Chemistry journal names are confusingly similar. Chem Commun, Commun Chem, Chem Eur J and the European Journal of Chemistry are four different journals from different publishers. This guide sorts them out, explains what each publishes and shows the standard abbreviations for citing them.
Chemical Communications (Chem. Commun.)
Chemical Communications, usually written Chem. Commun. and searched as “chem comm” or “ChemComm”, is published by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) in the UK. It specialises in short, urgent “communications”: concise reports of important new results across all of chemistry. Because papers are brief, full experimental details sit in the electronic supplementary information.
Chemistry – A European Journal (Chem. Eur. J.)
Chemistry – A European Journal, abbreviated Chem. Eur. J., is a broad general chemistry journal publishing full papers and shorter communications. It is published by Wiley-VCH on behalf of ChemistryEurope.
The ChemistryEurope family
ChemistryEurope is an association of national chemical societies across Europe that co-owns a family of journals published with Wiley-VCH. Besides Chem. Eur. J., it includes titles such as the European Journal of Organic Chemistry (Eur. J. Org. Chem.), the European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry, ChemCatChem, ChemMedChem, ChemSusChem and the open access ChemistryOpen. The flagship Angewandte Chemie is published with the German Chemical Society (GDCh).
Easy-to-confuse names
- Communications Chemistry (Commun. Chem.) is an open access journal from Nature Portfolio (Springer Nature), not the RSC’s Chem. Commun.
- European Journal of Chemistry is a separate, independent journal, not part of ChemistryEurope.
- “Chem Eur” on its own usually means Chem. Eur. J., but can also refer to the ChemistryEurope association.
Standard abbreviations
| Journal | Abbreviation | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| Chemical Communications | Chem. Commun. | Royal Society of Chemistry |
| Chemistry – A European Journal | Chem. Eur. J. | Wiley-VCH for ChemistryEurope |
| European Journal of Organic Chemistry | Eur. J. Org. Chem. | Wiley-VCH for ChemistryEurope |
| Communications Chemistry | Commun. Chem. | Nature Portfolio |
| Journal of the American Chemical Society | J. Am. Chem. Soc. | American Chemical Society |
Which journal for what?
- Want a quick overview of a hot result? Short communications in Chem. Commun.
- Looking for full experimental detail in organic chemistry? Eur. J. Org. Chem. or the full papers in Chem. Eur. J.
- Need free-to-read papers? Open access titles such as Commun. Chem. or ChemistryOpen.
For more on journals, see our guides to JACS and Accounts of Chemical Research, and for finding compounds mentioned in papers, CAS numbers.
Frequently asked questions
Is ChemComm the same as Communications Chemistry?
No. ChemComm (Chem. Commun.) is from the Royal Society of Chemistry; Communications Chemistry is from Nature Portfolio.
Who publishes Chemistry – A European Journal?
Wiley-VCH, on behalf of the ChemistryEurope association of European chemical societies.
How do I cite Chem. Eur. J.?
Use the abbreviation Chem. Eur. J. with year, volume, article or page number and the DOI, following your target journal’s style.
