Sustainable Energy & Fuels

Communications

These contain either a complete study or a preliminary report, but in either case must contain original and highly significant work whose interest to the Sustainable Energy & Fuels readership and high novelty warrants rapid publication. Authors should supply with their submission a justification of why the work merits urgent publication as a Communication. Referees will be asked to judge the work on these grounds.

Communications are given high visibility within the journal as they are published at the front of an issue. Communications will not normally exceed the length of four printed journal pages.

Full papers

Full papers contain original scientific work that has not been published previously. There are no restrictions on the length of a paper. Authors should include a brief discussion in the Introduction that sets the context for the novel work and gives their motivation for carrying out the study.

Reviews & Perspectives

Reviews and Perspectives are normally commissioned by the editorial board and editorial office. Suggestions from authors are also welcome, and enquiries should be directed to the editorial office at sustainableenergy-rsc@rsc.org.

Reviews and Perspectives must be high quality, authoritative, state-of-the-art accounts of the selected research field. They should be timely and add to the existing literature, rather than duplicate existing articles, and should be of general interest to the journal's wide readership.

All Reviews and Perspectives undergo a rigorous and full peer review procedure, in the same way as regular research papers. Notes on the preparation of these articles are available from the editor, and will be provided to referees.

Review articles report a detailed, balanced and authoritative current account of the selected research field. Review articles normally comprise 10,000 or more words of text, together with supporting figures and tables.

Perspectives present an authoritative state-of-the-art account of a research field. A Perspective may take the form of a personal account of research, or a critical analysis of a topic of current interest. In either form, some new unpublished research may be included. Perspectives normally comprise 5,000 to 10,000 words of text, together with supporting figures and tables.

Comments

Comments and Replies are a medium for the discussion and exchange of scientific opinions between authors and readers concerning material published in Sustainable Energy & Fuels.

For publication, a Comment should present an alternative analysis of and/or 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.

Authors and referees should note the following guidelines for articles reporting electrochemical data and setup of batteries. Authors should ensure the following information is provided in the main manuscript or supplementary information as appropriate.

The setup used for electrochemical testing (full or half cells, reference electrode [if used], testing temperature, etc.) must be clearly specified in the Experimental Information.

When reporting electrochemical performance data, the authors must clearly state on how many experimental runs these data are based off (one-time measurement? n-time measurement?). The electrochemical performance value calculations must be clearly explained (including information on using charging or discharging values). Thereby, all electrochemical data must be reported to an appropriate number of significant figures, along with standard deviation and error bars on graphs.

When reporting electrode performance values, the thickness of the electrode and the mass percentage of all electrode components (active material, additive, binder, etc.), the total mass of the electrode, and the geometric area of the electrode must be provided.

When reporting device-level performance values, the mass percentage of all battery components (active material, additive, binder, casing, current collector, electrolyte, separator, etc.), the total mass of the battery, and the geometric area of the electrode must be reported.

The mass percent and theoretical capacity of the active material should be provided if the theoretical capacity of the studied material is known. The theoretical capacity should be used to calculate C-rate. Alternatively, rigorous use of A g-1 is recommended.

Pre-cycling and/or first cycle data should be reported.

Calculations of battery capacity must report the capacity obtained (in mAh g-1; if appropriate, volumetric values can be added in the unit of mAh cm-3) with the cycling rate and at what cycle number this capacity was obtained clearly stated. Average capacities for ≥3 cells with standard deviation are preferred.