning all editorial and administrative tasks during processing of submitted manuscripts, the editor-in-chief is supported by associate editors who carry out their service for manuscripts falling within a specific subject area. In order to optimize the manuscript workflow, authors are requested to select an appropriate editor from a drop-down list during submission on the "Manuscript Details" page. This can be the editor-in-chief or an associate editor whose subject area best corresponds to the manuscript. Authors may also have been invited by one of the listed editors to submit a manuscript. In this case the corresponding editor should be chosen from the list. If no editor is selected, the manuscipt will be assigned automatically to the editor-in-chief Professor Jonathan Clayden.

Is it possible to interrupt a submission and to continue with it later?

Authors can interrupt the submission process at any time. Afterwards incomplete submissions can be found on the manuscript overview page of the Beilstein Publishing System once an author has logged in. After opening the details section of the relevant manuscript, the author can click on the link “Modify Submission” in the action list to open the submission form and continue where he/she stopped.

Can I upload Zip Files?

It is intended to allow the upload of Zip files in near future. At the moment all files must be uploaded singly. For more information about acceptable file formats please see the Instructions for Authors.

Why are special characters (such as alpha and beta) in the email alerts for an article not displayed correctly in my web browser?

You need to make sure the correct character encoding is specified: this can be set in the options of most browsers and should to be set to UTF-8. However, some email service providers do not handle the extra characters at the moment, so occasionally there is nothing that can be done.