Advanced Energy Materials Formatting Requirements: Complete Author Guide

Zotero, EndNote, and Microsoft Word can preserve a wrong imported title or an outdated record. Check the actual source, not only the selected bibliography style.

References: consistency before decorative styling

For new submissions, apply one consistent style. For later preparation, follow the current journal instructions and editorial correspondence. The guide describes numbered citations; it does not justify treating every formatting detail from an old template as a first-submission rejection rule.

Run a citation audit independently of the reference-manager style selection:

1. Follow each important factual claim to its cited source.
2. Confirm that the source supports that claim.
3. Match every in-text citation to a reference-list entry.
4. Check author names, title, year, and locator against the actual publication.
5. Remove duplicate records and resolve broken cross-references.

Here is a real reference used as an example in the official guide, displayed in a consistent author-first style for the Free Format stage:

Hussein, H., Damdam, A., Ren, L., et al. (2023). Actuation of Mobile Microbots: A Review. Advanced Intelligent Systems, 5(9), 2300168.

The article DOI identifies the underlying publication. This example demonstrates bibliographic completeness; it is not a reason to cite a microbot review in an unrelated energy manuscript. Replace the example with a relevant source from your own paper when testing an export. Check the imported record, the rendered reference, and the in-text number together.

A reference manager can standardize punctuation without checking any of those five items. A polished fabricated citation is still a factual failure. The previous illustrative reference with invented author names and article identifier has been removed; use a real paper you have read to test your chosen style.

Word or LaTeX: validate the actual output

The guide provides both Word and LaTeX routes. There is no verified basis here for saying Word submissions receive preference or that LaTeX necessarily causes production delays.

Use the official Word article template linked from the current guide. Check the guide again if the download changes; a local copy may outlive the instructions it accompanied.

Choose the format your team can maintain reliably. For Word, check tracked changes, embedded figures, equations, and field updates before exporting. For LaTeX, compile from the final source folder and check that figures, bibliography files, and any required style files are available.

Transfer test: Ask a coauthor to open or compile the package from a separate copy. If it depends on a local file outside the package, the handoff is not ready. This is an editorial workflow suggestion, not a journal requirement.

Keep the original source package separate from the final upload bundle. Name the upload files clearly enough to distinguish the clean manuscript, marked revision, response letter, and supporting information when those files are requested.

Supporting Information and declarations

Do not use supporting information to hide the only evidence for the central claim. The main argument should remain understandable, while the supporting files supply the additional detail needed to inspect it.

Give each supporting item a stable label. Follow every main-text reference to the corresponding item. If you rename a figure, check the caption, main text, response letter, and any combined supporting file.

Review required declarations using the current submission prompts. Resolve funding, conflicts, contributions, data availability, and any applicable ethics questions with the coauthors. Do not paste a “no conflicts” statement without checking whether it is accurate.

The previous claim that all corresponding authors need biographies and photographs for Research Articles has been removed. The current guide discusses biographies for particular article types; consult the relevant type rather than applying a blanket requirement.

Keep formatting separate from scientific thresholds

This page does not establish a universal minimum battery cycle count or solar-cell stability duration. The earlier customer-experience language and fixed thresholds lacked reproducible provenance and have been removed.

For a formatting pass, ask whether measurement conditions, sample identity, and labels are consistent. Whether the duration and design are scientifically adequate requires the research question, device context, and relevant evidence. Do not expand a study merely to satisfy an unsupported number in a formatting guide.

A Advanced Energy Materials submission readiness check can surface questions for author review; it cannot certify that a study meets an editor's scientific standard.

Internal Links and Resources

For the broader submission task, see our Advanced Energy Materials submission guide and how to avoid desk rejection at AEM. For metrics, check the Advanced Energy Materials JIF page.

The legacy author-guidelines address may redirect; use the current official guide linked above for the instructions discussed here.

Submit the file package when: all intended files open, callouts resolve, figures remain legible, the abstract meets the current limit, and coauthors have approved the actual version being uploaded.

Repair first when: a supporting file is missing, a figure label changes across files, a reference cannot be verified, or a declaration is still a unfinished text. Keep a short list of unresolved items with an owner for each.

Use the Advanced Energy Materials pre-submission checklist to support the final pass, then inspect the journal system's assembled submission yourself.