Nanoscale & Nanoscale Advances Blog

Following the success of Peer Review Week in September 2016 (dedicated to reviewer recognition) during which we published a list of our top reviewers, we are delighted to announce that we will continue to recognise the contribution that our reviewers make to the journal by announcing our Outstanding Reviewers each year.

We would like to highlight the Outstanding Reviewers for Nanoscale in 2016, as selected by the editorial team, for their significant contribution to the journal. The reviewers have been chosen based on the number, timeliness and quality of the reports completed over the last 12 months.

We would like to say a big thank you to those individuals listed here as well as to all of the reviewers that have supported the journal. Each Outstanding Reviewer will receive a certificate to give recognition for their significant contribution.

Professor Katsuhiko Ariga, National Institute for Materials Science
Dr Yu-Lun Cheuh, National Tsing Hua University
Dr Zheyu Fang, Peking University
Professor Nam-Gyu Park, Sungkyunkwan University
Dr Ilia Valov, Research Centre Jülich
Dr Zhikun Wu, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science
Dr Yusuke Yamauchi, National Institute for Materials Science
Professor Yuchao Yang, Peking University
Professor Shu-Hong Yu, University of Science and Technology of China
Professor Haibo Zeng, Nanjing University of Science and Technology

We would also like to thank the Nanoscale board and the nanoscience community for their continued support of the journal, as authors, reviewers and readers.

If you would like to become a reviewer for our journal, just email us with details of your research interests and an up-to-date CV or résumé. You can find more details in our author and reviewer resource centre

In celebration of Peer Review Week, with the theme of Recognition for Review – we would like to highlight the top 10 reviewers for Nanoscale in 2016, as selected by the editor for their significant contribution to the journal.

We would like to say a massive thank you to these reviewers as well as the Nanoscale board and all of the nanoscience community for their continued support of the journal, as authors, reviewers and readers.

Dr. Mervi Heiskanen

Dr. Stephanie Morris

The authors of this article are both Program Managers based at the US National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information Technology and Office of Cancer Nanotechnology Research, respectively, working towards improving quality of and access to published experimental data.

In recent years, there has been increasing interest in improving how nanomaterials are defined and characterized due to a lack of specific nano-related metadata standards in the Nanotechnology field. The nano-community agrees data reporting guidelines would facilitate data reproducibility and reuse.

The recent collaboration between Elsevier Journals and the NCI cancer Nanotechnology Laboratory (caNanoLab) data portal is an important step towards providing researchers with easy access to high quality nanotechnology data for reproduction and re-use. However, access to data is only useful if information about experimental details is available. Is there something we can do to improve usability of nanotechnology data?

The lack of high quality nanotechnology research data is a known challenge, further complicated by the diversity and growing number of nanomaterials. The OMICs communities (e.g., genomics and proteomics) have pioneered the development of databases such as the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) Database and the Worldwide Protein Data Bank (wwPDB), as well as standard guidelines for recording data. These guidelines define the minimum information that must be reported and stored, and facilitate data reproducibility and integration across different datasets to enable further analysis by the research community. Many of these reporting guidelines can be accessed at Biosharing, and are required by journals for data deposition during the manuscript submission process.

Several STM journals already require authors to adhere to minimum characterization requirements, particularly when reporting new chemical compounds, which reviewers are asked to evaluate to ensure reproducibility and reliability of the research. Nature and its sister journals have further enforced this for their life science articles by implementing an initiative which includes the submission of a checklist by authors intended to remind them to provide sufficient experimental details to enable reproducibility. However, we need to agree on a nanotechnology-specific checklist, and extend the reproducibility initiative to include other relevant journals. This needs to be a collaborative effort driven by the research community, editors and publishers, regulatory agencies, and funding organizations in order for this to become common practice and lead to improvements in data reuse.

The nanotechnology community is in the early stages of defining metadata that should be included in data submissions, and recognizes the metadata will differ by research field (e.g., biomedicine, ecological studies, and health and safety). Examples of nanomaterial databases working towards this goal include caNanoLab, which uses MinChar, and the Nanomaterial Registry’s Minimal Information about Nanomaterials (MIAN). However, there is no common minimal information guideline agreed upon by the larger nanotechnology community. The need for the development of a common reporting recommendation has been recognized by the NCI Nanotechnology Working Group (NCI Nano WG). With active participants from federal institutions, academia, and industry, primarily from the US and the NanoSafety Cluster in Europe, the NCI Nano WG can serve as a coordinating body for collecting community input across nanotechnology research fields. A nanotechnology minimal information standard is also of great interest to the US National Nanotechnology Initiative, which has developed a signature initiative on nanoinformatics (Nanotechnology Knowledge Infrastructure) that works with the nanotechnology community to provide resources and tools.

We believe that data submission guidelines combined with better access to data will improve data quality and reproducibility and will ultimately translate to advances in areas such as biomedical research, environmental safety, and nanomanufacturing. Collaboration and coordination among all stakeholders is needed to ensure data submission guidelines benefit all parties.

“If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.” – Henry Ford

Disclosure–Views expressed in this web article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or polices of the Department of Health and Human Services, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

Scientists across the field of 2D materials have put forward a roadmap to steer graphene research off the drawing board, to a point where it emerges within disruptive technologies that alter people’s lives the world over.

The roadmap is split into 11 science and technology themes including spintronics, biomedical devices and energy conversion and storage. Short-, medium- and long-term targets for technological milestones as well as safety profiles sit alongside the plethora of potential applications.

Interested? Read the full story by Harriet Brewerton in Chemistry World.

The original article is free to access and can be read at:

Nanoscale & Nanoscale Horizons

The launch of Nanoscale Horizons seeks to build on and strengthen the nanoscience content already published in journals across the Royal Society of Chemistry portfolio. In particular, Nanoscale Horizons will complement and work alongside Nanoscale to provide a rounded view of innovation, and bridge the various disciplines in research across nanoscience and nanotechnology.

Nanoscale Horizons aims to publish first reports of exceptional significance in the field, therefore positioning itself as a premier journal in its field. The journal will publish leading research containing a clear conceptual advance and new insights into the topic presented. As such, there will be highly stringent criteria for publication, imposed by our Scientific Editors and Publishing Editors.

Nanoscale will continue to publish high impact research across the breadth of nanoscience and nanotechnology. The criteria for publication remain the same and will continue to be upheld by the journal’s Associate Editors to maintain Nanoscale’s reputation for publishing high quality, community-spanning research.

As with other Royal Society of Chemistry journals, the Nanoscale Horizons Editorial team will try to find the most suitable home for any manuscript that we receive. We endeavour to provide authors with the option to automatically transfer their manuscript to Nanoscale or another journal within our portfolio, where manuscripts are deemed more suitable for publication elsewhere.

To find out more about Nanoscale Horizons and keep up-to-date with all of the latest news, visit the webpage and sign up for the e-alerts.

Introducing Nanoscale Horizons – launching next year

The home for rapid reports of exceptional significance in nanoscience and nanotechnology is on its way.

Our newest journal will work alongside Nanoscale to provide a rounded view of innovation in nano research, and bridge the various disciplines involved with nanoscience and nanotechnology. We’ll be looking for high impact work in fields ranging from physics and chemistry to IT, healthcare and detection science.

A pioneering Editorial Board Chair

Our Editorial Board Chair is Professor Harold Craighead, Professor of Engineering at Cornell University, USA and a pioneer in nanofabrication methods. He will head up an expert editorial board, led by Executive Editor Dr Fiona McKenzie.

Rapid reports, cutting-edge research

The first issue in 2016 will lay the groundwork for what aims to be the journal of choice for outstanding research across a broad spectrum.

Articles published will benefit from wide exposure, and content published during 2016 and 2017 is free upon registration – giving maximum visibility to your research.

Nanoscale Horizons will be launching very soon. Sign up to our Email Alerts Service and make sure you’re among the first to hear the latest.