--- name: composites-part-b-engineering description: Use when targeting Composites Part B: Engineering or deciding whether a composite-materials or composite-structures manuscript fits this venue. Encodes the journal's fit, the composites-science bar spanning materials and structures, characterization and validation rigor, official-submission re-check, and desk-reject heuristics. --- # Composites Part B: Engineering (composites-part-b-engineering) ## Journal positioning Composites Part B: Engineering is a leading archival journal for **composite materials and structures**, with a broad scope spanning mechanics, manufacturing, characterization, multifunctional and bio-based composites, and structural applications. Its center of gravity is a genuine composites-science contribution — an advance in understanding or capability that crosses from material to structure — supported by rigorous experiment and, where relevant, modeling. The breadth is intentional: a strong paper can be about a new composite material, a manufacturing route, a failure mechanism, or a structural concept, provided the composites-specific insight is clear. Papers that report a marginally improved laminate with no mechanism, or a generic mechanics study where the composite is incidental, 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 Composites Part B Guide for Authors. ## When to trigger - The author names Composites Part B for a composite-materials or composite-structures manuscript and wants a fit/framing check. - A paper must be re-framed from "we made a slightly better laminate" into a composites-science mechanism, manufacturing, or structural contribution. - The author is choosing between Composites Part B and a metallurgy, plasticity, or AM-focused venue. - The author needs the journal's composites-rigor bar and desk-reject heuristics. ## Scope & topic fit - Mechanics of composites: damage, delamination, fatigue, impact, and failure of laminated, woven, and 3D composites with a mechanism contribution. - Composite manufacturing and processing: layup, infusion, automated placement, cure, and AM of composites when the process–property link is established. - Characterization and multiscale modeling: micro/meso/macro behavior, interfaces, and validated predictive models of composite response. - Multifunctional composites: structural composites with electrical, thermal, sensing, self-healing, or energy functionality. - Bio-based, recyclable, and sustainable composites: natural-fiber and bio-derived systems with a materials or structural advance. - Composite structures and applications: joints, sandwich and architected structures, and structural concepts where the composite behavior is central. ## Method & evidence bar - The central claim is a **composites-specific advance** — a mechanism, a manufacturing capability, or a structural concept — not a marginal property bump in one laminate. - Characterization must be appropriate and quantitative: mechanical data with proper statistics and test standards, damage/microstructure imaging with sampling, and interface/constituent characterization where relevant. - Models (micromechanics, FE, multiscale) must be validated against experiment and explain the composite behavior, not curve-fit a single dataset. - Property and performance claims must be benchmarked against the correct baseline composite or conventional material, and explained by the governing mechanism. - For multifunctional/sustainable claims, demonstrate the function or sustainability benefit quantitatively, not by assertion. - Reproducibility: report constituents, layup/architecture, processing, and testing protocol in enough detail to reproduce the material and the measurement. ## Structure & house style - Standard full-length research-article structure; Composites Part B publishes archival articles — re-check article types on the live guide. - The introduction motivates the composites gap (mechanism, manufacturing, function), not a generic application; the discussion makes the material-to-structure argument explicit. - Figures are load-bearing: damage and microstructure images with scale bars, mechanical plots with error bars, model-vs-experiment overlays, and schematics of the failure or functional mechanism. - Notation and test methods follow composites-engineering conventions and cite the relevant standards. - Supplementary material carries extended characterization and full processing details; the main-text figures must support the central composites insight 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 Composites Part B Guide for Authors page you checked. - Search the live site for "Composites Part B Engineering guide for authors" and follow the current Elsevier/Editorial Manager version. - Re-check article types, length/figure expectations, and the data-availability policy for characterization and test data. - Confirm highlights, graphical-abstract, and any structured-abstract requirement. - 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 composites-specific advance (mechanism / manufacturing / structure / function), not a marginal laminate improvement. - [ ] Characterization is quantitative and standards-based with reported statistics and sampling. - [ ] Any model is validated against experiment and explains the composite behavior. - [ ] Property/function claims are benchmarked against the correct baseline and mechanistically explained. - [ ] Multifunctional/sustainable claims are demonstrated quantitatively, not asserted. - [ ] The article type and length fit Composites Part B's archival format. ## Common desk-reject triggers - A marginally improved laminate with no mechanism or composites-specific insight. - Characterization by representative images only, with no quantification or test standards. - Models presented without experimental validation or used to fit a single dataset. - Multifunctional or sustainability claims asserted without quantitative demonstration. - Scope mismatch: a generic solid-mechanics, metallurgy, or device paper where the composite is incidental. - Better framed as a fundamental-mechanics, metallurgy, or AM-process contribution. ## Re-routing decision - Fundamental solid-mechanics theory where the composite is incidental → `journal-of-the-mechanics-and-physics-of-solids`. - Constitutive/plasticity modeling as the core → `international-journal-of-plasticity`. - Microstructure-first metallurgy of a metal-matrix system → `acta-materialia`. - AM of composites where the AM process is the focus → `additive-manufacturing`. - Highest-impact conceptual materials advance for a broad audience → `nature-materials`. ## Output format ```text [Fit] High / Medium / Low (one-line reason) [Target] Composites Part B: Engineering [Topic tags] <2–3 closest composites subtopics> [Composites advance] [Method/evidence] [Top risk] [Official items to re-check]
[Re-route suggestion] ```