--- name: journal-of-the-mechanics-and-physics-of-solids description: Use when targeting the Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids (JMPS) or deciding whether a fundamental solid-mechanics manuscript fits this venue. Encodes the journal's fit, the physical-insight-plus-mathematical-rigor bar, breadth across solid mechanics, the JMPS-vs-plasticity-journal routing, official-submission re-check, and desk-reject heuristics. --- # Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids (journal-of-the-mechanics-and-physics-of-solids) ## Journal positioning The Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids (JMPS) is a leading archival journal for **fundamental solid mechanics**: constitutive theory, fracture and damage, micromechanics, instabilities and bifurcation, and the mechanics of soft and active materials. Its defining expectation is a genuine advance in physical understanding of how solids deform, fail, or respond — delivered with mathematical rigor and, where relevant, decisive experimental or computational evidence. JMPS rewards papers that uncover a mechanism or a governing principle, not papers that run a finite-element case study of one geometry and report numbers. Breadth is intentional: plasticity is one of many topics here, alongside elasticity, waves, contact, and continuum-to-microstructure bridging. This skill is a **fit / venue-selection / re-framing** tool. It does not replace the journal's current official author guidelines. Before submitting, re-check the live JMPS Guide for Authors. ## When to trigger - The author names JMPS for a solid-mechanics manuscript and wants a fit/framing check. - A mechanics paper must be re-framed from "we simulated this structure" into a general mechanism, model, or principle of solid behavior. - The author is deciding between JMPS (broad fundamental solid mechanics) and a plasticity-centric venue (`international-journal-of-plasticity`). - The author needs JMPS's insight-plus-rigor bar and desk-reject heuristics. ## Scope & topic fit - Constitutive theory and continuum mechanics: finite-deformation kinematics, thermodynamically consistent material models, nonlinear elasticity. - Fracture, damage, and failure: crack-tip fields, cohesive/phase-field fracture, fatigue mechanics, and toughening principles with a governing-law contribution. - Micromechanics and homogenization: linking microstructure to effective response, defect mechanics, dislocation and interface mechanics. - Instabilities, bifurcation, and pattern formation: buckling, wrinkling, localization, and post-instability response in structured or soft solids. - Mechanics of soft, active, and architected materials: gels, elastomers, growth/morphogenesis, mechanical metamaterials, coupled multiphysics response. - Waves, contact, and adhesion when the contribution is a mechanism or analytical result, not a parametric simulation sweep. ## Method & evidence bar - The central object is a **mechanism or governing principle** of solid behavior, derived with mathematical care — not a number produced by a black-box solver. - Analysis must be rigorous: clearly stated kinematics and constitutive assumptions, correct field equations, and derivations that a specialist can verify. - Computation, when central, must be a means to physical insight (mechanism, scaling, bifurcation structure) — a converged FE simulation of one part is not a result. - Experiments, when present, should isolate the mechanism and be quantitatively compared to theory, with controlled conditions and reported uncertainty. - Position the contribution against the closest mechanics results: what new physics, weaker assumptions, or broader class of behavior does it establish. - Reproducibility: state the model, boundary/initial conditions, and any numerical scheme in enough detail that the analysis can be reconstructed. ## Structure & house style - Standard full-length research-article structure; JMPS publishes archival papers, not rapid letters — route urgent short results elsewhere and re-check article types on the live guide. - The introduction motivates the mechanics gap (what is not understood), not an application; the body develops theory, then evidence, then physical interpretation. - Equations are load-bearing and must be self-consistent; notation should follow standard continuum-mechanics conventions and be defined on first use. - Figures support the argument: field maps, bifurcation/phase diagrams, theory-vs-data overlays, and mechanism schematics — not decorative renderings. - Lengthy derivations and supporting computations go to appendices/supplementary material; the main text must carry the central insight unaided. ## Official-submission checklist - Before giving submission-ready advice, read `../../resources/source-basis.md` and `../../resources/official-source-map.md`; start from the Elsevier anchors, then cite the current JMPS Guide for Authors page you checked. - Search the live site for "Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids guide for authors" and follow the current Elsevier/Editorial Manager version. - Re-check article types, length/figure expectations, and the data- and code-availability policy for computational work. - Confirm formatting of equations, notation, and any structured-abstract or highlights requirement. - Re-check competing-interests, funding, author-contribution (CRediT), and AI-use disclosure requirements. - If the live official instructions conflict with this skill, the official instructions win. ## Pre-submission self-check - [ ] The contribution is a mechanism or governing principle of solid behavior, not a one-off finite-element case study. - [ ] Kinematics, constitutive assumptions, and field equations are stated explicitly and are internally consistent. - [ ] Any computation serves physical insight (scaling, bifurcation, mechanism), not just a converged number. - [ ] Experiments, if used, isolate the mechanism and are compared quantitatively to theory. - [ ] Novelty is pinned to specific prior mechanics results (new physics / weaker assumptions / broader class). - [ ] The article type and length fit JMPS's archival full-paper format. ## Common desk-reject triggers - Applied finite-element case study of one component or geometry with no fundamental advance. - Parametric simulation sweep reported as a result, with no mechanism or governing law extracted. - Constitutive model proposed with no derivation, thermodynamic consistency, or validation. - Experiment-only report of a deformation/failure observation without mechanics interpretation. - Scope mismatch: a materials-processing, structural-design, or pure-numerical-methods paper with mechanics as a label. - Better framed as a plasticity-specific constitutive study or a materials/structures application. ## Re-routing decision - Plastic deformation / constitutive-model-centric contribution → `international-journal-of-plasticity`. - Microstructure-first mechanism (processing–structure–property) → `acta-materialia`. - Composite-material mechanics or structural composites → `composites-part-b-engineering`. - AM-process-driven mechanics with materials focus → `additive-manufacturing`. - Highest-impact conceptual mechanics-of-materials advance for a broad audience → `nature-materials`. ## Output format ```text [Fit] High / Medium / Low (one-line reason) [Target] Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids [Topic tags] <2–3 closest solid-mechanics subtopics> [Mechanism/principle] [Method/evidence] [Top risk] [Official items to re-check]
[Re-route suggestion] ```