Dr. Yongmei Zheng is a professor at the Key Laboratory of Bio-Inspired Smart Interfacial Science and Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry, Beihang University. She has been an Editorial Board Member for Scientific Reports since 2017 and is currently serving as a Guest Editor for the Silk science and technology Collection.  

Her research interests are focused on wetting-controlled mechanisms of biological (e.g., spider silk for directional water collection, butterfly wings for water repellency, cactus spines for condensed-droplet transport) and bioinspired surfaces and materials with micro- and nanostructures to control wettability for applications, e.g., fogwater-harvesting, tiny droplet transport, atmospheric water harvesting, anti-icing/ice-phobicity.  

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We recently spoke with Dr. Zheng about their research and what it is to work as an Editorial Board Member at Scientific Reports. Some of the questions they answered are below: 

What do you like most about being an Editorial Board Member for Scientific Reports?   

I am interested in topic of wettability materials because of my research field, e.g., wetting properties on biological surfaces or bioinspired wetting surfaces and materials. I like to handle manuscripts contributing to the literature on the wetting-controlling of surfaces and materials. It is meaningful for researchers to learn about these topics, as multiple applications are related to these topics, e.g., hydrophilicity or hydrophobicity for water collecting or anti-icing. I also like to help readers and researchers learn about scientific advances, especially new mechanisms or theories of design at the micro- or nano-levels. I hope to recommend high-quality research for publication.  

Do you have any tricks for finding reviewers?    

It is indeed one of the hardest parts of an editorial role because of the interdisciplinary research field. I usually find reviewers from previous publications. I also select reviewers whose research is near to the topic of the manuscript using the Reviewer Finder tool on the manuscript handling platform.  

How do you help authors report reproducible results? How can journals help ensure scientific rigor?  

Reproducibility in research is important. It is necessary to suggest authors do control experiments, especially completing the detection of performance via cycle or periodicity in time. The key things for journals are authentic and reliable results, in addition to creative research methods, creative theory, or forward-thinking results.  

What are the biggest challenges that you see for the future of research and research dissemination?  

I think the biggest challenge is to increase the creativity of research or pay more attention to highlight the creative work published in Scientific Reports. This can effectively promote research and research dissemination.  

You are leading one of our Guest-Edited Collections. What is your Collection focused on?  

The Collection focuses on the design of silk materials from bioinspiration, along with functions and potential applications in the future, such as how unique gradient micro- and nanostructures induce water-condensed droplet transport for high-efficiency water collection. Recently, some studies on bioinspired silk or fibers or fibers materials have been published. These studies are important for developing engineering applications, such as cloth, water harvesting devices, sensors, and medicine.  

Homepage: http://www.polymer.cn/ss/zhengyongmei/en/index.html  

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8379-8876