Aims & Scope

Open-access journal publishing high quality, editorially selected and peer reviewed advances in all areas of engineering

Communications Engineering is a selective open access journal from Nature Portfolio publishing high-quality research, reviews and commentary in all areas of engineering.  Research papers published by the journal represent significant advances for a specialized area of research and development.  We also publish Editorials, Research Highlights, Q&A's, and Viewpoints reflecting analysis and opinion from our editorial team and the wider engineering community.   Research papers published by the journal represent significant advances for a specialized area of engineering research.

The scope of the journal covers all areas of engineering including (but not limited to):

  • Civil Engineering
  • Environmental Engineering
  • Marine and Ocean Engineering
  • Chemical Engineering
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Robotics & Cybernetics
  • Nanotechnology and Nanoengineering
  • Electrical & Electronic Engineering
  • Aerospace Engineering
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
  • Materials Engineering & Metallurgy
  • Scientific Tools and Instruments

We are also interested in submissions at the intersection of engineering with other scientific disciplines, such as biology, chemistry and physics, where the central advance of the study is of interest to other engineers.

Communications Engineering is supportive of Springer Nature’s effort to advance progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular SDG6: Clean Water and Sanitation, SDG7: Affordable and Clean Energy, SDG9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, SDG11: Sustainable Cities and Communities & SDG12: Responsible Consumption and Production. We welcome submissions that are relevant to these goals.

The submission and review processes are managed by our in-house professional editors supported by our Editorial Board Members, who provide technical expertise across all engineering disciplines. We are committed to rapid dissemination of important research results. Articles are published on a continuous basis with minimal time from acceptance to publication.

Criteria for publication

To be published in Communications Engineering a paper should meet several general criteria:

In general, to be acceptable, a paper should report new thinking with resulting advance in opportunity, capability or benefit.  Note that we welcome research which translates engineering concepts towards real world application; this includes field studies.  We welcome research contributions from authors working in industry.  Finally, we are interested in publishing applied science: the creation of new knowledge or insight acquired for a specific practical application. We do not publish fundamental research in physics, chemistry, biology or computer science.