Single-phase multiferroic materials are useful for applications by combining spin and charge degrees of freedom and fully exploiting the cross-control of magnetism and polarization without necessity of current flow accompanying energy dissipation.Interplay of long-range magnetic order with polarity in the same structure is a prerequisite for the design of magnetoelectric multiferroic materials.There exist demonstrated strategies to achieve this goal,but retaining ferromagnetic multiferroic order above room temperature remains a difficult target in experiment.The structural,electric,and magnetic properties have been widely researched in recent years,though the pursuit toward room-temperature multiferroics is still facing many challenges.We present some novel routes to realize multiferroics,giving specific examples of rare earth and transition metal perovskite oxide materials.We hope to stimulate more efforts from experimentalists and theorists to work together for the future developments in fundamental science and device applications.This work was supported by the National Key Basic Research Program of China(Grant No.2015CB921600),the National Natural Science Foundation of China(NSFC Grants No.11274222),the QiMingXing Project(Project No.14QA1402000)of the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission,the Eastern Scholar Program,and the Shuguang Program(Grant No.12SG34)from the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission.