Impact factor: 9.095*
Publishing frequency: 6 issues per year
Editorial Board Chair: Harold Craighead
Submission to first decision: 30 days**

Expect to be impressed

Horizons research pushes the boundaries of nanoscience and nanotechnology – 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

Nanoscale Horizons is a leading journal for the publication of exceptionally high quality, innovative nanoscience & nanotechnology. 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 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.

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Part of the nanoscale family

Nanoscale Horizons is part of the nanoscale family, which also includes Nanoscale Advances and Nanoscale. The journal series allows full coverage of interdisciplinary advances in nanoscience and nanotechnology.

Nanoscale Horizons

Nanoscale

Nanoscale Advances

Editorial board

Article Types

Nanoscale 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 nanoscience 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.

Nanoscale 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 nanoscience and nanotechnology?

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 examples

A location- and sharpness-specific tactile electronic skin based on staircase-like nanowire patches

We report a new tactile electronic skin sensor based on staircase-like vertically aligned gold nanowires (V-AuNWs). With the back-to-back linear or spiral assembly of two antiparallel staircase structures into a single sensor, we are able to recognize pressure in a highly location-specific manner for both non-stretched and stretched states (up to 50% strain). With a concentric design on the fingertip, we can identify the sharpness of an external object in a similar way to human skin for the first time. Note that only location-specific pressure sensing under a non-stretched state has been demonstrated with existing unpixellated pressure sensors. Other important functions of human tactile sensing, such as the ability to discriminate sharp/blunt objects and location-specific sensing under stretched states, have not yet been achieved in the literature. We believe that our methodologies open up a new route to low-cost stretchable smart tactile sensors with potential facile integration and high location resolution into future wearable electronics, such as stretchable touch-on displays, soft robotics and prosthetic skins. The staircase structures and location-specific sensitivity could be extended to other novel nanomaterials and designs to form heterogeneous multifunctional optoelectronic devices, indicating broad application potentiality in next-generation skin-like electronics.

 

Single glucose molecule transport process revealed by force tracing and molecular dynamics simulations

Molecular transports across cell membranes are essential activities of cellular systems. How fast can nutrients, such as single glucose and amino acids, be transported into a living cell? What is the effort the cells need to pay for transporting such molecules? These questions are quite fundamental in cell biology, but have never been revealed at the single molecule level. To address these critical questions, we use the atomic force microscopy (AFM)-based force-tracing technique to monitor the process of single-glucose transport, inspired by a “fishing” concept. We demonstrate that the force-tracing technique enables the single molecule transport process to be followed at a high temporal-spatial resolution. The forces to transport a single molecule of d-glucose across cell membranes and the corresponding transport interval were recorded. Combining with theoretical simulation, the transporting mechanism of glucose is further revealed at an atomic level, which was confirmed by the biological experiments. Our approach leads to the first unambiguous description of the kinetics of the transport process in living cells at the single molecule level, which is significant for understanding how a membrane transporter works. This study provides a new concept of investigating the dynamic function of cell membranes.

 

Efficient hole transfer from monolayer WS2 to ultrathin amorphous black phosphorus

We introduce an amorphous semiconductor to the material library for constructing van der Waals heterostructures. Since 2014, van der Waals heterostructures have been one of the most dynamic research topics in nanoscience and nanotechnology. Previous efforts have mostly been focused on combining two materials with similar lattices, such as different types of transition metal dichalcogenides. However, heterostructures combining materials with different lattice structures can potentially allow integration of vastly different properties. Here we explore an extreme example by combining a crystalline monolayer with an amorphous ultrathin film. We fabricate heterostructures composed of a 2 nm amorphous black phosphorus layer and a monolayer of WS2. Time-integrated photoluminescence and time-resolved transient absorption measurements both revealed that holes excited in WS2 can efficiently transfer to amorphous black phosphorus on an ultrafast time scale. Furthermore, we show that a hexagonal BN bilayer can effectively control the hole transfer process. These results establish amorphous black phosphorus as a building block for van der Waals heterostructures, provide new information for understanding interlayer charge transfer, and allow electrical connections to amorphous materials by van der Waals interfaces.

Reviews

Reviews are typically commissioned by the Nanoscale 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. Nanoscale 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 nanoscience or nanotechnology (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 Nanoscale Horizons Minireview is three printed journal pages.

Focus articles

Nanoscale 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 Nanoscale 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 Nanoscale 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 nanoscience and nanotechnology.

Journal specific information

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 nanoscience & nanotechnology 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

The readership is cross-disciplinary and includes scientists, researchers and professionals in academia and industry interested in nanoscience and nanotechnology, including (but not limited to) the following areas.

  • Physics
  • Chemistry
  • Biology
  • Medicine
  • Materials
  • Energy/environment
  • Information technology
  • Detection science
  • Healthcare and drug discovery
  • Electronics

Subscription information

Online only 2020: ISSN 2055-6764 £2,382 / $3,931

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