Materials in Cultural Heritage: Analysis, Testing and Preservation (Second Edition)
A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Advanced Materials Characterization".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 April 2026
Special Issue Editors
2. Jožef Stefan Institute, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Interests: ion beam analysis; archaeological glass and metals; ionization models
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
2. Jozef Stefan Institute, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Interests: non-destructive analysis; cultural heritage objects; material degradation; preventive conservation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
We are inviting you to submit articles related to the studies of cultural heritage objects. Artifacts and other objects or achievements are worthy of admiration and preservation. Scientists express our attitude towards these items by analyzing them, inventing methods that produce no or as little damage as possible. What can the analytical results tell us? Data about object composition allows their characterization beyond stylistic investigation; it is possible to identify the manufacturing techniques, the selection and use of raw materials, and the travel and distribution of raw materials and merchandise. Scientific dating methods are indispensable for object and site dating, and these are combined with excavation and typological data. On the other hand, aging and the influence of environmental agents have a harmful effect on the artifacts. Analytical methods can be used to monitor the state of degradation, the presence of harmful compounds, and gradual modification. The results of the analysis can suggest the most appropriate interventive and preventive conservation methods, including proper storage and display. Last but not least, digital recording of the artifacts and conservation procedures allows better visualization and repeatability of the procedures.
For this Special Issue, we welcome manuscripts with the following scopes:
- Analytical investigations of the objects of cultural heritage;
- Scientific dating methods;
- Degradation monitoring and factors affecting it;
- Conservation procedures;
- Digital procedures including artificial intelligence.
Prof. Dr. Žiga Šmit
Dr. Eva Menart
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- cultural heritage
- analytical methods
- scientific dating
- artifact preservation
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Related Special Issues
- Material Analysis in Cultural Heritage in Materials (12 articles)
- Materials in Cultural Heritage: Analysis, Testing, and Preservation in Materials (12 articles)
