Submission Rules & Checklist

Before you submit — eligibility

• The work is within the journal's scope — solar cells and photovoltaic research
• The work is original and has not been published elsewhere
• The manuscript is not under consideration by another journal
• All authors have seen and approved the submitted version
• All authors meet the authorship criteria set out in the Authorship Policy
• Any potential conflicts of interest have been disclosed
• Permission has been obtained for any third-party material reproduced

The submission checklist

These thirteen statements are the compulsory tick-boxes in the OJS submission wizard — you cannot advance past step one without confirming them.

• The submission has not been previously published, nor is it under consideration by another journal.
• The submission is within the scope of Solar Cell Insights — solar cells and photovoltaic research.
• The manuscript file is in Word (.docx) or PDF format, single-column, follows the recommended structure, and has continuous line numbering enabled for review.
• The author identity has been removed from the manuscript file, in accordance with the journal's review policy.
• All figures and tables are clearly labelled, of sufficient resolution, and referenced in the text.
• Materials, device fabrication, measurement conditions and data analysis procedures are described in sufficient detail for the work to be assessed and repeated.
• Where device performance is reported, the number of devices and the distribution of parameters are given, not only champion values.
• References are accurate, complete, and formatted consistently in a standard scientific style.
• A Data Availability Statement is included.
• All authors have seen and approved the submitted version.
• Any conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise, have been disclosed (state "none" if there are none).
• This study does not involve human participants, patient data, or live animal subjects. (If it does, describe the relevant ethical approvals and consent procedures in the cover letter.)
• A cover letter briefly describing the contribution has been prepared for upload.

What a complete submission contains

• A cover letter briefly describing the contribution
• The full manuscript
• Any supplementary material
• Figures, either embedded or as separate files at final resolution
• Complete author metadata with affiliations and ORCID iDs, entered in the system

Cover letter requirements

The cover letter should state in a few sentences what the study did and why it matters, confirm that the work is original and not under consideration elsewhere, name the article type you are submitting to, and disclose anything the editor should know — a related manuscript under review elsewhere, a preprint, or a potential conflict. If you are submitting a negative or null result, say so and say briefly why you believe it is informative.

What happens after you submit

You will receive an automatic acknowledgement with a submission number. An editor checks scope and completeness, normally within five working days. If the manuscript is suitable it is sent for peer review; if it is outside scope you will be told promptly rather than left waiting. You can track the status of your submission at any time by logging in.

Common reasons submissions are returned

• Out of scope — system-level, policy or techno-economic work with no device-level science
• Missing methodological detail, particularly measurement conditions
• Champion-device data with no distribution or sample count
• No data availability statement
• Author identity left in the manuscript file
• Figures supplied at screen resolution