Plastics, Rubber and Composites
Macromolecular EngineeringPlastics, Rubber and Composites (provides an international forum for the publication of original, peer-reviewed research on the macromolecular engineering of polymeric and related materials and polymer matrix composites. Modern polymer processing is increasingly focused on macromolecular engineering: the manipulation of structure at the molecular scale to control properties and fitness for purpose of the final component. Intimately linked to this are the objectives of predicting properties in the context of an optimised design and of establishing robust processing routes and process control systems allowing the desired properties to be achieved reliably.
The main areas of interest are:
- Processing of single and multiphase polymeric systems in quantified, controlled, or novel ways, across the length scales; novel processing technologies; rheology; process measurement, sensors, and control; formation of polymers by novel routes; recycling; choice and incorporation of additives
- Properties of these materials; tailoring of properties during processing; property-processing relationships; characterisation of products, across the length scales
- Modelling of processing and structure development (melt/solid/multiphase): numerical and analytical modelling; constitutive relationships; validation
- Measurement techniques for process control and materials characterisation
- Design methodologies, including knowledge based engineering design, and performance of end products
The journal's coverage will reflect growing common ground between the processing of polymers and of related materials in the fine chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and biomaterials sectors.
| Professor P D Coates | University of Bradford, UK |
| Professor J J C Busfield | Queen Mary, University of London, UK |
| Professor Ludwig Cardon | Ghent University, Belgium |
| Dr Lee Harper | Nottingham University, UK |
| Professor Lief Asp | Swerea SICOMP AB, Sweden |
| Professor Anke Blume | University of Twente, The Netherlands |
| Professor Clive Bucknall | Cranfield University, UK |
| Professor Biqiong Chen | Queens University Belfast, UK |
| Professor Jose A Covas | University of Minho, Portugal |
| Professor Tibor Czigany | Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary |
| Professor Patrick Fairclough | University of Sheffield, UK |
| Professor Peter Halley | University of Queensland, Australia |
| Dr. Lee Harper | University of Nottingham, UK |
| Professor Patrick Lee | University of Toronto, Canada |
| Professor Shi-Jung Liu | Chang Gung University, Taiwan |
| Professor Yu Wing Mai | University of Sydney, Australia |
| Dr Tanja Kosanovic Milickovic | National Technical University of Athens, Greece |
| Professor Roberto Pantani | University of Salerno, Italy |
| Dr Dipa Roy | University of Edinburgh, UK |
| Professor Costas Soutis | University of Manchester, UK |
| Professor Tom Turng | University of Madison Wisconsin, USA |
| Professor Erwan Verron | Central School of Nantes, France |
| Professor Qi Wang | Sichuan University, China |
| Professor Jinglei Yang | Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SAR |
| Professor Bob Young | University of Manchester, UK |
| Professor Liqun Zhang | South China University of Technology |
Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Plastics, Rubber and Composites
This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics.
This Journal recommends that authors follow the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).
Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/prcme to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned. Remember you can log in to the submission site at any time to check on the progress of your paper through the peer review process.
Sage disseminates high-quality research and engaged scholarship globally, and we are committed to diversity and inclusion in publishing. We encourage submissions from a diverse range of authors from across all countries and backgrounds.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Plastics, Rubber and Composites will be reviewed.
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal.
As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere. Please see our guidelines on prior publication and note that Plastics, Rubber and Composites will consider submissions of papers that have been posted on preprint servers; please alert the Editorial Office when submitting (contact details are at the end of these guidelines) and include the DOI for the preprint in the designated field in the manuscript submission system. Authors should not post an updated version of their paper to a preprint server while it is being peer reviewed for possible publication in the Journal. If your paper is accepted, you will need to contact the preprint server to ensure the final published article link is attached to your preprint. Learn more about our preprint policy here.
If you have any questions about publishing with Sage, please visit the Sage Journal Solutions Portal.
- What do we publish?
1.1 Aims & Scope
1.2 Article types
1.3 Writing your paper - Editorial policies
2.1 Peer review policy
2.2 Authorship
2.3 Acknowledgements
2.4 Funding
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
2.6 Research ethics and patient consent
2.7 Research data - Publishing policies
3.1 Publication ethics
3.2 Contributor’s publishing agreement
3.3 Open access and author archiving - Preparing your manuscript
4.1 Formatting
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
4.3 Identifiable information
4.4 Supplemental material
4.5 Reference style
4.6 English language editing services - Submitting your manuscript
5.1 ORCID
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
5.3 Permissions - On acceptance and publication
6.1 SAGE Production
6.2 Online First publication
6.3 Access to your published article
6.4 Promoting your article - Further information
7.1 Appealing the publication decision
Before submitting your manuscript to Plastics, Rubber and Composites, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope;
Plastics, Rubber and Composites: Macromolecular Engineering provides an international forum for the publication of original, peer-reviewed research on the macromolecular engineering of polymeric and related materials and polymer matrix composites. Modern polymer processing is increasingly focused on macromolecular engineering: the manipulation of structure at the molecular scale to control properties and fitness for purpose of the final component. Intimately linked to this are the objectives of predicting properties in the context of an optimised design and of establishing robust processing routes and process control systems allowing the desired properties to be achieved reliably.
The main areas of interest are:
•Processing of single and multiphase polymeric systems in quantified, controlled, or novel ways, across the length scales; novel processing technologies; rheology; process measurement, sensors, and control; formation of polymers by novel routes; recycling; choice and incorporation of additives
•Properties of these materials; tailoring of properties during processing; property-processing relationships; characterisation of products, across the length scales
•Modelling of processing and structure development (melt/solid/multiphase): numerical and analytical modelling; constitutive relationships; validation
•Measurement techniques for process control and materials characterisation
•Design methodologies, including knowledge based engineering design, and performance of end products
The journal's coverage will reflect growing common ground between the processing of polymers and of related materials in the fine chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and biomaterials sectors.
Research Article
Should be written with the following elements in the following order: title page; abstract; keywords; main text introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion; acknowledgments; declaration of interest statement; references; appendices (as appropriate); table(s) with caption(s) (on individual pages); figures; figure captions (as a list)
Should be no more than 3500 words
Should contain an unstructured abstract of 150 words.
Should contain no more than 8 keywords. Read making your article more discoverable, including information on choosing a title and search engine optimization.
Research article reporting research and practice.
Signpost Paper
Should be written with the following elements in the following order: title page; abstract; keywords; main text introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion; acknowledgments; declaration of interest statement; references; appendices (as appropriate); table(s) with caption(s) (on individual pages); figures; figure captions (as a list)\
Should contain an unstructured abstract of 150 words.
Should contain no more than 8 keywords. Read making your article more discoverable, including information on choosing a title and search engine optimization.
Signpost papers, personal assessments of the current state of a field with a view to its future, selecting important current issues and indicating how the field may develop and the progress required to facilitate this. Informed speculation and well argued unconventional views are encouraged, with the aim of stimulating discussion.
Review
Should be written with the following elements in the following order: title page; abstract; keywords; main text introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion; acknowledgments; declaration of interest statement; references; appendices (as appropriate); table(s) with caption(s) (on individual pages); figures; figure captions (as a list)
Should be between 4000 and 5000 words
Should contain an unstructured abstract of 150 words.
Should contain no more than 8 keywords. Read making your article more discoverable, including information on choosing a title and search engine optimization.
Reviews should deal with their subject in a broad perspective, examining the current position critically and comprehensively; these should be well referenced.
Visit the Sage Author Gateway for general advice on how to get published, plus links to further resources.
Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance your article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.
1.3.1 Make your article discoverable
For information and guidance on how to make your article more discoverable, visit our Gateway page on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.
Sage does not permit the use of author-suggested (recommended) reviewers at any stage of the submission process, be that through the web-based submission system or other communication.
Reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Our policy is that reviewers should not be assigned to a paper if:
- The reviewer is based at the same institution as any of the co-authors.
- The reviewer is based at the funding body of the paper.
- The author has recommended the reviewer.
- The reviewer has provided a personal (e.g. Gmail/Yahoo/Hotmail) email account and an institutional email account cannot be found after performing a basic Google search (name, department and institution).
The journal’s policy is to have manuscripts reviewed by two expert reviewers. Plastics, Rubber and Composites utilizes a single-anonymised peer review process in which the reviewer’s name and information is withheld from the author, Reviewers may at their own discretion opt to reveal their names to the author in their review but our standard policy practice is for their identities to remain concealed. All manuscripts are reviewed as rapidly as possible, while maintaining rigor. Reviewers make comments to the author and recommendations to the Editor who then makes the final decision.
The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own manuscripts for possible publication in the Journal. In these cases, the peer review process will be managed by alternative members of the Board and the submitting Editor/Board member will have no involvement in the decision-making process.
Special issue manuscripts are managed by an external Guest Editor who will handle the peer review process of each submission. Reviewers make comments to the author and recommendations to the Guest Editor who then makes the final decision.
Plastics, Rubber and Composites is committed to delivering high quality, fast peer-review for your paper, and as such has partnered with Web of Science (previously Publons). Web of Science is a third-party service that seeks to track, verify and give credit for peer review. Reviewers for Plastics, Rubber and Composites can opt in to Web of Science in order to claim their reviews or have them automatically verified and added to their reviewer profile. Reviewers claiming credit for their review will be associated with the relevant journal, but the article name, reviewer’s decision and the content of their review is not published on the site. For more information visit the Web of Science website.
Papers should only be submitted for consideration once consent is given by all contributing authors. Those submitting papers should carefully check that all those whose work contributed to the paper are acknowledged as contributing authors.
The list of authors should include all those who can legitimately claim authorship. This is all those who:
- Made a substantial contribution to the concept or design of the work; or acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data,
- Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content,
- Approved the version to be published,
- Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.
Authors should meet the conditions of all of the points above. When a large, multicentre group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship.
Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship, although all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgments section. Please refer to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) authorship guidelines for more information on authorship.
Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.
Any acknowledgements should appear first at the end of your article prior to your Declaration of Conflicting Interests (if applicable), any notes and your References.]
Per ICMJE recommendations, it is best practice to obtain consent from non-author contributors who you are acknowledging in your paper.
2.3.1 Third party submissions
Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:
- Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
- Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
- Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.
Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.
2.3.2 Writing assistance
Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance. It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.
Plastics, Rubber and Composites requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
It is the policy of Plastics, Rubber and Composites to require a declaration of conflicting interests from all authors enabling a statement to be carried within the paginated pages of all published articles.
Please ensure that a ‘Declaration of Conflicting Interests’ statement is included at the end of your manuscript, after any acknowledgements and prior to the references. If no conflict exists, please state that ‘The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest’. For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations here.
2.6 Research ethics and patient consent
Plastics, Rubber and Composites does not publish papers reporting on human and/or animal studies.
The Journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages.
Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:
- Share your research data in a relevant public data repository
- Include a data availability statement linking to your data. If it is not possible to share your data, use the statement to confirm why it cannot be shared.
- Cite this data in your research
Peer reviewers may be asked to peer review the research data prior to publication.
- Peer reviewers may be asked to assess compliance with the research data policy
- Peer reviewers may be asked to assess research data files
If you need to anonymize your research data for peer review, please refer to our Research Data Sharing FAQs for guidance.
Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.
3.1.1 Plagiarism
Plastics, Rubber and Composites and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the Journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarized other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.
3.1.2 Prior publication
If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.
3.2 Contributor’s publishing agreement
Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information, please visit the Sage Author Gateway.
3.3 Open access and author archiving
Plastics, Rubber and Composites offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.
4. Preparing your manuscript
The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. A LaTex template is available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.
Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.
This Journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc.) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplemental files.
Plastics, Rubber and Composites adheres to the Sage Vancouver reference style. View the Sage Vancouver guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.
If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the Sage Vancouver EndNote output file.
4.6 English language editing services
Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the Journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.
Plastics, Rubber and Composites is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/prcme to login and submit your article online.
IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the Journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.
We encourage all authors and co-authors to link their ORCIDs to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. We collect ORCID IDs during the manuscript submission process and your ORCID ID then becomes part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID ID is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.
If you do not already have an ORCID ID please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. The affiliation listed in the manuscript should be the institution where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the research, the new affiliation can be included in a manuscript note at the end of the paper. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).
Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway.
6. On acceptance and publication
Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be made available to the corresponding author via our editing portal Sage Edit or by email, and corrections should be made directly or notified to us promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.
Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.
6.3 Access to your published article
Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.
Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.
7. Further information
Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Plastics, Rubber and Composites editorial office as follows:
Professor P D Coates: pdcoates@bradford.ac.uk
7.1 Appealing the publication decision
Editors have very broad discretion in determining whether an article is an appropriate fit for their journal. Many manuscripts are declined with a very general statement of the rejection decision. These decisions are not eligible for formal appeal unless the author believes the decision to reject the manuscript was based on an error in the review of the article, in which case the author may appeal the decision by providing the Editor with a detailed written description of the error they believe occurred.
If an author believes the decision regarding their manuscript was affected by a publication ethics breach, the author may contact the publisher with a detailed written description of their concern, and information supporting the concern, at publication_ethics@sagepub.com