As is often the case with my Editorials, I’m hoping that my timing of the schedule has worked out just right so that I can make an announcement that coincides with a new initiative or development. In this case, thanks to the work of our production teams, I think the stars have aligned, and I’m not at risk of ‘letting the cat out of the bag’ too early. And so, I’m pleased to inform you that we have now published the first articles from our new sister titles, Materials Today Communications and Materials Today: Proceedings.
Regular readers will be familiar with the scope of Materials Today: Proceedings already, following my previous announcement in this Editorial. But for those unfamiliar with the title, Materials Today: Proceedings is a new journal dedicated to the publication of content from leading conferences – and we already have some great events lined up.
Our second new title, Materials Today Communications, is dedicated to the rapid publication of scientifically and ethically sound original research. Rather than ask authors to submit articles directly to the new journal, Materials Today Communications uses a novel transfer process whereby articles are first assessed by the highly experienced Editors of Elsevier's leading materials science journals. Following rigorous peer-review, the Editors of these high impact journals may accept articles for publication in their high-impact subject focussed journals or instead recommend publication in Materials Today Communications, without further review. This process means that the same manuscript need not be re-reviewed multiple times by many different Editors and Referees, allowing technically sound articles to be published without delay.
I am delighted to welcome these new additions to the Materials Today family, which not only provide streamlined, modern services for researchers, be they Authors, Referees or Readers, but also represent a further step in Materials Today's mission to aid the sharing of materials science knowledge and experience.
More information on these new journals can of course be found at www.materialstoday.com/journals.
But moving on to this journal: starting this issue, Evgheni Strelcov et al. discuss using complex data sets to understand and develop materials in Extracting physics through deep data analysis. As always, opening and closing the issue is our regular cover feature, and in this edition, Alejandro L. Briseno and colleagues look at oriented microcrystal arrays in A forrest of crystals.
In this issue's reviews Craig E. Banks and coworkers discuss work in the field of graphene, since the explosion of interest began 10 years ago, in A decade of graphene research: production, applications and outlook. Next Lian-Mao Peng et al. consider the applications of CNTs in Carbon nanotube electronics: Recent advances. Sticking with nanomaterials, S. Bernard and P. Miele look at synthesis and potential applications of boron nitride in Nanostructured and architectured boron nitride from boron, nitrogen and hydrogen-containing molecular and polymeric precursors. Finally, De Li and Haoshen Zhou review the phase transitions of olivine LiFePO4 and spinel Li4Ti5O12 and consider how the concepts apply to other two-phase Li-intercalation compounds, in Two-phase transition of Li-intercalation compounds in Li-ion batteries.
And so, as always, enjoy this issue of Materials Today.