About the Journal
The construction and operation of civil infrastructure consume substantial quantities of natural resources and generate significant environmental impacts. At the same time, infrastructure must provide adequate strength, safety, durability, adaptability, and resilience under increasingly complex service and environmental conditions.
The Journal of Sustainable Civil Materials and Structures (JSCMS) was established to address the need for an integrated scientific platform connecting innovations at the material scale with the performance of structural components, systems, and infrastructure throughout their life cycles.
The journal considers sustainability as a measurable engineering requirement rather than merely a general environmental claim. Manuscripts should therefore demonstrate how the proposed material, method, or structural system contributes to one or more of the following:
- Reduction of embodied carbon and energy;
- Conservation of natural resources;
- Reuse and recycling of construction materials;
- Increased structural service life;
- Improved durability and resilience;
- Reduced maintenance and repair requirements;
- Adaptability, deconstruction, and material recovery;
- Improved environmental, economic, or social performance;
- Safer and more efficient infrastructure systems.
Aims
JSCMS aims to publish original and influential research that advances the development, characterization, design, construction, assessment, repair, and management of sustainable civil engineering materials and structural systems. The journal seeks to:
- Connect material-level innovation with component- and structural-level performance.
- Promote scientifically validated solutions for low-carbon and circular construction.
- Advance durable, resilient, adaptable, and resource-efficient infrastructure.
- Encourage integration of experiments, numerical modelling, field monitoring, and life-cycle evaluation.
- Bridge the gap between laboratory research, structural engineering practice, industrial implementation, and policy.
- Support the development of engineering standards, design guidance, and evidence-based sustainability assessment.
- Facilitate multidisciplinary collaboration among material scientists, civil engineers, structural engineers, environmental researchers, architects, contractors, and infrastructure authorities.
Scope
The journal publishes research across nine interconnected areas:
A. Sustainable Cementitious Materials
Low-carbon cement and concrete; supplementary cementitious materials; alkali-activated materials and geopolymers; limestone calcined clay cement; magnesium-, calcium sulfoaluminate-, and other alternative binders; recycled aggregate concrete; bio-based and bio-mediated cementitious materials; carbon-cured and carbon-sequestering concrete; ultra-high-performance concrete; engineered cementitious composites; fibre-reinforced cementitious composites; self-compacting and self-healing concrete; 3D-printed cementitious materials; concrete incorporating industrial, agricultural, or municipal by-products; rheology, hydration, microstructure, and mechanical performance; sustainable repair and strengthening materials.
B. Sustainable Structural Materials
Recycled and low-carbon steel; stainless steel and aluminium structures; engineered timber and bamboo; fibre-reinforced polymer composites; natural-fibre composites; recycled polymers and polymer-based construction materials; masonry, earth, and rammed-earth materials; hybrid and composite structural materials; smart and multifunctional construction materials; phase-change and energy-responsive materials; functionally graded and bio-inspired materials.
C. Structural Behaviour and Engineering Performance
Behaviour of sustainable structural members and systems; reinforced and prestressed concrete structures; steel and composite structures; timber and bamboo structures; masonry and earthen structures; modular and prefabricated construction; lightweight and deployable structures; structural connections and joints; fracture, fatigue, creep, shrinkage, and long-term behaviour; stability, buckling, and nonlinear response; seismic, wind, fire, impact, blast, and multi-hazard performance; soil-structure and fluid-structure interaction; performance-based structural design; reliability and probabilistic assessment; structural optimization and material efficiency.
D. Durability, Deterioration, and Service-Life Engineering
Reinforcement corrosion; chloride and sulphate attack; carbonation; alkali-silica reaction; freeze-thaw deterioration; chemical and biological degradation; moisture transport and permeability; fatigue and environmental ageing; durability of marine and coastal infrastructure; service-life prediction; deterioration modelling; accelerated durability testing; repair, rehabilitation, and strengthening; life-extension strategies for existing structures.
E. Circular Construction and Resource Efficiency
Construction and demolition waste; design for disassembly; reversible structural connections; reuse of structural components; material recovery and urban mining; closed-loop material systems; adaptive reuse of buildings and infrastructure; remanufacturing and repurposing; circular design indicators; material passports and traceability; end-of-life scenarios; zero-waste construction technologies.
F. Life-Cycle Sustainability
Life-cycle assessment; life-cycle costing; whole-life carbon assessment; embodied carbon and embodied energy; environmental product declarations; social life-cycle assessment; multi-criteria sustainability assessment; carbon accounting and decarbonization pathways; infrastructure sustainability indicators; environmental-economic-social trade-offs; uncertainty and sensitivity analysis; consequential and prospective life-cycle assessment; climate-neutral construction systems.
G. Resilient and Climate-Adapted Infrastructure
Climate-resilient construction materials; adaptation of structures to climate change; flood-, heat-, drought-, and coastal-resilient infrastructure; infrastructure under extreme environmental exposure; post-disaster repair and recovery; robustness and redundancy; multi-hazard assessment; nature-based and hybrid engineering solutions; resilience-based structural design; sustainable reconstruction.
H. Digital Technologies for Sustainable Structures
Building information modelling; digital twins; artificial intelligence and machine learning; data-driven material and structural design; structural health monitoring; Internet of Things sensing; automated damage detection; computer vision; topology optimization; generative structural design; additive and robotic construction; physics-informed machine learning; predictive maintenance; digital material passports.
I. Infrastructure Applications
Buildings; bridges; roads and pavements; railways; tunnels and underground structures; ports and marine structures; dams and hydraulic structures; foundations and retaining structures; energy infrastructure; industrial structures; water and wastewater infrastructure; coastal protection systems; post-disaster and temporary structures.
Priority Themes
| Theme | Central question |
|---|---|
| Low-carbon materials | Does the material reduce environmental impact while maintaining engineering performance? |
| Sustainable structural systems | Can material innovation be translated into safe structural applications? |
| Durability and service life | Does the solution extend service life or reduce maintenance? |
| Circular construction | Can materials or components be reused, recovered, or recycled? |
| Resilient infrastructure | Can the system withstand future climate and hazard conditions? |
| Digital sustainability | Can digital tools improve material efficiency, reliability, or whole-life performance? |
Editorial Position
The journal does not publish a manuscript simply because it uses waste material or labels a product “green.” Authors must demonstrate meaningful scientific and engineering contributions. A manuscript should generally satisfy at least two of the following dimensions:
- Material innovation – development or characterization of a sustainable material.
- Structural relevance – demonstrated performance at member, component, or system level.
- Environmental evidence – quantified carbon, energy, resource, or life-cycle benefits.
- Durability evidence – service-life, deterioration, or long-term performance analysis.
- Practical relevance – field validation, scale-up, standardization, or implementation potential.
Readership
The journal is intended for civil and structural engineers; construction-material researchers; materials scientists; infrastructure designers and consultants; contractors and manufacturers; sustainability and life-cycle specialists; asset owners and infrastructure operators; government agencies and standard-development bodies; academics and postgraduate students; and researchers in resilience, circular economy, and climate adaptation.
Publication Model
- Online-first publication;
- Quarterly issues, with continuous article publishing within each issue;
- English-language manuscripts;
- Open access under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY 4.0);
- A Digital Object Identifier for every article;
- No article processing charge during the first one or two years.