ACS in Focus - short ebooks to help you ramp up quickly in new areas
ACS in Focus ebooks are:
- Four to eight hour primers for beginning and seasoned scientists that need a quick start to a topic outside of their expertise.
- Topics include emerging and cross-disciplinary subjects not traditionally taught in an undergraduate chemistry curriculum.
- In an instructional setting, these works bridge the gap between textbooks and literature.
- Digital-only to take advantage of hyperlinks, pop-up glossary, videos, and animations.
- eReader is part of ACS Publications content suite and enables the reader to learn when it suits them, on or offline.
Access ACS in Focus (limited to current students, postdocs, faculty, and staff at Stanford).
Interested in being an author for this series? See Call for Authors for ACS in Focus series.
Please note that content for this blog article was provided by ACS Publications to make sharing information with you faster and easier and as a way to help librarians learn more about this series.
Watch video and learn more.
ACS In Focus Origins Story
Why create another eBook series? Good question! In 2019 and 2020, ACS Publications asked chemists when they turn to non-journal content. Over one-third of the chemists told us they turn to non-journal content to learn fundamentals. And when we dug into this a bit, in particular, learning fundamentals was an acute need for new graduate students. Undergraduate curriculums focus on fundamentals but rarely have time to delve into emerging topics such as machine learning. Review articles are useful, but they are typically peer-to-peer and presume the reader has an understanding of the foundations behind the review article. In Focus titles are intended to get a reader – whether it’s a graduate student or a researcher interested in a new field – up to speed on a topic so they can then consume the literature. A fast track to understanding, these brief eBooks will bring users up to speed on important and relevant research.
How are topics picked?
ACS Publications started with an editorial advisory board that included leading researchers and educators representing the wide range of chemical interests and ACS Journal managing editors for JACS & Chemical Reviews, who defined 125 topics they believed the readership would benefit from. From there, ACS Publications began reaching out to researchers around the world who have been eager to contribute.
How do ACS Publications ensures the content reaches the intended target?
The most important component of this are authors who understand how to teach principles rather than only communicate research to peers. In addition, ACS Publications does two type of manuscript reviews to guide the authors in finalizing their manuscript for publication. The first is the traditional peer review. The second are targeted audience reviews, most often graduate students who have done a terrific job providing feedback to the authors to ensure they reach the intended audience, a scientist being introduced to the topic for the first time. In terms of the figure program, ACS Publications take at least 50% of these and render them in a consistent style which is another useful aid for a reader taking in the content for the first time. The other 50% tends to remain as research article figures and photos.
Why HTML rather than PDF?
Videos, videos, videos is what ACS Publications consistently heard from graduate students. With that in mind, they include a consistent feature, Insider Q&A…In addition, when a topic heavily leans on video instruction, such as learning methods or math, the authors are including an extensive amount of video. HTML also allows us to animate where this benefits the reader, such as in their Metal-Organic Frameworks title, which has 16 animated models. Terminology can also be a challenge when consuming new materials, and an HTML environment allows ACS Publications to include pop-up glossary terms and acronyms to aid the reader.
eBook Features
Given these works are instructional in nature, ACS in Focus authors have developed a suite of helpful learning devices for the reader. This list will continue to grow as new authors introduce other helpful ways to learn technical content. Currently, they include:
- Read these next - an extensive bibliography is included at the end of the book
- Insider Q & A - field “insiders” answer relevant questions through video; three to five experts chosen by the author/s
- That's a wrap - chapters end with a bulleted summary for the reader
- Hyperlinks
- Pop-up acronyms, glossary, & references
- Case studies
- Content-related video and animations where relevant
Inaugural Collection (10 titles, all published as of 3/31/2021) |
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TITLE |
AUTHORS |
SUBJECT AREA |
PUBLICATION DATE |
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Jon Paul Janet (Astra Zeneca) Heather J. Kulik (Massachusetts Institute of Tech) |
Theoretical & Computational Chemistry |
5/29/2020 – published |
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Christopher Avery (U.S. Glob Res Change Project) Brian Walker (US Department of Energy)
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Careers |
6/30/2020 – published |
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Kallum M. Kozckur (Louisiana Tech Univ.) Sara E. Skrabalak (Indiana Univ.)
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Material Science |
7/31/2020 – published |
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Sara Vorpahl (Washington State Dept. of Commerce) Nicholas Montoni (Third Way)
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Careers |
12/7/2020 –published |
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Ana Victoria Cheng Jaramillo (Emory Univ.) William M. Wuest (Emory Univ.)
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Medicinal Chemistry |
1/20/2021 – published |
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Nosseir (Ohio State Univ.) Haddad (Ohio State Univ.)
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Chemical Engineering & Industrial Chemistry |
2/24/2021 – published |
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Lars Öhrström (Chalmers Univ. of Tech) Francoise M. Amomba Noa (Chalmers Univ. of Tech)
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Organometallic Chemistry |
3/25/2021 - published |
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Dilek Ercili-Cura (Solar Foods) Dorothee Barth (VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd)
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Agriculture & Food Chemistry |
3/16/2021 - published |
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Jason Lye (Slingshot Prod Dev Group)
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Careers |
3/29/2021 – published |
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Oliver Schalk (Labino AB) Enrico Tapavicza (Cal State Univ. Long Beach) |
Physical Chemistry |
3/30/2021 - published |
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Collection One (20 titles, publishing through 3/31/2022) |
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TITLE |
AUTHORS |
SUBJECT AREA |
PUBLICATION DATE |
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Virtual Screening for Chemists |
Ishika Saha (UCLA) Patrick G. Harran (UCLA)
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Medicinal Chemistry |
July 2021 |
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Astrochemistry |
Olivia Harper Wilkins (Cal Tech) Geoffrey A. Blake (Cal Tech)
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Earth, Space, & Environmental Chemistry |
July 2021 |
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Crystal engineering |
Dario Braga (Univ. of Bologna) Fabrizia Grepioni (Univ. of Bologna)
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Chemical Engineering |
November 2021 |
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BIOSPHERE-ATMOSPHERE INTERACTIONS |
Joshua Shutter (Harvard Univ.) Frank Keutsch (Harvard Univ.)
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Earth, Space, & Environmental Chemistry |
December 2021 |
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Prions |
Patrick A. Lewis (The Royal Veterinary College) |
Biology & Biological Chemistry |
December 2021 |
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Microbiome & Metabolomics |
Yinglin Xia (Univ. of Illinois, Chicago) Jun Sun (Univ. of Illinois, Chicago/ Jesse Brown VA Medical Center Chicago (537))
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Chemical Biology |
January 2022 |
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Contaminants in Water |
Diana Aga (Univ. of Buffalo) Randolph Singh (French Research Inst. for Exploitation of the Sea)
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Earth, Space, & Environmental Chemistry |
January 2022 |
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Forensic Chemistry |
Kenyon Evans-Nguyen (Univ. of Tampa)
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Analytical Chemistry |
January 2022 |
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Molecular Force Sensors |
Rachel Bender (Emory Univ.) Khalid Salaita (Emory Univ.)
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Analytical Chemistry |
January 2022 |
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FUNCTIONAL PROTEOMICS |
Yue Chen (Univ. of Minnesota) Luke Erber (Univ. of Minnesota)
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Biology & Biological Chemistry |
February 2022 |
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COMPUTATIONAL CHEMISTRY |
Kendall N. Houk (UCLA) Fang Liu (Nanjing Agricultural University)
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Theoretical & Computational Chemistry |
February 2022 |
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Machine Learning for Drug Development |
Marcelo C.R. Melo (Univ. of Pennsylvania) Jacqueline Maasch (Univ. of Pennsylvania) Cesar de la Fuente Nunez (Univ. of Pennsylvania)
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Theoretical & Computational Chemistry |
February 2022 |
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Free Radicals for Water Remediation |
John L. Ferry (Univ. of South Carolina) |
Earth, Space, & Environmental Chemistry
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March 2022 |
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Photochemistry of Nanomaterials |
Matthew Tarr (Univ. of New Orleans) Phoebe Zito (Univ. of New Orleans)
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Nanomaterials |
March 2022 |
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Excited States in Quantum Dots |
Arindam Chakraborty (Syracuse Univ.)
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Material Science |
March 2022 |
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Photoluminescence |
Thomas S. Teets (Univ. of Houston)
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Physical Science |
March 2022 |
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Kinetics of Enzyme Catalysis |
Bruce Han Palfey (Univ. of Michigan) Rebecca Switzer (Bucknell Univ.)
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Physical Science |
March 2022 |
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Environmental Interfacial Spectroscopy |
Mahamud Subir (Ball State Univ.) Yi Rao (Utah State Univ.)
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Earth, Space, & Environmental Chemistry |
March 2022 |
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Aerosols in Atmospheric Chemistry |
Scot T. Martin (Harvard Univ.) Yue Zhang (Texas A&M Univ.) Pengfei Liu (Georgia Institute of Tech.)
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Earth, Space, & Environmental Chemistry |
March 2022 |
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Chemiluminescence |
Mary Lynn Grayeski (Marywood Univ.) |
Physical Science |
March 2022 |
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Collection Two (20 titles, publishing 4/1/2022 through 3/31/2023, titles still being signed. |
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TITLE |
AUTHORS |
SUBJECT AREA |
PUBLICATION DATE |
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Opto-Electronic Molecular Aggregates |
Justin Caram (UCLA)
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Material Science |
April 2022 |
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DNA Replication & DNA Replication Stress |
Thanos D. Halazonetis (Univ. of Geneva)
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Biology & Biological Chemistry
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April 2022 |
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Cosmetic Chemistry |
Robert Lochhead (Univ. of Southern Mississippi)
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Polymer Science |
June 2022 |
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Molecular Electrocatalysis |
Jillian Dempsey (Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
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Catalysis |
June 2022 |
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Chemistry of Opioid Addiction |
Indrajeet Sharma (Univ. of Oklahoma)
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Biology & Biological Chemistry
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July 2022 |
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Techniques in Electroanalytical Chemistry |
Shelley D. Minteer (Univ. of Utah) Olja Simoska (Univ. of Utah)
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Techniques |
September 2022 |
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The Versatile Organic Chemistry of Sulfur |
Nuno Maulide (Univ. of Vienna)
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Inorganic Chemistry |
September 2022 |
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CRYO-EM |
Zuben P. Brown (Columbia U) Joachim Frank (Columbia U)
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Techniques |
October 2022 |
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Mechanochemistry |
Felipe Garcia (Nanyang Tech. Univ.) Evelina Colacino (Univ. de Montpellier)
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Physical Chemistry |
December 2022 |