--- name: acta-materialia description: Use when targeting Acta Materialia or deciding whether a structural-materials / physical-metallurgy manuscript fits this venue. Encodes the journal's fit, the processing–structure–property–performance mechanism bar, characterization rigor, house style, the Acta-vs-Scripta and Acta-vs-functional-materials routing, official-submission re-check, and desk-reject heuristics. --- # Acta Materialia (acta-materialia) ## Journal positioning Acta Materialia is a leading archival journal of materials science and engineering with a structural-materials and physical-metallurgy center of gravity: the quantitative relationships among **processing, microstructure, properties, and performance** in metals, alloys, ceramics, and structural composites. The journal rewards papers that establish a mechanism — why a microstructure forms and how it governs a property — over papers that merely report that a new processing route changed a number. Purely incremental "new alloy, slightly better property" studies without mechanistic insight are a weak fit. This skill is a **fit / venue-selection / re-framing** tool. It does not replace the journal's current official author guidelines. Before submitting, re-check the live Acta Materialia Guide for Authors. ## When to trigger - The author names Acta Materialia for a metallurgy, ceramics, or structural-materials manuscript and wants a fit/framing check. - A materials paper must be re-framed from "we made and measured X" into a processing–structure–property mechanism story. - The author is deciding between Acta Materialia, a rapid-communication outlet (Scripta Materialia), and the functional-materials family (`advanced-materials`, `nature-materials`). - The author needs Acta's characterization-rigor bar and desk-reject heuristics. ## Scope & topic fit - Physical metallurgy and alloy design: phase transformations, precipitation, recrystallization, texture, and the resulting mechanical behavior. - Deformation and failure mechanisms: plasticity, creep, fatigue, fracture — when tied to microstructural evidence and, ideally, modeling. - Microstructure evolution under processing (casting, thermomechanical processing, additive manufacturing, irradiation) with quantitative structure–property links. - Ceramics and structural composites where the advance is mechanistic, not just a property table. - Computational materials science (phase-field, CALPHAD, crystal plasticity, atomistics) when validated against or predictive of experiment. ## Method & evidence bar - The central claim is a **mechanism** connecting processing, microstructure, and property — supported by quantitative, statistically meaningful characterization, not representative micrographs alone. - Characterization must be appropriate and rigorous: electron microscopy (SEM/TEM/EBSD), diffraction (XRD/neutron), and quantitative stereology with reported sampling; mechanical data with proper statistics and testing conditions. - Modeling, when present, must be validated against experimental data or make tested predictions; a simulation with no experimental anchor is usually insufficient at this venue. - Property improvements must be explained mechanistically and compared to the right baseline material/process, not to a strawman. - Reproducibility: report composition, processing parameters, and testing protocol in enough detail to reproduce the microstructure and the measurement. ## Structure & house style - Standard research-article structure (introduction, materials/methods, results, discussion); Acta Materialia publishes full-length archival articles — route short, urgent results elsewhere and re-check current article types on the live guide. - The introduction motivates the materials-science gap (mechanism, not application novelty); the discussion is where the processing–structure–property argument is made explicit. - Figures are load-bearing: micrographs with scale bars and quantitative analysis, property plots with error bars, and schematics of the proposed mechanism. - Supplementary material carries extended characterization and full processing details; main-text figures must support the central mechanism on their own. ## Official-submission checklist - Before giving submission-ready advice, read `../../resources/source-basis.md` and `../../resources/official-source-map.md`; start from the Elsevier anchors, then cite the current Acta Materialia Guide for Authors page you checked. - Search the live site for "Acta Materialia guide for authors" and follow the current Elsevier/Editorial Manager version. - Re-check article types, length/figure expectations, and the data-availability and raw-data (e.g., microscopy/diffraction data) policy. - Confirm graphical-abstract and highlights requirements if applicable. - Re-check competing-interests, funding, author-contribution (CRediT), and AI-use disclosure requirements. - If the live official instructions conflict with this skill, the official instructions win. ## Pre-submission self-check - [ ] The contribution is a processing–structure–property mechanism, not just a new material with a better number. - [ ] Characterization is quantitative and statistically representative (sampling reported), not single cherry-picked images. - [ ] Property claims are benchmarked against the correct baseline and explained mechanistically. - [ ] Any model is validated against experiment or makes a tested prediction. - [ ] Processing, composition, and testing protocols are reported in reproducible detail. - [ ] The article type and length fit Acta's archival (not rapid-communication) format. ## Common desk-reject triggers - "New alloy / new process, slightly better property" with no mechanistic explanation. - Characterization by representative micrographs only, with no quantification or sampling. - Simulation-only studies with no experimental validation or testable prediction. - Application-driven device papers where the materials-science mechanism is incidental. - Better framed as a rapid communication (single incremental result) or as a functional-materials/device advance. ## Re-routing decision - Short, urgent single result → Scripta Materialia (rapid communications). - Conceptual functional-materials or device advance → `advanced-materials` / `nature-materials`. - Additive-manufacturing process focus over metallurgy → `additive-manufacturing`. - Polymer/structural composite emphasis → `composites-part-b-engineering`. - Plasticity theory/constitutive modeling as the core → `international-journal-of-plasticity` / `journal-of-the-mechanics-and-physics-of-solids`. ## Output format ```text [Fit] High / Medium / Low (one-line reason) [Target] Acta Materialia [Topic tags] <2–3 closest materials subtopics> [Mechanism] [Method/evidence] [Top risk] [Official items to re-check]
[Re-route suggestion] ```