Author Guidelines

Similarity Check

All submitted articles are checked for plagiarism via iThenticate or Turnitin.

Manuscript Preparation

Figures, charts, tables, schemes, and equations should be embedded in the text at the point of relevance. Separate graphics with high quality of at least 400 dpi (as TIF, PNG, JPEG) can be supplied later at the revision or proof stage. 

Title

The title should be concise and informative.

Author information

1- The name(s) of the author(s)

2- The affiliation(s) of the author(s), i.e. institution, (department), city, (state), country

3- A clear indication and an active e-mail address of the corresponding author

4- If available, the 16-digit ORCID of the author(s)

If the address information is provided with the affiliation(s), it will also be published.

For authors that are (temporarily) unaffiliated, we will only capture their city and country of residence. Anexample: Independent Researcher, City, Country.

Abstract

Please provide an abstract of 150 to 200 words. The abstract should not contain any undefined abbreviations or unspecified references.

Keywords

Please provide 4 to 6 keywords which can be used for indexing purposes.

Abstract and Graphical Abstract (ToC)

The abstract should be a maximum of 200 words and must not contain any undefined abbreviations or unspecified references. All Research Articles, Letters, Perspectives, and Reviews must be accompanied by an abstract, including an Abstract (ToC) graphic. The abstract should briefly state the purpose of the research (if not contained in the title), the principal results, and major conclusions.

Abstracts must not include superlative words such as “superb,” “excellent,” “exceptional,” “outstanding,” or other similar descriptive terms unless rigorously supported by a thorough comparison with the state-of-the-art in the manuscript. Additionally, words like “New,” “First,” or “Novel” are generally disallowed in the abstract, similar to manuscript titles.

The graphical abstract should be an eye-catching image that captures the reader’s attention and, along with the manuscript title, provides a quick visual impression of the essence of the manuscript without presenting specific results. Avoid using a graphic that already appears within the text of the manuscript. The graphic should have a resolution of at least 300 dpi and should be no wider than 3.25 inches by 1.75 inches (approx. 8.25 cm by 4.45 cm). All information and text in the graphical abstract should be readable at that size.

Artwork and Illustration Guidelines

The impact of your research is not limited to what you can express with words. Tables and figures such as graphs, photographs, illustrations, diagrams, and other visuals can play a significant role in effectively communicating your findings. To achieve this goal, it is mandatory where possible to illustrate schemes that show the authors’ insight. Please follow the below guideline:

Figures:

• Color art is free of charge for online publication.

• A schematic illustration is needed for the reaction/preparation of the system (e.g., synthesis of nanoparticles, drug encapsulation, methodology, and in vivo application) to help the readers to understand the process.

• In the Figures, diagrams, and schemes, please do not use “Time new Roman” font. Please use more readable fonts such as Helvetica or Arial. Also, the fonts should be big enough to should be readable. 

• Supply Figures with at least 300 to 600 dpi resolution and A4 or letter size (e.g., dimension about 21.0 cm by 29.7 cm).

• Multicompartment figures including scheme+ Figure data (e.g., graphs, diagrams, and qualitative data) are encouraged, especially for review and perspective articles.

• For review and perspective articles, in Figure captions or below tables, please define the abbreviation and full name of the terms used in those tables or Figures.

Obtaining necessary permissions for copyrighted material used within the submitted work is the sole responsibility of the authors. This includes figures, tables, images, or any content sourced from previously published materials. A tutorial for Figure permission can be viewed here.

Tables

• All tables are to be numbered using Arabic numerals.

• Tables should supplement, not duplicate the information presented in the text and figures.

Unit style

Please use the International System of Units (SI), commonly known as the metric system. 

Abbreviations

• Provide a list of abbreviations and acronyms used in the paper (for review papers).

• For review and perspective articles, preferably, please reduce the number of abbreviations in the text to enhance the continuity of the text. Preferably, one-word terms should not be abbreviated. Just for those terms (e.g., containing 2 or 3 words) that are repeated many times throughout the whole text. Ensure that any symbols and abbreviations used in the text agree with those in the artwork.

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements of people, grants, funds, etc., should be placed in a separate section on the title page. The names of funding organizations should be written in full.

Funding (information that explains whether and by whom the research was supported)

Availability of data and material (data transparency)

Code availability (software application or custom code)

 Ethics approval
Authors must ensure that their research complies with all relevant ethical guidelines and regulations. For studies involving human participants, authors should provide a statement confirming that informed consent was obtained from all participants. For studies involving animals, authors should confirm that the study was approved by an institutional ethics committee and carried out in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations.

Conflicts of Interest Disclosure

Authors submitting to Materials Chemistry Horizons are required to submit a conflicts of interest disclosure form during the manuscript submission process. This form will ask authors to disclose any financial interests related to the submitted work or any other potential sources of conflicting interests that may have directly or indirectly influenced their research. If no conflicts of interest exist, authors should state: "The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest regarding this article."

 Changes to Authorship:

Changes to authorship including additions, deletions, or rearrangements of authors' names, after submission or during the review process must be communicated to the editorial office and must adhere to COPE's guidelines on Changes of Authorship. The corresponding author should provide the following information:

(a) The reasons justifying the addition, removal, or rearrangement of authors' names.
(b) Written confirmation (such as e-mail or signed form) from all authors indicating their agreement with the proposed changes.

Authors should complete the Authorship Change Form and submit it with the confirmation from the authors involved. Requests sent by authors other than the corresponding author will be forwarded to the corresponding author, who must follow the procedure described above.

Please note that (1) the executive manager will inform the editors about such requests, and (2) publication of the accepted manuscript in an online issue will be put on hold until authorship has been agreed upon.

Once the accepted manuscript is published online, any requests to add, delete, or rearrange authors' names in the article will follow the same policies mentioned above and will result in a corrigendum.

Citation and References 

It is suggested to use reference managers to handle the references. Citation and Reference style:

Biomaterials are used for drug delivery [1, 2].

[1] R. Jamaledin, C.K.Y. Yiu, E.N. Zare, L.N. Niu, R. Vecchione, G. Chen, Z. Gu, F.R. Tay, P. Makvandi, Advances in Antimicrobial Microneedle Patches for Combating Infections, Adv. Mater. 32 (2020) 2002129. 

Book chapters:

[2] E.N. Zare, P. Makvandi, Antimicrobial Metal-Based Nanomaterials and Their Industrial and Biomedical Applications, in: S. Snigdha, S. Thomas, E. Radhakrishnan, N. Kalarikkal (Eds.), Engineered Antimicrobial Surface, Springer, 2020: pp. 123–134.

Please always use the standard abbreviation of a journal’s name according to the ISSN List of Title Word Abbreviations, see

Web of Science- Journal Title Abbreviations

If you are unsure, please use the full journal title.

Author Biographies:  
For review and perspective articles, please provide high-resolution photos and short biographies​​ (no more than 100 words per person) for those authors who would like to be highlighted in the author biography section at the end of the article.

Cover letter:

Please write and attach a cover letter including the following items:

1- Please confirm that you have acknowledged all organizations that funded your research, and provided grant numbers where appropriate. If there is no funder, then confirm it.

2- Select one of the following data depositions:
(a) My manuscript has associated data in a data repository
(b) My manuscript has no associated data or the data will not be deposited
(c) My manuscript has data included as electronic supplementary material

3- You can specify appropriate editor from our Editorial Board (optional)