About the Journal

I. AIMS AND SCOPE

Circular Materials and Chemistry – A Cross-Disciplinary Journal (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
  • Waste management
  • Smart sorting
  • Catalysis
  • Soft chemistry
  • Biomimicry
  • Renewable feedstocks
  • Low emission scenarios processes
  • Process intensification

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

II. PEER REVIEW

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.

 

III. 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.

 

IV. GUIDELINES FOR AUTHORS

IV. 1. Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to tick all of the following boxes to ensure that their submission complies with these guidelines, and submissions may be returned to authors who do not comply with these guidelines:

  • The submission has not been previously published (in whole or in part), nor is it under consideration by another journal (or an explanation has been provided in the Comments to the Editor).
  • All co-authors are listed on the submission form and have agreed to submit the article.
  • The submission file is in OpenOffice/LibreOffice, Microsoft Word or RTF document file format.
  • Where available, URLs or DOIs are provided for references.
  • The text conforms to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines.
  • All ethical issues are addressed.
  • The individual contribution of each author/contributor is indicated, including the credit system (https://credit.niso.org/implementing-credit/).

 

IV. 2. General information

All papers must be written in English. Any variety of international English is allowed, but each article must be consistent and follow the same style throughout the paper.

Research articles: the maximum length of the manuscript is 5 000 words, excluding abstract, tables, figures and references.

Reviews: the maximum length of the manuscript is 10 000 words, excluding the abstract, tables, figures and references.

Perspectives and Comments: the maximum length of the manuscript is 1 500 words.

 

IV. 3. Introduction

The introduction to the paper should include the title, the names of all authors/contributors and their affiliations, the abstract and keywords (at least 5).

The abstract will be included unchanged in the international databases that will index the article and is therefore, together with the title and keywords, an important source of information for potential readers.

VI. 3. 1. Title

The title should be informative or descriptive and describe the content of the article. It must be short, with a maximum of 55 characters (including spaces).

VI. 3. 2. Authors/Contributors

In the list of authors, names should appear as follows: first names (in full) followed by surnames. The name of the corresponding author should be followed by an asterisk and his/her e-mail address.

CMC does not limit the number of co-authors on a paper. However, if the number of co-authors exceeds 10, an explanation should be provided to the Editorial Board to justify this number. CMC accepts two first authors as co-first authors and two last authors as co-last authors.

Affiliations of authors should be listed according to institutional guidelines. Affiliations usually begin with the name of the institution, followed by the name of the faculty, department and/or laboratory, and end with the mailing address and country.

The individual contribution of each author/contributor is indicated, including the credit system (https://credit.niso.org/implementing-credit/).

VI. 3. 3. Abstract (structured)

The abstract should be up to 250 words, 150 for Perspectives and Comments. It should not include references, tables or figures. The abstract must be written in such a way that it can be read independently of the main body of the article.

VI. 3. 4. Keywords

The abstract should be followed by at least 5 keywords. These represent the main concepts of the article. Their purpose is to facilitate the indexing of the article and its search in bibliographic databases.

 

IV. 4. Articles: body of the text

Authors are encouraged to structure the body of the article according to the IMRaD model (see https://studypedia.au.dk/en/formal-requirements/imrad-structure), which includes four sections: "Introduction", "Materials and Methods", "Results", "Discussion". These sections can, of course, be given different titles if desired. However, the structure of the text should follow the standards of the field covered by the paper.

For the sake of brevity, authors may refer to experiments, arguments or discussions that they have published elsewhere, with appropriate attribution.

In the case of experiments, these may be described in the main text or in appendices at the end of the paper.

 

IV. 5. Review: body of the text

Reviews should cover a maximum of 50 to 100 papers. This selection should include the most important papers in the field under review. Self-citations should be limited to 10% of the papers discussed, unless there is a strong argument for discussing more papers than this limit.

Reviews should follow a simplified structure of three parts: "Introduction", "Literature", "Conclusions".

 

IV. 6. Perspectives and Comments: body of the text

The structure of a Perspectives and Comments papers is identical to that of a Review article. However, the length of the paper is much shorter (maximum 1,500 words). Such a paper should present and accurately describe a key issue in the field, present the discussion in the field, and suggest some directions for further research. Authors should limit the paper to the 10 most outstanding papers published during the review period. They should argue why these papers are outstanding.

 

IV. 7. Writing conventions

IV. 7. 1. Names of organisms

The first mention of each organism in the text and abstract should be by its full scientific name, followed by the proposer. From the second reference in the text, the genus should be abbreviated.

IV. 7. 2. Chemical and Biochemical compounds

With regard to the nomenclature of chemical and biochemical compounds, the norms followed by each field or sub-field should be respected. As a guide, the international rules of nomenclature published by IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, 1987) and the recommendations of IUBMB (International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 1992) and IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) can be followed.

IV. 7. 3. Units and Numbers

The standards ISO 31 "Quantities and units" and ISO 1000 "International system of units (SI) and recommendations for derived and other units" (ISO, 1993) apply to physical units, equations, quantities and units of measurement. Abbreviations may be used for these units. Litre is written as "l".

In the text, units should be written as words, except when preceded by a number, in which case the international abbreviation should be used (min, h, d, g, m, J, etc.).

When expressing units of measurement, the negative exponent is preferred to the fraction line (e.g. m.s-2 instead of m/s2).

Numbers should use a space to separate thousands and a comma to separate decimals, e.g. 13 528,8

 

IV. 7. 4. Citations

Any use of an author's ideas or words must be referenced (even if the document is freely available, in the public domain, or on a website). There are no exceptions to this rule.

Bibliographic references follow the Harvard system: references in the text are given in the "author-date" format in parentheses, e.g. (Smith, 2011). Pagination is not required. For a reference with two authors, both names are given, e.g. "(Brown & Dupont, 2010)". If there are more than two authors, the name of the first author is followed by "e.g.". If several references are cited together, they should be listed in chronological order and separated by a semicolon: "(Iwai et al, 1980; Binoux et al, 1988; Dordick, 1989)". Direct quotations should be placed in inverted commas. Citations in another language should be in italics. If an entire paragraph is quoted, it should be indented. The citation should be followed by the reference in parentheses, outside the quotation marks.

IV. 7. 5. References

The reference list is limited to 200 references. In the case of reviews, the author must explain the information retrieval methodology used at the end of the introduction.

The bibliography should follow the international Harvard style (https://www5.open.ac.uk/library/referencing-and-plagiarism/quick-guide-to-harvard-referencing-cite-them-right).

A list of all references cited in the text should be included in the bibliography at the end of the article, before any appendices. References should be listed alphabetically by the surname of the first author and, for a given author, in chronological order. A reference for a single author should precede a reference for an author with co-authors. References should not be numbered. If there are more than four authors, only the first author should be cited, followed by "e.a.".

Citations of "in press" or "accepted" articles may be included in the bibliography. Documents "in preparation", "submitted", or constituting a "personal communication" (which may be cited in the text), internal unpublished reports, courses, and master's theses should not be included in the bibliography.

Where possible, ISBNs and/or DOIs of cited references should be provided.

 

Monograph

Authors’ names, year, title, edition (if not the first one), place of publication (city and country) and publisher are mandatory.

Anastas P. T., Warner, J. C., 2000. Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice. 1st ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN: 9780198506980.

 

Articles in journals

Journal titles should be abbreviated according to the list published by the ISSN International Centre, The List of Title Word Abbreviations (http://www.issn.org/2-22661-LTWA-online.php). Those containing only one word should not be abbreviated: Heredity, Endeavour, etc.

Lozano P., García-Verdugo E., 2023. From green to circular chemistry paved by biocatalysis. Green Chemistry, 25, 7041. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/D3GC01878D

 

Chapters in an edited book

Authors, editors and publishers must be clearly identified. The name of the editor is followed by "ed." or "eds." (if there is more than one).

Corvellec H., 2025. A Critique of Heroic Efficacy. In: Corvellec H., ed. Waste as a Critique. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 169-190. DOI: 10.1093/9780198907077.003.0011.

 

Theses

Theses should be identified as monographs with the title of the degree and the name of the university where the thesis was presented.

Debecker D., 2010. MoO3-based heterogeneous catalysts for the metathesis of propene. PhD thesis: Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium).

 

Internet documents

An internet document should be described in the same way as a printed document, followed by a comma, the full internet address and the date of consultation (in brackets). Where possible, a permalink should be provided.

Shenk J.W. & Shenk J.S., 2008. White paper – Unity Scientific Standardization concept for NIR instrument product lines, http://www.unityscientific.com.au, (24/06/2012).

 

Tables and figures

All tables and figures should be identified by a number and appear with their titles and captions. However, authors are free to decide where to place them in the text.

The use of illustrations (photographs, tables, figures, drawings) taken from a work must always be reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder (it is not sufficient to simply cite the source). Modifications of illustrations (photographs, tables, figures, drawings) should also be identified as such in the text and the source cited.

1. Tables

Columns within tables should be set using the tabulation key. The table should contain only data (dates, text, numbers, percentages, etc.); it should not contain any formulas or macros.

The table title is placed before the table.

 

2. Figures

Illustrations should be provided in JPG *, *. GIF,. * EPS or TIF * format with a resolution of 300 to 600 dpi. Vector images may be submitted in EPS format.

 

IV. 7. 6. Submission of manuscripts

Manuscripts should be submitted according to the procedure on this OJS website. Accepted formats are .DOC, .DOCX, .ODT or .RTF.

To facilitate the layout process, the following should be avoided: small caps, paragraph formatting, page numbering, headers and footers, and automatic bibliographic reference links in the text. You should also avoid numbering the lines in the paper. This will be done automatically on receipt.

 

IV. 7. 7. Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses provided on this website will only be used for the stated purposes of this magazine and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

 

IV. 7. 8. Funding

Authors should clearly state what resources and funding were made available to them to carry out the research, i.e. name the funding bodies.

[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.