A Review Journal
Continuation of Materials Science Reports
Topical reviews in materials science and engineering, each including: • surveys of work accomplished to date • current trends in research and applications • future prospects
Former title: Materials Science Reports


Aims and Scope
Abstracting Services

Short Overview

Manuscript Preparation:
General
Structure
Text Layout
Corresponding Author
Table of Contents
Estimation of Length
Title
Abstract
Keywords
Introduction
Units
References
Illustrations
Colour Costs and Queries
Free Online Colour
Tables
Supplying the Final Accepted Print Version with Disk

Other:
Notification
Copyright
PDF Proofs
Author Benefits
Online Paper Tracking
Enquiries
Useful Links



Aims and Scope

Materials Science & Engineering R: Reports publishes invited review papers covering the full spectrum of materials science and engineering. The reviews, both experimental and theoretical, provide general background information as well as a critical assessment on topics in a state of flux.

The editorial policy of Materials Science & Engineering R: Reports is to serve its readership in two ways. Firstly, it provides a critical overview of the current issues in a well-defined area of immediate interest to materials scientists. Secondly, each review contains an extensive list of references thus providing an invaluable pointer to the primary research literature available on the topic.

This policy is implemented by the Editorial Board which consists of outstanding scientists in their respective disciplines. The Board identifies the topics of interest and subsequently invites qualified authors. In order to ensure speedy publication, each review is published separately.

Abstracting Services

American Ceramic Society, Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, Current Contents, Engineered Materials Abstracts, Engineering Information Abstracts, INSPEC, Index to Scientific Reviews, Materials Business Information, Materials Science Citation Index, Metal Finishing, Metals Abstracts, Research AlertJ, SCIsearch, Science Citation Index.

Submission of reviews:

Authors should submit three copies of their manuscript, one complete set of original illustrations and two copies to the Editor who invited the author to write the review. For the final version, in addition to the original and the two copies, authors should submit an electronic version of their manuscript on disk.

Coordinating Editors

Professor A.G. Cullis
Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering
University of Sheffield
Mappin Street
Sheffield S1 3JD
UK
Fax: +44 114 272 6391
E-mail: a.g.cullis@sheffield.ac.uk

Professor S.S. Lau
Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
University of California at San Diego
Mail Code 0407
La Jolla, CA 92093-0407
USA
Fax: +1 619 534 0556
E-mail: lau@ece.ucsd.edu

Editorial Board

Professor M. Balkanski
Université de Pierre & Marie Curie
Lab. des Physiques des Solides
Tour 13 - 2em étage
4 pl. Jussieu
F-75252 Paris cedex 05
France
Fax: +33 1 44 27 58 96

Professor Jean-Luc Brédas
School of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0400
U.S.A.
Tel: +1 404-385-4986
Fax: +1 404-894-7452
E-mail: jean-luc.bredas@chemistry.gatech.edu

Professor E. A. Fitzgerald
MIT
Department of Materials Science & Engineering
Room 13-4053
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
USA
Fax: +1 617 258 6105
E-mail: eafitz@mit.edu

Professor H. Ishiwara
Precision & Intelligence Lab
Tokyo Institute of Technology
4259 Nagasuda, Midori-ku
Yokohama 227
Japan
Fax: +81 45 921 0898
E-mail: ishiwara@pi.titech.ac.jp

Professor E. Kaldis
Laboratorium für Festkörperphysik
ETH
8093 Zürich
Switzerland
Fax: +41 1 633 11 26
E-mail: kaldis@solid.phys.ethz.ch


Professor E. Kramer
University of California at Santa Barbara
Department of Materials
Engineering II - 1361C
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
USA
Fax: +1 (805) 893 8486
E-mail: edkramer@mrl.ucsb.edu

Professor T.F. Kuech
Dept of Chemical Engineering
University of Wisconsin
Madison, WI 53706
USA
Fax: +1 608 262 5434
E-mail: kuech@engr.wisc.edu


Dr. Karen Maex
IMEC
Technologies and Silicides (ITS)
Dept. Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Kapeldreef 75
B-3001 Leuven
Belgium

Professor S. Mahajan
Department of Chemical, Biological& Materials Engineering
Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ 85287
USA
Fax: +1 602 965 0037
E-mail: smahajan@asu.edu

Professor J.W. Mayer
Center for Solid-State Science
Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ 85287-1704
USA
Fax: +1 602 965-9004
E-mail: james.mayer@asu.edu

Dr. Kevin F. McCarty
MS 9161
Sandia National Laboratories
P.O. Box 969
Livermore, CA 94551-0696
USA
Tel: +1 925 294 2067
Fax: +1 925 294 3231
Email:mccarty@sandia.gov

Professor S. J. Pearton
Department of Materials Science& Engineering
Rhines Hall
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL 326111
USA
Fax: +1 904 392 63 59
E-mail: spear@mse.ufl.edu


Professor Yasuhiro Shiraki
Advanced Research Laboratories
Musashi Institute of Technology
8-15-1 Todoroki Setagaya-ku, Tokyo
Japan
e-mail: yshiraki@sc.musashi-tech.ac.jp

Professor Dr. E. Wintermantel
Biocompatible Materials Science & Engineering
E T H Zürich
Wagistrasse 23
CH - 8952 Schlieren
Switzerland
Tel: 01 633 63 13
Fax: 01 633 11 20
E-mail: wintermantel@biocomp.mat.ethz.ch

Dr. Edward Yu
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive, Mail Code 0407
La Jolla, CA 92093-0407
USA
Fax: +1 (858) 822 3425
E-mail: ety@ece.ucsd.edu

Submission language: English

Authors in Japan please note that, upon request, Elsevier Japan will provide authors with a list of people who can check and improve the English of their paper (before submission). Please contact our Tokyo office: Elsevier, 4F Higashi-Azabu, 1 Chome Bldg, 1-9-15 Higashi-Azabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0044, Japan; phone: +81 (3)-5561-5032; fax:+81 (3)-5561-5045; jp.info@elsevier.com

Types of contributions: Invited review papers only.

Corresponding author: Clearly indicate who is responsible for correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, including post-publication. Ensure that telephone and fax numbers (with country and area code) are provided in addition to the e-mail address and the complete postal address. Full postal addresses must be given for all co-authors. Please consult a recent journal paper for style if possible.

Original material: Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the Publisher.

Editor's requirements:

There are no page charges

Overview for Contents of Reviews

A good topical review should provide a broad introduction to the subject area for the general reader and/or newcomer to the field. The review should also provide an update to those who already have a deeper knowledge of the field by reporting on recent significant developments.

The review should be approximately 50 printed pages in length (i.e. 100 typed pages) and should include the following elements:

- a good descriptive title
- a concise abstract
- a table of contents that establishes the structure of the review
- an introduction
- an extensive reference list

Special attention should be paid to the reference list, which should be an exhaustive survey of the literature and serve as a source of material, as well as directing the interested reader towards other references.

Preparation of manuscripts on disk

Detailed instructions on manuscript preparation and artwork instructions can be found below. The editor reserves the right to return manuscripts that do not conform to the instructions for manuscript preparation and artwork instruction, as well as paper that do not fit the scope of the journal, prior to refereeing.

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Manuscript Preparation:

General:
Editors reserve the right to adjust style to certain standards of uniformity. Original manuscripts are discarded one month after publication unless the Publisher is asked to return original material after use. An electronic copy of the manuscript on disk should accompany the final accepted version. Please use Word, Word Perfect or LaTeX files for the text of your manuscript. (For further information about LaTeX submission, please go to http://www.elsevier.com/latex.)
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Structure:
Follow this order when typing manuscripts: Title, Authors, Affiliations, Abstract, Keywords, Main text, Acknowledgements, Appendix, References, Figure Captions and then Tables. For submission in hardcopy, do not import figures into the text - for further information regarding illustrations please refer to http://www.elsevier.com/locate/artworkinstructions. Collate acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the article and do not include them on the title page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise.
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Text Layout:
Use double spacing and wide (3 cm) margins. (Avoid full justification, i.e., do not use a constant right-hand margin.) Ensure that each new paragraph is clearly indicated. Present tables and figure legends on separate pages at the end of the manuscript. If possible, consult a recent issue of the journal to become familiar with layout and conventions. Number all pages consecutively, use 12 or 10 pt font size and standard fonts. When submitting the hardcopy, print the entire manuscript on one side of the paper only.
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Table of Contents: The table of contents should be an index listing of the major sections of the review, using a consistent numbering system for the sections and subsections
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Estimation of Length: For a rough estimate of the final length of their printed article, authors should count 850 words per full two-column page or four illustrations per page.
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Title: The review should be headed by a concise and informative title. This should be followed by the name(s) of the author(s) and by the name and complete address of the laboratory in which the work was performed. If the address of the author at the time when the paper will appear will be other than that where the work was carried out, this may be stated in a footnote, but footnotes should otherwise be avoided. Recognition for financial support should not be made by a footnote to the title or name of the author but should be included in Acknowledgments at the end of the paper.
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Abstract:
The review should have an abstract of 50-200 words, provided on a separate sheet. The abstract should comprise a brief and factual account of the contents and conclusions of the review as well as an indication of any new information presented and its relevance. Abstracts should be understandable in isolation, and reference to formulae, equations or references that appear in the main text is thus not permissible.
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Keywords:
Immediately after the abstract, provide a maximum of six keywords (avoid, for example, 'and', 'of'). Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible.
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Introduction: The review should have a short Introduction. This should state the reasons for the work, with brief reference to previous work on the subject.
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Units:
Follow internationally accepted rules and conventions: use the international system of units (SI). If other quantities are mentioned, give their equivalent in SI.
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References:
Special attention should be paid to the reference list, which should be an exhaustive survey of the literature and serve as a source of the material, as well as directing the interested reader towards other references.

The references should be brought together at the end of the review, and numbered in the order of their appearance in the text. Footnotes should not include bibliographic material, and reference lists should not include material that could more appropriately appear as a footnote. Authors should check whether every reference in the text appears in the list of references and vice versa. Numerals for references are given in square brackets [ ]. In the reference list, journals [1], books [2], and edited multi-author books [3] should be cited in accordance with the following examples:

[1] G. Braunstein, R. Kalish, J. Appl. Phys. 54 (1983) 2106
[2] J.N. Israelachvili, Intermolecular and Surface Forces, Academic Press, New York, 1985.
[3] H. Ibach, D.L. Mills, Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy and Surface Vibrations, Academic Press, New York, 1982.

Each reference should be complete; thus the use of ibid., idem., et al., etc. is not permitted. Abbreviations for the titles of journals should follow the system used by the Chemical Abstracts Service Source Index, 1970 edition, and supplements.

References to books should include the following information: title, publisher, town of publication, year of publication and page number. This information should also be given for published proceedings or abstracts of conferences, together with the location and date of the meeting, e.g.

[4] N. Fujimori, T. Imai, H. Nakahata, Symposium N Plasma Assisted Deposition of New Materials. MRS Fall 1987 Meeting, Boston, MA, Nov. 30-Dec 5, 1987. Articles not yet published should be given as "in press", "submitted for publication" or "in preparation". Details of personal communications or unpublished results should be given as a reference, e.g.

[5] A. Jones, personal communication, 1997.
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Colour Costs and Queries:
For colour illustrations, a colour printing fee is charged to the author per colour page. Further information concerning colour illustrations and costs is available from Author Support at authorsupport@elsevier.com, and at http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
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FREE ONLINE COLOUR
If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable colour and black/white figures then Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these figures will appear in colour on the web (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version.
Please note: Because of technical complications which can arise by converting colour figures to "grey scale" (for the black/white printed version of e-colour) please submit in addition usable black and white versions of all the colour illustrations. Also make sure that in your captions and text you do not refer to colour, as the images will be black and white in print, and references to colour will not make any sense to the reader of the print journal.
'Usable' means the formats comply with our instructions. See the information about Illustrations at http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions. For colour illustrations in the print journal see Colour Costs above.
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Tables:
Tables should be numbered consecutively and given suitable captions and each table should begin on a new page. No vertical rules should be used. Tables should not duplicate results presented elsewhere in the manuscript (for example, in graphs). Footnotes to tables should be typed below the table and should be referred to by superscript lowercase letters.
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Supplying Final Accepted Text on Disk:
Once the paper has been accepted by the editor, an electronic version of the text should be submitted together with the final hardcopy of the manuscript. The electronic version must match the hardcopy exactly. We accept most wordprocessing formats, but Word, WordPerfect or LaTeX (see also http://www.elsevier.com/latex) is preferred. Always keep a backup copy of the electronic file for reference and safety. Label the disk with your name, the journal title and any software used. Save your files using the default extension of the program used. Electronic files can be stored on 3.5 inch diskette, ZIP-disk or CD (either MS-DOS or Macintosh).
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Notification:

Authors will be notified of the acceptance of their paper by the editor. The Publisher will also send a notification of receipt of the paper in production.
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Copyright:

All authors must sign the Transfer of Copyright agreement before the article can be published. This transfer agreement enables Elsevier to protect the copyrighted material for the authors, but does not relinquish the authors' proprietary rights. The copyright transfer covers the exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute the article, including reprints, photographic reproductions, microfilm or any other reproductions of similar nature and translations. Authors are responsible for obtaining from the copyright holder permission to reproduce any figures for which copyright exists. Elsevier has preprinted forms for use by Authors in these cases, available online.
For more information please go to our copyright page http://www.elsevier.com/copyright.
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PDF Proofs:

One set of page proofs in PDF format will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author, to be checked for typesetting/editing. The corrections should be returned within 48 hours. No changes in, or additions to, the accepted (and subsequently edited) manuscript will be allowed at this stage. Proofreading is solely the author's responsibility. Any queries should be answered in full. Please correct factual errors only, or errors introduced by typesetting.
For more information on proofreading please go to our proofreading page http://www.elsevier.com/locate/languagepolishing. Please note that once your paper has been proofed we publish the identical paper online as in print.
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Author Benefits:

No page charges: Publication in this journal is free of charge.

Free offprints: The corresponding author, at no cost, will be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail or, alternatively, 25 free paper offprints. The PDF file is a watermarked version of the published article and includes a cover sheet with the journal cover image and a disclaimer outlining the terms and conditions of use.

Author discount: Contributors to Elsevier journals are entitled to a 30% discount on all Elsevier books. See http://www.elsevier.com/homepage/booksbutler for more information.

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Online Paper Tracking:

Authors can track the status of their accepted paper online at http://www.elsevier.com/trackarticle using the reference supplied by the Publisher.

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Author enquiries:

All author enquiries should be made to: authorsupport@elsevier.com

Useful links:
•A submissions checklist can be found at http://www.elsevier.com/locate/guidepublication
•Register for free to receive email updates from the article tracking service at http://www.elsevier.com/trackarticle
•If you are interested in submitting a book in this area, go to http://www.elsevier.com/bookauthors