Annual Report 2023

1.   Journal summary

The Editorial Office of AIMS Materials Science would like to extend our most sincere gratitude to all the authors, reviewers, and advisory board and editorial board members for their contributions to the journal of AIMS Materials Science in 2023. We have made a meaningful progress in 2023, and we look forward to a more productive year in 2024.

AIMS Materials Science is an international Open Access journal devoted to rapidly publishing peer-reviewed, high-quality, original papers in the field of materials technology and science. In 2023, we had received 256 manuscripts, of which 60 have been accepted and published. These published papers include 48 research papers, 6 review papers, 1 letter, 1 theory article, 1 perspective article, 1 mini review and 1 case report. The authors of the published manuscripts are from more than 30 countries worldwide. The sources of the submissions showed a significant increase in international collaborations on the research of materials science. It now is a significant presence in the academic publishing market.

One of the important strategies of attracting high quality and high impact papers to our journal has been the calls for special issues. In 2023, 5 special issues were established. AIMS Materials Science has 83 enthusiastic members on the editorial board. We will continue to renew and accept dedicated researchers to join the Editorial Board in 2024.

2.   Manuscript processing

2.1.   Manuscript statistics

In 2023, AIMS Materials Science published 6 issues, a total of 60 articles were published online, and the category of published articles is shown in Table 1. As shown in Figure 1, the number of submissions shows an upward trend, and the publishing number remains stable.

Table 1.  Category of published articles.

Type	Number
Research article	48
Review	6
Letter	1
Theory article	1
Perspective article	1
Mini review	1
Case report	1

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Figure 1.  Number of submissions and publications in the past 3 years.

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2.2.   Manuscript processing time

The processing time of the manuscript comprises four measurement indicators: submission to first decision time, submission to final decision time, acceptance to publication time and average publication time. Figure 2 shows the changes in different indicators over four quarters in 2023. As shown in Figure 2a, the average submission to first decision time in 2023 is 64.72 days, which includes time for editorial board members to do brief check and for reviewers to complete the review report. The time between the first decision and the final decision largely depends on the time required for the authors to complete the revisions and for the reviewers to review it. Figure 2b displays the submission to final decision time in 2023 is 82.15 days. The average time from manuscript acceptance to publication is influenced by typesetting, English checking, and author proofreading. Compared to 2022, this time has been shortened to 22.95 days. In summary, the average time from submission to publication in 2023 is 105.1 days, which is also an improvement compared to last year.

Figure 2.  The processing time of the manuscript.

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2.3.   Some special issues with more than 5 papers

Organizing high-quality special issue is a very important work in 2023. In 2023, 5 special issues were called. Table 2 shows some examples of special issues with more than 5 papers. We encourage Editorial Board members to propose more potential topics, and to act as editors of special issues.

Table 2.  Special issues with more than 5 papers.

Special issues	Link	Papers
Peridynamics and Its Applications	https://www.aimspress.com/aimsmates/article/6119/special-articles	5
Nanostructured Materials in Photocatalysis	https://www.aimspress.com/aimsmates/article/6282/special-articles	6

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2.4.   Articles metrics

Tables 3 and 4 are top 10 articles with highest HTML views (published in 2023) and citations (last two years).

Table 3.  The top 10 articles with highest HTML views published in 2023.

No.	Title	Views
1	Biochar in cementitious material—A review on physical, chemical, mechanical, and durability properties	1505
2	The performance of radar absorption of MnxFe3–xO4/rGO nanocomposites prepared from iron sand beach and coconut shell waste	1207
3	Contribution to study the effect of (Reuss, LRVE, Tamura) models on the axial and shear stress of sandwich FGM plate (Ti–6A1–4V/ZrO2) subjected on linear and nonlinear thermal loads	1205
4	Influence of the thermomechanical behavior of NiTi wires embedded in a damper on its damping capacity: Application to a bridge cable	1167
5	Fe-TiO2/zeolite H-A photocatalyst for degradation of waste dye (methylene blue) under UV irradiation	1091
6	Atomistic modeling and molecular dynamic simulation of polymer nanocomposites for thermal and mechanical property characterization: A review	1088
7	Mechanical properties and brittleness of concrete made by combined fly ash, silica fume and nanosilica with ordinary Portland cement	1079
8	Demonstration of ferroelectricity in PLD grown HfO2-ZrO2 nanolaminates	1030
9	Increasing the charge/discharge rate for phase-change materials by forming hybrid composite paraffin/ash for an effective thermal energy storage system	962
10	Effect of the calcination temperature of the FTO/PbS cathode on the performance of a quantum dot-sensitized solar cell	964

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Table 4.  The top 10 articles with highest citations (last two years).

No.	Title	Publication year	Citations
			2022	2023	Total
1	Mechanical properties and brittleness of concrete made by combined fly ash, silica fume and nanosilica with ordinary Portland cement	2023	0	13	13
2	Low-cost piezoelectric sensors and gamma ray attenuation fabricated from novel polymeric nanocomposites	2023	0	13	13
3	Increasing the charge/discharge rate for phase-change materials by forming hybrid composite paraffin/ash for an effective thermal energy storage system	2022	1	5	6
4	Impact of polymer molecular weights and graphene nanosheets on fabricated PVA-PEG/GO nanocomposites: Morphology, sorption behavior and shielding application	2022	0	6	6
5	A molecular dynamics study concerning the effect of high-temperature and high-pressure on the structure and phase transition of Fe2O3 material	2022	4	1	5
6	On the determination of first-mode stress intensity factors and T-stress in a continuous functionally graded beam using digital image correlation method	2022	0	4	4
7	A review study on sustainable development of ultra high-performance concrete	2022	1	3	4
8	Materials for Additive Manufacturing	2022	0	4	4
9	Understanding the structural properties of feasible chemically reduced graphene	2022	1	3	4
10	PLA/starch biodegradable fibers obtained by the electrospinning method for micronutrient mineral release	2023	0	3	3

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2.5.   Author distribution

In 2023, we received 256 submissions from 60 countries, of which 60 have been published online and 20 are still processing. In total, we published 60 papers which consists of 48 research papers, 6 review papers, 1 letter, 1 theory article, 1 perspective article, 1 mini review and 1 case report in 2023. Figures 3 and 4 show the diversity of the author distribution. We firmly believe that this widely distributed and powerful group has promoted the development of materials science.

Figure 3.  Author's countries of submission.

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Figure 4.  Top 10 countries of submission.

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Figure 5 shows the countries of online papers in 2023. We would like to express our gratitude to all authors for their trust and support in AIMS Materials Science.

Figure 5.  Author's country of online.

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2.6.   Editorial Board members

The journal's Editorial Board is now made up of 83 senior expert members from 19 countries representing a diverse range of research experience, expertise and countries. More than 80 percent of our EB members are coming from China, USA, Italy, Canada, Spain, Australia, Germany, UK, Portugal and France (Figure 6). In the term of editorial board, most members contributed a lot to our journal. We will continue to invite dedicated experts and researchers in order to renew the Editorial Board in 2024.

Figure 6.  Country distribution of editorial board members.

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3.   Summary and perspective

3.1.   Summary

We received more than 200 manuscript submissions from 60 countries and published 60 papers in 2023. In the past year, with the friendly help of the guest editors, we have successfully established 5 special issues. In 2023, with the support of the editorial board members and the editor-in-chief, as well as the contributions of authors and reviewers, AIMS Materials Science received its first Impact Factor (1.8) and CiteScore increased to 4.2.

3.2.   Plan in 2024

The goal for us to run this journal is to secure the best scientific authors and papers that ensures AIMS Materials Science to attract more citations and to stay at the forefront of professional publications in materials, so that we provide the scientific community with a high-quality journal that will address global challenges and new frontiers in the field of materials science and engineering. To achieve this goal, following major developments are considered in 2024:

Firstly, we hope to attract more reputable scholars in the materials science field to contribute more high-quality articles. We would like to increase the diversity of high-quality articles from all around the world. In addition, we also would like to invite our board members to try to increase the influence and impact of AIMS Materials Science by soliciting and advertising high quality articles and special issues

Secondly, we will continue to look for more outstanding editorial board members in the field of materials science, especially in the processing of metal and alloy materials, carbon materials, nanomaterials, and polymers and polymer technology, etc.

Lastly, we will strive to shorten the manuscript processing cycle and accelerate the publication of every high-quality article.

Acknowledgments

We really appreciate the time and effort of all our Editorial Board Members and Guest Editors, as well as our reviewers devoted to our journal. All your excellent professional effort and expertise provided us with very useful and professional suggestions in 2024. Last, but not least, thanks are given to the hard work of the in-house editorial team.