Aims and scope
TCA publishes papers in all fields of theoretical chemistry, computational chemistry, and modeling. Fundamental studies as well as applications are included in the scope. In many cases, theorists and computational chemists have special concerns which reach either across the vertical borders of the special disciplines in chemistry or else across the horizontal borders of structure, spectra, synthesis, and dynamics. TCA is especially interested in papers that impact upon multiple chemical disciplines.
TCA was founded in 1962 specifically to provide theoretical chemists with a high-quality, peer reviewed communication medium for their work.
TCA publishes regular articles (Research) reporting original work. Such articles contain full details of the theory and/or computations. Research articles should report work of particular interest to specialists in the theoretical and computational chemistry fields. Examples of such work include numerical methods, new developments in wavefunction or DFT methods, parameterization and force field validation, basis set and related developments, new classical and quantal algorithms and simulation methodologies and implementations, and finally applications of new or existing methodologies to the extent that they address particularly interesting and topical chemical problems and/or break new ground in illustrating the capabilities of the method(s) examined. Manuscripts focusing on graph theoretical work, QSAR and docking studies, and routine applications of molecular dynamics, are generally judged to fall outside the scope of the journal. There is no restriction on manuscript size; brevity is encouraged insofar as scientific content allows.
The TCA Brief Reports section guarantees review of manuscripts submitted for the Brief Reports section within two weeks of their receipt to meet the need for rapid publication. Brief Reports (formerly known as Letters) are normally restricted to 12,000 characters, including tables and references. In addition, up to six figures may be submitted.
In response to the need for accounts that assist researchers in maintaining a perspective on important recent developments, TCA also publishes Mini Reviews, either of a coherent body of work or of an especially rapidly developing subfield of theoretical or computational chemistry. Mini Reviews (formerly known as Overviews) should summarize recent progress in a specific field and should be written in a style that addresses the broad theoretical and computational chemistry community; they are normally restricted to 30,000 characters, including tables and references. In addition, up to eight figures may be submitted. Authors having compelling reasons to exceed these limits are welcome to contact the Editor for further discussion.
The Perspective article type denotes a scholarly review and discussion of the primary research literature that does not meet the criteria for a review article. This could be because the scope is too narrow, or because the piece is intended to provoke discussion of a controversial position, a speculative hypothesis, or alternative / complementary interpretations of existing work.
TCA encourages authors to take advantage of the opportunities offered by electronic publishing and maintains an internet archive for the viewing, storage, and downloading of supplementary material for papers published in TCA.