Author Guidelines

These guidelines explain how to prepare and submit a manuscript to the Journal of Materials Research Communications. Following them closely helps us to review and publish your work quickly.

Before you submit

• Check that your work fits the Aims & Scope and choose the most appropriate article type.
• Make sure that the work is original and is not published or under consideration elsewhere. Preprints are welcome; please mention any preprint in your cover letter.
• Confirm that every author has approved the submission and meets the authorship criteria in our Publication Ethics policy.
• Prepare a cover letter explaining the significance of the work. You may suggest suitable reviewers and ask for specific individuals to be excluded, giving reasons.

Article types

Files to upload

1. Anonymised manuscript An editable Word (.docx) file, or a PDF generated from LaTeX, with all author names, affiliations, acknowledgements and other identifying details removed. Refer to your own previous work in the third person.
2. Title page A separate file with the title, all author names, affiliations (department, institution, city and country), ORCID iDs, the corresponding author's email address and the declarations listed below.
3. Figures and tables Embedded in the manuscript for review; high-resolution files can be supplied separately or at acceptance.
4. Supplementary material Optional additional data, methods, figures or videos that support the article.
5. Cover letter Uploaded as a separate file or entered in the submission form.

Please also remove personal information from the document properties of every file.

Manuscript structure

Research Articles should normally be organised as follows. Reviews and Short Communications may use a structure suited to their content.

• Title: concise, specific and informative, without abbreviations.
• Abstract: a single paragraph that states the purpose, methods, principal results and main conclusions, without references.
• Keywords: 4–6 keywords that do not simply repeat the title.
• Introduction: the background, the gap in knowledge and the aim of the work.
• Materials and methods: enough detail (sources of materials, processing conditions, instruments and parameters) for others to reproduce the work.
• Results and discussion: combined or separate; interpret the findings in the context of previous work and discuss their limitations.
• Conclusions: the main findings and their significance, without repeating the abstract.
• Declarations (on the title page during review): see below.
• References.

An optional graphical abstract (a single image that summarises the work) and three to five highlights (bullet points of up to 85 characters each) are welcome.

Language and style

• Write in clear, concise English, using British or American spelling consistently. Authors who are not confident in English are encouraged to have the manuscript checked before submission.
• Use SI units and standard symbols throughout, with a space between the number and the unit (for example 25 °C or 3.2 GPa).
• Define abbreviations at first use in the abstract and again in the main text.
• Number equations consecutively and prepare them with an equation editor rather than as images.
• Number all pages and use continuous line numbering to help reviewers.

Figures and tables

• Number figures and tables in the order in which they are cited, and give each a self-explanatory caption.
• Supply photographs and micrographs at a resolution of at least 300 dpi, and line art at 600 dpi or as vector files (PDF, EPS or SVG). Include scale bars on all micrographs.
• Make figures legible at their final size and readable by people with colour-vision deficiency; do not rely on colour alone to convey information.
• Prepare tables as editable text, not as images.
• Images must not be manipulated in any way that could misrepresent the data. Adjustments of brightness or contrast must be applied to the whole image and declared in the caption. See our Publication Ethics policy.

References

JMRC uses a numbered reference style. Cite references in the text with numbers in square brackets, for example [1] or [2–4], and list them in the order of first citation. Include the DOI of every reference that has one. For example:

1. A.B. Author, C.D. Author, Title of the article, Journal Abbreviation 12 (2024) 345–356. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx
2. E.F. Author, Title of the Book, 2nd ed., Publisher, City, 2023.
3. G.H. Author, Title of the chapter, in: I.J. Editor (Ed.), Title of the Book, Publisher, City, 2022, pp. 10–25.
4. Name of the dataset, Repository name, 2025. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx

Cite the datasets and software used in the work, and avoid excessive self-citation.

Declarations

The following statements are required for every submission. Include them on the title page during review; they are published with the article.

• Author contributions: the role of each author, described using the CRediT taxonomy.
• Funding: all sources of funding, with grant numbers, or a statement that the work received no specific funding.
• Competing interests: any financial or non-financial interests that could be seen to influence the work, or a statement that there are none.
• Data availability: where the data supporting the findings can be found; see the Research Data Policy.
• Use of generative AI: any use of AI tools in preparing the manuscript; see the Generative AI Policy.
• Ethics approval where the research involves human participants, human tissue or animals.
• Acknowledgements of people who contributed to the work but do not meet the authorship criteria.

Submitting your manuscript

1. Create an account Register with the journal, or log in if you already have an account.
2. Start a new submission Choose Submit manuscript and select the article type.
3. Enter the details Add the title, abstract, keywords, all authors with their affiliations and ORCID iDs, and your references.
4. Upload your files Upload the anonymised manuscript, the title page, figures and any supplementary files.
5. Review and submit Confirm the submission checklist and submit. You will receive an acknowledgement by email and can follow progress from your dashboard.

Revising your manuscript

If revisions are requested, upload a revised manuscript with the changes highlighted, together with a point-by-point response to every comment from the editor and reviewers. Revised manuscripts are normally expected within 14 days for minor revisions and 45 days for major revisions; please contact the editorial office if you need more time.

After acceptance

• Accepted manuscripts are copyedited and typeset, and the corresponding author receives proofs, which should be checked and returned within three working days. Only the correction of errors is possible at the proof stage.
• The corresponding author receives an invoice for the article processing charge. The article is published open access under the CC BY 4.0 licence once the proofs are approved and the APC has been paid, and is then included in the current issue.
• Authors retain copyright; see Copyright & Licensing.
• Any correction after publication follows the Corrections, Retractions & Appeals policy.

Questions

For help with your submission, please contact the editorial office at editor@jmrconline.com.