Materials Today Communications: Journal Scope, APC, and Author Guide

Materials Today Communications (ISSN: 2352-4928) is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Elsevier that serves the materials science and engineering community. Established in 2014 within the Materials Today publishing family, the journal provides an outlet for primary research spanning structural materials, nanomaterials, polymers, and computational physics. Manuscripts are evaluated on technical validity, methodological rigor, and data reproducibility rather than subjective perceptions of novelty or citation impact.

Operating under a hybrid publishing model, authors can choose between subscription publication at zero author cost or Gold open access funded by an Article Publishing Charge (APC). This guide outlines the journal’s governance, indexed scope, submission workflow under Elsevier’s “Your Paper Your Way” initiative, fee structure, and comparative position relative to alternative materials science venues.

What it is

Materials Today Communications is a rapid-publication, peer-reviewed journal indexed in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) and Scopus. Published in Oxford by Elsevier Ltd., the title began publication with Volume 1 in 2014 (NLM Unique ID: 101702545) and carries the ISO 4 abbreviation Mater. Today Commun.

The journal operates under a sound-science peer-review mandate. While flagship titles within the Materials Today portfolio filter for high-novelty breakthroughs, Materials Today Communications assesses whether a study is technically sound, methodologically valid, and clearly reported. This approach provides an outlet for rigorous experimental studies, systematic property datasets, incremental phase diagram refinements, and replication studies. Published articles are hosted on the ScienceDirect platform.

Who runs it and what it covers

Materials Today Communications is published by Elsevier BV (Elsevier Ltd.) and managed by an academic Editor-in-Chief alongside an international editorial board of active materials researchers.

Journal Scope

The journal covers experimental, theoretical, and computational research across materials science and engineering, including:

• Microstructure and Mechanical Properties: Grain boundary kinetics, phase transformations, tensile deformation, and fracture mechanics in alloys and steels.
• Additive Manufacturing and Processing: Laser powder bed fusion, direct energy deposition, sintering, and thermal spray coatings.
• Functional and Electronic Materials: Semiconductor thin films, 2D materials, perovskites, and electromagnetic shielding media.
• Polymer and Composite Engineering: Fiber-reinforced composites, nanocomposites, and hydrogel network synthesis.
• Biomaterials and Tissue Scaffolds: Biocompatible ceramics, biodegradable magnesium alloys, and protective coatings for medical devices.
• Computational Materials Science: Density functional theory, molecular dynamics, phase-field modeling, and machine learning for property prediction.

Publication Volume and Indexing

According to Crossref registry records, Materials Today Communications has deposited more than 16,200 peer-reviewed articles. Annual publication volume includes:

• 2021: 1,298 articles
• 2022: 1,939 articles
• 2023: 2,622 articles
• 2024: 3,492 articles
• 2025: 3,225 articles

OpenAlex records indicate an h-index of 95 and a 2-year mean citedness rate above 4.7. Crossref metadata compliance includes 100% license recording, 99.9% Crossmark update policy coverage, and 99.4% reference depositing.

Publishing Model and APC Structure

The journal uses a hybrid open access model where authors choose between two routes upon acceptance:

1. Subscription Route (No Author Fee): Articles publish free of charge. Access is provided to institutional subscribers, with green open access self-archiving permitted under publisher embargo terms.
2. Gold Open Access Route (Author APC): Authors retain copyright and publish under a Creative Commons license upon payment of an article processing charge (APC).

As verified from official publisher price lists and OpenAlex indexing, the standard APC is $2,830 USD (excluding local taxes), or €2,650 EUR / £2,270 GBP / ¥351,000 JPY. The APC has adjusted over time ($2,000 in 2021, $2,060 in 2022, $2,340 in 2023, $2,430 in 2024, and $2,830 in 2025/2026). Automatic waivers or discounts apply to authors from Research4Life eligible countries and participating institutional transformative agreements.

How to search or use it

Interacting with Materials Today Communications involves discovering research through indexing platforms or submitting manuscripts through Elsevier’s Editorial Manager system.

Reading and Literature Discovery

Researchers can browse published issues through ScienceDirect, Scopus, Web of Science, or Europe PMC. Advanced search queries combine material classes (such as high-entropy alloys or hydrogels) and characterization methods (SEM, TEM, XRD) with DOIs prefixed by 10.1016/j.mtcomm.

Manuscript Submission Workflow (Editorial Manager)

Authors submitting to Materials Today Communications complete the following steps:

1. Access Submission Portal: Go to the journal’s ScienceDirect homepage and select “Submit Your Paper” to enter Editorial Manager. Authors log in with their account and verified ORCID identifier.
2. Select Article Type: Choose Full Length Article (comprehensive study), Short Communication (concise, rapid-reporting paper), or Review Article.
3. Prepare Under “Your Paper Your Way”: Under Elsevier’s flexible submission policy, authors may upload an initial manuscript as a single Word or PDF file containing embedded tables and figures. Detailed formatting is deferred until revision.
4. Enter Metadata and Author Roles: Enter title, abstract, and keywords. Define contributor responsibilities using the standardized CRediT contributor roles taxonomy.
5. Submit Mandatory Disclosures: Complete required declarations, including a Declaration of Competing Interests and a Data Availability statement with repository links.
6. Preprint Integration: Authors may opt to post their submission as a preprint to SSRN under the Materials Today First Look series during manuscript upload.
7. Approve Proof and Track Review: Review the generated PDF and submit. Authors monitor progress through reviewer assignment and revisions via the Elsevier peer review tracking dashboard.

Reference Formatting

Accepted papers follow Elsevier’s numbered citation standard. In-text citations use sequential numbers in square brackets (e.g., [1] or [1–3]). The final reference list is arranged numerically:

• Journal article: [1] J.K. Smith, A. Name, Title of article, Mater. Today Commun. 12 (2025) 100–105.
• Book: [2] M.A. Lewis, S.V. Petrovskii, J.R. Potts, Long-Distance Dispersal and Spread, Springer, Cham, 2016.

Strengths and limits

Strengths

• Sound-Science Review: Evaluation is grounded in technical validity and reproducibility rather than subjective novelty.
• Publishing Path Flexibility: Hybrid model provides a $0 subscription option alongside Gold open access.
• Standardized Indexing: Full SCIE, Scopus, and Crossref indexing ensures citation attribution and discoverability.
• Low Initial Formatting Friction: Single-file submission under “Your Paper Your Way” streamlines initial review.
• Substantial Capacity: Over 3,000 articles published annually across diverse materials subfields.

Limits

• Gold OA Cost: The $2,830 USD APC is substantial for unfunded authors whose institutions lack transformative agreements.
• Subscription Embargoes: The $0 subscription route applies green OA repository embargoes (typically 12–24 months), which may conflict with immediate public-access mandates.
• Broad Volume: Large publication output requires precise search filtering to track niche subfield advances.

Alternatives

Materials researchers compare titles based on article length, publishing model, turnaround speed, and editorial thresholds. The table below outlines key alternatives:

Journal Name	Publisher	Publishing Model	Editorial Focus	Format & Scope
Materials Today Communications	Elsevier	Hybrid ($0 or $2,830 APC)	Sound science across all materials subfields	Full research articles and communications
Materials Letters	Elsevier	Hybrid ($0 or APC)	Rapid short communications on novel materials	Strict page and word limits
Scripta Materialia	Elsevier	Hybrid ($0 or APC)	High-impact short communications	Selective threshold focused on novelty
Materials & Design	Elsevier	Full Open Access (Mandatory APC)	Engineering applications and manufacturing processes	Full-length research articles; open access only
Scientific Reports	Springer Nature	Full Open Access (Mandatory APC)	Sound science across physical sciences and engineering	Broad multidisciplinary open access

FAQ

Is Materials Today Communications peer-reviewed?

Yes. All original research articles and communications undergo single-anonymized peer review by external subject experts, managed by Elsevier’s academic editorial board.

What is the Article Publishing Charge (APC) for Materials Today Communications?

For Gold open access, the APC is $2,830 USD (or €2,650 EUR, £2,270 GBP, 351,000 JPY), excluding local taxes. Authors choosing the subscription model publish at no cost ($0 APC).

What citation format is used by Materials Today Communications?

The journal uses Elsevier’s numbered citation format, featuring bracketed in-text numbers [1] matching a sequentially numbered reference list.

Does Materials Today Communications allow preprints?

Yes. Authors may post preprints to non-commercial servers such as arXiv or SSRN prior to submission, or opt into the Materials Today First Look series on SSRN during submission.

How does Materials Today Communications differ from Materials Today?

Materials Today is a selective review journal focused on high-impact overviews. Materials Today Communications publishes original empirical and theoretical research evaluated under a sound-science mandate.

Sources

• U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM Catalog): Serial record for Materials today. Communications. (NLM Unique ID: 101702545; ISSN: 2352-4928), Elsevier Ltd. URL: https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/esummary.fcgi?db=nlmcatalog&id=101702545 (accessed 2026-11-09).
• Crossref Metadata Service: DOI deposit statistics and metadata records for ISSN 2352-4928 (Materials Today Communications), Elsevier BV. URL: https://api.crossref.org/journals/2352-4928 (accessed 2026-11-09).
• OpenAlex Scholarly Knowledge Graph: Source entity record for Materials Today Communications (Source ID: S2765035490), APC price schedule, and citation metrics. URL: https://api.openalex.org/sources?filter=issn:2352-4928 (accessed 2026-11-09).
• Europe PMC / MEDLINE: Catalog indexing and ISO abbreviation for Mater Today Commun. URL: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/europepmc/webservices/rest/search?query=JOURNAL:%22Materials%20Today%20Communications%22&format=json&pageSize=5 (accessed 2026-11-09).