Polymer Degradation and Stability

Polymer Degradation and Stability is published by Elsevier Ltd and is in Zone 1 of Chemistry in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition, Top journal). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are biodegradable polymer synthesis and properties, Polymer crystallization and properties and Flame retardant materials and properties, together about 31.8% of its articles. Its main subfields are Polymers and Plastics. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)

Polymer Degradation and Stability publishes articles which enhance and develop our fundamental understanding of degradation reactions, their control or utilization for sustainability purposes including upcycling or recycling, and material performance optimization via polymer design. These are the major goals of practitioners of the many diverse aspects of modern polymer technology. In addition, PDST seeks comprehensive reviews and guiding opinions in this area of research and polymer applications. For high level impact, PDST focuses on the underlying polymer science and mechanistic understanding as the origin for material ageing, controlled depolymerization (or upcycling opportunities), and how to accomplish maximum performance or improved material lifetime predictions. Favored work for PDST should explain the correlation between the chemical structure and the resulting properties of polymers, paying particular attention to the chemical pathways that describe the decomposition phenomena, result in material weakness, or can be exploited to increase performance and/or reuse. Please note that PDST is not the journal of choice for material testing, screening studies of comparative performance evaluations, or the simple reporting of thermal decomposition observations.Deteriorative reactions occur during processing, when polymers are subjected to heat, oxygen and mechanical stress, and during the useful life of materials when oxygen and sunlight are the most important degradative initiators. In more specialized applications, degradation may be induced by high energy radiation, ozone, atmospheric pollutants, mechanical stress, biological action, hydrolysis and other influences including combined detrimental environments. The mechanisms of these reactions and stabilization processes must be understood if the technology and application of polymers are to continue to advance. Detailed investigations and in-depth novelty of this kind are therefore a major purpose of the PDST journal.In addition, there are also new developments in polymer technology in which degradation processes are positive for applications. For example, photodegradable plastics are now available, the recycling and upcycling of polymeric products will become increasingly important, degradation and combustion studies are involved in the definition of fire hazards associated with polymeric materials and the microelectronics industry is vitally dependent upon polymer degradation in the manufacture of its circuitry. Another growing area are biobased polymers and how they compare with traditional materials in their degradation features. Polymer properties may also be improved by processes like curing and grafting, the chemistry of which can be closely related to that which causes physical deterioration in other circumstances. Further, the field of network polymers (thermosets) including bond exchange vitrimers or self-healing materials have often intriguing aspects of polymer degradation science embedded in their features. Radiation of various kinds is used to initiate many of these modern technological processes meaning that polymer photochemistry has gained new relevance, and therefore also finds a major place in this journal.The study of all these processes makes extensive use of modern instrumental analytical methods and the various spectrometric, chromatographic, thermal analysis, degradation rate and performance monitoring techniques have been particularly prominent. With the current advances in DFT and molecular modeling, leading all the way to macroscopic 'models' focused on kinetics or spatial dependency, ideally any efforts that consider PDST as a publication medium will clearly demonstrate the outstanding mechanistic questions and how modeling can assist to resolve these. The benefit of modeling should be shown through a clear connection to novelty in degradation pathways or explanations for complex mechanisms and should ultimately close the loop with guidance for

From the journal's Aims & Scope

Research area (LetPub): Polymer Science

Editor-in-chief Rui YangPublisher website

Editorial board by country: 14 in mainland China (about 22%); most named Mainland China 14, France 11, Italy 10, Japan 7, United States 6 (63 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website · 2026-10-01

CAS Journal Ranking

Database indexing

SCIEScopusLetPub

International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub

Editions, and major and minor categories, are shown separately and never merged into one zone; check which edition your institution uses before you submit or report.

Impact

Impact factor

8.07LetPub · 2026-09-13

Impact factor (publisher)

8.1Publisher website · 2026-10-01

CiteScore 2026-06

11.8LetPub · 2026-09-13

CiteScore (publisher)

11.8Publisher website · 2026-10-01

SJR 2026-06

1.25LetPub · 2026-09-13

SNIP 2026-06

1.59LetPub · 2026-09-13

h-index

139LetPub · 2026-09-13

h-index

224OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

i10-index

8,732OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

2-year mean citedness

7.99OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

Self-citation rate

12.3%LetPub · 2026-09-13

Share of gold OA articles

19.32%LetPub · 2026-09-13

Volume

Articles per year

593LetPub · 2026-09-13

Sources count differently and were observed at different times, so each source's own value is kept; "publisher" marks figures from the journal's website.

Figures by source

Average review time (community reports)

about 1.9 monthsLetPub · 2026-09-13

Average acceptance (community reports)

71%LetPub · 2026-09-13

Submission to first decision

3 daysPublisher website · 2026-10-01

First decision after review

22 daysPublisher website · 2026-10-01

Submission to acceptance

57 daysPublisher website · 2026-10-01

Acceptance to publication

1 daysPublisher website · 2026-10-01

Peer review

Single anonymous peer reviewPublisher website

Community reports come from authors' own submissions (confidence 0.5) and are not a promise from the journal; for publisher figures, the journal's own definitions apply.

A hybrid journal charges the APC only when the author chooses open access; publishing under the subscription model is usually free.

The journal's website is authoritative for fees; sources were observed at different times and each keeps its own value, without averaging.

Excerpts are quoted from the journal's website; "model summary" lines are written by Workers AI and checked against the text. The journal's website is authoritative.

Publisher

Elsevier Ltd

Country or region

ENGLAND

Language

English

Frequency

Monthly

Founded

1979

ISSN

0141-3910

Electronic ISSN

1873-2321

Official links

• Journal homepage ↗LetPub
• Submission system ↗Publisher website
• Special issues ↗Publisher website