It gives me great pleasure to announce that Communications Materials is open for submissions, a new editorially selective, open access journal from Nature Research that will publish important studies in materials science. The journal is run by an in-house team of Editors supported by an external Editorial Board, who will select works based on the extent of advance they bring to a field.

The Communications journals launched in 2017 with Communications Biology, Communications Chemistry and Communications Physics, providing broad-scope, selective platforms for researchers to communicate their findings. These journals also made it their mission to champion open science and early career researchers, with initiatives such as transparent peer review and travel grants for early career researchers.

There are many materials scientists that publish in these three journals, such as those working on batteries, biomaterials and quantum materials – topics at the interface between disciplines. However, there are large areas of materials science that are not naturally suited to these journals, or are simply not in scope. Other researchers want to specifically target the materials community. The current Communications journals will continue to welcome materials scientists to publish with them – for topics that are within their scope – and this new journal offers an additional choice for those authors, especially when the emphasis of their work is more towards materials.  With Communications Materials we offer to the community a broad-scope materials journal where researchers can publish influential findings, with visibility beyond researchers working on their specific topic.

Our ambition is that Communications Materials reports fundamental and applied research in equal measure. The aim of materials science is to create new materials and technologies that can improve society, including for civil infrastructure, healthcare, energy, communication etc. Achieving advanced applications of materials requires intimate understanding of the fundamental science, however. It is therefore right that a broad-scope materials journal present the entire spectrum of materials research, from the fundamental physics of materials to materials assembly and scaling-up. Moreover, issues of growing importance that affect all materials researchers include materials supply, life cycle and sustainability. Addressing these challenges is vital for creating a sustainable ‘materials economy’, that respects environmental and economic constraints without compromising the end material application.  

Communications Materials will make a conscious effort to publish influential works in all these areas and to continue the initiatives that the Communications journals have established in transparency in peer review, reproducibility of findings, and opportunities for typically less represented groups in the community.

I sincerely hope that you will consider trusting us with your hard-earned research.