Original and revised manuscripts must be submitted online via MRS Communications Editorial Manager. E-mail submissions  are not accepted. Complete instructions are available on the MRS Communications Editorial Manager site.

Manuscripts must be:

• Written in English
• Formatted to fit 8 ½ x 11 inch paper
• Saved as a .doc file
• Double-spaced
• Single column

Manuscript submissions must include the following:

1. 1. Cover letter explaining the importance and impact of the materials research being reported in the paper. Authors must also confirm that the manuscript has not been published previously and is not under consideration for publication in another journal at the time of submission. Authors are encouraged to suggest appropriate principal editors.
2. 2. Title page with manuscript title, all authors’ names and affiliations (including mailing addresses and postal codes)*, abstract, and name and institutional email address of the corresponding author.
   *During submission, authors must enter all co-author names, addresses, and institutional email addresses. If available, please also add the 16-digit ORCID of the author(s).
3. 3. Abstract, outlining all subjects related to the new information being presented, as well as conclusions and all numerical results of general interest. A list of experimental techniques used in the research is discouraged. The abstract must be adequate as an index and a summary.

See article type description for word-length limitation.

Please identify the figure or figure part that best represents your paper for display in the online abstract. A color figure that is visually interesting and tells the reader at a glance what the paper is about is recommended. Please be specific [i.e., Fig. 3(a) or Fig. 3(b)].

Avoid the use of jargon and other terminology that would render the abstract inaccessible to the non-specialist

Use past tense when referring to experiments but present tense when referring to scientific law.

1. 
   4. Five keywords selected from the MRS Publications Keyword List. These keywords are used to facilitate topical searches in the online version of MRC.
2. 5. Five preferred reviewers, including name, email, and institutions. Each reviewer must be from a different institution and not from the institution of the authors. Authors may also note non-preferred reviewers.

1. 6. High resolution figures The preferred format for figure submission is .tif or .eps format. Figures submitted in pdf format must be saved in separate files. Please note that the system has a 60 MB upload limit.

1. 7. A signed License-to-Publish agreement.

The policy of MRS Communications is that authors (or in some cases their employers) retain copyright and grant MRS a license to publish their work. In the case of gold open access articles this is a non-exclusive license. Authors must complete and return a license-to-publish form upon manuscript submission; the journal will not accept an article for publication without a completed license-to-publish agreement. Please download the appropriate agreement here.

For open access articles, the form also sets out the Creative Commons license under which the article is made available to end users: a fundamental principle of open access is that content should not simply be accessible but should also be freely re-usable. Articles will be published under a Creative Commons Attribution license (CC-BY) by default. This means that the article is freely available to read, copy and redistribute, and can also be adapted (users can “remix, transform, and build upon” the work) for any commercial or non-commercial purpose, as long as proper attribution is given. Authors can, in the license-to-publish form, choose a different kind of Creative Commons license (including those prohibiting non-commercial and derivative use) if they prefer. 

Please note the below requirements for the License-to-Publish Form:

• Corresponding author's name must appear on all forms.
• The completed license-to-publish form may be uploaded with the manuscript materials or sent to the Editorial Office electronically at [email protected]. When sending the form electronically, please use the following subject line: Manuscript ID Number – Copyright Form.
• Manuscripts cannot be accepted for publication until the completed form is received.

Important Notes about Electronic Manuscript Submission

• Please carefully review the converted PDF file to verify that special characters and formatting have not been lost during conversion. The converted PDF proof that is approved and submitted is viewed by the Editorial Office, editors and reviewers.
• You must click “Submit Manuscript,” to complete the manuscript submission process.
• After successful submission, all authors will receive a confirmation email containing the manuscript number.
• To check manuscript status, the corresponding author may log on to the MRS Communications Manuscripts site and proceed to the Author Center, where current status information is displayed for all of that author’s articles.
• Please list [email protected] as an allowable sender in your email system to ensure that all email notifications are delivered.

Virtual Presentations

MRS journals allow submission and publication of figures and content that have appeared online as part of a virtual presentation. Standard journal peer review policies apply to these submitted papers. If you plan to submit to a non-MRS journal, we recommend that you first review that journal’s policies.

Authorship Declaration

MRS Communications does not require all authors of a paper to sign a letter of submission. The corresponding or submitting author is presumed to have sought the agreement of each named author for all content interpretation. The named corresponding author will be responsible for all communication with the Journal and author group.

Authors are required to submit a statement of responsibility for each named contributor to the submitted paper that specifies their role.

After acceptance, the corresponding author shall take responsibility for taking delivery of proofs and circulating them to co-authors. The corresponding author is especially responsible for ensuring that the names and affiliations of co-authors are all present, correctly spelled and current.

Conflict of Interest Disclosure

In the interests of full disclosure and transparency of any potential bias, MRC requires authors to declare any financial interests relating to the work described in the submission. A short statement should be supplied and will be printed as part of the final article. Authors with no competing financial interests should declare this to be the case.

Competing interests are defined as any financial relationships that, through their potential influence, could undermine the objectivity, integrity or perceived value of a body of work. This may include: research funding, employment, consultation fees, or other personal financial interests.

Since it is impossible to define a specific threshold at which financial interests become significant, authors should refer to the policies of their own institution or consider whether undisclosed financial interests could be considered potentially embarrassing, should they become publicly known after publication.

Should no declaration be provided as part of the submission, it will be assumed that the authors have declared that they do not have any conflict of interest.

Language Editing Services All manuscripts must be written in English. If English is not your native language, please have your manuscript edited for correct English grammar and sentence structure prior to submission. Please note that poor English may ultimately be a reason to reject the paper. The Materials Research Society has partnered with American Journal Experts (AJE) to provide a 10% discount to MRS members on a comprehensive suite of author services, including English language editing. Learn more at aje.com/go/mrsauthors.

Use of these services does not guarantee that a manuscript submitted to MRS Communications will be accepted.