Aims and Scope

Founded by P.-G. de Gennes.

EPJ E publishes papers describing advances in the understanding of physical aspects of Soft, Liquid and Living Systems.

Soft matter is a generic term for a large group of condensed, often heterogeneous systems -- often also called complex fluids -- that display a large response to weak external perturbations and that possess properties governed by slow internal dynamics.

Flowing matter refers to all systems that can actually flow, from simple to multiphase liquids, from foams to granular matter.

Living matter concerns the new physics that emerges from novel insights into the properties and behaviours of living systems. Furthermore, it aims at developing new concepts and quantitative approaches for the study of biological phenomena. Approaches from soft matter physics and statistical physics play a key role in this research.

The journal includes reports of experimental, computational and theoretical studies and appeals to the broad interdisciplinary communities including physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics and materials science.

Article Categories

Regular Articles
Tips and Tricks
Colloquia
Topical Reviews
Roadmap Articles
Perspective Articles

Tips and Tricks (T&T) are short peer-reviewed papers that focus on a novel methodological approach that facilitates new science. These papers may describe experimental, computational, or theoretical tips and tricks. Although T&T papers maybe shorter (recommended length of 5 pages) than normal research papers, they should still provide enough detail such that the reader can readily implement the ideas presented. The standards of scientific quality and rigour will be the same as a for regular papers (control experiments, clear descriptions, comparison to previous methods, statistical analysis, quantitative evaluation if appropriate, etc.). T&T can be submitted regularly through the online system, but please mention in the cover letter if your submission is a T&T paper.

Colloquia describe the development of new areas of research or the impact of new and promising experimental or theoretical methods in the fields that are within the spectrum of topics covered by the respective journals. While not as extensive and complete as reviews in the usual sense, they are intended to suitably introduce new research directions and techniques in their early stages of development, and to a wider audience. There is no explicit constraint regarding the length of such manuscripts, although 20 printed pages would be the most usual length. All invited/submitted manuscripts will undergo the same refereeing procedure as all other contributions submitted to the journal. For invited colloquium papers, authors will receive a honorarium of EUR 400,-- upon publication. Colloquium papers are generally solicited by the journal editors. Authors wishing to submit a colloquium paper are advised to contact the Editorial Office or the Editors-in-Chief.

Topical Reviews provide a comprehensive and extensive summary of recent research results in a field that is within the spectrum of topics covered by EPJ E and are of current interest to a broader audience. A topical review should aim to summarize the pertinent experimental, theoretical, and computational results obtained by the key research groups working in the field in the past 10 years. Historical reviews of an entire sub-field of physics are discouraged. There is no explicit constraint regarding the length of such manuscripts, although 35 printed pages would be the most usual length. All invited/submitted manuscripts will undergo the same refereeing procedure as all other contributions submitted to the journal. For invited topical review papers, authors will receive a honorarium of EUR 400,-- upon publication. Topical review papers are generally solicited by the journal editors. Authors wishing to submit a topical review paper are advised to contact the Editorial Office or the Editors-in-Chief.

Roadmap Articles are a type of collaborative review papers where a group of authors outlines recent developments and new direction in a specific field. Roadmap papers are structured in multiple sections, each written by different authors. Roadmap authors can send an inquire to the editorial office providing tentative tile, abstract and authors list.

The Perspective Article type denotes a scholarly review and discussion of primary research that does not meet the criteria for a review. This could be because the scope is too narrow, or because the piece is intended to provoke a discussion of a controversial position, speculative hypothesis, or alternative interpretations of existing work.