The Journal of The Electrochemical Society Focus Issue on Lithium-Sulfur Batteries: Materials, Mechanisms, Modeling, and Applications is now complete, with 18 open access papers published in the ECS Digital Library.

“Lithium sulfur batteries are in the focus of research at many hundreds of prominent research groups throughout the world and at several industrial firms as well,” says JES Technical Editor Doron Aurbach in the issue’s preface. “These batteries are highly attractive due to their theoretical high energy density, that may be 4–5 times higher compared to that of Li-ion batteries.”

The focus issue includes invited papers and selected papers from the 2017 Li-SM³ Conference.

“The important technical challenges of Li-S batteries are dealt with in the papers of this focus issue, including development of new sulfur cathodes, protected Li anodes, new electrolyte systems including solid state electrolytes, study of degradation mechanisms, in-situ spectroscopic efforts, surface and structural aspects,” Aurbach continues. “This focus issue of JES is indeed a very suitable epilogue for a very successful and fruitful meeting on a very “hot” topic in modern electrochemistry in general and advanced batteries in particular.”

Read the full JES Focus Issues on Lithium-Sulfur Batteries: Materials, Mechanisms, Modeling, and Applications.

ECS Transactions (ECST), the Society’s official meeting proceedings publication, will be undergoing some exciting changes over the course of 2018.

At the start of 2018, ECS debuted the newly redesigned cover of ECST. The refreshed design is streamlined and modern, prominently branded with the Society’s colors, green and blue. Adding to ECST’s improved look and feel, all hard copy (CD or USB) editions of ECST purchased from the upcoming 233rd ECS Meeting in Seattle, WA, will feature brand-new premium hardboard packaging.

Also beginning with the Seattle meeting, ECST will no longer be available in a CD/USB combo pack. Instead, those who are interested in purchasing a hard copy edition will be able to purchase either the CD or USB edition. ECST issues will continue to be made available for sale in PDF format through the ECS Online Store. This small change has been made in order to reduce waste, while ensuring that attendees will still be able to purchase ECST issues in their preferred format.

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Charles L. Hussey is Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Mississippi and professor of chemistry. He is a fellow of ECS and a recipient of the Society’s Max Bredig Award in Molten Salt and Ionic Liquid Chemistry. His scientific research with molten salts/ionic liquids has been directed at the electrochemistry and spectroscopy of d- and f-block elements, the electrodeposition of aluminum and corrosion-resistant aluminum-transition metal alloys, the electrodissolution of metals and alloys, and the electrochemical processing of spent nuclear fuel. Hussey was recently reappointed as technical editor of the Journal of The Electrochemical Society in the area of electrochemical/electroless deposition.

The Electrochemial Society: What has your experiences as a JES editor been like?

Charles Hussey: I was appointed as an associate editor in 2000 and continued in that role until 2011. As an associate editor, I handled manuscripts on all topics for JES and Electrochemical and Solid-State Letters. Handling a variety of topical manuscripts for JES and ESL was the job that needed to be done, and it was a very challenging and sometimes uncomfortable assignment, but also highly educational.

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Submission Deadline: February 14, 2018

The ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology (JSS) Focus Issue on Semiconductor-Based Sensors for Application to Vapors, Chemicals, Biological Species, and Medical Diagnosis is currently accepting manuscripts.

This JSS focus issue aims to cover various active or passive semiconductor devices for gas, chemical, bio and medical detection, with the focus on silicon, GaN, dichalcogenides/oxides, graphene, and other semiconductor materials for electronic or photonic devices. The scope of contributed articles includes materials preparation, growth, processing, devices, chemistry, physics, theory, and applications for the semiconductor sensors. Different methodologies, principles, designs, models, fabrication techniques, and characterization are all included. Integrated systems combine semiconductor sensors, electric circuit, microfluidic channels, display, and control unit for real applications such as disease diagnostic or environmental monitoring are also welcome.

Topics of interest include, but not limited, to the following:

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Two new volumes of ECS Transactions (ECST) have just been published.

ECS Transactions 82-1, “Electrophoretic Deposition VI,” contains 15 papers based on research presented at the 6th International Conference on Electrophoretic Deposition: Fundamentals and Applications, which was held October 1-6, 2017, in Gyeongju, South Korea.

ECS Transactions 83-1, “Fuel Cell Seminar & Energy Exposition 2017,” contains 22 papers originally presented at the 2017 Fuel Cell Seminar & Energy Exposition (FCS&EE), held in Long Beach, California, November 7-9, 2017.

Both volumes are now available for purchase as an instant PDF download through the ECS Online Store (82-1 | 83-1). To browse the full table of contents, or purchase individual articles, please visit the ECS Digital Library.

Image: CC0 Public Domain

South Korean universities have successfully negotiated a better pricing deal from publishing giant Elsevier, according to a report from Science Magazine. This deal comes after a standoff between the consortium of hundreds of institutions and the publisher, where database access contracts were refused due to exorbitant price increases.

Earlier this month as Elsevier threated to cut access to ScienceDirect, a database containing content from over 3,500 academic journals, the two parties came to an agreement of a subscription price hike of between 3.5 and 3.9 percent, instead of the initial 4.5 percent as pushed by Elsevier.

“We want Elsevier to abolish the minimum flat rate system, in which our universities have to pay for digital content that nobody reads,” Lee Chang Won, secretary general of the Korea University & College Library Association, told Science Magazine.

South Korea’s pushback against Elsevier follows the trend of many similar efforts still underway in Germany, including Projekt DEAL. While over 200 German institutions have already canceled their Elsevier subscriptions in protest of skyrocketing prices, the publisher has still not terminated access, looking to continue negations.

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Peter Mascher is a professor in the Department of Engineering Physics and holds the William Sinclair Chair in Optoelectronics at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. There, he leads a research group specializing in the fabrication and characterization of nanostructures. Mascher was recently named technical editor of the ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology (JSS) in the area of dielectric science and materials.

The Electrochemical Society: What made you want to take on an ECS editorial role?

Peter Mascher: I’ve been a member of the ECS Dielectric Science and Technology Division for many years and we’ve had many discussion on how to raise the quality of submissions to JSS and by extension, the quality of the journal overall. At some point in time, when the opportunity arises, one should try to make a contribution rather than just discussing it. I think there are avenues toward increasing the profile of the journal and I hope I can make a contribution there.

ECS: What do you hope to accomplish in your new role as JSS technical editor?

PM: I would like my colleagues who contribute to the ECS meetings in the various symposia to be much more aware of the journal and the opportunity to publish in JSS, which will help increase the overall quality. There should be a strong connection between the excellent presentations that are given at the various symposia at ECS meetings and the manuscripts that are being submitted to the journal.

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To date, the ECS Digital Library contains over 40 completed focus issues across the Journal of The Electrochemical Society and the ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology.

All of these issues, devised to highlight rapidly accelerating areas of scientific and technological interest, continue to attract significant attention from ECS’s readership.

During 2017, the average ECS focus issue received 12,495 full text downloads.

One particular focus issue of 2017, however, proved no average issue, acquiring nearly 9.5 times that amount.

The JES Focus Issue of Selected Papers from IMLB 2016 with Invited Papers Celebrating 25 Years of Lithium Ion Batteries amassed a whopping 119,465 full text downloads over the course of 2017, securing its place not only as the most read focus issue of the year, but also as the most read focus issue in ECS history.

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The ECS Transactions (ECST) enhanced issues for the 233rd ECS Meeting in Seattle, WA, have just opened to submissions.

The following Seattle symposia will be publishing enhanced issues of ECST:

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On January 1, 2018, ECS eliminated all charges for color figures published in the Journal of The Electrochemical Society (JES) and the ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology (JSS).

Figures may now be represented in color at no cost to authors in print-on-demand issues of JES and JSS.

Please note: ECS no longer offers print subscriptions to volumes of JES or JSS. Print editions of individual issues within each volume are only available as print-on-demand copies.

To have your figures represented in color in a print-on-demand issue, you must indicate that you wish to have color figures in the issue on the financial information page of your submission form.

If you do not select this option, your color figures will be converted to black and white or grayscale in the print-on-demand issue.

ECS’s decision to eliminate color charges aligns closely with the Society’s continual efforts to Free the Science, removing the barriers impeding authors from publishing their research in the formats they believe to be the most accessible and impactful. Submit today!