Journal of Materials Chemistry C

Communications

Journal of Materials Chemistry C Communications contain novel scientific work of such importance that rapid publication is desirable. Authors should briefly indicate in a covering letter the reasons why they feel that publication of their work as a Communication is justified. The recommended length is three printed journal pages.

Full papers

Full papers contain original scientific work that has not been published previously.

Review-type articles

These are normally invited by the Editorial Board and editorial office, although suggestions from readers for topics and authors of reviews are welcome.

Review-type articles 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 Review-type articles undergo rigorous peer review, in the same way as regular research papers.

Reviews should report a detailed, balanced and authoritative current account of the existing state of knowledge on a particular facet of materials chemistry research for optical, magnetic and electronic devices. Simple literature surveys will not be accepted for publication. Reviews should not contain unpublished original research.

Highlight articles are short articles that highlight important new developments. Unlike Review articles, these are intended to cover developments made over the past year or so. They should explain the significance of these developments and may also identify where further work is urgently required or where challenges are still faced. These articles should discuss emerging areas of relevance to materials. Highlights should not contain unpublished original research.

Perspectives are short readable articles covering current areas of interest. They may take the form of personal accounts of research or a critical analysis of activity in a specialist area. By their nature they will not be comprehensive reviews of a field of materials chemistry. 

Comments/Replies

Comments and Replies are a medium for the discussion and exchange of scientific opinions between authors and readers concerning material published in Journal of Materials Chemistry C.

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.

A full, conventional error analysis should be carried out and reported. This should consist of both random and systematic/bias analyses of values to support the main claims presented in the article, and information on how the error analysis was carried out.

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.