About the Journal

AIMS AND SCOPE

Circular Materials and Chemistry (CMC) focuses on Circular Chemistry, Circularity and Life Cycles of Materials. It aims to investigate how chemistry and materials production can be developed according to ecological, environmental and societal principles.

In just a few years, Circular Chemistry has become a prominent way of looking at chemistry and materials. It addresses key issues for the design of post-industrial economies and societies, as it involves the invention of less polluting and less energy demanding production processes and materials that are less harmful to the environment and ecosystems, and the incorporation of these materials into circular life cycles.

In this respect, CMC embraces the 12 principles of Circular Chemistry as defined by Keijer, Bakker and Slootweg.[1]

CMC is based on three fundamental thematic pillars: 1. Materials and Processes, 2. Economy and 3. Society. Indeed, Circular Chemistry is closely linked to economy and industrial transformation, and more generally to the social impact of new materials on people’s lives, behaviours, perceptions and conceptions.

CMC aims to encourage interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary reflection and study between these three pillars.

Therefore, CMC welcomes papers on scientific advances in the field of materials, and the technologies and processes to create them, as well as on economic and social issues related to these materials.

CMC publishes papers that are either specialised in one of the three pillars, or papers that are inter- or multi-disciplinary between two or three of these topics.

Papers submitted to CMC will primarily (but not exclusively) cover the topics listed in the table below. Other topics may also be considered where relevant.

1. Materials and Processes:

  • Sustainable materials
  • Recycling and Waste management
  • Catalysis
  • Soft chemistry
  • Biomimics
  • Renewable feedstocks
  • Low emission scenarios processes

2. Economy

  • Life cycle assessment and tools to be developed for this purpose  
  • Use of these tools  
  • Production costs and processes  
  • Safe by design  
  • Risk analysis  
  • Energy efficiency and processes optimisation  
  • Material flow analysis  
  • Circularity indicators

3. Society

  • Social acceptance of materials and technological applications  
  • People’s behaviour towards these materials  
  • Rethinking marketing/Virtuous marketing  
  • One Health  
  • Ethical aspects  
  • Resource depletion   
  • Environmental protection and remediation

ETHICAL STATEMENT

CMC is committed to ethical principles in relation to its impact factor strategy, use of AI, diversity, non-involvement of political and private interests and the core principles of the Diamond OA model.

CMC is careful to develop an impact factor strategy that takes into account the intrinsic quality of the published research. In particular, CMC publishes papers that propose an original vision of circularity, based on sound scientific and methodological principles and a solid experimental approach, without the need for broader scope. CMC also welcomes papers reporting negative results.

CMC encourages a reasoned approach to AI. Each author should indicate the contribution to their paper, following the CRediT taxonomy.

CMC attaches particular importance to diversity in its broadest sense, both on its boards and in its publications. The range of approaches, topics and research covered by CMC reflects the full diversity of the field of circularity. In addition, CMC avoids all forms of discrimination based on gender and sex, as well as ethnic, national or social origin. The selection of boards members and reviewers is based exclusively on scientific criteria.

CMC vows to maintain its distance from any form of political influence. It is crucial that scientific independence must be defended from political and ideological agendas. As a European-based journal, CMC follows the European rules that guarantee academic and intellectual freedom, as well as and freedom of expression in science. The topics of research and experiments, as well as the language used to communicate the results, are validated only by the scientific community and experts in the field covered by CMC.

The ethics defended by CMC also lie in the fact that it seeks to distance itself from industrial and commercial interests that could influence the results of published research.

CMC has a strict code of ethics that prevents any form of conflict of interest for both board members and authors.

Members of the journal’s various boards are selected to ensure that they are not in a situation of conflict of interest that could compromise the journal’s scientific freedom and strict independence. In addition, articles submitted to the journal are screened to assess the risk of conflict of interest for authors: research funded by companies with a vested interest; authors working for or advising such companies. Authors are required to sign a conflict of interest statement before publication. Board members and reviewers are also requested to adhere to strict ethical conduct, including the absence of conflict of interest.

The Diamond OA model adopted by CMC has strong ethical aspects. It is a non-profit economy and a model that responds only to scientific considerations. It is made by researchers, for researchers, and therefore aims to respect each stakeholder (authors, readers, institutions). https://www.coalition-s.org/plan_s_principles/

The Diamond Open Access principles could be summarised as follows:

  • A business model that does not charge authors APCs (Article Processing Charges), does not require subscriptions from readers, and is stable because it is partially or fully funded by institutional and public resources;
  • A non-profit economy: any profits made by the journal will be fully reinvested in its development;

The use of Creative Commons licences (CC-BY), which ensures that authors retain the intellectual property rights to their work.

TYPES OF PUBLICATION

CMC publishes exclusively in Diamond Open Access: a fully open access model with no payment for authors (no APCs) and readers (no subscription).

CMC welcomes papers that focus on at least one of its three pillars - Materials and Processes, Economy and Society - and their sub-themes (see Aims and Scope). In addition, CMC encourages a reasoned approach to AI, as mentioned in our ethics statement.

All publications in CMC are peer-reviewed according to one of the three peer-review options proposed by the journal.

Publications are written exclusively in English and are published in flow, as they are completed.

Three main types of papers are welcome:

  • Research Articles are original scientific papers that must present the methodology, experience and results. They must propose an original vision of circularity based on sound scientific and methodological principles and a sound experimental approach. Papers reporting negative results are also welcome. Their length is approximately 5,000 words.
  • Perspectives and Comments consist of a short description of the state of the art in a specific area covered by CMC, as well as critical opinions and comments on a specific paper published by other researchers or groups of researchers. This type of paper is rather: i.e. no more than 1,500 words.
  • Reviews are detailed and substantial critical descriptions of a work, a publication or an ongoing research project carried out by another research group. They evaluate the methodology and data and critically discusses the published results. The aim of Reviews is to promote scientific debate on the different approaches, methods and processes in lifecycle chemistry. These papers may be substantial in length - more than 5,000 words - in order to accurately describe the research under consideration and to allow for discussion.

In addition, from time to time the Editorial Board will invite distinguished researchers and their teams to propose a Special Issue on a particular topic.

Finally, CMC publishes the following non-peer-reviewed formats:

  • Preprints of submitted articles, with the authors' permission.
  • Editorials, which are short opinions and views on Circular Chemistry written by members of the Editorial or Advisory Boards.

PEER REVIEW POLICY

CMC’s peer review policy is designed to ensure the highest level of scientific quality and excellence.

To this end, CMC’s reviewers are carefully selected from among the best international specialists in the fields and subfields covered. Additionally, upon receipt, articles submitted to the journal are carefully screened by the Editorial Office to ensure that they comply with scientific ethics.

CMC’s peer review policy is also innovative, proposing to authors and reviewers a hybrid system that combines a classic single-blind evaluation with some forms of open peer review.

The whole peer review process will be carried out as quickly as possible.

The peer review process works as follows:

Step 1: Receipt of an article - 15 days: The Editorial Office will first check the article to reject it if it is not within the scope of the journal, if it does not have the minimum quality required for a scientific publication, and if it violates the basic rules of scientific ethics: conflict of interest, plagiarism, massive use of AI, etc. The editorial team commits to responding within 15 days as to whether the text should be rejected or peer-reviewed.

Step 2: Deposit of the preprint - if it has successfully passed step 1, the article is immediately deposited as a preprint on the journal’s platform; a DOI is assigned to each preprint; after the peer review process is complete, preprints of final rejected articles are kept on the platform, while preprints of accepted articles are removed as they are no longer needed.

Step 3: Review by the Editorial Board: The article will be reviewed by the Editorial Board members who will select at least two reviewers to whom the article will be submitted for review. The reviewers will be given 1 week to accept or decline the review.

Step 4: Peer review: The article is sent to the reviewers who have agreed to review it; the authors have to give the reviewers access to the data they have collected to facilitate the review; the reviewers have to sign a confidentiality agreement to keep the data secret during the peer review; the authors and reviewers choose one of the three peer review options offered to them:

  • Option 1 - Classic single-blind: The names of the authors of the article are known to the reviewers, but the names of the reviewers are not known to the authors. Anonymised reports are sent to the authors. This system leaves more room for fair criticism, given the anonymity of the reviewers.
  • Option 2 - Disclosed single-blind: This is the same system as the first, but if the reviewers agree, their names can be revealed to the authors, their full reports can be sent to the authors, and private discussions can take place between authors and reviewers.

  • Option 3 - Open peer-review: If authors and reviewers choose this option, the names of the reviewers and their ORCID numbers will be displayed on the platform. Their reports will be published on the platform and will be assigned a DOI. Authors’ responses to reviewers’ reports will also be published on the platform. In addition, a comment section on the platform will be open to the scientific community throughout the review process. Researchers who identify themselves with their ORCID number will be able to comment on preprints, reviewers’ reports and the revised version of the article. The discussion will be closed after receipt of the final version of the article or after rejection of the article.

CMC is committed to ensuring that the peer review process is carried out as quickly as possible and to the highest standards of scientific quality.

Step 5: Receipt of reviewers’ reports: Acceptance of the article, with or without a request for revisions, or rejection. CMC is committed to ensuring that authors receive reviewers' reports as soon as they are received.

Step 6: Authors’ responses to reviewers’ reports: Authors have 15 days to respond to the reviewers’ reports. In the case of Open Peer review, submission of authors’ responses on the journal platform.

Step 7: Final version of the article: Authors will have one month (30 days) to write a final version of the article, taking into account the reviewers’ reports and the discussions that have taken place. This final version will be deposited on the journal’s platform. In the meantime, authors will provide a link to a public repository where the open data used in the article can be found.

[1]  T. Keijer, V. Bakker, J. C. Slootweg, “Circular Chemistry to Enable a Circular Economy,” Nature Chemistry, 11/3 (2019), 190-195. URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-019-0226-9.