Emphasizing Safety in Publications at Organic Letters : The Safety Letter
Matthew A. Saucier, Marisa C. Kozlowski, Mary Beth Mulcahy · Organic Letters · 2025
S afe practices in an organic chemistry laboratory are fundamental to conducting impactful research.Chemists, in their training, develop a set of instincts and a toolkit to mitigate physical and chemical hazards in the lab.This protects the human lives involved in day-to-day laboratory activities, including researchers and students as well as institutional personnel who work in the vicinity.Additionally, ACS's Core Value of Sustainability�including safe, ethical, and responsible practices�underpins our push for increased awareness, identification, and discussion of safety in the lab.The variety of safety standards, customs, and habits across the world and research sectors gives our community a valuable chance to learn from one another and work together toward stronger, shared practices.Organic Letters and other ACS Journals have previously published papers that address safety, but Organic Letters now would like to formally introduce its first "Safety Letter", as designated in the title of the publication.Garg, Zhao, and coworkers present "Safety Letter: Evaluation of the Popular Oxidant 2-Iodoxybenzoic Acid (IBX)", describing the thermal and shock-sensitivity of this commonly used oxidant. ACS Chemical Health & Safety (ACS CHAS) is dedicated entirely to safety, and Organic Letters will now broaden the commitment of ACS to safety by offering authors a venue to share safety insights with the organic laboratory community.The introduction of Safety Letters at Organic Letters is meant to stimulate discussion about safety in organic chemistry laboratories and make safety content easier to find and instantly recognizable to readers scanning this journal.These articles will bring attention to specific safety observations or methods and protocols relating to commonly used organic preparations, reagents with uneven safety records, etc. Submissions should be concise reports with key information, especially for new users.While there will naturally be some overlap with ACS CHAS, Organic Letters will focus on short, organic laboratory practice-oriented contributions, whereas broader topics or audiences or in-depth safety studies remain best suited for ACS CHAS.Safety Letters are NOT meant to replace in-house safety guidelines and assessments.Organic Letters and ACS Publications do not take responsibility for the guidance or contents in Safety Letters�these serve as peer-reviewed points of thoughtful discourse and research, not approved guidelines.The following examples represent important studies and commentaries on safety-related topics but are outside the scope of Safety Letters:• Reactivity control using a Schlenk line (broad relevance)