# Progress In Materials Science

> Use when targeting Progress in Materials Science or deciding whether a materials-science review fits this venue. Encodes the journal's review-only fit, the comprehensiveness-and-critical-synthesis bar, the scope-and-balance expectations, the often-invited/proposal route, house style, official-submission re-check, and desk-reject heuristics.

- Skill: `thedixitjain/progress-in-materials-science` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds add thedixitjain/progress-in-materials-science`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/thedixitjain/progress-in-materials-science/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Research & Search
- Author: thedixitjain (https://skillmd.com/u/thedixitjain)
- Updated: 2026-09-09
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/thedixitjain/progress-in-materials-science

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# Progress in Materials Science (progress-in-materials-science)

## Journal positioning

Progress in Materials Science is an Elsevier review journal that publishes
authoritative, comprehensive, and critical reviews spanning the breadth of
materials science and engineering. Its defining product is the **definitive
critical review** of an active, important field — a synthesis that maps the
state of the art, reconciles conflicting evidence, exposes open problems, and
sets a research agenda — not a report of new primary data. The journal rewards
breadth of coverage, depth of critical judgment, and balance across competing
schools of thought; a narrow mini-review, a literature roundup with no
synthesis, or an unsolicited primary-research paper is a misfit. This skill is a
**fit / venue-selection / re-framing** tool. It does not replace the journal's
current official author guidelines. Before submitting or proposing, re-check the
live Progress in Materials Science Guide for Authors and any proposal process.

## When to trigger

- The author has a comprehensive, critical review of a materials field and is
  weighing Progress in Materials Science as the venue.
- A manuscript must be re-framed from "here are our new results" into a
  field-spanning critical synthesis, or the author is unsure their piece is a
  review at all.
- The author is deciding between this journal, a shorter review outlet, and a
  primary-research venue, and needs the comprehensiveness/balance bar.
- The author needs the proposal/invitation expectations and the review-specific
  desk-reject heuristics.

## Scope & topic fit

- Comprehensive critical reviews across the full span of materials science:
  metals, ceramics, polymers, composites, semiconductors, and emerging classes.
- Reviews of processing–structure–property–performance understanding in a field,
  synthesizing how mechanism-level knowledge has matured over time.
- Cross-cutting methodological reviews (characterization, computation, design
  frameworks) when they critically appraise the field rather than tutorialize.
- Topics with a substantial, mature body of literature that genuinely needs a
  consolidating, evaluative synthesis — not nascent areas with thin evidence.
- Reviews that frame the unresolved controversies and chart credible future
  directions for the community, not just summarize what has been published.
- Authoritative coverage written by authors with demonstrable command of the
  field; the review is expected to be a reference work, often invited.

## Method & evidence bar

- The contribution is **critical synthesis**: the review must weigh, compare, and
  judge the literature, not merely catalog it; uncritical summaries are rejected.
- Coverage must be comprehensive and balanced — major schools of thought,
  competing models, and contradictory results are represented and reconciled, not
  cherry-picked toward the authors' own work.
- Claims about the state of the field must be traceable to the primary literature
  with accurate, complete, and current citation; key foundational and recent works
  must both be present.
- The review should add value beyond existing reviews: state explicitly what gap
  in the existing review literature it fills and why now.
- Figures and tables must be evaluative tools (comparative property maps,
  mechanism schematics, taxonomies), with permissions secured for reproduced
  material; the synthesis, not the figure count, carries the article.
- Any original analysis (re-plotted data, meta-comparison) must be methodologically
  transparent and clearly distinguished from reproduced material.

## Structure & house style

- Long-form review structure: a framing introduction, thematically organized
  critical sections, a synthesis/outlook, and an exhaustive reference list;
  Progress in Materials Science publishes comprehensive reviews, so route
  short-form reviews and primary papers elsewhere and re-check current article
  types on the live guide.
- The introduction defines the field, the scope boundaries, and why a critical
  review is needed now; it is not a primer.
- Sections build an argument about the state of knowledge — each ends with what is
  settled, what is contested, and what remains open.
- Figures are mostly curated/comparative; secure copyright permissions and credit
  sources for every reproduced figure per the current policy.
- A forward-looking outlook section identifying the most consequential open
  problems is expected of a definitive review.

## Official-submission checklist

- Before giving submission-ready advice, read `../../resources/source-basis.md`
  and `../../resources/official-source-map.md`; start from the Elsevier anchors,
  then cite the current Progress in Materials Science Guide for Authors page you
  checked.
- Search the live site for "Progress in Materials Science guide for authors" and
  follow the current Elsevier/Editorial Manager version.
- Check whether a review proposal / pre-submission inquiry or editor invitation is
  expected before a full manuscript, and follow the current process.
- Re-check expectations for review length, figure/table permissions, and
  copyright clearance for all reproduced material.
- Re-check competing-interests, funding, author-contribution (CRediT), and AI-use
  disclosure requirements, plus any conflict-of-interest rules for reviews citing
  the authors' own work heavily.
- If the live official instructions conflict with this skill, the official
  instructions win.

## Pre-submission self-check

- [ ] The piece is a comprehensive, critical review — not a primary-research paper or a thin mini-review.
- [ ] Coverage is balanced across competing models/schools, not skewed toward the authors' own contributions.
- [ ] Every state-of-the-field claim is traceable to accurate, current primary citations.
- [ ] The review states explicitly what gap in the existing review literature it fills.
- [ ] All reproduced figures/tables have secured permissions and proper attribution.
- [ ] A forward-looking outlook identifies the most consequential open problems.

## Common desk-reject triggers

- An unsolicited primary-research manuscript submitted to a review-only venue.
- A narrow mini-review or a literature roundup with summary but no critical synthesis.
- Coverage biased toward the authors' own work, with major competing views omitted.
- A field too immature or too narrow to warrant a definitive comprehensive review.
- Outdated or incomplete referencing that misrepresents the current state of the art.
- Reproduced figures without permissions or with missing source attribution.

## Re-routing decision

- Primary processing–structure–property research → `acta-materialia`.
- High-impact, shorter conceptual review/perspective → `nature-reviews-materials` or `nature-materials`.
- Concrete/cementitious-materials review or science → `cement-and-concrete-research`.
- Polymer/structural-composite focused review → `composites-part-b-engineering`.
- Additive-manufacturing-specific review or process study → `additive-manufacturing`.

## Output format

```text
[Fit] High / Medium / Low (one-line reason)
[Target] Progress in Materials Science
[Topic tags] <2–3 closest materials subfields>
[Review type] comprehensive critical review / (misfit: primary paper / mini-review)
[Synthesis] <the central critical argument about the field in one line>
[Coverage/balance] <is coverage comprehensive and balanced across competing views?>
[Top risk] <the single most likely reason for rejection>
[Official items to re-check] <proposal route / length / figure permissions / disclosures>
[Re-route suggestion] <if not a fit, a better-matched venue>
```

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**Source:** [`brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills`](https://github.com/brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills) → `Engineering-Technology-Journal-Skills/skills/progress-in-materials-science/SKILL.md`