Aims and Scope

Our Mission

Circular Materials and Chemistry – A Cross-Disciplinary Journal (CMC) aims to build a scientific basis for a future in which materials are designed to retain value, circulate across systems, and minimize loss, with chemistry as a key enabler of this transformation.

Aims & Scope

Circular Materials and Chemistry is a Diamond Open Access (no APC and no subscription) journal dedicated to advancing the science and engineering of materials within a circular economy framework. The journal places circularity at its core, starting from a materials perspective and exploring how chemistry enables the design, transformation, and preservation of material value across life cycles.

Scope and Vision

The journal focuses on the chemical and material innovations required to transition from linear to circular systems. We aim to publish work that redefines how materials are designed, produced, used, and reintegrated, emphasizing the retention of functionality and value over time.

At the heart of the journal is the recognition that:

  • Materials are not only defined by their functionality, but by their entire life cycle.

  • Circularity requires intentional design, where end-of-life is considered from the outset.

  • Chemistry plays a critical role in enabling reuse, repair, recycling, and reintegration into new value chains.

Core Themes

We welcome contributions addressing, but not limited to:

  1. Circular Materials Design

  • Chemical and molecular design enabling durability, repairability, reuse, and recyclability.

  • Materials engineered for multiple life cycles (not infinite, but value-preserving).

  • Design strategies integrating end-of-life pathways from the outset.

  1. Processes Enabling Circularity

  • Chemical processes for material recovery, separation, and regeneration.

  • Innovations in recycling technologies (mechanical, chemical, hybrid approaches).

  • Incorporation of secondary (recycled) and bio-based feedstocks into new materials.

  • Understanding how material properties evolve across cycles.

  1. Linking Functionality and Life Cycle

  • Studies connecting material performance with life cycle behavior.

  • Degradation, aging, and loss of functionality over time.

  • Strategies to maintain or restore material performance across use cycles.

  1. Evaluation and Benchmarking of Circular Solutions

  • Critical assessment (a.o., environmental, economic, circularity, functionality, quality, performance) of novel or existing technologies.

  • Comparative studies showing improvements over state-of-the-art.

  • Transparent evaluation of trade-offs and limitations.

Benchmarking Requirement

A defining feature of the journal is the expectation that all research articles include a clear, transparent benchmarking of circular performance.

This may include (but is not limited to):

  • Life cycle considerations (qualitative or quantitative; full LCA not required).

  • Techno-economic potential (e.g., cost, scalability, feasibility).

  • Comparison against current linear or less circular alternatives.

Submissions must clearly demonstrate:

  • What is improved.

  • Compared to what baseline.

  • To what extent.

Interdisciplinarity and Rigor

The journal promotes interdisciplinary research at the interface of chemistry, materials science, engineering, and systems thinking. Contributions should be:

  • Scientifically rigorous.

  • Reproducible and transparent.

  • Clearly positioned within a circular materials context.

We particularly encourage work that bridges:

  • Molecular/chemical design ↔ material performance.

  • Material innovation ↔ system-level circularity.

  • Process innovations/upscaling ↔ improvements in material recovery.

Article Types

We welcome:

  • Original Research Articles (experimental, computational, or theoretical, evaluation of emerging or existing solutions) – 8000 words.

  • Short Research Articles (promising preliminary results/prior art) – 3000 words.

  • Invited Feature Articles (substantial piece of original research or comprehensive analysis solicited directly by journal editors from recognized experts in a field) – 8000 words.

Out of Scope

The journal does not focus on:

  • Energy systems and vectors (e.g., fuels, advanced biofuels).

  • Waste management without a clear materials and value-retention perspective.

  • No pure modeling papers without experimental grounding.