Biomaterials Science journal

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Impact factor: 5.8*

Time to first decision (all decisions): 13.0 days**

Time to first decision (peer reviewed only): 37.0 days***

CiteScore: 11.5****

Editor-in-Chief: Jianjun Cheng

Indexed in MEDLINE

Open access publishing options available

Official journal of the European Society for Biomaterials

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Meet the team

Celebrating 10 years of Biomaterials Science

Biomaterials Science Editor-in-Chief Jianjun Cheng celebrates the journal’s 10th anniversary.

Journal scope

Biomaterials Science is an international high impact journal exploring the science of biomaterials and their translation towards clinical use. Its scope encompasses new concepts in biomaterials design, studies into the interaction of biomaterials with the body, and the use of materials to answer fundamental biological questions.

Papers do not necessarily need to report a new biomaterial but should provide novel insight into the biological applications of the biomaterial. Articles that primarily focus on demonstrating novel materials chemistry and bring a molecular picture to bear on a given material’s suitability as a biomaterial are more suited to our companion journal, Journal of Materials Chemistry B.

Biomaterials Science publishes primary research and review-type articles in the following areas:

molecular design of biomaterials, including translation of emerging chemistries to biomaterials
science of cells and materials at the nanoscale and microscale
materials as model systems for stem cell and human biology
materials for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine
(Nano)materials and (nano)systems for therapeutic delivery
interactions at the biointerface
biologically inspired and biomimetic materials, including bio-inspired self-assembly systems and cell-inspired synthetic tools
next-generation biomaterials tools and methods

Biomaterials Science Lectureship

Nominations for the Biomaterials Science Lectureship 2025 are now open and will close on 31 January 2025.

This annually presented Lectureship recognises early career researchers, within 12 years of their PhD, who have made a significant contribution to the field of biomaterials.

Anyone can nominate, and the Biomaterials Science Editorial Board will select the winner.

Find out more about eligibility, how to nominate, nomination deadlines, and see all the winners of this award.

Meet the team

Find out who is on the editorial and advisory boards for the Biomaterials Science journal.

Editor-in-Chief

Jianjun Cheng, Westlake University, China

Associate editors

Khuloud Al-Jamal, King’s College London, UK

Nasim Annabi, University of California, Los Angeles, USA

Lino Ferreira, UC-Biotech, Portugal

Jöns Hilborn, Uppsala University, Sweden

Won-Gun Koh, Yonsei University, Korea

Shyni Varghese, Duke University, USA

Fujian Xu, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, China

Lichen Yin, Soochow University, China

Chuan Zhang, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China

Editorial board members

Pamela Habibović, Maastricht University, The Netherlands

Xinyuan Zhu, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China

Kazunari Akiyoshi, Kyoto University, Japan

Cameron Alexander, University of Nottingham, UK

Eric Appel, Stanford University, USA

Edmondo Benetti, University of Padova, Italy

Mark Bradley, University of Edinburgh, UK

Jayanta Chatterjee, Indian Institute of Science, India

Arabinda Chaudhuri, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, India

Guoping Chen, National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Japan

Yiyun Cheng, East China Normal University, China

Joel Collier, Duke University, USA

Justin Cooper-White, University of Queensland, Australia

Honggang Cui, Johns Hopkins University, USA

Jianwu Dai, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of CAS, China

Cole DeForest, University of Washington, USA

Andrew Dove, University of Birmingham, UK

Yizhou Dong, The Ohio State University, USA

Hongwei Duan, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Christine Dufès, University of Strathclyde, UK

Nicholas Dunne, Dublin City University, Ireland

Jennifer Elisseeff, Johns Hopkins University, USA

Dong Keun Han, Cha University, Korea

Ngan Huang, Stanford, USA

Chris Jewell, University of Maryland, USA

Ji Jian, Zhejiang University, China

Ali Khademhosseini, Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation, USA

Won Jong Kim, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Korea

April Kloxin, University of Delaware, USA

Christine Le Maitre, University of Sheffield, UK

Haeshin Lee, KAIST, Republic of Korea

Khoon Lim, University of Sydney, Australia

Matthias Lutolf, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland

Atsushi Maruyama, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan

Phillip Messersmith, University of California, Berkeley, USA

Aline Miller, University of Manchester, UK

Hyejung Mok, Konkuk University, Korea

Steve Oh, A*STAR, Singapore

Shaunak Pandya, Prolong Pharmaceuticals, USA

Ling Peng, Aix-Marseille University, France

Nicholas Peppas, University of Texas at Austin, USA

Catherine Picart, Grenoble INP, France

Tilo Pompe, University of Leipzig, Germany

Amirali Popat, University of Queensland, Australia

Suzie Pun, University of Washington, USA

Shun Shen, Tongji University, China

Molly Shoichet, University of Toronto, Canada

Xintao Shuai, Sun Yat-Sen University, China

Aasheesh Srivastava, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, India

Patrick Stayton, University of Washington, USA

Marcus Textor, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Takafumi Ueno, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan

Jun Wang, South China University of Technology, China

Tanja Weil, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Germany

Stephanie Willerth, University of Victoria, Canada

Zimei Wu, The University of Auckland, New Zealand

Evelyn Yim, Waterloo, Canada

Can Zhang, China Pharmaceutical University, China

Article types

Biomaterials Science publishes:

Communications
Full papers
Reviews
Minireviews
Perspectives
Comments

See more information about these article types

Communications

Biomaterials Science Communications contain novel scientific work of such importance that rapid publication is desirable. Authors should briefly indicate in a covering letter the reasons why they feel that publication of their work as communication is justified. The recommended length is three printed journal pages.

Full papers

Full papers in Biomaterials Science contain original scientific work that has not been published previously. There is no page limit for full paper articles. Please note that the Royal Society of Chemistry strongly discourages the fragmentation of a substantial body of work into a number of short publications.

Reviews

The purpose of a Review is to bring the reader up to date with research in a particular field. Since the readership of Biomaterials Science is wide-ranging, it is essential that the Review is easily comprehensible to a non-specialist in the field. Authors are encouraged to identify areas in the field where further developments are imminent or of urgent need, and any areas (such as techniques) that may be of significance to the biomaterials community in general. Please note that Reviews in Biomaterials Science may NOT contain any original research.

Minireviews

Minireviews are highlights or summaries of research in an emerging area of biomaterials science (typically from the last two-three years). Minireviews are not intended to be comprehensive overviews, rather they are meant to highlight recent and important developments in that specific subject area. Minireviews should not contain any unpublished original research and should set the topic in the context of the relevant literature. A small amount of speculation of possible future developments may also be appropriate in the Conclusions section. The recommended length of a Biomaterials Science Minireview is three printed journal pages.

Perspectives

Perspectives are invited contributions offering the personal viewpoint of leading scientists in their area of research. They present a state-of-the-art account of an area of current interest with an emphasis on future challenges and opportunities. Perspectives should be comprehensible to a broad scientific audience. There are no strict length requirements, but as a general guide Perspectives should be typically between 6 - 20 pages in length. Perspectives should not contain any unpublished research.

Comments and Replies

Comments and Replies are a medium for the discussion and exchange of scientific opinions between authors and readers concerning material published in Biomaterials Science.

For publication, a Comment should present an alternative analysis of and/or a new insight into the previously published material. Any Reply should further the discussion presented in the original article and the Comment. Comments and Replies that contain any form of personal attack are not suitable for publication.

Comments that are acceptable for publication will be forwarded to the authors of the work being discussed, and these authors will be given the opportunity to submit a Reply. The Comment and Reply will both be subject to rigorous peer review in consultation with the journal’s Editorial Board where appropriate. The Comment and Reply will be published together.

Journal guidelines

There are no specific requirements regarding formatting of submissions; we recommend using the Royal Society of Chemistry template but this is not a requirement for submission. All articles accepted for publication in our journals are edited and typeset to our house style by professional editors; we will format the final publication for you.

For guidance on preparing your article please visit our Prepare your article, Resources for authors and Experimental data guidelines pages, the content of which is relevant to all of our journals. Please note the updated guidelines for electrophoretic gels and blots.

Open access publishing options

Biomaterials Science is a hybrid journal and gives authors the choice of publishing their research either via the traditional subscription-based model or instead by choosing our gold open access option.

Gold open access

For authors who want to publish their article gold open access, Biomaterials Science charges an article processing charge (APC) of £3,000 (+ any applicable tax). Our APC is all-inclusive and makes your article freely available online immediately, permanently, and includes your choice of Creative Commons licence (CC BY or CC BY-NC) at no extra cost. It is not a submission charge, so you only pay if your article is accepted for publication.

Learn more about publishing open access.

Open access agreements

If your institution has an RSC open access agreement or APCs for gold open access, publishing in this journal may already be covered.

Use our journal finder to check if your institution has an open access agreement with us.

Please use your official institutional email address to submit your manuscript and check you are assigned as the corresponding author; this helps us to identify if you are eligible under an open access agreement or other APC discounts.

Traditional subscription model

Authors can also publish in Biomaterials Science via the traditional subscription model without needing to pay an APC. Articles published via this route are available to institutions and individuals who subscribe to the journal. Our standard licence allows you to make the accepted manuscript of your article freely available after a 12-month embargo period. This is known as the green route to open access.

Learn more about green open access.

Themed Collections

Biomaterials Science publishes a number of themed collections on timely and important topics, guest edited by members of the journal community. Members of the community are welcome to submit proposals for themed collections that would be of interest to the Biomaterials Science readership. Please use the form below to submit a proposal. All proposals will be considered by the Editorial Board and assessed based on the timeliness and relevance of the topic.

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Subscription Information

Online only 2025: ISSN 2047-4849, £2,686 / $4,558

*2023 Journal Citation Reports (Clarivate Analytics, 2024)

**The median time from submission to first decision including manuscripts rejected without peer review from the previous calendar year

***The median time from submission to first decision for peer-reviewed manuscripts from the previous calendar year

****CiteScore™ 2023 available at www.scopus.com/sources

What would you like to know about this journal?

Celebrating 10 years of Biomaterials Science

Journal scope

Biomaterials Science Lectureship

Find out more about eligibility, how to nominate, nomination deadlines, and see all the winners of this award.

Meet the team

Editor-in-Chief

Associate editors

Editorial board members

Article types

Communications

Full papers

Reviews

Minireviews

Perspectives

Comments and Replies

Journal guidelines

Open access publishing options

Gold open access

Open access agreements

Traditional subscription model

Themed Collections

Proposal for themed collection

Your details

About your suggestion

Terms and conditions

Subscription Information