Journal profile · Materials Science, Characterization & Testing
POLYMERS & POLYMER COMPOSITES
ISSN 0967-3911 · eISSN 1478-2391 · SAGE Publications · ENGLAND · Monthly · Founded 1993
POLYMERS & POLYMER COMPOSITES: CAS Zone 4 · Materials Science (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 2.29; fully open access; APC about USD 2,000; review about 7 months (community reports); community-reported acceptance: easy; 34 articles in 2025; indexed in SCIE and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
POLYMERS & POLYMER COMPOSITES is published by SAGE Publications and is in Zone 4 of Materials Science in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Polymer Nanocomposites and Properties, Mechanical Behavior of Composites and Natural Fiber Reinforced Composites, together about 31.2% of its articles. Its main subfields are Polymers and Plastics. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Since its inception in 1993, Polymers & Polymer Composites has provided an ongoing forum for the publication of expertly peer reviewed, international research into the following topics:- Fibre reinforced and particulate filled plastics- Engineering plastics, (whether reinforced or not)- Nanocomposites- Polymers or polyblends intended for engineering use (including structural, load bearing electronic and electrical applications)- Structural adhesives- Textile & wood fibres- Biomaterials with a load bearing capacity, (including polymer based dental materials)The open access journal is rigorous in accepting papers solely on the basis of novelty and a thorough interpretation of results. Furthermore, in such a fast-moving field, prompt publication is essential, thus we aim to offer improved and rapid access to new research, developed at the leading edge of industry and academia.The journal flipped to Open Access in 2022, all archived material is fully available to read online, all rights reserved.Open access article processing charge (APC) informationPublication in the journal is subject to payment of an article processing charge (APC). The APC serves to support the journal and ensures that articles are freely accessible online in perpetuity under a Creative Commons licences.The APC for this journal is currently $2400.The APC is payable when a manuscript is accepted after peer review, before it is published. The APC is subject to taxes where applicable. Please see further details here.Submit your manuscript today at https://sage-rex.scienceconnect.io/login.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Materials Science, Characterization & Testing
Editor-in-chief P FootPublisher website
Editorial board by country: 3 in mainland China (about 5%); most named India 13, United States 7, Malaysia 6, United Kingdom 5, Mainland China 3 (57 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Polymer Nanocomposites and PropertiesMaterials Science12.2%
- Mechanical Behavior of CompositesEngineering10.4%
- Natural Fiber Reinforced CompositesMaterials Science8.7%
- Polymer crystallization and propertiesMaterials Science8.5%
- Epoxy Resin Curing ProcessesEngineering6.7%
- biodegradable polymer synthesis and propertiesMaterials Science5.8%
- Fiber-reinforced polymer compositesEngineering4.7%
- Tribology and Wear AnalysisEngineering4%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Materials Science Zone 4
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Materials Science | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Materials Science, Characterization & Testing | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Materials Science, Composites | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Polymer Science | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Materials Science Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Materials Science | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Materials Science, Characterization & Testing | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Materials Science, Composites | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Polymer Science | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Materials Science Zone 4
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Materials Science | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Materials Science, Characterization & Testing | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Materials Science, Composites | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Polymer Science | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
Database indexing
SCIEScopusDOAJLetPub
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.
Metrics
Impact metrics and publication volume
Impact
- Impact factor
- 2.29LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher)
- 2.3Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher)
- 3.1Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 6.9LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.48LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 0.84LetPub ·
- h-index
- 26LetPub ·
- h-index
- 50OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 787OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 1.9OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 0%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 99.15%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 31LetPub ·
- Articles per year (publisher)
- 3Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 3,198 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 46 | 46 | 11 |
| 2025 | 34 | 34 | 63 |
| 2024 | 35 | 35 | 145 |
| 2023 | 52 | 52 | 258 |
| 2022 | 151 | 151 | 1,717 |
| 2021 | 150 | 37 | 1,636 |
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.
Review & acceptance
Review time and acceptance
- Average review time (community reports)
- about 7 monthsLetPub ·
- Average acceptance (community reports)
- EasyLetPub ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher)
- 40.1%Publisher website ·
- Submission to first decision
- 7 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication
- 21 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 18 weeksDOAJ ·
- Peer review
- Double anonymous peer reviewDOAJ
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.
Fees & open access
APC and open-access policy
Fully open accessDOAJ
Every article is open access; authors usually pay an article processing charge (APC).
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOAJ | USD 2,000 | Yes | CC BY, CC BY-NC | |
| OpenAlex | USD 2,000 | — | — | |
| Publisher website | USD 2,400 | — | — |
Other charges and waivers (author guidelines)
- Submission fee
- No submission fee
The journal's website is authoritative for fees; sources were observed at different times and each keeps its own value, without averaging.
Submission
Article types and submission policies (journal website)
What to prepare3 items from the author guidelines
- Manuscript length
- ≤ 5,000 words
- Reference style
- Vancouver
- Suggested reviewers
- Optional
Article types accepted11, with length limits
- brief communicationOriginal Research Article: Research Articles should present novel work within the scope of the journal which represents an important advancement in knowledge or…Length not stated
- editorialOriginal Research Article: Research Articles should present novel work within the scope of the journal which represents an important advancement in knowledge or…Length not stated
- letter to the editorOriginal Research Article: Research Articles should present novel work within the scope of the journal which represents an important advancement in knowledge or…Length not stated
- letters to the editorOriginal Research Article: Research Articles should present novel work within the scope of the journal which represents an important advancement in knowledge or…Length not stated
- opinionOriginal Research Article: Research Articles should present novel work within the scope of the journal which represents an important advancement in knowledge or…Length not stated
- original research articleOriginal Research Article: Research Articles should present novel work within the scope of the journal which represents an important advancement in knowledge or…main text ≤ 5,000 words
- perspectiveOriginal Research Article: Research Articles should present novel work within the scope of the journal which represents an important advancement in knowledge or…Length not stated
- research articleOriginal Research Article: Research Articles should present novel work within the scope of the journal which represents an important advancement in knowledge or…Length not stated
- reviewOriginal Research Article: Research Articles should present novel work within the scope of the journal which represents an important advancement in knowledge or…Length not stated
- short communicationOriginal Research Article: Research Articles should present novel work within the scope of the journal which represents an important advancement in knowledge or…Length not stated
- viewpointOriginal Research Article: Research Articles should present novel work within the scope of the journal which represents an important advancement in knowledge or…Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAuthorship, Data availability, Publication ethics, Open access, Peer review, Plagiarism, Preprints
- Authorship Author contributions
You will be asked to list the contribution of each author as part of the submission process. Please include the Author Contributions heading within your submission after the Acknowledgements section. The information you give on submission will then show under the Author Contributions heading later at the proofing stage.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Data availability Data availability
The Journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages. Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to: Share your research data in a relevant public data repository Include a data ava…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Publication ethics Ethical considerations
Please include your ethics approval statements under this heading, even if you have already included ethics approval information in your methods section. If ethical approval was not required, you need to explicitly state this. All papers reporting studies involving human participants, human data or human tissue must state that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board approved th…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Publishing fees and open access
Online-only journal Model summary
Polymers and Polymer Composites is an open access, peer-reviewed journal. All accepted articles are made freely available online immediately upon publication, are published under a Creative Commons license, and hosted online in perpetuity. If, after peer review, your manuscript is accepted for publication, a one-time article processing charge (APC) is payable to cover the cost of publishing, paid …
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer review policy
Double anonymized peer review Model summary
The following summary describes the peer review process for this journal: Identity transparency: Double-anonymized Reviewer interacts with: Editor Review information published: None Your manuscript will undergo an initial evaluation. If it does not conform to the requirements laid out in these guidelines, it will be returned to you for amendments prior to peer review. Manuscripts may be desk rejec…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Plagiarism Plagiarism
The journal and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. Please read Sage's complete policy on plagiarism and the actions we may take.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Preprints Preprints
The journal will consider submissions of manuscripts that have been posted on preprint servers. Please enter the preprint DOI in the designated field when submitting your manuscript. We advise that you inform the Journal Editorial office about your posted preprint at submission. Note that you should not post an updated version of your manuscript on a preprint server while it is being peer reviewed…
Source ↗Publisher website ·
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.
Profile
Publication details and official links
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Country or region
- ENGLAND
- Language
- English
- Frequency
- Monthly
- Founded
- 1993
- ISSN
- 0967-3911
- Electronic ISSN
- 1478-2391
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗DOAJ
- Submission system ↗LetPub
- Author guidelines ↗DOAJ
- Aims & Scope ↗DOAJ
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
- APC information ↗DOAJ
- Fee waivers ↗DOAJ
- Open access statement ↗DOAJ
- License & copyright ↗DOAJ
- Peer review process ↗DOAJ
- Editorial board ↗DOAJ
- Plagiarism policy ↗DOAJ
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about POLYMERS & POLYMER COMPOSITES
What CAS zone is POLYMERS & POLYMER COMPOSITES in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, POLYMERS & POLYMER COMPOSITES is in Zone 4 of Materials Science, and in Zone 4 of the minor category Materials Science, Characterization & Testing / Materials Science, Composites / Polymer Science. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 3 of Materials Science. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of POLYMERS & POLYMER COMPOSITES?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 2.29; CiteScore 6.9, h-index 50.
How long does peer review take at POLYMERS & POLYMER COMPOSITES?
Authors report an average review time of about 7 months; the community-reported acceptance is “Easy”; the journal's website gives an acceptance rate of 40.1%. Article statistics cover accepted papers only, publisher figures follow the journal's own definitions, and community reports come from authors' own submissions; none is a promise from the journal.
What are the manuscript requirements of POLYMERS & POLYMER COMPOSITES?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Manuscript length: ≤ 5,000 words; Reference style: Vancouver; Suggested reviewers: Optional. A model extracted these from the author guidelines and each was checked against the text; check the latest version on the journal's website before submitting.
Where are the editorial board members of POLYMERS & POLYMER COMPOSITES based?
Of the 57 board members whose country the journal's board page names, 3 (about 5%) are in mainland China; the countries named most often are India (13), United States (7) and Malaysia (6). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index POLYMERS & POLYMER COMPOSITES?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, POLYMERS & POLYMER COMPOSITES is indexed in SCIE, Scopus and DOAJ.
Is POLYMERS & POLYMER COMPOSITES open access, and what is the APC?
POLYMERS & POLYMER COMPOSITES is a fully open-access journal. APC about USD 2,000.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, Publisher website, OpenAlex, DOAJ; every figure is tagged with its source and the date it was observed, and conflicting values are kept per source. LetPub source page: view ↗ (archived 2026-08-25). Last updated: .