Three new academic journals to meet growing demand for environmental research

IOP Publishing (IOPP) is launching three new, fully open access (OA) journals, extending the publisher’s Environmental Research series. IOPP’s Environmental Research Series now comprises of six titles that collectively address all major areas of environmental science. 

Environmental Research: Health (ERH) and Environmental Research: Climate (ERCL) will both open submissions from today. The third new journal, Environmental Research: Ecology (ERE) will open for submissions later in 2021. 

The three new journals reflect the surge in published research that covers one of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) such as clean water and sanitation, sustainable cities and communities and climate action. The growth in this scientific field is expected to accelerate further in the coming years. 

The new journals offer a suite of interdisciplinary OA publishing options with rigorous peer review standards based on editorial excellence and a commitment to data transparency. Like the first and most recently launched journal of the series, Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability, research published in the three new titles will be universally accessible, ensuring maximum visibility and reach.  

In the spirit of transparency and reproducibility, authors will be encouraged to share data and code where appropriate for the benefit of the research community and authors will have the option to submit their paper for double anonymous and transparent peer review. In addition, IOPP will waive all OA article publication charges for articles that are submitted to the three new launches before 2024. After the initial waiver period for all, authors from low- and middle-income countries who publish in IOPP’s new journals don’t have to pay any article processing costs. 

IOPP’s Environmental Research Series provides a platform for the environmental science community worldwide to share knowledge that addresses some of the world’s most critical issues with the aim of accelerating breakthroughs that support long term sustainable developments.  

Newly appointed Editor in Chief of ERH, Professor Michelle Bell from Yale University says: Environmental Research: Health has been created to facilitate interconnected research, with an open access model so that knowledge is available to all for healthier people and a better world.” 

Editor in Chief for ERCL, Professor Noah Diffenbaugh, Senior Fellow at Stanford University says: “People have been observing the climate for as long as humans have existed, and climate research began more than a century ago. But in the past two decades there has been a true explosion of climate research, and a coherent field has taken shape, aimed at understanding the causes, consequences, and solutions of climate change. Underpinned by open science principles Environmental Research: Climate is a journal for that entire community.” 

Professor Scott Goetz, from the Northern Arizona University has been appointed most recently as Editor in Chief of ERE.Bringing more than 30 years of experience in environmental research, he comments: Ecosystems across the globe are undergoing enormous changes brought about by human-induced transformations and associated feedbacks to and alteration of the climate system. Environmental Research: Ecology provides a forum for incorporating fundamental and applied research across scales using a diversity of approaches to address realistic science-based policy solutions.”  

 
Dr Tim Smith, Associate Director at IOP Publishing said: “The development of our Environmental Research series builds upon the established reputation and publishing values of ERL and enhances the role we want IOPP to have in serving a multidisciplinary field of great importance. Our aim is to deliver a combination of outstanding publishing services and content that brings together academia, industry and policy makers, and ultimately accelerates progress towards delivering sustainable solutions in support of the United Nations Sustainability Development Goals.” 

The Environmental Research series is aligned with IOPP’s free-to-attend virtual conference, taking place from 15 to 19 November 2021