Commentaries and discussion on seminal papers in molecular simulation.


About KIM REVIEW


Aims and Scope

KIM REVIEW publishes commentaries on important articles related to classical molecular simulations of hard and soft matter materials. The objectives are to inform practitioners in the field of key contributions, both new developments and foundational work, that they should be aware of, and to provide a forum for community discussion of such innovations.

  • The commentary provides the opinion of the author(s) on the featured article (or set of articles on a related topic), its importance, the impact it has made on the field, and potential new directions that it opens. It is intended to spark a discussion through a thread that accompanies each commentary on the KIM REVIEW discussion forum.
  • Commentaries are invited for papers perceived to be important to the field and are therefore generally positive in tone. Critical commentaries are allowed, but are required to maintain the civil tone of scientific discourse. The same applies to the accompanying community discussion.
  • Commentaries are by invitation only, but KIM REVIEW welcomes suggestions from the research community on which articles to feature with a commentary and suggestions for commentary authors.

The scope of KIM REVIEW broadly covers all aspects of classical molecular simulation. Articles selected to be featured with a commentary involve key developments in molecular simulation methods and breakthrough science performed using such methods. These can be recent developments of interest to the molecular simulation community, or ‘classics’ — seminal papers that have made important lasting contributions to the field. Specific topics include, but are not limited to, important advances in the following areas:

  • Atomistic techniques and algorithms (e.g. molecular dynamics, Monte Carlo, lattice dynamics)
  • Multiscale methods (e.g. coarse graining, partitioned-domain methods, hierarchical multiscale, temporal acceleration)
  • Interatomic model development (e.g. interatomic potentials and force fields, machine learning techniques, training methods)
  • Computing innovations related to the field (e.g. optimization, hardware acceleration, heterogeneous computing, automatic differentiation, uncertainty quantification).
  • Applications of molecular simulation that have led to significant technological breakthroughs or scientific discoveries that constitute “success stories” in the field.

Editorial Process and Commentary Author Guidelines

KIM REVIEW is led by two Co-Editors who together select the articles to be featured and invite commentary authors. The Co-Editors are advised by an Editorial Board broadly representing the field of molecular simulation. The Editorial Board also recommends papers to be featured and suggest appropriate commentary authors.

  • Commentaries are reviewed by the KIM REVIEW Co-Editors, and a Copy Editor assists in the creation of the final published article.
  • A Commentary includes a brief "Statement of Significance" (SoS) prepared by the Commentary authors and Co-Editors explaining why the featured article was selected for review to help readers understand the context of the Commentary.
  • There are no formal length restrictions on Commentaries, however a typical Commentary is about 2—3 pages long using a provided template.
  • If a Commentary reproduces content (figures, tables, etc.) that has been previously published, the Commentary authors are required to obtain the necessary permission by contacting the publisher of the original content.

Post Publication

  • Commentaries are accompanied by a community discussion on matsci.org. People participating in the discussion are encouraged to keep their posts brief (200 words or less) in order to keep the discussion focused and succinct.
  • Commentaries are issued a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) to enable citation and remain unchanged after publication. The exception is the correction of minor errors, such as typographical mistakes, subject to the approval of the Co-Editors.
  • KIM REVIEW works with Commentary authors to submit the Commentary to arXiv for wide distribution.
  • Authors can list their Commentaries in their CVs as invited papers that have undergone editorial review.

KIM REVIEW is a KIM Initiative project.