Semiconductor Science and Technology

About Semiconductor Science and Technology

About Semiconductor Science and Technology

Semiconductor Science and Technology (Semicond. Sci. Technol.) is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by IOP Publishing Ltd., the publishing arm of the Institute of Physics based in the United Kingdom. As IOP describes it, the journal is dedicated to semiconductor research and publishes cutting-edge research on the physical properties of semiconductors and their applications. It has been in continuous publication since 1986 — reaching volume 40 in 2025 — making it one of the longest-running dedicated semiconductor journals in the English-language literature.

The journal's core mission is captured in its official scope statement: it covers applied or explicitly applicable experimental and theoretical studies of the properties of semiconductors and their interfaces, devices, and packaging. This dual emphasis on "science and technology" is deliberate — the journal welcomes fundamental physics of semiconductor materials alongside work whose technological relevance is made explicit, rather than purely device-engineering papers or purely abstract theory. That positioning has made it a natural home for work bridging materials science, condensed-matter physics, and electronic engineering.

The journal's readership spans university physics and electrical-engineering departments, national laboratories, and industrial R&D groups working on semiconductor materials and devices. Because it publishes monthly with a broad but coherent scope, it functions as a reliable barometer of where applied semiconductor research is heading — from epitaxy and defect physics to device integration — and its citation record gives a faithful picture of which subfields are accelerating and which are maturing.

Key facts at a glance

Aims and scope

The journal's coverage spans applied or explicitly applicable experimental and theoretical studies of the properties of semiconductors and their interfaces, devices, and packaging. In practice, submissions are expected to fall within topic areas including electrical properties, optical properties, device design, device fabrication, materials processing, materials and device analysis, process monitoring, and reliability.

This scope deliberately straddles the boundary between physics and engineering. Manuscripts that are purely theoretical with no demonstrated connection to real semiconductor systems, or that are purely engineering reports without scientific insight, tend to be poor fits. The journal's strongest thematic clusters — measured across its published output — are optoelectronics (about 37% of content per one bibliometric analysis), condensed matter physics (about 27%), and analytical chemistry/materials characterization (about 19%). Recurring subfields include transistors (especially field-effect and high-electron-mobility transistors), lasers and quantum cascade lasers, photovoltaics, doping and impurity physics, photoluminescence, thin films, epitaxy, and quantum wells.

Article types

The journal publishes three main article types, each with clearly stated length expectations:

• Research Papers — reports of original research work, normally no more than 8,500 words (about 10 journal pages).
• Rapid Communications — brief, urgent communications of no more than 3,500 words (about 4 journal pages) that require rapid publication. These must be submitted alongside a short letter of justification explaining why the manuscript requires accelerated consideration.
• Topical Reviews — review articles commissioned by the Editorial Board, providing authoritative surveys of fast-moving subfields.

In addition, the journal periodically publishes special issues on emerging themes — for example, a 2015 special issue on printed electronics featuring reviews of printed photodetectors and fully-printed, all-polymer integrated systems. Such commissioned collections are a recurring feature and a good indicator of where the editorial board sees the field heading.

Editorial leadership and history

The current editor-in-chief is Koji Ishibashi of the Advanced Device Laboratory at RIKEN, Japan. His predecessors include Kornelius Nielsch (University of Hamburg) and Laurens Molenkamp (University of Würzburg), both prominent figures in nanostructured semiconductors and quantum transport. The journal's nearly four-decade run under IOP Publishing reflects its steady role as the Institute of Physics's flagship outlet for applied semiconductor work.

Over its history the journal has tracked the major waves of semiconductor technology: the III–V optoelectronics and quantum-well era of the late 1980s and 1990s, the GaN blue-emitter revolution, the rise of nanostructures and quantum dots, organic and printed semiconductors, and more recently terahertz devices, power electronics (GaN FinFETs and trigate devices), and perovskite photovoltaics. Its citation record reflects this breadth — the single most-cited paper in the journal's history is a review of transparent conducting oxide semiconductors for transparent electrodes (Tadatsugu Minami, 2005), a topic that underpins flat-panel displays, solar cells, and touch screens.

Indexing and abstracting

The journal is indexed in major scientific databases, including:

• Science Citation Index Expanded (Web of Science)
• Scopus
• Inspec
• Chemical Abstracts Service
• Ei Compendex
• Applied Science and Technology Abstracts / Index
• Current Contents — Physical, Chemical and Earth Sciences
• Materials Science Citation Index
• PASCAL
• VINITI Database RAS

Peer review and publication speed

IOP Publishing publishes official turnaround statistics for the journal: the median time from submission to first decision is 5 days before peer review (desk evaluation) and 34 days after peer review. These figures compare favorably with many general materials journals and reflect the journal's established reviewer network. Authors seeking the fastest route should consider the Rapid Communications track, which requires an explicit justification letter for accelerated handling. Acceptance rates and exact time-to-publication figures are not officially published by IOP for this journal.

Open access and article processing charges

The journal's IOP page states that it supports open access — IOP operates its journals on a hybrid model, so authors may publish either subscription articles or pay for gold open access. OpenAlex metadata, drawing on DOAJ records, reports list prices of approximately 3,325 USD, 2,765 EUR, or 2,410 GBP; these are not a fee quotation, and current charges, taxes, waivers, and eligibility should always be confirmed directly with IOP Publishing before submission. The journal is not marked as fully open access.

Landmark and highly cited papers

The following influential papers appeared in Semiconductor Science and Technology. DOIs below were verified against citing literature and reference records; each resolves to the original article:

• T. Minami, "Transparent conducting oxide semiconductors for transparent electrodes," Semicond. Sci. Technol. 20(4), S35–S44 (2005). DOI: 10.1088/0268-1242/20/4/004 — the journal's most-cited paper (around 1,700 citations per bibliometric tracking), surveying ITO alternatives and transparent oxide semiconductors for displays and photovoltaics.
• P. Dean et al., "Resonant-phonon depopulation terahertz quantum cascade lasers and their application in spectroscopic imaging," Semicond. Sci. Technol. 27(9), 094004 (2012). DOI: 10.1088/0268-1242/27/9/094004 — from the Leeds terahertz photonics group (Dean, Li, Valavanis, Davies, Linfield, Cunningham), reporting resonant-phonon THz quantum cascade lasers applied to spectroscopic imaging.
• M. Kunst and A. Sanders, "Transport of excess carriers in silicon wafers," Semicond. Sci. Technol. 7(1), 51–59 (1992). DOI: 10.1088/0268-1242/7/1/009 — a widely referenced early-1990s study of excess-carrier transport in silicon, relevant to solar-cell and wafer characterization.

Bibliometric analyses also flag these highly cited reviews as among the journal's most influential: "THz imaging and sensing for security applications — explosives, weapons and drugs" (roughly 1,160 citations) and "Wide-bandgap semiconductor ultraviolet photodetectors" (roughly 980 citations). Recent editions feature well-read reviews such as a 2022 review of nitride-based red LEDs and micro-LEDs (reported by KAUST as remaining among the journal's most-read papers), a review on performance analysis of P3HT:PCBM bulk-heterojunction organic solar cells, and a review of GaN FinFETs and trigate devices for power and RF applications.

Who should publish here

Semiconductor Science and Technology is best suited to researchers whose work connects materials-level understanding of semiconductors to device-relevant behavior: experimentalists characterizing new semiconductor materials, epitaxy and processing specialists, device physicists working on transistors, lasers, detectors, and photovoltaics, and theorists whose models address explicitly applicable problems. It is a specialist venue rather than a general high-impact outlet — its impact factor of 2.1 and CiteScore of 4.2 place it in the solid middle tier of applied-physics journals, with the advantage of a genuinely expert readership and rapid, reliable peer review. Authors should ensure their manuscript fits the stated scope (scope fit is explicitly listed in the journal's coverage areas) and follow IOP's formatting and reference-style requirements, since non-compliant manuscripts can be returned without review.

Submitting to Semiconductor Science and Technology: practical guidance

Manuscripts are submitted through IOP Publishing's online submission system linked from the journal page at iopscience.iop.org. Before submitting, check the article-type word limits carefully: roughly 8,500 words for Research Papers and 3,500 words for Rapid Communications — the latter also requires a short justification letter explaining why the work needs accelerated handling. Topical Reviews are normally commissioned by the Editorial Board, so an unsolicited review should be preceded by a proposal to the editors.

Scope fit is the first and most important filter. Frame the manuscript around the journal's stated coverage — properties of semiconductors and their interfaces, devices, and packaging — and make the technological relevance explicit where the work is fundamental. Pure synthesis reports without characterization, or pure device demonstrations without physical insight, are weaker fits. Because the journal's official median times are short (5 days to first desk decision, 34 days to first decision after review), a well-prepared, in-scope manuscript can move quickly; non-compliant formatting, however, can see a paper returned without review, so follow IOP's reference style, figure requirements, and ethical policies (including data availability and competing-interest declarations) from the first submission.

On open access, authors can choose the subscription route or pay for gold open access under IOP's hybrid model. DOAJ-sourced metadata lists charges around 3,325 USD / 2,765 EUR / 2,410 GBP, but these are list prices — confirm the current APC, tax treatment, and any institutional or society discounts with IOP before budgeting. Authors with funder mandates should verify that their chosen route is compliant, and note that green open access (accepted-manuscript deposit) policies apply as with other IOP journals.

Frequently asked questions

What is the impact factor of Semiconductor Science and Technology?

The journal's impact factor is 2.1, as listed on IOP Publishing's official journal page (also reported as the 2025 figure). Its CiteScore is 4.2.

Who is the editor-in-chief?

Koji Ishibashi of the Advanced Device Laboratory, RIKEN, Japan. Previous editors-in-chief include Kornelius Nielsch and Laurens Molenkamp.

What are the ISSNs?

Print ISSN 0268-1242; online ISSN 1361-6641.

How long does peer review take?

IOP reports a median of 5 days to first decision before peer review and 34 days after peer review.

Does the journal offer open access?

Yes — the journal supports open access on a hybrid model. List prices of about 3,325 USD / 2,765 EUR / 2,410 GBP are reported in DOAJ-sourced metadata; confirm current charges with IOP Publishing.

What article types are accepted?

Research Papers (up to ~8,500 words), Rapid Communications (up to ~3,500 words, with a justification letter for accelerated handling), and commissioned Topical Reviews, plus occasional special issues.

Is Semiconductor Science and Technology indexed in Web of Science?

Yes — it is indexed in the Science Citation Index Expanded, Scopus, Inspec, Chemical Abstracts, and Ei Compendex, among others.

Notable research themes and breakthroughs

A few research threads illustrate the journal's influence on real technology. Transparent conducting oxides are the journal's signature success story: Minami's 2005 review of transparent conducting oxide semiconductors for transparent electrodes remains the most-cited paper in the journal's history, arriving just as flat-panel displays and thin-film solar cells were scaling up. The review systematized the trade-offs between optical transparency and electrical conductivity in doped ZnO, SnO2, and In2O3 systems — materials questions that continue to matter as the industry searches for indium-free alternatives to ITO.

Terahertz quantum cascade lasers form another pillar. The University of Leeds group (Davies, Linfield, Cunningham, Dean and colleagues) published extensively in SST during the 2000s and 2010s, including the 2012 paper on resonant-phonon depopulation THz quantum cascade lasers and their application in spectroscopic imaging. That work sits inside a broader SST record of THz imaging and sensing research — the journal's review on THz imaging and sensing for security applications (explosives, weapons and drugs detection) is its second most-cited paper, reflecting the post-2001 surge of interest in terahertz security screening.

Gallium nitride and power electronics are a long-running beat. Early coverage of GaN defects and blue emitters gave way to modern work on GaN FinFETs and trigate devices for power and RF applications — a recent review on that topic ranks among the journal's most-read papers. Printed and organic electronics also feature strongly: the 2015 special issue on printed electronics collected reviews of printed photodetectors and fully-printed all-polymer integrated systems, while a widely read review on performance analysis of P3HT:PCBM bulk-heterojunction organic solar cells testifies to the journal's role in the organic-photovoltaics literature.

More recently, the journal has carried influential work on nitride-based red LEDs and micro-LEDs — a 2022 review on that topic was reported by its authors as remaining among the journal's most-read papers — and a steady stream of papers on gate-all-around nanosheet transistors, two-dimensional materials such as CrI3, and DFT studies of emerging semiconductors.

Publication timeline

Neighboring journals and positioning

Within IOP Publishing's own portfolio, Semiconductor Science and Technology sits between Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics (broader applied physics) and Nanotechnology (nanoscale focus), with Materials Research Express as the lower-selectivity materials outlet. Authors sometimes also consider Journal of Applied Physics (AIP), Physica Status Solidi, or IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices — the latter two skewing more toward devices and circuits. SST's distinctive value is its editorial home in applied semiconductor physics itself, with reviewers who understand both the materials science and the device implications.

How should I cite articles from this journal?

Use the ISO 4 abbreviation Semicond. Sci. Technol. with the volume and article or page numbers. IOP assigns each article a DOI of the form 10.1088/1361-6641/… (online) — always cite the DOI, since it is the persistent link. Note that articles published before the online-ISSN era carry DOIs under the print-ISSN prefix 10.1088/0268-1242/…, as in the landmark papers listed above.

Profile researched from the official IOP Publishing journal page, SCImago/Resurchify metrics, OpenAlex metadata, and verified article DOI records, October 2026. Metrics are reported with their source and year; figures not officially published by the journal are labeled as such.