Rochester, NY, November 26, 2018 – Elsevier, the global information analytics business focused on open science initiatives, announces that SSRN, its world leading early stage research platform, today launches the Materials Science Research Network – MatSciRN. MatSciRN is an open platform where materials science researchers can freely post and freely download research. It hosts early stage research, including idea and working papers, conference proceedings, and preprints, from researchers around the world. We are pleased to announce that Acta Materialia, Inc., an international consortium of materials science societies and organizations, is sponsoring this new, open materials science research sharing space.

“As a nonprofit seeking to support the entire broad materials research community, Acta Materialia Inc. is delighted to be partnering to launch MatSciRN, a new platform that will help the community rapidly disseminate new knowledge and proliferate discussion about materials science and engineering,” says Prof. Christopher A. Schuh, Department Head of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT and Coordinating Editor of the Acta Materialia family of journals. In addition to sponsoring the network, four of their leading materials science journals, Acta Materialia, Acta Biomaterialia, Scripta Materialia, and Materialia, are freely sharing preprints as part of SSRN’s First Look program. The aim behind the Acta Materialia, Inc. First Looks is to:

• provide a venue for Acta Materialia, Inc. journals’ authors to host preprints of their work;
• allow authors to showcase their research results prior to review and publication, and speed up the dissemination process;
• provide readers with an insight into groundbreaking work before it has been published as well as post comments on the work.

Gregg Gordon, SSRN Managing Director and Elsevier SVP Content Lifecycle, said “The Acta Materialia sponsorship of SSRN’s MatSciRN creates a community for researchers working in materials science. It is a place for everyone to freely discover research in material science and the overlapping areas of chemistry, engineering, and biomedical research.” He added “Chris and Shirley have worked hard to build this network and provide the opportunity for interdisciplinary exchanges amongst researchers at an early stage. We believe these exchanges are an important part of the research lifecycle.”

Shirley Decker-Lucke, SSRN Content Director, said “The opportunity to create First Looks with the prestigious Acta Materialia adds to the momentum of the research dialogue in this important and growing discipline. I am excited by these first four journals and look forward to adding others to the MatSciRN First Look program. They will significantly help speed up the dissemination of materials science research.”