Materials Science and Technology

Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Materials Science and Technology

This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics.

This Journal recommends that authors follow the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Please read the guidelines below then visit Materials Science and Technology’s submission site https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/msat to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned. Remember you can log in to the submission site at any time to check on the progress of your paper through the peer review process.

Sage disseminates high-quality research and engaged scholarship globally, and we are committed to diversity and inclusion in publishing. We encourage submissions from a diverse range of authors from across all countries and backgrounds.

Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Materials Science and Technology will be reviewed.

There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal.

As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you, that you are submitting the work for first publication in Materials Science and Technology and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere. Please see our guidelines on prior publication and note that Materials Science and Technology will consider submissions of papers that have been posted on preprint servers; please alert the Editorial Office when submitting (contact details are at the end of these guidelines) and include the DOI for the preprint in the designated field in the manuscript submission system. Authors should not post an updated version of their paper to a preprint server while it is being peer reviewed for possible publication in Materials Science and Technology. If your paper is accepted, you will need to contact the preprint server to ensure the final published article link is attached to your preprint. Learn more about our preprint policy here.

If you have any questions about publishing with Sage, please visit the Sage Journal Solutions Portal.

1. What do we publish?
   1.1 Aims & Scope
   1.2 Article types
   1.3 Writing your paper
2. Editorial policies
   2.1 Peer review policy
   2.2 Authorship
   2.3 Acknowledgements
   2.4 Funding
   2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
   2.6 Research ethics and patient consent
   2.7 Research data
3. Publishing policies
   3.1 Publication ethics
   3.2 Contributor’s publishing agreement
   3.3 Open access and author archiving
4. Preparing your manuscript
   4.1 Formatting
   4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
   4.3 Identifiable information
   4.4 Supplemental material
   4.5 Reference style
   4.6 English language editing services
5. Submitting your manuscript
   5.1 ORCID
   5.2 Information required for completing your submission
   5.3 Permissions
6. On acceptance and publication
   6.1 SAGE Production
   6.2 Online First publication
   6.3 Access to your published article
   6.4 Promoting your article
7. Further information
   7.1 Appealing the publication decision

 

1. What do we publish?

1.1 Aims & Scope

Before submitting your manuscript to Materials Science and Technology, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope:

Materials Science and Technology is an international forum for the publication of refereed contributions covering fundamental and technological aspects of materials science and engineering.

The journal has a particular interest in the continuum from understanding of process routes leading to the generation of microstructure, through characterisation and understanding of how microstructure is controlled and manipulated, to the control and prediction of relevant engineering properties. 'Microstructure' is shorthand for nano/micro/meso/macrostructure, provided that 'structure' is identified at the appropriate size scale. 'Properties' may be electrical, mechanical, electronic, chemical, magnetic, thermal, optical, or biochemically related. Reports of the use of modelling, informatics and related approaches to enhance understanding and predict properties must include validation against experimental results.

Contributions addressing any part of the continuum in an insightful manner, whatever the material system, are invited. What is important is that an attempt is made to relate ‘properties’ back to effects of ‘microstructure’.

Subscribers receive online access to the full back archive of MST included in their subscription. This archive provides complete coverage of MST back to Volume 1 (1985) and of its predecessors, Metal Science (1967-84) and Metals Technology (1974-84).

1.2 Article types

Research Article

Common name variations: Research Article; Article
Word Count: STM: 4000-6000; HSS: 4000-8000
Word count includes abstract/references: Includes keywords

Abstract structure: Structured increasingly preferred, particularly in STM
Reference limit: Approx. 100 (or number as appropriate based on literature search)
Description:
Research Articles should present novel work within the scope of the journal which represents an important advancement in knowledge or understanding. Research articles need to include an introduction, a well-reported methodology, results, and a discussion of the results in the context of the published literature.
Notes:
Word count is advised but flexible. 
Please direct authors to the EQUATOR network website (https://www.equator-network.org/) to ensure they follow the correct reporting guidelines for their paper.

Critical Assessment

• Critical assessments are short but profusely referenced articles that represent the current state of a field with a view to its future, selecting important current issues and indicating how the field may develop and the progress required to facilitate this. Informed speculation and well-argued unconventional views are encouraged, with the aim of stimulating discussion Should be between 2000 and 4000 words, inclusive of:
• Abstract
• Tables
• Footnotes
• Endnotes
• Should contain an unstructured abstract of 120 words.
• Should contain no more than 8 keywords. Read making your article more discoverable, including information on choosing a title and search engine optimization.
• Authors wishing to contribute critical assessments or reviews should contact the editor to discuss their proposal before submitting. The journal publishes special issues focusing on topics of current interest. Proposals for special issues are welcome and should be addressed to the editor. Please note, articles may be returned or rejected at the point of submission if the quality of presentation or the written quality of the English does not meet the required standard.
• The word count excludes references.

Short Communication

Common name variations: Short Report
Word Count: 4000
Word count includes abstract/references: No
Abstract structure: Structured
Reference limit: 50
Table limit: 4
Figure limit: 5
Description:
Short Communications are aimed at publishing short, but important, breakthrough data not embedded within a complex story. This can be reporting on the reliability or unreliability of research or informing readers of new factors that may influence the outcome of the study. Authors must acknowledge the work they build upon including any unpublished sources. 

Review Article

Common name variations: Narrative/literature review (See note)
Word Count: 8000
Word count includes abstract/references: Yes
Abstract structure: Journal preference
Reference limit: No
Table limit: 6 to 15 combined figures and tables
Figure limit: 6 to 15 combined figures and tables
Description:
A critical and comprehensive review of current relevant literature, identifying limitations in knowledge and a rationale for the study. The main aim of having such pieces is to offer readers an opportunity to understand the significance of developments in areas of the discipline of which they might otherwise be unaware.
Notes:
Most word counts are around 8000 but did range from 4000 to 15,000.
Review is a generic term and generally refers to narrative or literature reviews (see below for Literature Review). Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses will always specifically be called that.

Letter to the Editor

Common name variations:
Viewpoint, Comment (some journals distinguish between Letters and Comments based on how old the article being written about is).
Word Count: 500 max
Word count includes abstract/references: No
Abstract structure: Unstructured and no more than 100 words, if even present at all
Reference limit: 5
Table limit: 2
Figure limit: 3
Description:
[Several options below that can be mixed and matched as desired]
Letters to the Editor should consist of one or two paragraphs totaling no more than 500 words, no abstract, no subheadings and fewer than 8 references (one author, et al., no titles). If an abstract is included, it will automatically be made the first paragraph. Letters should not include figures or research material.

Letters to the Editor should be submitted through our usual submission process.

A letter to the editor is a brief communication that addresses the contents of a published article. Its purpose is to make corrections, provide alternative viewpoints, or offer counter arguments. Avoid logical fallacies and ad hominem attacks. Letters to the editor must be written in a professional tone and include references to support all claims if appropriate. 

Letters to the Editor commenting on a previously published paper in the journal  may be shared with the original authors, and they will be allowed a response to the submitted Letter to the Editor, if they desire. 

Notes:
Where the LTE is addressing a previously published article, it is standard practice to send the LTE to the author of the article in question, allow them to write a response, and publish both letters together.

MST Undergraduate Research Article

• The initiative is designed to contribute and complement engineering and science education. Research has shown that undergraduate research can lead to improvements in academic performance, retention in academic programs and increases in self-efficacy. These experiences help inform student decisions about future education and career paths, often being a motivation to pursue Masters and Ph.D. level degrees and research careers in STEM fields.
• Should be written with the following elements in the following order: title page; abstract; keywords; main text introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion; acknowledgments; declaration of interest statement; references; appendices (as appropriate); table(s) with caption(s) (on individual pages); figures; figure captions (as a list)
• Should be no more than 2500 words, inclusive of:
• Abstract
• Tables
• Footnotes
• Endnotes
• Should contain an unstructured abstract of 120 words.
• The word count excludes references.
• The research should be novel, high quality, original work performed by the undergraduate researcher with support from the research team.
• The first author should be a current or previous undergraduate researcher within a year of graduation; in the latter case, the submitted work should be from recent work conducted when the author was an undergraduate. Documentary evidence should be submitted with the paper to indicate the undergraduate status of the first author.
• We are primarily seeking publications that convey a key result with a concise story in the format of a Short Communication as described in the Materials Science and Technology Instructions for Authors page. These articles will be published with a special designation as an undergraduate led research article. However, we also welcome submissions of any other paper format accepted by Materials Science and Technology (e.g. full papers, communication, review, etc.) if the research team has sufficient results.
• The papers should fall within the Aims and Scope of Materials Science and Technology
• Please refer to the Materials Science and Technology Instructions for Authors for preparing and submitting a manuscript.

Additional Note:

• High quality assessments of undergraduate research programs led by someone other than an undergraduate, e.g. National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates programs, are also welcome using the same format described above.

Please visit our Sage Author Gateway for guidance on producing visual and/or video abstracts.

1.3 Writing your paper

Visit the Sage Author Gateway for general advice on how to get published, plus links to further resources.

Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance your article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.

1.3.1 Make your article discoverable

For information and guidance on how to make your article more discoverable, visit our Gateway page on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.

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2. Editorial policies

2.1 Peer review policy

Sage does not permit the use of author-suggested (recommended) reviewers at any stage of the submission process, be that through the web-based submission system or other communication.

Reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Our policy is that reviewers should not be assigned to a paper if:

• The reviewer is based at the same institution as any of the co-authors.
• The reviewer is based at the funding body of the paper.
• The author has recommended the reviewer.
• The reviewer has provided a personal (e.g. Gmail/Yahoo/Hotmail) email account and an institutional email account cannot be found after performing a basic Google search (name, department and institution).

The journal’s policy is to have manuscripts reviewed by two expert reviewers. Materials Science and Technology utilizes a double-anonymized peer review process in which the reviewer and authors’ names and information are withheld from the other. Reviewers may at their own discretion opt to reveal their names to the author in their review but our standard policy practice is for their identities to remain concealed. All manuscripts are reviewed as rapidly as possible, while maintaining rigor. Reviewers make comments to the author and recommendations to the Editor who then makes the final decision.

The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own manuscripts for possible publication in Materials Science and Technology. In these cases, the peer review process will be managed by alternative members of the Board and the submitting Editor/Board member will have no involvement in the decision-making process.

Materials Science and Technology is committed to delivering high quality, fast peer-review for your paper, and as such has partnered with Web of Science (previously Publons). Web of Science is a third-party service that seeks to track, verify and give credit for peer review. Reviewers for Materials Science and Technology can opt in to Web of Science in order to claim their reviews or have them automatically verified and added to their reviewer profile. Reviewers claiming credit for their review will be associated with the relevant journal, but the article name, reviewer’s decision and the content of their review is not published on the site. For more information visit the Web of Science website.

The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own manuscripts for possible publication in the Journal. In these cases, the peer review process will be managed by alternative members of the Board and the submitting Editor/Board member will have no involvement in the decision-making process.

2.2 Authorship

Papers should only be submitted for consideration once consent is given by all contributing authors. Those submitting papers should carefully check that all those whose work contributed to the paper are acknowledged as contributing authors.

The list of authors should include all those who can legitimately claim authorship. This is all those who:

1. Made a substantial contribution to the concept or design of the work; or acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data,
2. Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content,
3. Approved the version to be published,
4. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.Authors should meet the conditions of all of the points above. When a large, multicentre group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship.

Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship, although all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgments section. Please refer to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) authorship guidelines for more information on authorship.

Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.

2.3 Acknowledgements

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.

Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.

Per ICMJE recommendations, it is best practice to obtain consent from non-author contributors who you are acknowledging in your paper.

2.3.1 Third party submissions
Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:

• Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
• Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
• Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.

Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.

2.3.2 Writing assistance

Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance. It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.

2.4 Funding

Materials Science and Technology requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading.  Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. 

2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests

It is the policy of Materials Science and Technology to require a declaration of conflicting interests from all authors enabling a statement to be carried within the paginated pages of all published articles.

Please ensure that a ‘Declaration of Conflicting Interests’ statement is included at the end of your manuscript, after any acknowledgements and prior to the references. If no conflict exists, please state that ‘The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest’. For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations here.

2.6 Research ethics and patient consent

Medical research involving human subjects must be conducted according to the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki.

Submitted manuscripts should conform to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, and all papers reporting animal and/or human studies must state in the methods section that the relevant ethics committee or institutional review board provided (or waived) approval. Please ensure that you have provided the full name and institution of the review committee, in addition to the approval number.

For research articles, authors are also required to state in the methods section whether participants provided informed consent and whether the consent was written or verbal.

2.7 Research data

Materials Science and Technology is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages.

Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:

• Share your research data in a relevant public data repository
• Include a data availability statement linking to your data. If it is not possible to share your data, use the statement to confirm why it cannot be shared.
• Cite this data in your research

Peer reviewers may be asked to peer review the research data prior to publication.

• Peer reviewers may be asked to assess compliance with the research data policy
• Peer reviewers may be asked to assess research data files

If you need to anonymize your research data for peer review, please refer to our Research Data Sharing FAQs for guidance.
 

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3. Publishing policies

3.1 Publication ethics

Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.

3.1.1 Plagiarism

Materials Science and Technology and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of Materials Science and Technology against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarized other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.

3.1.2 Prior publication

If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.

3.2 Contributor’s publishing agreement

Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information, please visit the Sage Author Gateway.

3.3 Open access and author archiving

Materials Science and Technology offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.

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4. Preparing your manuscript

4.1 Formatting

The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. A LaTex template is available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.

4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics

For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.

Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.

4.3 Identifiable information

Where a journal uses double-anonymised peer review, authors are required to submit:

1. A version of the manuscript which has had any information that compromises the anonymity of the author(s) removed or anonymized. This version will be sent to the peer reviewers.
2. A separate title page which includes any removed or anonymised material. This will not be sent to the peer reviewers.

Visit the Sage Author Gateway for detailed guidance on making an anonymous submission.

4.4 Supplemental material

This Journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc.) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplemental files.

4.5 Reference style

Materials Science and Technology adheres to the Sage Vancouver reference style. View the Sage Vancouver guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.

If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the Sage Vancouver EndNote output file.

4.6 English language editing services

Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit Materials Science and Technology’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.

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5. Submitting your manuscript

Materials Science and Technology is hosted on Editorial Manager. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/msat to login and submit your article online.

IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for Materials Science and Technology in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created.  For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help

5.1 ORCID

As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.

We encourage all authors and co-authors to link their ORCIDs to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. We collect ORCID IDs during the manuscript submission process and your ORCID ID then becomes part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID ID is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.

If you do not already have an ORCID ID please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.

5.2 Information required for completing your submission

You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. The affiliation listed in the manuscript should be the institution where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the research, the new affiliation can be included in a manuscript note at the end of the paper. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).

5.3 Permissions

Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway.

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6. On acceptance and publication

6.1 SAGE Production

Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be made available to the corresponding author via our editing portal Sage Edit or by email, and corrections should be made directly or notified to us promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.

6.2 Online First publication

Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.

6.3 Access to your published article

Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.

6.4 Promoting your article

Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.

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7. Further information

Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Materials Science and Technology editorial office as follows:

Dr Kip Findley, (Colorado School of Mines, USA): kfindley@mines.edu

Professor Nick Jones (University of Cambridge, UK): ngj22@cam.ac.uk

Dr Svjetlana Stekovic (Linköping University, Sweden): svjetlana.stekovic@liu.se

Dr R Rana (Tata Steel, The Netherlands): radhakanta.rana@tatasteeleurope.com

7.1 Appealing the publication decision

Editors have very broad discretion in determining whether an article is an appropriate fit for their journal. Many manuscripts are declined with a very general statement of the rejection decision. These decisions are not eligible for formal appeal unless the author believes the decision to reject the manuscript was based on an error in the review of the article, in which case the author may appeal the decision by providing the Editor with a detailed written description of the error they believe occurred.

If an author believes the decision regarding their manuscript was affected by a publication ethics breach, the author may contact the publisher with a detailed written description of their concern, and information supporting the concern, at publication_ethics@sagepub.com

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