Soft Matter (journal)

Soft Matter is a peer-reviewed scientific journal publishing original (primary) research and review articles on the generic science underpinning the properties and applications of soft matter. Soft Matter is published monthly by the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Dr Carol Stanier is the editor of Soft Matter. Ullrich Steiner, Professor of Physics of Materials at the University of Cambridge, chairs the Editorial Board. The Editorial Board comprises leading international scientists who meet regularly to discuss all scientific matters concerned with the Journal; in particular the standards necessary for the acceptance of papers for publication, the standards of refereeing, and ways and means of acquiring suitable papers for publication.

Soft Matter was launched in 2005, and has an impact factor of 4.391 (2006).^[1]

Chemical biology papers published in Soft Matter are highlighted in Chemical Biology, the RSC’s point of access to chemical biology news and research from across all RSC journals. Significant and newsworthy articles appearing in Soft Matter are also featured in the RSC supplements Chemical Science, Chemical Technology and Chemical Biology.

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Subject Coverage

Soft Matter publishes articles on the following topics

• Bulk soft matter assemblies including polymers, colloids,gels,vesicles,emulsions, films,surfactants,micelles,suspensions and liquid crystals
• Soft nanotechnology and self-assembly including nanostructured polymeric materials, nanocomposites, molecular self organisation, supramolecular systems, molecular imprinting, molecular recognition, encapsulation and self-assembled films and monolayers
• Biological aspects of soft matter including biomacromolecules and biopolymers, membranes, biocomposites, and biomimetic materials
• Surfaces, interfaces, and interactions including thin films, Langmuir monolayers and Langmuir Blodgett techniques, wetting/dewetting, soft interfaces and their interfacial properties, dynamics, rheology and hydrodynamics, structure, pattern formation and replication
• Building blocks/synthetic methodology including new molecular architectures and new synthetic methodologies, and synthesis of soft materials
• Theory, modelling, and simulation including dynamics and non-equilibrium dynamics, computational and thermodynamic studies of soft materials

Article types

Soft Matter publishes the following types of articles: Research Papers (original scientific work that has not been published previously); Communications (original scientific work that has not been published previously and is of an urgent nature); Reviews (critical appraisals of topical and significant areas of research); Highlights (short review articles that single out important new developments (a single paper or group of papers) and explain the significance of the work to a broad audience) ; Emerging Areas (short accounts of a potentially important and growing new field of research); and Opinions (a personal, often speculative, viewpoint or hypothesis on a topic of current interest to the scientific community). Reviews, Highlights, Emerging Areas and Opinions are written by special invitation of the Editor or Editorial Board only.

Audience/readership

Soft Matter has a global circulation and interdisciplinary audience with a particular focus on the interface between physics, materials science, biology, chemical engineering and chemistry. Soft Matter appeals to a wide variety of researchers, but particularly to: materials scientists; surface scientists; physicists; biochemists; biological scientists; chemical engineers; physical, organic and theoretical chemists.

See also

• List of scientific journals in chemistry
• List of scientific journals
• Journal of Materials Chemistry

References

1. ^ Journal Citation Reviews, 2007