Publishing in Materials Science

Abstract: Materials science is a multidisciplinary research field with many different kinds of scientists and engineers active in it. The literature landscape is consequently populated by a range of journals which greatly differ in purpose, scope, quality, and readership. After an introduction on Wiley's publishing activities and Asia's changing global role in materials science, the lecture focuses on successful publishing in this complex environment. What can prospective authors do to optimize their chances of success? Key aspects are: structuring one's research work well, understanding the decision processes in editorial offices, choosing an appropriate journal, assembling a convincing manuscript, knowing what to put in the cover letter, and which things to avoid. In addition, the talk covers publishing ethics, best practice for authors and reviewers, the reasoning behind peer review, and editorial workflows. 

Bio: Xin Su studied chemistry at and received his B.Sc. from Nankai University (Tianjin, China) in 2009, where he carried out research on water-soluble calixarenes. He then started his graduate research on hydrazone-based functional materials at Dartmouth College (Hanover, NH, USA), and received his PhD in Organic Chemistry in 2013. After working at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (Pittsburgh, PA, USA) as an Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) Postdoctoral Fellow, he joined Wiley's Hoboken office (New Jersey, USA) in 2015 as an Associate Editor in Materials Science. 

Xin currently manages day-to-day peer review processes for Advanced Materials, and contributes to the editorial management of Journal of Polymer Science Part A: Polymer Chemistry, Journal of Polymer Science Part B: Polymer Physics, and Journal of Applied Polymer Science. Xin writes research highlights for MaterialsViews and ChemistryViews, Wiley’s materials science and chemistry news portals, respectively. 

Xin is also a contributing correspondent for other research news sources, including ACS Noteworthy Chemistry (since 2012) and JACS Spotlights (since 2013). He has recently received an Early Career Award from Society for Scholarly Publishing to attend its Annual Meeting in Washington, DC.