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About

Aims and scope

Functional Composite Materials will be relaunching in January 2025 as Journal of Materials Science: Composite Materials.

Being both strong and lightweight, composite materials have already found wide-ranging uses in structural and engineering contexts. Through advancements in materials science and engineering the potential for further applications of composite materials can be achieved by introducing functionality. Functional Composite Materials focuses on this exciting new generation of materials. Sitting at the intersection of physics, chemistry, materials science and engineering, we welcome contributions on all types of composite materials — the only caveat is that composite functionality must be clearly demonstrated.

Examples of functionality include, but are not limited to:

  • electrical and thermal conductivity/insulation;

  • thermoelectric;

  • magnetic;

  • optical;

  • shape memory;

  • ferroelectric;

  • energy harvesting and storage;

  • phase change;

  • antimicrobial and antiviral;

  • structural health monitoring;

  • sensing and actuation;

  • self-healing;

  • integration of devices into structures

Benefits of publishing with SpringerOpen

High visibility

Functional Composite Materials's open access policy allows maximum visibility of articles published in the journal as they are available to a wide, global audience. 

Speed of publication

Functional Composite Materials offers a fast publication schedule whilst maintaining rigorous peer review; all articles must be submitted online, and peer review is managed fully electronically (articles are distributed in PDF form, which is automatically generated from the submitted files). Articles will be published with their final citation after acceptance, in both fully browsable web form, and as a formatted PDF; the article will then be available through Functional Composite Materials and SpringerOpen.

Flexibility

Online publication in Functional Composite Materials gives you the opportunity to publish large datasets, large numbers of color illustrations and moving pictures, to display data in a form that can be read directly by other software packages so as to allow readers to manipulate the data for themselves, and to create all relevant links (for example, to PubMed, to sequence and other databases, and to other articles).

Promotion and press coverage

Articles published in Functional Composite Materials are included in article alerts and regular email updates. 
In addition, articles published in Functional Composite Materials may be promoted by press releases to the general or scientific press. These activities increase the exposure and number of accesses for articles published in Functional Composite Materials

Copyright

Authors of articles published in Functional Composite Materials retain the copyright of their articles and are free to reproduce and disseminate their work. For further information, see our guide to licensing, copyright and author rights.

For further information about the advantages of publishing in a journal from SpringerOpen, please click here.

Open access

All articles published by the Functional Composite Materials are made freely and permanently accessible online immediately upon publication, without subscription charges or registration barriers. Further information about open access can be found here

As authors of articles published in the Functional Composite Materials you are the copyright holders of your article and have granted to any third party, in advance and in perpetuity, the right to use, reproduce or disseminate your article, according to the license terms

For those of you who are US government employees or are prevented from being copyright holders for similar reasons, SpringerOpen can accommodate non-standard copyright lines. Please contact us if further information is needed.

Article processing charges (APC)

Authors who publish open access in Functional Composite Materials are required to pay an article processing charge (APC). The APC price will be determined from the date on which the article is accepted for publication.

The current APC, subject to VAT or local taxes where applicable, is: £840.00/$1190.00/€990.00

Visit our open access support portal and our Journal Pricing FAQs for further information.

Open access funding

Visit Springer Nature’s open access funding & support services for information about research funders and institutions that provide funding for APCs.

Springer Nature offers agreements that enable institutions to cover open access publishing costs. Learn more about our open access agreements to check your eligibility and discover whether this journal is included.

Springer Nature offers APC waivers and discounts for articles published in our fully open access journals whose corresponding authors are based in the world’s lowest income countries (see our APC waivers and discounts policy for further information). Requests for APC waivers and discounts from other authors will be considered on a case-by-case basis, and may be granted in cases of financial need (see our open access policies for journals for more information). All applications for discretionary APC waivers and discounts should be made at the point of manuscript submission; requests made during the review process or after acceptance are unable to be considered.

Indexing Services

The full text of all articles is deposited in digital archives around the world to guarantee long-term digital preservation. You can also access all articles published by SpringerOpen on SpringerLink. We are working closely with relevant indexing services including PubMed Central and Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics) to ensure that articles published in Functional Composite Materials will be available in their databases when appropriate.

Peer-review policy

Peer-review is the system used to assess the quality of a manuscript before it is published. Independent researchers in the relevant research area assess submitted manuscripts for originality, validity and significance to help editors determine whether the manuscript should be published in their journal. You can read more about the peer-review process here.
Functional Composite Materials operates a single-blind peer-review system, where the reviewers are aware of the names and affiliations of the authors, but the reviewer reports provided to authors are anonymous. Publication of research articles by Functional Composite Materials is dependent primarily on their scientific validity and coherence as judged by our external expert editors and/or peer reviewers, who will also assess whether the writing is comprehensible and whether the work represents a useful contribution to the field. Submitted manuscripts will generally be reviewed by two to three experts who will be asked to evaluate whether the manuscript is scientifically sound and coherent, whether it duplicates already published work, and whether or not the manuscript is sufficiently clear for publication. Reviewers will also be asked to indicate how interesting and significant the research is. The Editors will reach a decision based on these reports and, where necessary, they will consult with members of the Editorial Board.

Citing articles in Functional Composite Materials

Articles in Functional Composite Materials should be cited in the same way as articles in a traditional journal. Because articles are not printed, they do not have page numbers; instead, they are given a unique article number.

Article citations follow this format:

 

Authors: Title. Functional Composite Mater [year], [volume number]:[article number].

 

e.g. Roberts LD, Hassall DG, Winegar DA, Haselden JN, Nicholls AW, Griffin JL: Increased hepatic oxidative metabolism distinguishes the action of Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor delta from Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor gamma in the Ob/Ob mouse. Functional Composite Mater 2009, 1:115.

 

1:115 refers to article 115 from Volume 1 of the journal.

Editorial policies

All manuscripts submitted to Functional Composite Materials should adhere to SpringerOpen's editorial policies.

Once your article is accepted, it will be processed by production and published shortly afterwards. In some cases, articles may be held for a short period of time prior to publication. If you have any concerns or particular requirements please contact the Journal.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Appeals and complaints

Authors who wish to appeal a rejection or make a complaint should follow the procedure outlined in the BMC Editorial Policies.

Annual Journal Metrics

Speed 2023
Submission to first editorial decision (median days): 8
Submission to acceptance (median days): 109

Usage 2023
Downloads: 56,734
Altmetric mentions: 4