Use when deciding whether a materials result clears Advanced Materials' advance-and-broad-impact gate, or whether it belongs in Advanced Functional Materials, Advanced Science, Small, or Advanced Materials Interfaces. Diagnoses venue fit; does not write or characterize the material.
SkillScore100Maintained
Automatic
◆Research pack
Last verified 8/15/2026
What it changes
Passed 23 of 23 test cases with the skill, and 16 of 23 without it.
Without skill70%
With skill100%
Checks it passed that the model alone missed
Formats the response using the bracketed tag 【Central advance】.
Directs the next action section to the results framing workflow.
Recommends retargeting to AFM or photovoltaics specialist journals.
and 6 more in the full report
7 fixed16 passed either way0 still failing0 broke
Pass-rate lift
+30 pp
Tokens
+9%
Agent turns
0%
Response time
-41%
Model gemini-3.6-flashMeasured 8/15/2026v123 of 23 cases passed with skill
Tokens, turns and time describe resource use, not a dollar price.
See it in action
One of 7 test cases the skill fixed. Same model, same prompt, with and without the skill.
1 of 7
Prompt
We discovered a sliding ferroelectric mechanism in bilayer molybdenum disulfide that enables non-volatile memory switching at sub-1-volt operating thresholds. Does this fundamental electronic transport discovery fit the scope of Advanced Materials?
What was checked, without and with the skill
Checked
Without skill
With skill
Recommends Adv. Mater. strong or Adv. Mater. with impact framing for the manuscript.
Passed
Passed
Explains that a new physical mechanism in 2D materials provides a broad design rule for low-power electronics.
Missed
Passed
case-10 · gemini-3.6-flash · 8/15/2026 · answers are capped and redacted
What's inside
The instructions your model reads when the skill loads.
SKILL.md68 linessingle file
Advanced Materials Scope Fit (advmat-scope-fit)
When to trigger
You suspect the work is solid but may be "incremental optimization"
You cannot articulate why a materials scientist outside your subfield should care
A coauthor asks "Adv. Mater. or Adv. Funct. Mater.?"
An editor has previously bounced similar work on novelty/impact grounds
Before investing in cover-quality figures and full characterization, you want a go / no-go on venue
The two-part gate (both must pass)
Advanced Materials publishes across all of materials science — materials chemistry, nanotechnology, energy materials (batteries, photovoltaics, catalysis), electronics and optoelectronics, biomaterials, soft matter, and structural materials. The gate is two tests, AND-ed:
Genuine advance — Is there a new material, a new mechanism, or a new property/performance regime — not an incremental gain on an existing system? A record efficiency alone is not an advance if it comes from routine tuning; a new design principle that unlocks it is.
Broad impact — Would researchers in a neighboring materials community (or a device/application field) find this consequential? An advance is broad if it transfers a design rule, opens a new material class, or resets a performance–property trade-off others were stuck on.
A careful, well-characterized, but incremental result can pass rigor and still fail the gate. That is the most common Adv. Mater. rejection mode, and it is a venue judgment, not a quality judgment.
Decision table
Situation
Verdict
New material class or design principle + clear cross-field relevance
Adv. Mater. — strong fit
New mechanism explaining a property, with general design consequences
Adv. Mater. — strong fit
Record device metric driven by a genuinely new material/interface concept
Adv. Mater. — fit (frame the advance)
Solid performance gain by established optimization on a known system
Adv. Funct. Mater. (functional focus)
Rigorous nanoscale study, well-defined but specialist audience
Small
Sound, broad, but best served by gold open access and rapid dissemination
Advanced Science
Interface / thin-film / surface study, incremental or specialist
Advanced Materials Interfaces
Characterization-only paper with no property or device consequence
Specialist / methods journal
How to stress-test the gate
The neighbor test: name a specific researcher in a different materials subfield and state, in one sentence, why they would read this. If you cannot, broad impact is weak.
The design-rule test: does the paper hand the reader a transferable rule ("do X to the lattice/interface and Y follows"), or just one more optimized sample? A rule travels; a sample does not.
The trade-off test: does the advance break a known property trade-off (strength vs. ductility, efficiency vs. stability, conductivity vs. transparency)? Breaking one is a classic Adv. Mater. story.
The "so a record?" test: if the headline is "highest X to date," ask what new material physics or chemistry produced it. No new principle → likely a functional/specialist venue.