Fastest-accepting materials science journals 2026

42 materials science journals ranked by the median number of days from submission to acceptance, measured from the dates publishers deposit in PubMed for articles published 2024–2025. The interval includes peer review and revisions.

Journals: 42
Typical median: 91 d
Under 60 days: 4
Over 180 days: 2

Read this before using the ranking

Accepted papers only. Rejected manuscripts never receive an acceptance date, so these figures say nothing about desk-rejection speed, rejection rates or your chance of acceptance.
Not the time to a first decision. The interval runs from the “received” date to the “accepted” date the publisher deposits in PubMed. It includes editorial handling, peer review, every round of revision and the time authors spent revising.
Journals record dates differently. Some reset the received date when a revised manuscript arrives, and manuscripts transferred from another journal may keep or lose their earlier dates. Short medians are therefore not always comparable with long ones.
Past timelines are not a promise. Each figure comes from up to 100 recent articles published 2024–2025. Article types, special issues, editors and workload all change, and your paper may take much longer or much less time.
Fast is not the same as good. Check the journal’s scope, indexing, peer-review policy and editorial board before submitting. An unusually quick acceptance can be a warning sign of light peer review.

Journal Metrics is independent and is not affiliated with any journal or publisher listed. The figures are for information only, may contain errors and change as PubMed records are updated. Confirm current timelines on the journal’s own website. See how to spot predatory journals.

Materials Science journals by median days from submission to acceptance

Materials Science journals ranked by median days from submission to acceptance in PubMed
Rank	Journal	Median days	Middle half	Articles	Quartile	2026 score
1	Polymers	28†	23–41	100	Q1	6.9
2	Nanomaterials	29†	21–37	100	Q1	6.1
3	RSC Advances	57	40–83	100	Q1	6.8
3	Polymer Chemistry	57	29–91	24	Q2	3.3
5	ACS Polymers Au	62	50–78	100	Q1	4.3
6	ACS Applied Optical Materials	63	51–77	44	Q2	3.2
7	MACROMOLECULAR RAPID COMMUNICATIONS	66	50–86	82	Q1	4.0
8	ACS Nanoscience Au	70	51–87	100	Q1	2.9
8	Journal of Physical Chemistry C	70	50–93	99	Q2	3.7
8	Research	70	49–96	100	Q1	8.9
11	ACS Applied Electronic Materials	75	57–92	97	Q1	4.7
11	Journal of Materials Chemistry C	75	51–92	57	Q1	4.8
13	ACS Applied Polymer Materials	78	64–96	97	Q1	5.0
13	CRYSTAL GROWTH & DESIGN	78	54–123	100	Q1	3.8
15	SPECTROCHIMICA ACTA PART A-MOLECULAR AND BIOMOLECULAR SPECTROSCOPY	81	54–105	100	Q1	4.9
16	Acta Crystallographica Section B-Structural Science Crystal Engineering and Materials	83	52–133	57	Q2	2.7
17	COLLOIDS AND SURFACES B-BIOINTERFACES	88	62–119	100	Q1	5.1
18	ACS Engineering Au	91	59–110	29	Q1	4.4
18	Carbohydrate Polymers	91	63–119	99	Q1	12.0
18	Nanoscale Advances	91	71–120	100	Q1	6.7
18	MACROMOLECULAR BIOSCIENCE	91	60–121	57	Q2	3.3
22	NANOTECHNOLOGY	92	71–116	90	Q2	3.2
22	CHEMISTRY OF MATERIALS	92	70–118	98	Q1	6.3
24	IUCrJ	95	56–147	94	Q1	3.6
25	CURRENT PHARMACEUTICAL BIOTECHNOLOGY	96	66–114	100	Q2	2.6
25	Nanotechnology Science and Applications	96	82–134	55	Q1	6.4
27	npj Materials Degradation	98	76–128	23	Q1	6.7
27	JOURNAL OF STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY	98	70–148	97	Q2	2.6
29	MACROMOLECULES	100	69–137	97	Q1	5.7
30	EUROPEAN PHYSICAL JOURNAL E	103	71–128	100	Q2	2.2
31	LUMINESCENCE	105	75–144	100	Q2	2.8
32	JOURNAL OF NANOBIOTECHNOLOGY	106	77–143	100	Q1	12.4
33	Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology	112	87–139	100	Q1	3.8
34	Acta Crystallographica A-Foundation and Advances	116	76–145	86	Q4	0.1
34	ADVANCES IN COLLOID AND INTERFACE SCIENCE	116	78–173	78	Q1	20.2
36	International Journal of Biological Macromolecules	124	95–174	100	Q1	8.5
37	Methods and Applications in Fluorescence	127	91–158	40	Q3	1.7
38	Discover Nano	131	103–166	100	Q1	6.5
39	npj Computational Materials	146	98–201	55	Q1	9.7
40	IET Nanobiotechnology	154	130–247	26	Q2	3.9
41	Exploration	185	147–245	100	Q1	13.6
42	NATURE MATERIALS	300	196–439	78	Q1	22.2

Median days: half of the journal’s accepted articles took less time from submission to acceptance and half took more. Middle half: the 25th to 75th percentile. Articles: how many recent PubMed articles had both dates. Journals with the same rounded median share a rank.

Median under 30 days. Very short intervals usually reflect how a journal records its dates (for example a new received date after revision) or invited and fast-track article types such as reviews and editorials, not unusually quick peer review. Check the journal’s peer-review policy before reading anything into them.

Questions about materials science journal acceptance times

Which materials science journals accept papers fastest?

Among the 42 materials science journals with enough PubMed dates, the shortest median times from submission to acceptance (leaving out medians under 30 days, which usually reflect how dates are recorded) are RSC Advances (57 days), Polymer Chemistry (57 days), ACS Polymers Au (62 days), ACS Applied Optical Materials (63 days), MACROMOLECULAR RAPID COMMUNICATIONS (66 days). These medians include peer review and revisions, and cover accepted papers only.

How long does a materials science journal take to accept a paper?

The typical materials science journal on this page has a median of 91 days from submission to acceptance. 4 of 42 journals have a median under 60 days and 2 take more than 180 days.

Is this the peer review time?

No. PubMed records when a manuscript was received and when it was accepted, not the individual review stages. The interval includes editorial handling, peer review, revisions and the time authors spent revising, so it is longer than the time to a first decision. For first-decision times, check the journal’s own website.

Does a fast journal mean my paper is more likely to be accepted?

No. Only accepted papers have an acceptance date, so this ranking says nothing about acceptance rates or how quickly a journal rejects papers. A very fast acceptance can also be a sign of light peer review. Check the journal’s scope, indexing and peer-review policy before submitting.

About this data

Source: the received and accepted dates publishers deposit in PubMed, read through the public NCBI E-utilities for articles published 2024-01-01 to 2025-12-31, up to 100 recent articles per journal. Data checked 2026-11-03.
A journal is ranked only when at least 20 articles have both dates and at least half of the articles checked have them. Journals that do not deposit dates in PubMed, including most journals outside the life sciences, cannot be ranked here.
The ranking uses each journal’s median: half of its accepted articles took less time and half took more. The middle-half range shows the 25th to 75th percentile.
Fields come from the OpenAlex classification of each journal’s research topics. A journal joins a field when at least two of its four main topics are in it, so a journal can appear in more than one field and some classifications are imperfect.
Quartile and score are the journal’s best OpenAlex subfield quartile and its Journal Metrics Score, shown for context; they play no part in the order.

The full journal-level dataset is in the journal acceptance times study (with a CSV download). Spot an error or a journal whose dates look wrong? Tell us.

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