Research Journal: Scopus Indexing, Scope, Metrics & Submission Guide

Quick Answer: What Is Research?

Research is an international multidisciplinary journal in the Science Partner Journal program. The official journal site states that it publishes fundamental research in the life and physical sciences and important findings or issues in engineering and applied science. It accepts original research articles and several invited or commissioned-style formats, including reviews, perspectives, commentaries and editorials.

The journal is published by AAAS in association with Science and Technology Review Publishing House. The journal is editorially independent from the Science family of journals, and CAST is responsible for the journal’s published content. Research is open access, publishes continuously, and uses the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence.

For authors, the practical decision is not simply whether Research is indexed or highly cited. A manuscript should make a clear advance, match one of the journal’s scientific areas, satisfy the relevant article-type limits, and comply with its submission, data, authorship, ethics and disclosure requirements.

Key Takeaways

• Identity: Research was launched in 2018 as the first journal in the Science Partner Journal program.
• Publisher relationship: AAAS publishes the journal in association with Science and Technology Review Publishing House under CAST leadership.
• Identifiers: p-ISSN 2096-5168; e-ISSN 2639-5274; Scopus Source ID 21100943285.
• Indexing: The official journal page lists Scopus, SCIE, DOAJ, Ei Compendex, Inspec, PubMed Central and other services.
• 2025 metrics: CiteScore 13.5 (Q1, Multidisciplinary) and JIF 12.9 (Q1, Multidisciplinary Sciences).
• Open access: Articles are published under CC BY on a continuous basis.
• Current APCs: Research and Review Articles are listed at USD 2,400; other article types have different rates.
• Submission: Manuscripts are submitted through Editorial Manager and authors should use the latest official templates and author guidelines.

Journal Information at a Glance

Metrics and fees can change between reporting cycles. Authors should verify the current values in the journal’s official pages and in the database their university or funder uses for assessment.

What This Page Covers

• Research journal aims, scope and subject areas
• Scopus, Web of Science and other verified indexing
• 2025 CiteScore, Journal Impact Factor, JCI, SJR and SNIP context
• Article types and manuscript-length expectations
• Submission files, anonymous manuscript requirements and references
• Open-access licensing, APCs and waiver information
• Publication ethics, data sharing and AI-use expectations
• Journal-fit assessment, pre-submission checks and reviewer-response readiness

Methodology and Sources

This profile was prepared from the official Research journal overview, abstracting and indexing page, author guidelines, APC page, editorial-board information and the supplied Scopus source record. SJR and SNIP values were cross-checked against an institutional research portal displaying 2025 Scopus data. Because journal metrics, fees, editor lists, special issues and submission rules can change, researchers should reconfirm time-sensitive details immediately before submission.

Research Journal Aims and Scope

The official mission of Research is deliberately broad: it provides an international platform for academic exchange, collaboration and technological advancement, and it accepts work from research domains across the life and physical sciences as well as engineering and applied science. The journal therefore operates as a multidisciplinary outlet rather than a narrowly defined specialist title.

Its stated areas of particular interest include advanced energy, advanced manufacturing, advanced materials, artificial intelligence, environmental science, flexible electronics, health science, information science, micro/nano technology, quantum information and space science. This list is not an exclusionary boundary; rather, it signals the scientific communities and technological themes the journal actively emphasizes.

For a prospective author, the important interpretation is that a manuscript should do more than fall somewhere inside science or engineering. The author guidelines describe Research Articles as work that should present a major advance. That expectation makes novelty, significance and clear relevance to a broad or emerging research audience central parts of journal fit.

Representative research themes that may fit

• Energy conversion, storage and advanced energy materials
• Advanced manufacturing processes and intelligent manufacturing
• Functional, structural and responsive materials
• Artificial intelligence, machine learning and scientific AI applications
• Environmental monitoring, remediation and sustainability technologies
• Flexible and wearable electronic systems
• Biomedical engineering, health science and translational technologies
• Information science, computation and data-intensive research
• Micro- and nanoscale devices, systems and materials
• Quantum information science and enabling technologies
• Space science, aerospace systems and cross-domain flight research

These examples are practical interpretations of the journal’s stated scope, not an exhaustive official topic list. Authors should inspect recent articles in the specific subject area that most closely resembles their manuscript.

Understanding Its Scopus Coverage and Journal Metrics

Research is currently listed as a Scopus-indexed source under Source ID 21100943285. The source record supplied with this task identifies the journal by p-ISSN 2096-5168 and publisher AAAS; the official journal site confirms the corresponding e-ISSN 2639-5274.

The journal’s official abstracting and indexing page reports a 2025 CiteScore of 13.5 and identifies the title as Q1 in Multidisciplinary. The same official page states that the journal is indexed in Web of Science’s Science Citation Index Expanded and reports a 2025 Journal Impact Factor of 12.9, Q1 in Multidisciplinary Sciences, with a Journal Citation Indicator of 2.01.

An institutional research portal displaying 2025 Scopus data lists SJR 2.184 and SNIP 1.752. Because these metrics can be updated or presented differently across services, authors should verify them directly in Scopus or their institutional analytics system when the exact current value matters for promotion, PhD rules, funding or assessment.

Other verified indexing

The journal’s official page also lists Chemical Abstracts Service, CNKI, Chinese Science Citation Database, DOAJ, Ei Compendex, Inspec, PubMed Central and SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System. Indexing is database-specific: being indexed in one service should not be treated as a substitute for a university’s particular requirement.

Who Publishes Research?

Research is published by AAAS in association with Science and Technology Review Publishing House. The latter operates under the leadership of CAST. The journal’s official description also makes an important governance distinction: Research is editorially independent from the Science family of journals, while CAST is responsible for the content published in Research.

The current editorial board is organized across the journal’s scientific areas. The official board page lists Tianhong Cui of the University of Minnesota as Editor-in-Chief (International) and Weimin Bao of the China Association for Science and Technology as Editor-in-Chief (China), supported by advisory, deputy and associate editors across the journal’s subject domains.

What Does the Journal Publish?

The current author guidelines describe several manuscript categories. The requirements differ substantially, so authors should select the article type before final formatting.

The APC page also lists a rate for Rapid Reports. Authors considering that format should verify its current eligibility and detailed requirements in the live author instructions or with the editorial office before preparing the submission.

Is This Journal a Good Match for Your Research?

A strong match usually requires alignment across subject, contribution, audience and format. The following checklist is more useful than relying on metrics alone.

• Does the research question fall within the journal’s stated life science, physical science, engineering or applied-science remit?
• Can the manuscript justify a major scientific or technological advance rather than a routine extension?
• Does the journal currently publish work using comparable methods or addressing a comparable problem?
• Is the paper written for an interdisciplinary or field-bridging audience where appropriate?
• Does the chosen article type match the manuscript’s purpose and length?
• Can all required data, methods, ethics approvals and disclosures be supplied?
• Do the authors accept the open-access model and applicable APC?
• Does the journal’s indexing satisfy the author’s university, funder or PhD regulations?

Practical fit examples

Strong scope match: a multidisciplinary materials study demonstrates a substantial advance in energy-storage performance and provides mechanistic evidence. This aligns with advanced energy and advanced materials, but the authors should still compare novelty with recent Research papers.

Possible but uncertain match: an AI paper proposes an incremental model improvement on a standard benchmark. Artificial intelligence is in scope, yet the journal’s “major advance” expectation means the contribution may need stronger scientific significance or broader applicability.

Weak scope match: a purely descriptive study with limited novelty and no clear scientific or technological advance may be better suited to a more specialized venue even if its general topic appears in the journal.

Preparation issue: a strong study submitted without the required anonymous manuscript, cover letter or disclosure information can encounter avoidable technical delays.

Preparing and Submitting a Manuscript

Research uses Editorial Manager for new submissions, revisions and status checking. The journal prefers Microsoft Word .docx files, also accepts .doc and LaTeX, and provides manuscript templates. The current author page also instructs authors to prepare an anonymous manuscript.

Research Article structure

The body of a Research Article should include title, authors and affiliations, abstract, introduction, results, discussion, materials and methods, acknowledgments, references, figures and tables, and supplementary materials where applicable. The journal’s study-design guidance asks authors to explain sample-size decisions, stopping rules, inclusion/exclusion criteria, outlier handling, endpoints, replicates, randomization and blinding when relevant.

Required submission information

• A cover letter stating the title and main point of the paper.
• A statement that the material is not published or under consideration elsewhere and that the authors agree to the journal’s publication-ethics policies.
• Names, email addresses and ORCID IDs for all authors, with the corresponding author identified.
• Names, affiliations and email addresses of potential referees.
• Related papers by the authors that are in press or under consideration elsewhere when relevant to the submitted work.

The submission workflow also asks authors to confirm compliance with policies on authorship, prior publication, informed consent, animal care, related papers, unpublished data, data availability, licensing, materials sharing, image reuse and publication of the accepted version.

Figures, tables and supplementary material

For final production, the journal requests editable, high-resolution figure files; the author guidelines state a minimum figure resolution of 300 dpi and identify accepted formats such as PDF/EPS for illustrations and TIFF, JPEG, PNG, PSD, EPS or PDF for photography or microscopy. Tables should be cited consecutively, have descriptive titles, and avoid vertical rules.

Reference and Citation Style

Research gives authors useful flexibility at initial submission: references may be submitted in any style, and accepted manuscripts are reformatted into the journal’s house style. Authors remain responsible for complete and accurate reference information.

The journal’s displayed style is numbered in order of first citation, with citation numbers in square brackets. DOIs should be included where available. The current guidance states that all authors should be listed unless a paper has eleven or more authors, in which case the first ten are followed by “et al.” For submission readiness, the most important step is therefore reference accuracy and completeness rather than manually perfecting house style before initial submission.

What Happens After You Submit?

The journal publicly describes editorial evaluation and external peer review within the Science Partner Journal framework, but the exact peer-review anonymity model for Research should be confirmed on the current journal peer-review page. The current requirement for an anonymous manuscript is clear; it should not be used to infer a specific review model unless the journal explicitly states one.

A practical workflow is: technical submission check, editorial assessment, external peer review where the manuscript is taken forward, revision where requested, final editorial decision, completion of required publication forms, production, proofing and continuous online publication. The journal does not publicly state an official acceptance rate on the pages reviewed for this profile, and an official average peer-review duration was not found. Authors should therefore avoid relying on third-party acceptance-rate or review-time estimates.

Responding to reviewer comments

For a revision, authors should answer each comment point by point, identify exactly where the manuscript changed, provide evidence when respectfully disagreeing, and ensure the revised manuscript and response letter are consistent. Professional language can help editors and reviewers assess the scientific response efficiently, but editing cannot substitute for missing evidence or methodological correction.

Open Access, Copyright and Current Publication Fees

Research is fully open access and publishes under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence. Authors retain copyright, while Science and Technology Review Publishing House holds an exclusive licence to the content. Articles are published continuously once production is complete.

The current official APC page states that there are no submission charges. It lists reduced APCs of USD 2,400 for Research Articles and USD 2,400 for Review Articles, subsidized in part by CAST. Perspectives and Commentaries are listed at USD 1,200, while Rapid Reports are listed at USD 1,500. Taxes or duties may be added depending on the customer location.

The SPJ program states that full APC waivers are available to authors in Hinari A and B countries, with full or partial waivers potentially available for financial hardship. Waivers may be requested during the editorial workflow but are not granted until acceptance. Authors should verify the latest fee and waiver rules immediately before submission.

Publication Ethics, Data Sharing and AI Use

Research directs authors to the Science Partner Journal publication-ethics framework. The policies cover authorship, conflicts of interest, plagiarism and duplicate publication, preprints and prior publication, data and materials availability, reproducibility, ethical experimental design, corrections and retractions.

For data and materials, the SPJ ethics guidance requires the information necessary to understand, assess and extend the paper’s conclusions to be available after publication, subject to legitimate restrictions. Large datasets may need deposit in an appropriate public repository before publication.

The journal’s current author guidance also addresses AI-assisted technologies. AI tools do not qualify for authorship and should not be listed as authors or coauthors. When AI-assisted technology is used as part of the research or as an aid in writing or presentation, authors are instructed to disclose this in the cover letter and acknowledgments. Authors remain responsible for accuracy, originality, citations, confidentiality and the final manuscript.

Current Special-Issue Opportunities

As of 10 August 2026, the official special-issues page lists several open calls, including Artificial Intelligence in Smart Cities and Civil Infrastructures (deadline 31 August 2026), Artificial Intelligence-Powered Multiomics and Biomaterials for Precision Oncology (30 September 2026), The Advanced Technologies of Humanoid Robots (30 September 2026), Aggregation-Induced Emission (30 November 2026), Embodied Artificial Intelligence Empowering Industrial Automation (30 November 2026), Nanozymes (31 December 2026), and Virtual Cells (30 June 2027).

Special-issue deadlines are especially time-sensitive. Authors should check the official special-issues page for the current call, scope, guest-editor information and submission deadline rather than relying on an archived listing.

Pre-Submission Checklist for Research

• Re-read the official aims and scope and at least several recent papers in the closest subject area.
• Confirm that the paper demonstrates the level of advance expected for the selected article type.
• Download the latest Word or LaTeX template and anonymous-manuscript template.
• Check abstract, article-length, figure/table and reference limits for the chosen article type.
• Prepare the cover letter, author emails, ORCID IDs and corresponding-author information.
• Prepare potential-referee details and related-paper files where required.
• Verify study-design reporting, statistics, methods, data availability and reproducibility information.
• Confirm human/animal ethics approval and informed-consent requirements where applicable.
• Check conflicts of interest, funding, authorship, image permissions and third-party material.
• Check references for accuracy and DOI completeness.
• Confirm current APC, tax and waiver implications.
• Ensure every author has reviewed and approved the final submission.

Is Research Suitable for PhD Scholars?

Research may be suitable for a PhD scholar when the manuscript genuinely matches its multidisciplinary scientific scope and makes a sufficiently strong contribution. Scopus or Web of Science indexing alone does not make a journal automatically suitable for a doctoral requirement. Scholars should check their university’s accepted-indexing rules, supervisor guidance, subject relevance, article type, authorship policy, funding constraints and APC implications.

For thesis-derived work, the manuscript should be reshaped as an independent journal article rather than submitted as a lightly shortened thesis chapter. The research question, novelty, methods, results and discussion should be clear to the journal’s readership, and all reuse of thesis text, figures or previously disseminated material should comply with the journal’s prior-publication and disclosure policies.

How Contentxprtz Can Support Authors Preparing for Research

Preparing a manuscript for Research can involve scope alignment, language clarity, article-type compliance, formatting, reference checks, figures and tables, disclosures and revision documents. Contentxprtz can support authors with ethical academic editing, journal manuscript editing, proofreading, journal formatting, reference consistency, cover-letter editing, reviewer-response editing and publication-readiness review.

For this journal specifically, support may include checking whether the manuscript communicates a major advance clearly, reviewing the abstract and structure against the selected article type, checking the anonymous version for identifying information, improving clarity of methods and statistical reporting, and ensuring submission documents are internally consistent.

Contentxprtz does not control editorial decisions and does not guarantee acceptance or publication. All scientific claims, data, authorship decisions, ethical approvals and final submission decisions remain the responsibility of the authors and the journal.

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Summary: Research Journal

Research is a multidisciplinary, fully open-access Science Partner Journal launched in 2018 and published by AAAS in association with Science and Technology Review Publishing House under CAST leadership. It covers life sciences, physical sciences, engineering and applied science, with strong emphasis on emerging and interdisciplinary fields. The journal is indexed in Scopus and SCIE; its official page reports a 2025 CiteScore of 13.5 and 2025 Journal Impact Factor of 12.9, both with Q1 classifications in their applicable multidisciplinary categories.

Authors should focus on scientific advance and scope fit, then follow the latest article-type limits, anonymous-manuscript requirements, submission checklist, ethics rules and data policies. Research is open access under CC BY and currently charges article-type-specific APCs, with waiver mechanisms available. Because metrics, fees, calls for papers and author instructions can change, the official journal pages should always be the final source checked before submission.