Supporting our community through Covid-19
While our publishing services are running as usual, we also know that this is a very challenging time for everyone, for many different reasons. If any aspect of the publishing process is worrying you – for example you think you may struggle to meet a pre-determined deadline – please let us know, and we will work out an answer together.
Publishing frequency: 12 issues per year
Editorial Board Chair: Seth Marder
Submission to first decision: 29 days**
Expect to be impressed
Horizons research pushes the boundaries of materials science – think new unexpected observations, new directions and new levels of insight.
Put your trust in our team
Our editorial processes are transparent, rigorous, fair and rapid, with an editorial board of leading scientists, guided by a society publisher – we get great work into the world, fast.
Learn something new
Focus articles clarify often misunderstood topic areas, and original research comes with a New Concepts statement which explains the work and its wider significance.
Journal Scope
Materials Horizons is a leading journal for the publication of exceptionally high quality, innovative materials science.The journal places an emphasis on original research that demonstrates a new concept or a new way of thinking (a conceptual advance), rather than primarily reporting technological improvements. However, outstanding articles featuring truly breakthrough developments such as record performance of materials alone may also be published in the journal. For work to be published it must be of significant general interest to our community-spanning readership.
Editorial board
Editorial Board Chair Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
Editorial board member: University of Pittsburgh, USA
Scientific editor: University of Toulouse, France
Editorial board member: Northwestern University, USA
Editorial board member: Beihang University, China
Scientific editor: Seoul National University, South Korea
Scientific editor: Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany
Scientific editor: University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
Scientific editor:University of Cambridge, UK
Scientific editor: University of New South Wales, Australia
Editorial board member: University of Southern California, USA
Scientific editor: Imperial College London, UK
Scientific editor: Tsinghua University, China
Scientific editor: University of Pennsylvania, USA
Markus Antonietti, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Germany
Zhenan Bao, Stanford University, USA
Paul Blom, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Germany
Mischa Bonn, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Germany
Jean-Luc Brédas, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
Jillian Buriak, University of Alberta, Canada
Yong Cao, South China University of Technology, China
Rachel Caruso, University of Melbourne, Austrailia
Anthony Cheetham, University of Cambridge, UK
Hong Chen, Soochow University, China
Jinwoo Cheon, Yonsei University, South Korea
Luisa De Cola, University of Strasbourg, France
Richard Friend, University of Cambridge, UK
David Haddleton, University of Warwick, UK
Subi George, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, India
Naomi Halas, Rice University, USA
Martin Heeney, Imperial College London, UK
Jurriaan Huskens, University of Twente, Netherlands
Taeghwan Hyeon, Seoul National University, South Korea
Hiroshi Imahori, Kyoto University, Japan
René Janssen, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands
Antoine Kahn, Princeton University, USA
Richard Kaner, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
Susumu Kitagawa, Kyoto University, Japan
Frederik Krebs, Elite Science, Denmark
Katharina Landfester, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Germany
Nate Lewis, California Institute of Technology, USA
Yan Li, Peking University, China
Kian Ping Loh, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Lynn Yueh Lin Loo, Princeton University, USA
Bin Liu, National University of Singapore, Singapore
HongYee Low, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore
Richard Martel, University of Montreal, Canada
Hedi Mattoussi, Florida State University, USA
Bert Meijer, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands
Phillip Messersmith, University of California, Berkeley, USA
Chad Mirkin, Northwestern University, USA
Catherine Murphy, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA
K S Narayan, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, India
Markus Niederberger, ETH Zürich, Switzerland
Teri Odom, Northwestern University, USA
Marie-Paule Pileni, Pierre and Marie Curie University, France
C N R Rao, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore, India
John A Rogers, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA
Vince Rotello, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA
Christine Schmidt, University of Florida, USA
Gregory D Scholes, Princeton University, USA
Nava Setter, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, Switzerland
Peter Skabara, University of Glasgow, UK
Henry Snaith, University of Oxford, UK
Takao Someya, University of Tokyo, Japan
Kazuo Takimaya, RIKEN, Japan
Shu Wang, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Emily Weiss, Northwestern University, USA
David Weitz, Harvard University, USA
Yi Xie, University of Science and Technology of China, China
Peidong Yang, University of California, Berkeley, USA
Jackie Ying, Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, Singapore
Jihong Yu, Jilin University, China
Shu-Hong Yu, University of Science and Technology of China, China
Aldo J. G. Zarbin, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Brazil
Xiaowei Zhan, Peking University, China
Dongyuan Zhao, Fudan University, China
Our Community Board is an early career advisory board made up of researchers with expertise across all areas of the journal’s scope. The board members provide feedback and advice regarding journal activities, as well as acting as advocates for the journal.
Chibueze Amanchukwu, The University of Chicago, USA
Athina Anastasaki, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Maria C. Arno, University of Birmingham, UK
Rowena Brugge, Imperial College London, UK
Mingtao Chen, University of Colorado, USA
Pei Cheng, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
Huijuan Cui, Nankai University, China
Xiaoguang Duan, The University of Adelaide, Australia
Azhar Fakharuddin, University of Konstanz, Germany
Rebecca Gieseking, Brandeis University, USA
Masayuki Gon, Kyoto University, Japan
Xia Guo, Soochow University, China
Chen Jiang, University of Cambridge, UK
Yanyan Jiang, Shandong University, China
Seong-Min Jo, Max-Planck institute for Polymer Research, Germany
Vipin Kumar, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), India
Aneeya Kumar Samantara, National Institute of Science Education and Research, India
Audrey Laventure, Université de Montréal, Canada
Collins Taehun Lee, Yonsei University, Korea
Quan Li, Hubei University, China
Tian-yi Li, University of Southern California, USA
Penggao Liu, Central South University, China
David Lunn, OxSyBio Ltd, UK
Katerina G. Malollari, University of California, Berkeley, USA
Ignacio Martin-Fabiani, Loughborough University, UK
Gift Mehlana, Midlands State University, Zimbabwe
Wee-Jun Ong, Xiamen University, Malaysia
Robert Pankow, University of Southern California, USA
Christopher Proctor, University of Cambridge, UK
Yun Qian, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
Li Na Quan, University of California, Berkeley, USA
Alexandra Ramadan, Oxford Univeristy, UK
Vincent Blay Roger, University of California, San Francisco , USA
Bernd Schmidt, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany
Hao Shao, Deakin University, Australia
Elayne Thomas, University of Massachussetts Amherst, USA
Maria-Helene Tremblay, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
Daiki Umeyama, NIMS, Japan
Mengye Wang, Sun Yat-Sen University, China
Meng Zhang, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
Nan Zhang, Hunan University, China
Jiadong Zhou, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Ye Zhou, Shenzhen University, China
Michaela Mühlberg, Executive Editor ORCID 0000-0002-3468-280X
Lynn Murphy, Deputy Editor ORCID 0000-0003-4893-1536
Rose Wedgbury, Development Editor ORCID 0000-0002-7192-5401
Jonathon Watson, Editorial Production Manager
Sarah Whitbread, Senior Publishing Editor
Lucy Balshaw, Publishing Editor
Matthew Blow, Publishing Editor
Chris Dias, Publishing Editor
Ed Gardner, Publishing Editor
Joe Gibson, Publishing Editor
Emma Gorrell, Publishing Editor
Carole Martin, Publishing Editor
Rebecca Plant, Publishing Editor
Ella Wren, Publishing Editor
Ruth Zadik, Publishing Editor
Jane Chan, Editorial Assistant
Jane Paterson, Publishing Assistant
Materials Horizons Outstanding Paper Awards
In order to recognize some of the outstanding work published in the journal, as well as the authors behind those articles, we annually award an Outstanding Paper prize. The awards recognise both the corresponding author of the paper as well as the first author.
Each year, we put together a shortlist of articles published during the previous calendar year based on a variety of metrics including article downloads, Altmetrics, and citations. The shortlist is reviewed by the journal's Editorial and Advisory Board members based on the science presented and potential future impact. Based on this, and on the high quality of content we published throughout the year, an Outstanding Paper is chosen, with an additional option to award a runner-up and/or Outstanding Review.
2018 winners:
Inaugural Materials Horizons Outstanding Paper 2018:
Grace X. Gu, Chun-Teh Chen, Deon J. Richmond and Markus J. Buehler*
Inaugural Materials Horizons Outstanding Paper runner-up 2018:
Hui Geng, Haoyu Bai, Yangyang Fan, Shaoyu Wang, Teer Ba, Cunming Yu, Moyuan Cao* and Lei Jiang
Inaugural Materials Horizons Outstanding Review 2018:
Photocatalytic fixation of nitrogen to ammonia: state-of-the-art advancement and future prospects
Xingzhu Chen, Neng Li,* Zhouzhou Kong, Wee-Jun Ong* and Xiujian Zhao
Article Types
Materials Horizons publishes:
- Communications
- Reviews
- Minireviews
- Focus articles
- Comments
Communications
All original research published in the journal is in the form of Communication articles. These are exceptionally high quality and innovative reports that are of significant broad appeal to the materials science community at large. The research presented should provide new insight into the topic and demonstrate a new concept or a new way of thinking (a conceptual advance), rather than primarily reporting technological improvements. However, outstanding articles featuring truly breakthrough developments such as record performance of materials alone may also be published in the journal.
Materials Horizons Communications must include a separate ‘new concepts’ statement. This statement should be a paragraph of no more than 200 words and should address the following questions:
- What new concept has been demonstrated?
- What differentiates this concept from existing research?
- What additional insight does your work and the underlying concept bring to the materials science?
This statement will be seen by editors and reviewers and will help ascertain the significance of the research. The statement should not be a summary of the work reported, as in the article abstract. If the paper is accepted, this statement will also be published. Please note that papers cannot be peer-reviewed without this statement.
Although there is no page limit for a Communication, the recommended length is three printed journal pages. Authors are encouraged to provide a succinct and relevant introduction to the research and to consider the use of the electronic supplementary information for additional material. Please see below for some examples of exemplar 'new concepts' statements.
See examplesReviews
Reviews are typically commissioned by the Materials Horizons editorial board and editorial office, although suggestions from readers for topics and authors of reviews are very welcome and should be directed to the editor. Materials Horizons Reviews must be very high quality, authoritative, state-of-the-art accounts of the selected research field.
Reviews should be timely and provide insights based on existing literature as well as being of general interest to the journal's wide readership. All Reviews undergo a rigorous and full peer review procedure, in the same way as regular research papers.
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 are typically six to eight printed journal pages in length.
Minireviews
Minireviews are highlights or summaries of research in an emerging area of materials science (typically from the last two to three years). They are not intended to be comprehensive overviews, but rather should highlight recent and important developments and provide insights into the emerging area on which they are focused. Minireviews should set the topic in the context of the relevant literature and may include perspectives of the future development of the field.
Perspectives of the future development of the field are appropriate. The recommended length of a Materials Horizons Minireview is three printed journal pages.
Focus articles
Materials Horizons Focus articles are educational articles that can take the form of either an editorial or review article. They are designed to address topic areas which are often misunderstood or require greater explanation.
Focus articles are invited by the Materials Horizons editorial board and editorial office. Suggestions from readers for topics and authors of Focus articles are welcome and should be directed to the editor.
Comments
Comments and Replies are a medium for the discussion and exchange of scientific opinions between authors and readers concerning material published in Materials Horizons.
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.
Submission and assessment process
On submission to the journal, all manuscripts are initially assessed by a team of professional Publishing Editors who have a wide range of scientific backgrounds. They make an assessment of whether the manuscript may be suitable for the journal, based on the scope and very high significance and broad general interest criteria required for publication. Publishing Editors are supported in this decision making by our academic Scientific Editors who are members of our Editorial Board. Only manuscripts that are successful during these initial assessments will be sent for full peer review. Full details of the initial assessment process can be found with our processes and policies.
The journal follows a single-blind peer review process and articles are typically sent to at least two independent reviewers for evaluation. Professional Publishing Editors are responsible for peer review and associated editorial decisions. The team are guided by our Editorial Board who set the scientific standards and guidelines for the journal. Our Editorial Board are all leading scientists who together have expertise across the breadth of materials science.
Journal specific guidelines
The following guidelines are journal specific. For general guidance on preparing an article please visit our Prepare your article page, the content of which is relevant to all of our journals.
We provide some general considerations on suitability for publication of original research in the journal:
- Articles that challenge current thinking, present new unexpected observations, create new directions in materials science or introduce a new understanding of a topic. For example, new mechanisms, new synthetic procedures or simplifying the current challenging or lengthy synthetic method, new molecular design guidelines, novel properties that have not been observed before, novel applications
- Articles with no new concept, but truly exceptional (top 5% in field) and surprising results are welcome
- We consider that a new (nano)material can be equated with a new concept if potentially surprising performance/properties are reported
- Demonstration of use of a (nano)material in an application is not a requirement, but could provide further evidence for the impact of work
- Reports on known (nano)materials are acceptable if (i) the article reports unexpected combinations with other materials or (ii) the article reports a new unexpected application, new observations or physical properties, etc., that provide insight into molecular design rules/guidelines
- Authors should ensure that there is sufficient information on (nano)material synthesis and characterisation in the article or ESI for the work to be repeatable. If it is not present then the editors will return the article to the authors
- Articles that contain some or wholly theoretical/computational studies are welcome. They should contain a discussion that compares the study to experimental data, if this exists in the literature. Authors must provide sufficient information to enable readers to reproduce any computational results. The computational methods used in the study should be included in either the article or the supplementary information. If software was used for calculations and is generally available, it must be properly cited in the notes and references. References to the methods upon which the software is based must also be provided. Computational results obtained using methods, parameters, or input data that are not adequately described in the manuscript or in the referenced literature are not acceptable for publication
- Articles that do not put into context the importance of the study are not suitable for peer review in the journal. Articles with no comparison to state of the art (if available) are not suitable for peer review in the journal
- Articles that simply report a combination of already known things with no surprising results are not suitable for peer review in the journal
Readership information
Materials Horizons is a core journal for academic, government and industrial scientists involved in all aspects of materials research.
Subscription information
Online only 2020: ISSN 2051-6355, £2,356 / $4,031
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