This comprehensive guide helps authors assemble and audit the Supporting Information (SI) for a Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS) manuscript. It ensures every reported chemical result and structure is fully reproducible by an independent chemist, covering detailed procedures, full characterization data (NMR, HRMS, IR), stereochemistry, and crystallographic details (CIF/CCDC).
A reviewer could ask "where is the procedure / spectrum / CIF?"
You are unsure what belongs in the SI vs the main text
Crystal structures need depositing before submission
What the SI must contain
The SI is where JACS rigor is verified. It should let an independent chemist
reproduce every result and confirm every structure.
General experimental
Materials and sources; drying/purification of solvents and reagents
Inert-atmosphere / glovebox conditions where relevant
Instruments and conditions (NMR field/solvent reference, HRMS mode, IR mode, diffractometer, etc.)
Safety/hazard notes for dangerous reagents or procedures
Per-compound (for every new compound)
Full procedure — scale, equivalents, temperature, time, workup, purification; isolated yield
Characterization block — ¹H, ¹³C{¹H} (+ heteronuclear as needed), HRMS (calcd/found), IR, mp/[α]D/UV-vis as appropriate
Purity — EA (calcd vs found) or HPLC/GC trace
Stereochemistry — chiral HPLC/GC/SFC traces (racemate + sample), dr determination
Copies of key spectra — ¹H and ¹³C (and diagnostic 2D/heteronuclear) for each new compound, legible, labeled with compound number
Crystallography
CIF deposited with CCDC; CCDC number cited in SI and text
Crystal data and refinement table; checkCIF/PLATON report addressed
Note disorder/restraints and how handled
Catalysis / mechanism support
Control-experiment procedures and results
Kinetics data, rate laws, KIE, labeling experiments with raw traces
Computational details + optimized coordinates (xyz) and energies, if used
Data and code
Data availability statement consistent with main text
Raw-data location (FIDs, chromatograms, diffraction frames) if archived/deposited
Computational input/output or scripts where appropriate
Main text vs SI
Goes in main text
Goes in SI
The headline result, key scheme/figure
Full step-by-step procedures
Representative scope / mechanism figure
Complete characterization data per compound
One or two diagnostic spectra (if essential)
Copies of all spectra
Crystal-structure figure + CCDC #
Full crystal/refinement tables, checkCIF
Checklist
Every new compound has a procedure + characterization + spectra copies
Every compound number in the SI matches the main text
All CIFs deposited; CCDC numbers present and correct
checkCIF alerts resolved or justified in the SI
Chiral/purity traces included for stereochemical/purity claims
Computational coordinates and details included if computation is used
SI is paginated, with a table of contents, and self-consistent with the text
Anti-patterns
"Characterization data available on request" — must be in the SI
Spectra copies missing or illegible for some compounds
CIF not deposited; CCDC number a placeholder
SI compound numbering diverging from the main text
Procedures missing scale/equivalents so yields can't be reproduced
Computational claims with no coordinates
Operating pass for Journal of the American Chemical Society
Treat this skill as an executable review pass, not a prose hint. First lock the chemical novelty, characterization chain, controls, and scope or mechanism evidence; then judge whether the current manuscript answers the venue's real reader: chemistry reviewers who expect a molecule/material/reaction claim to be supported by rigorous characterization and mechanistic insight.
Do the pass: Return a claim-evidence-risk ledger rather than a prose-only diagnosis; every recommendation must point to a manuscript location or missing artifact.
Return a ledger: give claim / evidence / risk / manuscript location rows, so the next agent can edit rather than rediscover the issue.
Sibling guard: compare against ACS Central Science for broad conceptual reach, Angewandte for communication style, specialized ACS journals for narrower chemistry; if a sibling owns the contribution, recommend re-routing before polishing format.
Stop condition: do not give submission-ready advice until the pack's resources/official-source-map.md has been checked for volatile rules and the manuscript has one concrete fix for the largest venue-specific risk.