Journal profile · Engineering-Engineering (miscellaneous)
Digital Chemical Engineering
ISSN 2772-5081 · Elsevier · United Kingdom
Digital Chemical Engineering: CAS Zone 4 · Engineering (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 5.4 (journal website); fully open access; APC about USD 1,650; review about 89 days (submission to acceptance, publisher); 70 articles in 2025; indexed in ESCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Digital Chemical Engineering is published by Elsevier and is in Zone 4 of Engineering in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Fault Detection and Control Systems, Advanced Control Systems Optimization and Process Optimization and Integration, together about 41.6% of its articles. Its main subfields are Control and Systems Engineering. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
An Official Publication of the Institution of Chemical Engineers Digital Chemical Engineering aims to provide a leading platform for publishing new and novel interdisciplinary research across the domains of chemical engineering and digital sciences and technologies. The emerging digital transformation in the chemical industry brings new challenges and opportunities, and is fundamentally changing the way of future chemical engineering research, innovation, education and enterprise. It is the vision of Digital Chemical Engineering to capture the breakthroughs during the transformation, and provide a timely discussion forum for researchers to disseminate results and exchange ideas.The journal seeks to extend the boundaries of traditional chemical engineering and welcomes papers at the interface between chemical engineering and digitalization related disciplines. We are interested in contributions that advance the knowledge on data science, machine learning and computational sciences to tackle chemical engineering problems. The journal also publishes bespoke solutions and best practices for digital methodologies with a clear application background in the broad sense of chemical engineering, including materials, catalysis, processes, reactors, systems and society.The journal covers fundamental research, applied research, and case studies, and welcomes contributions from both academia and industry.Types of Paper The journal welcomes the following types of papers:Original research papers report on the outcomes of original research. There is no length limitation to papers of this type but authors are encouraged to be concise and make use of the facility to submit supplementary material for material that enhances the paper.Case studies are usually from industrial users/researchers presenting successful application cases of implementing digital solutions to improve or enable products, processes or systems in practice. Papers of this type should include the overview of problems, discussion of implementation, and discussion of impact and improvement from the proposed approach. Authors should write in a style that ensures that the article is accessible to the broad readership of the journal. There are no length limitations to case studies.Review papers of relevance to the core topics covered by the journal are welcomed. A review paper should provide a timely and critical assessment of previously published work.Perspectives are short opinion papers addressing a key, emerging, research area. They should balance the personal view of the author and a reasoned discussion of recent results of great importance. While they often examine the evolution of the field, they are not meant as a mini-review, but as a scholarly discussion that helps to identify new trends and developments in a given field. Perspective manuscripts should contain no more than 5000 words, up to five figures and 60 references.Short communications are short reports dealing with especially timely new ideas and specific points such as novel research techniques, fresh analysis of existing work or interesting aspects or results of work-in-progress. Short communications should not exceed the equivalent of 2000 words including illustrations and tables.The journal also supports the publication of research data*. The areas and topics covered by the journal include but are not limited to:Topics Systems thinking Big data analytics Artificial intelligence Blockchain Process control Sensors Robotics Automation Virtual reality Process simulation Process modelling Machine learning Digital twins Industry 4.0 Ethics Data Science Digital Economy Process system engineering Engineering and society Life cycle assessment Industrial symbiosis Cyber-physical systems Reaction EngineeringSectors Bio-resources Catalysis Circular Economy Education Energy Food and Beverages Health and Wellbeing Manufacturing and Resources Materials Safety and Risk Sustainability Water*Research data - Mendeley Data, enabli
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Engineering-Engineering (miscellaneous)
Editor-in-chief Jin XuanPublisher website
Editorial board by country: 7 in mainland China (about 15%); most named United Kingdom 14, United States 9, Mainland China 7, India 2, Canada 2 (47 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Fault Detection and Control SystemsEngineering16.8%
- Advanced Control Systems OptimizationEngineering14%
- Process Optimization and IntegrationEngineering10.9%
- Machine Learning in Materials ScienceMaterials Science5.9%
- Reservoir Engineering and Simulation MethodsEngineering5.2%
- Mineral Processing and GrindingEngineering5%
- Fluid Dynamics and MixingEngineering3.8%
- Viral Infectious Diseases and Gene Expression in InsectsBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology3.1%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Engineering Zone 4
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Engineering | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Engineering, Chemical | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Engineering Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Engineering | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Engineering, Chemical | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
Database indexing
ESCIScopusDOAJLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
PubMedPublisher website
Other: Crossref
As the journal's website lists them, not checked against each database; for Web of Science editions the records above apply.
Editions, and major and minor categories, are shown separately and never merged into one zone; check which edition your institution uses before you submit or report.
Metrics
Impact metrics and publication volume
Impact
- Impact factor (publisher)
- 5.4Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 8.9LetPub ·
- CiteScore (publisher)
- 8.9Publisher website ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.76LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.39LetPub ·
- h-index
- 29OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 110OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 4.84OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 5.6%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 100%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 65LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 335 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 58 | 58 | 31 |
| 2025 | 70 | 70 | 265 |
| 2024 | 75 | 75 | 687 |
| 2023 | 53 | 53 | 1,140 |
| 2022 | 71 | 71 | 1,357 |
| 2021 | 8 | 8 | 199 |
Sources count differently and were observed at different times, so each source's own value is kept; "publisher" marks figures from the journal's website.
Review & acceptance
Review time and acceptance
Publisher-reported review time from the journal's website
89 dayssubmission to acceptance · community reports about 10 weeks
The publisher's own definition applies; dates from this journal's articles in the last 24 months are not available yet, so the publisher's figure is used.
Figures by source
- Average review time (community reports)
- about 10 weeksLetPub ·
- Submission to first decision
- 3 daysPublisher website ·
- First decision after review
- 40 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to acceptance
- 89 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication
- 4 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 15 weeksDOAJ ·
- Peer review
- Single anonymous peer reviewDOAJ
Community reports come from authors' own submissions (confidence 0.5) and are not a promise from the journal; for publisher figures, the journal's own definitions apply.
Fees & open access
APC and open-access policy
Fully open accessDOAJ
Every article is open access; authors usually pay an article processing charge (APC).
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOAJ | USD 1,650 | Yes | CC BY, CC BY-NC-ND | |
| OpenAlex | USD 1,650 / EUR 1,540 / GBP 1,320 / JPY 204,650 | — | — | |
| LetPub | USD 1,800 | Yes | — | |
| Publisher website | USD 2,060 | — | — |
The journal's website is authoritative for fees; sources were observed at different times and each keeps its own value, without averaging.
Submission
Article types and submission policies (journal website)
What to prepare3 items from the author guidelines
- Reference style
- Author–date
- Highlights
- Optional
- Graphical abstract
- Optional
Article types accepted2, with length limits
- perspectiveends and developments in a given field. Perspective manuscripts should contain no more than 5000 words, up to five figures and 60 references. Short communicatio…main text ≤ 5,000 words
- short communicationaspects or results of work-in-progress. Short communications should not exceed the equivalent of 2000 words including illustrations and tables. The journal also…main text ≤ 2,000 words
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAI use, Authorship, Conflicts of interest, License & copyright, Open access, Peer review, Preprints
- AI use Declaration of generative AI in scientific writing
Authors must declare the use of generative AI tools in the manuscript preparation process upon submission of the paper.Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies (“AI tools”) have been rapidly adopted in research and scholarly publishing, offering significant benefits while requiring clear standards for responsible and transparent use.Authors preparing a manuscript for this journal may use AI tool…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Authorship Author contributions
For transparency, we require corresponding authors to provide co-author contributions to the manuscript using the relevant CRediT roles. The CRediT taxonomy includes 14 different roles describing each contributor's specific contribution to the scholarly output. The roles are: Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal analysis; Funding acquisition; Investigation; Methodology; Project administration;…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Conflicts of interest Declaration of competing interest
Corresponding authors, on behalf of all the authors of a submission, must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other …
Source ↗Publisher website ·- License & copyright Copyright
License Agreement upon acceptance Model summary
Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'License Agreement' (see more information on this). Permitted third party reuse of open access articles is determined by the author's choice of user license.Author rightsAs an author you (or your employer or institution) have certain rights to reuse your work. More information.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Open Access
Open access user license choice Model summary
Please visit our Open Access page for more information about open access publishing in this journal.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer review
Single anonymized review process Model summary
This journal operates a single anonymized review process. All contributions will be initially assessed by the editor for suitability for the journal. Papers deemed suitable are then typically sent to a minimum of two independent expert reviewers to assess the scientific quality of the paper. The Editor is responsible for the final decision regarding acceptance or rejection of articles. The Editor'…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Preprints Preprints
Preprints can be shared anywhere at any time Model summary
Please note that preprints can be shared anywhere at any time, in line with Elsevier's sharing policy. Sharing your preprints e.g. on a preprint server will not count as prior publication (see 'Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication' for more information).
Source ↗Publisher website ·
Excerpts are quoted from the journal's website; "model summary" lines are written by Workers AI and checked against the text. The journal's website is authoritative.
Profile
Publication details and official links
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- Country or region
- United Kingdom
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 2772-5081
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗DOAJ
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Author guidelines ↗DOAJ
- Aims & Scope ↗DOAJ
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
- APC information ↗DOAJ
- Fee waivers ↗DOAJ
- Open access statement ↗DOAJ
- License & copyright ↗DOAJ
- Peer review process ↗DOAJ
- Editorial board ↗DOAJ
- Plagiarism policy ↗DOAJ
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Digital Chemical Engineering
What CAS zone is Digital Chemical Engineering in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Digital Chemical Engineering is in Zone 4 of Engineering, and in Zone 3 of the minor category Engineering, Chemical. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 3 of Engineering. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Digital Chemical Engineering?
The journal's website gives an impact factor of 5.4; this is the journal's own figure, as LetPub lists none for it; CiteScore 8.9, h-index 29.
How long does peer review take at Digital Chemical Engineering?
The publisher reports about 89 days (submission to acceptance); authors report an average review time of about 10 weeks. Article statistics cover accepted papers only, publisher figures follow the journal's own definitions, and community reports come from authors' own submissions; none is a promise from the journal.
What are the manuscript requirements of Digital Chemical Engineering?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Reference style: Author–date; Highlights: Optional; Graphical abstract: Optional. A model extracted these from the author guidelines and each was checked against the text; check the latest version on the journal's website before submitting.
Where are the editorial board members of Digital Chemical Engineering based?
Of the 47 board members whose country the journal's board page names, 7 (about 15%) are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United Kingdom (14), United States (9) and Mainland China (7). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Digital Chemical Engineering?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Digital Chemical Engineering is indexed in ESCI, Scopus and DOAJ. The journal's website also lists PubMed; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is Digital Chemical Engineering open access, and what is the APC?
Digital Chemical Engineering is a fully open-access journal. APC about USD 1,650.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, Publisher website, OpenAlex, DOAJ; every figure is tagged with its source and the date it was observed, and conflicting values are kept per source. LetPub source page: view ↗ (archived 2026-08-26). Last updated: .