Advanced Energy Materials Formatting Requirements: Complete Author Guide

AEM uses an unstructured abstract for all article types.

• Word limit: 250 words for Full Papers and Reviews, 200 words for Communications
• Structure: Single continuous paragraph, no subheadings
• Citations: Not permitted
• Abbreviations: Standard chemical and physical abbreviations are fine; define others at first use

Energy materials abstracts should include the specific material system, the application or phenomenon studied, the fabrication or synthesis method, quantitative performance metrics, and the broader significance. Editors want numbers. "We report an efficient perovskite solar cell" doesn't cut it. "We report a Cs0.05FA0.85MA0.10PbI2.55Br0.45 perovskite solar cell achieving 25.3% PCE with less than 5% efficiency loss after 1,000 hours of illumination" tells the story.

Every AEM submission must include a TOC (Table of Contents) image. This is a Wiley requirement across the Advanced Materials family.

TOC image specifications:

• Dimensions: use the current AEM template; the Wiley Advanced-family landscape format is tracked as 5 cm high by 12.7 cm wide
• Resolution: 300 DPI minimum (600 DPI preferred for line art)
• File format: TIFF, EPS, or high-resolution PDF
• Single panel only
• Minimal text (legible at published size)
• No title, author names, or journal branding
• Color is free for online publication

The TOC image appears in the journal's table of contents and in Wiley Online Library search results. For energy materials papers, effective TOC images typically show the device architecture, the material structure, or a simplified schematic of the mechanism alongside a key performance metric.

Common mistakes include wrong dimensions (Wiley's TOC size is different from ACS's), too much text, and overly complex multi-panel compositions. In practice, we observe that the specific risk pattern is usually a rescaled ACS or Nature graphic rather than a purpose-built Wiley landscape image. The TOC should communicate one clear message at a glance.

AEM follows Wiley figure formatting standards. Figures count toward the page limit, so figure economy matters.

Figure formatting requirements:

Table formatting: Editable tables, not image files. Every column must have a header. Use the three-line table format (rules at top, below header, at bottom). No vertical rules. Footnotes below using superscript letters or symbols.

Color figures: Free for online publication. Print color may incur charges, but most readers access AEM online, so this is rarely an issue. Don't convert color figures to grayscale for the online version.

Supporting Information: Additional figures, tables, and data go in Supporting Information, which doesn't count toward the page limit. This is particularly useful at AEM because the page limits are tight. Compile Supporting Information into a single Word or PDF file.

AEM uses Wiley's numbered reference style with square bracket citations. This is different from ACS superscript style, so don't mix them up.

In-text citations: Square brackets with numbers: [1], [2,3], [4-7]. Numbers are assigned in order of first appearance.

Reference list format:

[1] A. B. Author, C. D. Author, Journal Abbreviation Year, Volume, Page.

Key formatting details:

• Author names: Initials first, then last name (A. B. Smith)
• Authors separated by commas
• Journal titles abbreviated (Adv. Energy Mater., J. Am. Chem. Soc., etc.)
• Year in bold, followed by volume in italics
• Page range follows volume
• DOI included when available
• For books: A. B. Author, Title, Publisher, City Year.

Example journal article:

[1] L. Chen, W. Zhang, S. R. Patel, Adv. Energy Mater. 2026, 16, 2600123.

Note the format differences from ACS style: initials come before the last name, the year is in bold (not the volume), and the volume is in italics. These details matter during production and will be flagged if wrong.

Wiley style files for EndNote, Zotero, and Mendeley are available and produce correctly formatted output for AEM.

1. Page limits include everything. Unlike journals with word limits, AEM's page limits encompass text, figures, tables, and references. This means a figure-heavy paper needs to be more concise in the text. Plan your figure and text balance before you start writing.

2. Supporting Information doesn't count toward pages. This is the release valve for AEM's tight page limits. Detailed characterization data, additional device measurements, computational details, and supporting experiments can go in the Supporting Information. Use it strategically, but don't put essential data there.

3. Keywords are required. AEM requires 3-5 keywords submitted through the editorial system. Unlike ACS journals (which assign keywords internally), Wiley journals rely on author-supplied keywords for indexing.

4. Biographies are required for corresponding authors. Full Papers and Communications require brief biographical sketches (100 words) for all corresponding authors, including a photograph. These appear at the end of the published paper. Prepare them in advance because they're often forgotten during submission.

5. Conflict of interest disclosure. AEM requires an explicit conflict of interest statement. Even if there are no conflicts, you must include a statement to that effect in the manuscript.

6. Cover image submissions. AEM selects cover images from published papers. If you want your paper considered for the cover, submit a cover art proposal (separate from the TOC image) during the revision stage. Cover art should be 17.8 cm wide by 23.3 cm tall.

7. Wiley Author Services. Wiley offers Author Services for language editing and formatting. These are optional paid services, not requirements. Don't confuse them with mandatory formatting steps.

A standard AEM Full Paper follows this order:

1. Title (concise, specific to the energy materials system)
2. Author names with affiliations (superscript numbering)
3. Abstract (250 words max)
4. Introduction (context, motivation, and study objectives)
5. Results and Discussion (combined or separate; this is the main body)
6. Conclusions (brief summary of findings and outlook)
7. Experimental Section (synthesis, characterization, device fabrication, computational methods)
8. Acknowledgements
9. Conflict of Interest
10. Author Contributions (CRediT format encouraged)
11. Keywords (3-5)
12. References
13. Author Biographies and Photographs
14. TOC Image (separate file)
15. Supporting Information (separate file)

The Experimental Section placement after Conclusions is a Wiley convention that differs from ACS (where Methods often comes before Results). This isn't optional at AEM; follow the journal's structure.

These cause the most delays at AEM:

• Exceeding the page limit for Full Papers or Communications
• Missing or incorrectly sized TOC image (AEM dimensions differ from ACS)
• Using ACS superscript references instead of Wiley square bracket style
• Forgetting author biographies and photographs
• Placing the Experimental Section before Results (should be after Conclusions)
• Not including keywords in the submission
• Missing conflict of interest statement
• Submitting single-spaced manuscripts without line numbers

For more on publishing at this journal, see our Advanced Energy Materials submission guide and how to avoid desk rejection at AEM. For metrics, check the Advanced Energy Materials impact factor page.

For the official formatting specifications, visit the Advanced Energy Materials author guidelines.

In our pre-submission review work with manuscripts targeting Advanced Energy Materials, four patterns generate the most consistent desk-rejection outcomes.

TOC graphic using wrong Wiley landscape dimensions. Advanced Energy Materials follows the Wiley Advanced-family TOC convention, so use the current journal template and build a wide landscape graphic rather than a square ACS-style image. Authors frequently submit TOC graphics sized for ACS journals or Nature journals, and these fail the Wiley production check. The TOC graphic should be purpose-built at the current AEM template dimensions rather than stretched from a manuscript figure.

Insufficient long-term stability data for energy devices. AEM reviewers apply a "practical relevance" test that goes beyond initial performance metrics. For lithium-ion or sodium-ion battery anodes, fewer than 200 charge-discharge cycles is consistently insufficient; 500+ cycles is the current community standard for publication in a flagship energy journal. For perovskite solar cells, stability over 1,000 hours under 1-sun illumination is expected. Papers reporting promising initial efficiencies without long-term stability data are returned with requests for additional cycling or aging experiments.

Performance benchmarking against outdated or weak comparators. AEM editors expect new energy materials to be benchmarked against state-of-the-art materials in the same category, not just against the authors' previous work. A new anode material compared only to bare graphite, or a new photocatalyst compared only to P25 TiO2 without including recent literature benchmarks, signals that the authors are not engaging with the current field. The benchmarking table should include recent high-performance materials from the past 3 years.

Materials study without clear energy conversion or storage function. Advanced Energy Materials publishes functional materials specifically for energy harvesting, conversion, and storage. Materials characterization studies where the energy application is mentioned only in the discussion, or where the energy device performance is tested for only one condition, are rejected for scope. The energy function must be demonstrated across conditions relevant to practical application.

A Advanced Energy Materials submission readiness check evaluates TOC graphic dimensions, stability data scope, benchmarking rigor, and energy function demonstration against these patterns.