HardwareX

HardwareX is a multidisciplinary open access journal from Elsevier, published since 2017, which takes designs for scientific instruments that a reader can build rather than buy.《HardwareX》是 Elsevier 自 2017 年起出版的多学科开放获取期刊，收的是读者能自己做出来而不必购买的科研仪器设计。

Each paper carries the files needed to rebuild the apparatus it describes, and the 2025 Journal Citation Reports give the title an impact factor of 1.9.每篇论文都带着重建所述装置所需的文件，2025 年期刊引证报告给出影响因子 1.9。

Scope

• The aims page sets the remit in a single sentence, calling the journal multidisciplinary and open access, and naming the design, construction and customisation of open source scientific devices as its business.宗旨页用一句话划定范围，称刊物兼具多学科与开放获取属性，收的是开源科研装置与设备的设计、搭建与改造。
• Teaching laboratories form one audience, and papers written for a course sit beside designs meant for a working research group.教学实验室是其中一类读者，为课程写的稿子与面向在研课题组的稿子并列刊登。
• Every design is expected to arrive with the files that make it, whether computer aided design models, circuit schematics, firmware or drawings for a machined part.每份设计都须连同能做出来的文件一起交来，计算机辅助设计模型与电路原理图在列，固件或机加工零件图纸同样要附。
• Additive manufacture runs through the archive, from filament printing of brackets and labware to printed jigs that hold optics on an axis.增材制造贯穿整个存档，从打印支架与实验器皿，到打印把光学件固定在光轴上的夹具。
• Subtractive work appears as well, with laser cutting and milling described closely enough for a workshop holding hand tools to follow.减材加工同样常见，激光切割与铣削写得够细，只备手工工具的车间也跟得上。
• Electronics supplies a second spine. Microcontroller boards and sensor front ends sit beside motor drivers and power supplies, and the printed circuit boards that join them are published with the rest.电子部分是第二根主线，微控制器板与传感器前端在列，电机驱动与电源也在，连接它们的印制电路板一并公开。
• Sensing and instrumentation give the journal its centre of gravity, which is why the Journal Citation Reports files it under instruments.传感与仪器构成刊物的重心，期刊引证报告因此把它挂在仪器仪表类目下。
• Automation and robotics turn up as open motion stages and pipetting arms, with imaging gantries and the control software released alongside the machine.自动化与机器人以开源运动平台和移液机械臂的面目出现，成像龙门架与配套控制软件随机器一起放出。
• Life science apparatus covers bioreactors, incubators and microfluidic chips, along with the sample handling around them, all costed to fit a single grant.生命科学装置涵盖生物反应器与恒温培养箱，微流控芯片以及围绕它的样品处理也在其中，造价压在一笔经费能承担的范围。
• Chemistry contributes replacements for glassware, syringe pumps and electrochemical cells, and such papers usually report a measured figure beside the design.化学一侧补充玻璃器皿的替代件与注射泵，电化学池也在其中，这类论文通常在设计之外给出实测数据。
• Field work takes the journal outdoors, with weather stations, water samplers and soil probes built to run a season without an attendant.野外作业把刊物带到户外，气象站与采水器、土壤探头都按无人值守过一季的标准来做。
• Cost accounting is treated as a result in its own right, and most papers set the build price against the commercial instrument they replace.成本核算本身被当成一项结果，多数论文把自制造价与所替代的商品仪器摆在一起比较。
• Reproducibility carries equal weight, since a design counts only once a reader with ordinary tools reaches the same measurements.可复现性得到同等分量，一份设计只有在读者用普通工具做出同样数据之后才算成立。
• Materials and mechanical parts close the list, covering printed polymers, machined aluminium, optomechanics and the fixtures that hold a sample still for hours.材料与机械部件收在末尾，打印聚合物与机加工铝件在列，光机件与长时间固定样品的夹具同样有稿。

History

• Elsevier announced the title in 2016, and volume 1 appeared in April 2017 with eight items, followed by volume 2 that October with six.Elsevier 于 2016 年公布这本刊物，第 1 卷在 2017 年 4 月面世，收了 8 篇，同年 10 月的第 2 卷收了 6 篇。
• The founding editor was Joshua M. Pearce, whose 2014 book Open-Source Lab had argued that a laboratory could cut its equipment bill by printing and wiring its own instruments.创刊主编是 Joshua M. Pearce，他 2014 年的著作《Open-Source Lab》主张实验室可以自行打印与接线，把设备开支压下来。
• Cheap hardware was half the argument. The other half was that an instrument nobody can rebuild is a claim and not a method.廉价硬件只是其中一半理由，另一半在于无法重建的仪器只是一句说法，成不了方法。
• Two volumes a year, in April and October, was the pattern until 2022, and volume numbers rose by two with each year.一年两卷从创刊起就是定式，四月与十月各出一卷，卷号每年加二，直到 2022 年。
• From 2023 the journal went to four volumes a year, so volumes 13 to 16 all carry 2023 dates and 21 to 24 carry 2025.2023 年起改为一年四卷，第 13 至 16 卷都记 2023 年，第 21 至 24 卷记 2025 年。
• Output followed the same curve, from 14 items in 2017 to 68 in 2020 and 127 in 2022, then a little above 110 a year since.发文量走同一条曲线，2017 年 14 篇，2020 年 68 篇，2022 年 127 篇，此后每年略多于 110 篇。
• Articles carry an electronic locator in place of a page range, e00026 for instance, under the 10.1016/j.ohx DOI prefix.文章用电子定位号代替页码，例如 e00026，DOI 落在 10.1016/j.ohx 前缀之下。
• Access has been open since the first issue. The 2025 Journal Citation Reports put the gold share at 100 percent, and papers come out under CC BY 4.0.自首期起就以开放获取发行，2025 年期刊引证报告记金色比例 100%，论文按 CC BY 4.0 发布。
• Nothing is sold by subscription, and copies are lodged with CLOCKSS, Portico and PubMed Central in case the publisher ever stops.刊物不按订阅出售，副本交给 CLOCKSS 与 Portico 以及 PubMed Central 保管，以备出版方停办。
• PubMed began indexing the title with volume 7 in April 2020, having taken selected citations only before that date.PubMed 自 2020 年 4 月的第 7 卷起系统收录，此前只取部分文章。
• Clarivate files the journal in the Emerging Sources Citation Index and handed it a Journal Impact Factor with the 2023 release, when ESCI titles began to receive one.Clarivate 把刊物列在新兴来源引文索引，2023 年那次发布起给它影响因子，新兴来源刊从那时开始获得这一指标。
• The record stands at 2.0 for 2023, 2.1 for 2024 and 1.9 for 2025, with a five-year value of 2.1, 1363 citations and about 104 items a year.记录为 2023 年 2.0，2024 年 2.1，2025 年 1.9，五年值 2.1，全刊 1363 次被引，对照年发文约 104 篇。
• A cited half-life of 3.7 years marks the journal as a methods title, read for a build and seldom cited for a decade.3.7 年的被引半衰期说明它是方法类刊物，论文被读来照着做，很少被引用十年。

Editors

• Joshua M. Pearce holds the editorship from Western University in London, Ontario, where he is the John M. Thompson Chair in Information Technology and Innovation.主编由 Joshua M. Pearce 担任，他在加拿大安大略省伦敦市的 Western University 任 John M. Thompson 信息技术与创新讲座教授。
• His appointments sit in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and at the Ivey Business School, and his research runs on solar photovoltaics, distributed recycling and 3D printing.他的教职挂在电气与计算机工程系，同时在 Ivey 商学院任职，研究落在太阳能光伏、分布式回收与 3D 打印上。
• That background sets the editorial line. Pearce wrote Open-Source Lab for Elsevier in 2014, three years before the first issue, and the book's case for self-built instruments reads as the journal's programme.这样的背景定下了编辑路线，Pearce 2014 年为 Elsevier 写下《Open-Source Lab》，比首期早三年，书中关于自制仪器的论证几乎就是刊物的纲领。
• Review is single anonymous. Referees learn who wrote the paper and authors never learn who judged it.评审采单盲制，审稿人知道作者是谁，作者始终不知道审稿人是谁。
• Referees come from the open hardware community, and a manuscript is judged on whether the design can be rebuilt as much as on novelty.审稿人取自开源硬件圈子，判断稿子时看设计能否被重建，新颖性并不是唯一尺度。
• Five things carry the assessment, namely source files, a bill of materials with prices, step by step build instructions, validation data and the cost of the finished device.评估时五样东西吃重，源文件与带价格的物料清单在列，逐步搭建说明与验证数据也在，最后是成品的造价。
• Source files have to arrive in formats a workshop would open, not as a screenshot, and the bill of materials names a supplier and a price for each line.源文件要用车间真能打开的形式提交，截图不算，物料清单须逐行给出供应商与价格。
• Validation means a measurement, a calibration or a comparison against a commercial instrument, reported with the uncertainty a reader needs to trust it.验证指一次测量或一次标定，也可以是跟商品仪器的比对，并附上读者判断可信度所需的误差。
• Papers appear under the label Hardware Article on the publisher's platform, each with the locator that stands in for a page range.论文在出版方平台上以 Hardware Article 的名义出现，每篇带一个代替页码的定位号。
• Submission goes through Elsevier's online system, and no pre-submission enquiry is required, so a manuscript inside the remit moves straight to review.投稿走 Elsevier 的在线系统，刊物不要求事先询问，落在范围内的稿子直接进入评审。
• A design sent without its files, or a build reported without a cost, is returned before review rather than after it.只报设计不给文件，或只讲搭建不谈造价的稿子，在评审之前就被退回。