Nanotoxicology publishes peer-reviewed research relating to the hazards, exposure, and risks associated with nano-structured materials during their life cycle.

The journal primarily covers research on any material with at least one dimension in the nanometer size range (1-100nm). This includes nanoparticles, nanomaterials (including high aspect ratio nanomaterials (HARN) and fibres), nanomedicines, nano-surfaces of larger materials, nanocomposites, and advanced materials. Such materials may be used in a range of consumer products (e.g. paints, cosmetics, electronics, textiles, packaging), generated for intentional delivery into the body (e.g. food, medicines, diagnostics, medical devices), or designed for environmental applications (such as remediation of contaminated sites). We will consider research on different sources (e.g. natural, anthropogenic, engineered) of all of these materials, as well as studies which focus on assessment of the hazards, exposure and risks of air pollution particles (e.g. PM 10, PM 2.5), micro and nanoplastics, and occupational dusts. Articles which focus on single or agglomerated/aggregated particles can be submitted to the journal. We will also publish papers on studies related to solid phase materials, aerosols or colloids if humans are potentially exposed or if they might be released into the environment.

We are particularly interested in studies which have assessed the hazards of nanomaterials to human health and the environment using in chemico, in silico, in vitro, and in vivo models as well as epidemiological studies and encourage the submission of articles which have investigated the mechanism(s) of toxicity.

Studies that support understanding of environmental and human exposure and risk assessment are within the scope of the journal. Furthermore, articles which focus on legislation and regulation are strongly welcomed.

Research articles relevant to the area of nanomedicine will be considered but there must be a strong safety or toxicology component. More specifically, the manuscript should not be focussed solely on investigating clinical effectiveness of the nanomedicine but must present toxicology data from a relevant model and assess the toxicity using appropriate endpoints (e.g. viability assays to assess cytotoxicity in vitro alone is not sufficient).

It is essential that the physicochemical properties of ‘as produced/supplied’ materials as well as dispersions of the materials in relevant biological media are well characterized. We encourage the use of standard or reference materials such as those supplied from the US National Institute of Standards or those selected by the OECD Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials. We do not publish papers on nanomaterials produced by new principles of synthesis if toxicological effects are not analysed in parallel with well established reference or benchmark materials.

The journal welcomes original basic and clinical research articles, review articles including meta-analyses, short communications, study protocols, case reports, clinical practice papers, letters to the Editor, inaugural lectures, conference abstracts and book reviews.