Journal profile · Chemistry-Chemistry (miscellaneous)
Digital Discovery
ISSN 2635-098X · The Royal Society of Chemistry · United Kingdom
Digital Discovery: CAS Zone 2 · Computer Science (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 7.1 (journal website); fully open access; APC charged, amount not published; median 122 days to acceptance (88 articles, last 24 months); 357 articles in 2025; indexed in ESCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Digital Discovery is published by The Royal Society of Chemistry and is in Zone 2 of Computer Science in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Machine Learning in Materials Science, Computational Drug Discovery Methods and Diverse Scientific and Economic Studies, together about 52.4% of its articles. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Digital Discovery welcomes both experimental and computational work on all topics related to the acceleration of discovery such as screening, robotics, databases and advanced data analytics, broadly defined, but anchored in chemistry. The journal publishes research related to chemical, materials, biochemical, biomedical, or biophysical sciences and specific topics include: Artificial intelligence and other high throughput computational methodologies for molecular, materials and formulation designAdvanced data workflowsNovel experimental automationPapers at the interface of chemistry and other sciences Papers that will not be considered are in the areas of low-throughput structural or mechanistic studies using computational chemistry, QM/MM studies of biochemical mechanisms at low throughput, traditional analysis of molecular dynamics trajectory simulations to understand biological conformations, reports or comparisons of electronic structure methods that do not involve machine learning, interpretations of chemical bonding models, and quantum dynamics and spectroscopy simulations at low throughput. Read moreArtificial intelligence and other high throughput computational methodologies for molecular, materials and formulation design: Computer-assisted retrosynthesisGenerative models for scientific designMachine learning classification and regression modelsQuantum algorithms for quantum simulation and data science as applied to molecular and materials discoveryModern molecular, materials, and biological representationsMolecular, Materials and Chemo- and Bio-informaticsMethods for Bayesian optimization and design of experimentsAdvances and applications of interpretable modelsImage recognitionNatural language processing including Large Language ModelsLiterature mining toolsAdvanced data workflows: DatabasesData provenance toolsComputational workflow enginesExperimental control softwareOntologies for scienceAdvances in robotics for scienceNovel experimental automation:New robotic setupsNew automated sensors and analytical workflowsNovel synthetic methodologies and workflows that enable higher throughputHigh-throughput computational scienceStudies where large families of electronic structure or molecular simulations are analyzed for use in experimental and automated applicationsPapers at the interface of chemistry and other sciences that involve the following topics:Directed or accelerated evolutionDNA Encoded Library Technology or novel chemical library technolog
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Chemistry-Chemistry (miscellaneous)
Editor-in-chief Alán Aspuru-GuzikPublisher website
Editorial board by country: 1 in mainland China (about 25%); most named Mainland China 1, India 1, Spain 1, Australia 1 (4 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Machine Learning in Materials ScienceMaterials Science32.4%
- Computational Drug Discovery MethodsComputer Science14.8%
- Diverse Scientific and Economic StudiesEconomics, Econometrics and Finance5.2%
- Protein Structure and DynamicsBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology4.5%
- Scientific Computing and Data ManagementDecision Sciences4.1%
- Cell Image Analysis TechniquesBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology4%
- X-ray Diffraction in CrystallographyMaterials Science3%
- Catalysis and Oxidation ReactionsChemical Engineering2.8%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Computer Science Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Computer Science | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Chemistry, Multidisciplinary | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Computer Science, Interdisciplinary Applications | Zone 2 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Computer Science Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Computer Science | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Chemistry, Multidisciplinary | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Computer Science, Interdisciplinary Applications | 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
Web of SciencePublisher website
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) 2025
- 7.1Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 8.2LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 1.49LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.33LetPub ·
- h-index
- 46OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 361OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 5.64OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 9.9%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 100%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 297LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 1,282 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 351 | 351 | 247 |
| 2025 | 357 | 357 | 1,803 |
| 2024 | 261 | 261 | 3,412 |
| 2023 | 194 | 194 | 3,837 |
| 2022 | 115 | 115 | 2,814 |
| 2021 | 4 | 3 | 83 |
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
Review time from article dates manuscript dates registered with PubMed · to
122 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 82 days – 150 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 4 days (88 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 127 days
- Sample
- 88 articles with submission and acceptance dates (92 in the window); the latest was accepted on
Only articles that were accepted and published are counted, not the time spent on rejected manuscripts, so this usually runs longer than a publisher's "time to first decision".
Other sources
- Average review time (community reports)
- about 17 weeksLetPub ·
- Submission to first decision
- 40 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 17 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 | GBP 2,100 | Yes | CC BY, CC BY-NC | |
| LetPub | No APC | No | — | |
| Publisher website | GBP 2,200 | — | — |
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)
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteOpen access, Peer review
- Open access Publish open access
Choosing to publish open access is easy and straightforward – and it is possible in every Royal Society of Chemistry journal.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer review model
Single-anonymised: reviewers are anonymous and author names and affiliations are known to reviewers. Double-anonymised: both the authors’ and reviewers’ identities are anonymous (opt in at submission). Transparent: the editor’s decision letter, reviewers’ comments, and authors’ response for all versions of the manuscript are published alongside the article (opt in at any point prior to acceptance)…
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
- The Royal Society of Chemistry
- Country or region
- United Kingdom
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 2635-098X
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗LetPub
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Author guidelines ↗LetPub
- Aims & Scope ↗LetPub
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
- APC information ↗DOAJ
- Fee waivers ↗DOAJ
- Open access statement ↗DOAJ
- License & copyright ↗DOAJ
- Peer review process ↗LetPub
- Editorial board ↗LetPub
- Plagiarism policy ↗DOAJ
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Digital Discovery
What CAS zone is Digital Discovery in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Digital Discovery is in Zone 2 of Computer Science, and in Zone 2 of the minor category Chemistry, Multidisciplinary / Computer Science, Interdisciplinary Applications. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 2 of Computer Science. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Digital Discovery?
The journal's website gives an impact factor of 7.1 (2025); this is the journal's own figure, as LetPub lists none for it; CiteScore 8.2, h-index 46.
How long does peer review take at Digital Discovery?
Based on the dates recorded on 88 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 122 days (interquartile range 82–150 days); authors report an average review time of about 17 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.
Where are the editorial board members of Digital Discovery based?
Of the 4 board members whose country the journal's board page names, 1 (about 25%) are in mainland China; the countries named most often are Mainland China (1), India (1) and Spain (1). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Digital Discovery?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Digital Discovery is indexed in ESCI, Scopus and DOAJ. The journal's website also lists Web of Science; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is Digital Discovery open access, and what is the APC?
Digital Discovery is a fully open-access journal. APC charged, amount not published.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, OpenAlex, Publisher website, 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 2026-08-25). Last updated: .