Energy Advances

Communications

Our Communication format is ideally suited to short studies - which can be preliminary in nature - that are of such importance that they require accelerated publication.

Communications must contain original and highly significant work whose interest to the Energy Advances readership and high novelty warrants rapid publication. Authors should supply with their submission a justification of why the work merits urgent publication as a Communication. Referees will be asked to judge the work on these grounds.

Communications are given high visibility within the journal as they are published at the front of an issue. Communications will not normally exceed the length of five printed journal pages.

Full papers

Full papers contain original, high-quality, scientific work that is of interest to energy researchers and has not been published previously. There are no restrictions on the length of a paper. Authors should include a brief discussion in the Introduction that sets the context for the novel work and gives their motivation for carrying out the study.

Reviews & Perspectives

These are normally commissioned by the editorial board and editorial office, although suggestions from readers for topics and authors are most welcome and should be directed to the editor.

All review content should consist of original text and interpretation, avoiding any direct reproduction. If a significant amount of other people's material is to be used, either textual or image-based, permission must be sought by the author in accordance with copyright law and must be made clear in the manuscript.

Reviews and perspectives must be high quality, authoritative, state-of-the-art accounts of the selected research field. They should be timely and add to the existing literature, rather than duplicate existing articles, and should be of general interest to the journal's wide readership.

All reviews and perspectives undergo a rigorous and full peer review procedure in the same way as regular research papers.

Review articles report a detailed, balanced and authoritative current account of a particular facet of energy science. They should be timely, provide insights based on existing literature, and be of general interest to the journal's wide readership. Authors are encouraged to identify areas in the field where further developments are imminent or of urgent need, and any areas that may be of significance to the community in general. Reviews should not contain any unpublished original research.

Perspectives may take the form of a personal account of research, a critical analysis of a topic of current interest, or a philosophical look at a topic of relevance. In either form, some new unpublished research may be included.

Comments

Comments and Replies are a medium for the discussion and exchange of scientific opinions between authors and readers concerning material published in Energy Advances.

For publication, a Comment should present an alternative analysis of and/or new insight into the previously published material. Any Reply should further the discussion presented in the original article and the Comment. Comments and Replies that contain any form of personal attack are not suitable for publication. 

Comments that are acceptable for publication will be forwarded to the authors of the work being discussed, and these authors will be given the opportunity to submit a Reply. The Comment and Reply will both be subject to rigorous peer review in consultation with the journal’s Editorial Board where appropriate. The Comment and Reply will be published together.

Guideline statement

Authors and referees should note the following guidelines for articles reporting the efficiency of solar conversion devices. Authors should ensure the following information is provided in the main manuscript or supplementary information as appropriate.

Efficiencies should be reported to an appropriate number of significant figures, along with a standard deviation. This also includes presenting error bars on graphs.

A sufficient number of samples should be tested, and a sufficient number of trials performed.

The 1 Sun AM 1.5G reference spectrum should be used as standard for testing power conversion efficiency and a justification provided where this is not used.

Full experimental conditions under which the efficiency is measured should be declared. Special attention should be paid to documenting the active area of the device, the calibration protocol and properties of the illumination, including spectral irradiance and intensity. This may also include as appropriate, but is not limited to: air temperature; use of a glove box; properties and characteristics of the test cell and standardized cell used for calibration, including dimensions and spatial non-uniformity; and calibration and measurement protocols.

Independent certification of the photovoltaic performance of the device being reported is encouraged when the main claims rely on the absolute efficiency value being reported.

If incident photon-to-current efficiency (IPCE), also referred to as external quantum efficiency (EQE) measurements, are performed, the results should be integrated to a resulting short circuit current that can be compared with 1 Sun AM 1.5G power conversion efficiency data. The details of how this calculation is done and any correction factors should be clearly defined.

If hysteresis is observed, details on timescale and stability of the efficiency should be provided.

Authors and referees should note the following guidelines for articles reporting electrochemical data and setup of batteries. Authors should ensure the following information is provided in the main manuscript or supplementary information as appropriate.

The setup used for electrochemical testing (full or half cells, reference electrode [if used], testing temperature, etc.) must be clearly specified in the Experimental Information.

When reporting electrochemical performance data, the authors must clearly state on how many experimental runs these data are based off (one-time measurement? n-time measurement?). The electrochemical performance value calculations must be clearly explained (including information on using charging or discharging values). Thereby, all electrochemical data must be reported to an appropriate number of significant figures, along with standard deviation and error bars on graphs.

When reporting electrode performance values, the thickness of the electrode and the mass percentage of all electrode components (active material, additive, binder, etc.), the total mass of the electrode, and the geometric area of the electrode must be provided.

When reporting device-level performance values, the mass percentage of all battery components (active material, additive, binder, casing, current collector, electrolyte, separator, etc.), the total mass of the battery, and the geometric area of the electrode must be reported.

The mass percent and theoretical capacity of the active material should be provided if the theoretical capacity of the studied material is known. The theoretical capacity should be used to calculate C-rate. Alternatively, rigorous use of A g-1 is recommended.

Pre-cycling and/or first cycle data should be reported.

Calculations of battery capacity must report the capacity obtained (in mAh g-1; if appropriate, volumetric values can be added in the unit of mAh cm-3) with the cycling rate and at what cycle number this capacity was obtained clearly stated. Average capacities for ≥3 cells with standard deviation are preferred.