RSC launches new materials science journal

Researchers from across the materials science community have an exciting new option for reporting the latest ground breaking developments in their field, with the launch today of a new RSC journal - Materials Horizons.

The latest addition to the RSC Publishing portfolio will disseminate research across the extensive breadth of materials research, spanning multiple scientific disciplines. 

Materials Horizons will publish first reports of exceptional significance at the cutting-edge interface of materials science with chemistry, physics, biology and engineering.

The RSC will provide free access to the new peer-reviewed journal until the end of 2015, ensuring authors' work has maximum visibility.

Announcing the launch, James Milne, Executive Director of RSC Publishing, said: "Materials science is an expansive and rapidly evolving field of real relevance to the chemical sciences. Only last week, the UK Science Minister, David Willetts, announced £73 million of investment for new facilities and equipment to support research in advanced materials in the UK."

"We are delighted to support the breadth of the global materials research community with this new journal. Materials Horizons will be a world class journal characterised by the quality, ease and speed of publication, and innovative technology for which RSC Publishing is renowned. 

"As a not-for-profit publisher, this new addition to our portfolio will also go towards facilitating the RSC's aim to advance the chemical sciences for the benefit of society." 

Materials Horizons will open for submissions in April 2013 and the first issue will be published in late 2013. 

Authors submitting to Materials Horizons will benefit from easy online submission, rapid peer review and publication with no page charges, and free colour. Authors have the option of publishing their research as an Accepted Manuscript and, as with all RSC journals, authors may choose to publish their paper as an Open Access article. 

Published research will have very high visibility: from launch until December 2015, all content will be freely available online for readers via the RSC website.

Seth Marder, Professor of Chemistry and Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA, has been appointed chair of the Materials Horizons editorial board. 

He said: "It is a very exciting opportunity for me to work with the team at the RSC to help launch Materials Horizons - a new kind of society journal geared to rapid publication of truly top calibre, first reports of materials research, broadly defined.  

"Importantly, while published by a chemical society, the journal will seek to serve the broader materials community, by welcoming papers that cover the gamut of materials research. 

"The new journal will provide a forum for editorials on the status and future of materials research and content geared specifically to educating and engaging younger researchers in the field. With this, we hope to make Materials Horizons an indispensable resource for all researchers in the materials community."