Materials Today

Materials Today is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Elsevier, issued monthly, and founded jointly by Elsevier and the European Materials Research Society. It is the flagship title in materials science for a broad readership, carrying reviews and opinion pieces rather than original research articles as its principal genre.《今日材料》（''Materials Today''''）是爱思唯尔（Elsevier）出版的同行评审学术期刊，月刊发行，由欧洲材料研究学会与爱思唯尔合作创办。该刊是材料科学领域面向广泛读者的旗舰刊物，以综述与观点文章为主，不以原创研究论文为主要体裁。

Scope

The journal describes itself as the flagship of the Materials Today family, dedicated to covering the most innovative, cutting-edge and influential work of broad interest to the materials science community, and the publisher's own description notes that it is a fully controlled circulation magazine. Unlike most research titles, whose staple is the original paper, the editorial weight here falls on reviews, opinion and industry analysis, which addresses a professional readership and a wider community of practitioners at once. Its principal subject areas include:本刊的官方定位是材料今日刊系的旗舰刊物，刊载材料科学界最富创新性、前沿性与影响力且具有广泛读者兴趣的工作；出版社的主编说明亦将其写作一份受控发行的杂志。与多数以原创论文为主的研究刊不同，本刊的内容重心在综述、观点与行业分析，这使它同时面向专业读者与更广泛的材料学从业者。收文覆盖的主要方向包括：^[1]

• Metals and alloys: light structural alloys, metal matrix composites, and toughening and failure mechanisms in alloys.金属与合金： 轻质结构合金、金属基复合材料、合金的增韧与失效机制。

• Ceramics and inorganic non-metallic materials: structural and functional ceramics, and the preparation and properties of glasses and inorganic non-metallic materials.陶瓷与无机非金属材料： 结构陶瓷、功能陶瓷、玻璃与无机非金属材料的制备与性能。

• Polymers and soft materials: the design and processing of polymeric materials, elastomers and gels, and soft matter physics.高分子与软物质材料： 高分子材料的设计与加工、弹性体与凝胶、软物质物理。

• Nanomaterials and surface engineering: nanostructured materials, thin films and coatings, self-assembly and interfacial phenomena.纳米材料与表面工程： 纳米结构材料、薄膜与涂层、自组装与界面现象。

• Energy and functional materials: battery materials, photovoltaic conversion materials, catalytic and electrofunctional materials.能源与功能材料： 电池材料、太阳能转换材料、催化材料与电功能材料。

• Computational and characterization methods: first-principles and molecular dynamics calculations, advanced characterization techniques, inverse design and materials informatics.材料计算与表征方法： 第一性原理与分子动力学计算、先进表征技术、逆向设计与材料信息学。

The journal appears monthly and is published in hybrid mode. From 2017 it settled into running open access articles alongside subscription articles, a form fixed after an earlier transitional arrangement. Its official metrics page reports an impact factor of 24.1 and a Scopus CiteScore of 27.0, with six days from submission to first decision, 50 days from submission to decision after review, 118 days from submission to acceptance, and a US$6,110 article processing charge. The publisher does not report an acceptance rate.本刊为月刊，属混合出版模式。自二〇一七年起本刊改为开放获取文章与订阅文章并行，其形态由此前的过渡安排固定下来。官方指标页显示本刊影响因子 24.1、斯科普斯引用分数 27.0，投稿至首次决定 6 天、投稿至评审后决定 50 天、投稿至录用 118 天，开放获取文章处理费 6110 美元。出版社未公布本刊的录用比例。^[1]

History

• Founding context (1998): the journal was founded in 1998 jointly by Elsevier and the European Materials Research Society, with Phil Mestecky as its first editor. He had previously been responsible for Elsevier's first major reference work in electronic form and had managed the publishing partnership between the society and Elsevier. The first issue was distributed free to society members and to anyone who asked for it, and its contents addressed the use and abuse of the impact factor, growing interest in soft materials, and the role of semiconductor process in sustaining Moore's law. That choice of contents marked the journal's orientation at once: a wider readership, attention to matters of method, and sensitivity to industrial trends.创刊背景（1998年）： 本刊于 1998 年创刊，由爱思唯尔与欧洲材料研究学会合作创办，首任编辑为菲尔·梅斯特茨基；他此前负责爱思唯尔首部网络版大型参考书，并管理学会与爱思唯尔之间的出版合作。创刊号向学会会员及任何索取者免费赠阅，内容涉及影响因子的使用与滥用、软材料的发展兴趣，以及半导体工艺在延续摩尔定律中的作用——这三篇选题本身即标明了本刊的取向：面向更广读者群、关注方法论层面、对产业趋势保持敏感。^[2]

• From a distributed magazine to a controlled circulation title: under the second editor, Cordelia Sealy, the journal developed into an audited fully controlled circulation magazine, with its design, layout, editorial policies and advertising operations all rebuilt. That repositioning turned a title circulated free to society members into a trade publication with a complete commercial distribution system.从赠阅杂志到受控发行： 在第二任编辑科迪莉亚·西利接手后，本刊发展为经过审计的完全受控发行杂志，并全面重做了设计、版式、编辑政策与广告运营。这一次定位调整使本刊从一份面向学会会员的赠阅物，转变为一份具备完整商业发行体系的行业刊物。^[3]

• First inclusion and a later recovery: the journal was first included in the Journal Citation Reports in 2009 with an impact factor of 12.929, at that time overtaking the society's own MRS Bulletin and becoming one of the most heavily cited review titles in materials science指标起步与回落： 本刊于 2009 年首次被期刊引证报告收录，当年影响因子为 12.929，在同期超过学会旗下的《材料学会通讯》，成为材料科学领域引用量最高的综述型刊物之一；2010 年影响因子回落至 6.265，此后逐步回升。 the factor fell to 6.265 in 2010 and has since risen again.^[4]

• Open access and family expansion (2012–2017): the journal went fully open access in 2012, and in October 2016 announced a restructuring with a new editorial board, the inclusion of original research and an expanded family开放获取与刊系扩张（2012—2017年）： 本刊于 2012 年曾整体转为开放获取，2016 年 10 月宣布改组，任命新编委、纳入原创研究并扩充刊系，2017 年起改为开放获取与订阅文章并行，即现行的混合模式。2014 至 2015 年间又衍生出《今日材料通讯》《今日材料·会议论文集》与《应用材料今日》等刊。 from 2017 it settled into open access running alongside subscription articles, which is the current hybrid model. Between 2014 and 2015 further titles were derived from it, among them Materials Today Communications, Materials Today: Proceedings and Applied Materials Today.^[5]

• The present family: the Materials Today family now runs to more than a dozen titles, covering the flagship and a range of specialist directions, with Materials Today Bio, Materials Today Catalysis, Materials Today Electronics and Materials Today Sustainability among the gold open-access members, each with its own editor and remit.现行刊系： 今日材料刊系现有成员十余种，覆盖旗舰刊与各个专门方向，其中《今日材料·生物》《今日材料·催化》《今日材料·电子》与《今日材料·可持续》等为金色开放获取，各刊各有其主编与定位。^[6]

Editors

The journal is edited by an editor-in-chief, with a honorary editor and deputy editors in support. One point worth recording is an inconsistency in official sources: the publisher's materials subject page still names two editors-in-chief, while the journal's own editorial board page names one, the second of the former now appearing only on other titles in the family and on advisory lists. The discrepancy is best read as unsynchronized web pages at the publisher rather than as two concurrent editors-in-chief.本刊实行主编统筹的架构，另设荣誉编辑与副主编。值得注意的是，本刊的主编归属存在官方口径不一致：爱思唯尔的材料学主题页仍列两位主编，而期刊自身的编委页只列一位主编，前者所列的第二位主编如今仅出现在今日材料刊系其他刊物与顾问名单中。这一分歧应如实理解为出版社页面更新不同步，而非本刊有两任主编并存。^[7]

• Jun Lou (editor-in-chief): Karl F. Hasselmann Professor and associate department chair of Materials Science and NanoEngineering at Rice University, with editorial interests in materials science, nanotechnology and nanomechanics. His background suits the journal's broad readership, covering both the academic vetting of reviews and their legibility for an industrial audience.卢军（现任主编）： 莱斯大学材料科学与纳米工程系教授，卡尔·F·哈塞尔曼讲席、副系主任，主编方向为材料科学、纳米技术与纳米力学。他的学术背景与本刊面向广泛读者的定位相合，能同时处理综述的学术把关与面向产业读者的可读性。^[7]

• Honorary editor and deputy editors: the honorary editorship is held by Yury Gogotsi of Drexel University, and the deputy editors include Suwan N. Jayasinghe of University College London and Yang Lu of the University of Hong Kong.荣誉编辑与副主编： 荣誉编辑由德雷塞尔大学的尤里·戈戈齐担任；副编辑包括伦敦大学学院的苏万·贾亚辛格与香港大学的卢阳。^[7]

• The two-editor period: the editorial board printed in the front matter of the 2024 volume still named two editors-in-chief, Jun Lou and Gleb Yushin双主编时期： 二〇二四年本刊卷首的编委印页仍署两位主编，除卢军外为格勒布·尤申；他如今出现在今日材料刊系其他刊物的编委与顾问名单中。 he now appears on the boards and advisory lists of other titles in the Materials Today family.^[8]

• Standing in the field: one of the most heavily cited review titles in materials science, and its articles are cited by industrial and policy documents as coordinates of where the technology is heading, which gives the journal a translating role between its academic and industrial readerships.学科地位： 本刊是材料科学领域引用量最高的综述型刊物之一，其文章常被产业界与政策文件引用为技术走向的坐标，也因此在学术与产业两个读者群之间承担着翻译的角色。^[1]