Aims & Scope
Communications Engineering is a selective open access journal from Nature Portfolio publishing high-quality research, reviews and commentary in all areas of engineering. Research papers published by the journal represent significant advances for a specialized area of research and development. We also publish Editorials, Research Highlights, Q&A's, and Viewpoints reflecting analysis and opinion from our editorial team and the wider engineering community.
The scope of the journal covers all areas of engineering including (but not limited to):
- Aerospace Engineering
- Automotive Engineering
- Biomedical Engineering
- Chemical and Electrochemical Engineering
- Civil Engineering
- Electrical & Electronic Engineering
- Environmental Engineering
- Engineering for Energy
- Engineering for Sustainability
- Industrial Engineering and Manufacturing
- Marine and Ocean Engineering
- Materials Engineering & Metallurgy
- Mechanical Engineering
- Nanotechnology and Nanoengineering
- Optical technologies and Photonics
- Robotics & Cybernetics
- Scientific Tools and Instruments
- Sensing and Imaging
We are also interested in submissions at the intersection of engineering with other scientific disciplines, such as biology, chemistry and physics, where the central advance of the study is of interest to other engineers.
Communications Engineering is supportive of Springer Natureâs effort to advance progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular SDG6: Clean Water and Sanitation, SDG7: Affordable and Clean Energy, SDG9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, SDG11: Sustainable Cities and Communities & SDG12: Responsible Consumption and Production. We welcome submissions that are relevant to these goals.
The submission and review processes are managed by our in-house professional editors supported by our Editorial Board Members, who provide technical expertise across all engineering disciplines. We are committed to rapid dissemination of important research results. Articles are published on a continuous basis with minimal time from acceptance to publication.
Criteria for publication
To be published in Communications Engineering a paper should meet several general criteria:
- The results are novel (novelty is not compromised by either abstracts or internet preprints)
- The paper provides strong evidence for its conclusions
- The data are technically sound
- The manuscript is important to scientists in the specific engineering sub-discipline.
In general, to be acceptable, a paper should report new thinking with resulting advance in opportunity, capability or benefit. Note that we welcome research which translates engineering concepts towards real world application; this includes field studies. We welcome research contributions from authors working in industry. Finally, we are interested in publishing applied science: the creation of new knowledge or insight acquired for a specific practical application.
What we don't publish:
- Fundamental science research in any field. For relevant contributions, we recommend you consider Communications Physics, Communications Chemistry, Communications Materials or Communications Biology.
- Clinical trials. We recommend instead you submit clinical trials to Communications Medicine.
- At the present time, we do not publish systematic reviews.
