Please read the text below carefully. We have been getting things that do not comply, and so we have to ask the authors to redo their work. The first thing that you send is an article proposal, not a ms. This page tells you everything that you ever wanted to know about article proposals for the learning sustainability (LS) special.
The submission process is done in three steps:
1. Writing an article proposal (details below)
Please do not attempt to send your proposal or ms via google drive or docs or similar system. Use only email and send only to David, the the Lead Guest Ed, not to other members of the Ed Board.
Before submitting a ms, you should do an article proposal. This will allow the editors to help you shape your ms so as to come as much as possible within the scope and objective of the article collection, and (after submission during the review process) to have the greatest chance of your article being accepted for publication. It would be a pity if you wrote a long article, only to have to rewrite the whole thing because it does not fit into the scope of the special issue, or even for it to be rejected. We think that this step-by-step process will help increase the success rate.
Before submitting a ms, you should do an article proposal. (That is not a mistake.)
Before you write your proposal, please read the main pages of this CfP. It contains important information to help you do a good proposal. These article-proposal notes are placed here (not at the end of the CfP) so that you will have them in mind as you read the rest of this CfP. Before you write your proposal, please read the main pages of this CfP. (Also, not a mistake.)
Please remember that your article needs to fall within the scope and objective of this special issue, that is (in a phrase), the nexus or articulation of learning and sustainability. The theme and title of the special issue is 'learning sustainability'. You cannot ignore or pay lips service to one or the other aspect.
You might wish to look at these pages in particular:
Your proposal is a relativity short document (if possible, <1.4k words) that gives a clear idea of what the intended article will be. It is not a manuscript or draft manuscript. So please do not send any more than the proposal as indicated below. A long text or ms will not be read at this stage. Only after your proposal has been approved will you send a draft ms.
Your proposal should be in one single .doc or .docx file, not justified (or only left-justified), 1.5 line spacing, narrow margins, 14pt, times roman. The proposal should contain the following twelve elements (* v important):
Notes
@ In choosing reviewers, please keep in mind the following criteria:
* If a starred item above is missing, you will be asked to supply it before your proposal can be considered.
Please keep the total length of your proposal to <1400 words; the abstract and plan within 1000 words; in 14pt, Times Roman; 1.5 spacing, left justified only (incl titles, headings, etc).
Email subject and filename. To help us keep track of emails and files, please use the following format for your emails and for the filename of your abstract:
§ If you would like to co-author and do not know one, please let David know. In the past, David has successfully brought together authors unknown to each other and who subsequently produced an excellent article. It might be, for example, that your work has been in some experiential aspect of sustainability, but you are unsure of the learning (pedagogical) aspects. Or it might be that you are an NGO worker, having tremendous experience in sustainability and learning, but have never written an academic article. You can also add on co-authors during your writing.
Please send your article proposal to David only, the Lead Guest Editor, here e4l.jrnl at gmail dot com. David may forward your proposal to one or more of the Guest Editors, members of the Editorial Board. They will send comments directly to you, with CC to David. Never send your proposal or ms to members of the Ed Board, except David.
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As you write your proposal, you may wish to think in terms of the article
types, style and formatting that are published in Sustainable Earth:Keep in mind the policy of the journal (text already provided on the main page); key phrases are provided here:
As this is an Open Access (OA) journal, authors have to foot the bill, via an article-processing charge (APC). Hold on!, please continue to read - all is not lost. OA is in contrast to the more traditional paywall system, where readers have to pay to read your article. One great advantage of an OA system is that more people can, more easily, access your article, and thus your article has a greater chance of being cited. In the case of this particular article collection (special issue) on Learning Sustainability, it may be that readers will be more numerous in lower income countries, readers who would be (even) less able to access your article than if it was in a paywall journal.
The following pages will give you more info on money matters related to your article.
Remember, submit your full ms to the online ms manager only after it has been cleared by the Guest Editors of this Article Collection, at which point you will get further instructions.
Please also remember that the final word about whether or not your article is accepted, after the peer review process, is in the hands of the journal Editors-in-Chief.
1. Writing an article proposal (details below)
- You will receive comments on your proposal from the Ed Board
- We may ask you to write v2 of your proposal
- You will get comments on your ms from the Ed Board
- Please do not send a ms until you are invited to do so
- We may ask you to write v2 of your draft ms
- You will be told when this is possible; please do not submit before you are invited to do so
- Your ms will then be peer reviewed by two or three reviewers (not Ed Board members); an Ed Board member will coach your ms through the review process
Please do not attempt to send your proposal or ms via google drive or docs or similar system. Use only email and send only to David, the the Lead Guest Ed, not to other members of the Ed Board.
Before submitting a ms, you should do an article proposal. This will allow the editors to help you shape your ms so as to come as much as possible within the scope and objective of the article collection, and (after submission during the review process) to have the greatest chance of your article being accepted for publication. It would be a pity if you wrote a long article, only to have to rewrite the whole thing because it does not fit into the scope of the special issue, or even for it to be rejected. We think that this step-by-step process will help increase the success rate.
Before submitting a ms, you should do an article proposal. (That is not a mistake.)
Before you write your proposal, please read the main pages of this CfP. It contains important information to help you do a good proposal. These article-proposal notes are placed here (not at the end of the CfP) so that you will have them in mind as you read the rest of this CfP. Before you write your proposal, please read the main pages of this CfP. (Also, not a mistake.)
Please remember that your article needs to fall within the scope and objective of this special issue, that is (in a phrase), the nexus or articulation of learning and sustainability. The theme and title of the special issue is 'learning sustainability'. You cannot ignore or pay lips service to one or the other aspect.
You might wish to look at these pages in particular:
- Rationale and scope of the special issue: CfP-SE-short and CfP-SE-long
- Mind joggers, ideas for articles
- A list of sustainability issues
- A list of experiential learning methods
- A collection of resources, on topics such as learning, debriefing, ComMod, etc
- The section on Language Clarity in the writing tips page
Your proposal is a relativity short document (if possible, <1.4k words) that gives a clear idea of what the intended article will be. It is not a manuscript or draft manuscript. So please do not send any more than the proposal as indicated below. A long text or ms will not be read at this stage. Only after your proposal has been approved will you send a draft ms.
Your proposal should be in one single .doc or .docx file, not justified (or only left-justified), 1.5 line spacing, narrow margins, 14pt, times roman. The proposal should contain the following twelve elements (* v important):
- * Full name of corresponding author.
- * A (provisional) title: And maybe a subtitle.
- * Full contact details of corresponding author (affiliation, name, email, alternative or backup email, skype id and maybe a fixed line telephone).
- * An abstract. It would be helpful to do a structured abstract, but an ordinary one is acceptable. (You will find help on how to do structured abstracts on the web, or ask David.)
- * A provisional plan of your proposed article, especially if your abstract is not a structured one.
- Some keywords.
- Names of any co-authors, and their affiliations and contact details. You are strongly encouraged to co-author§. If you do not have any now, you can always add them later. However, co-authors should really be in on the proposal at the very start. Co-authoring is a bit like 1+1=3.
- * Names & contact details of 3 or 4 possible reviewers. Indicate (a) their fields of expertise and affiliation and (b) your relationship to these potential reviewers. It is perfectly acceptable to know a reviewer, but we would like to know how much or what kind of interest or stake (if any) they have in your work. We may ask people other than your suggested reviewers to review your ms. (Indicate if you have contacted, or intend to contact, them about the possibility of their reviewing your work.) @
- Any other information that you think would help, eg, some of the main references that you may draw on.
- * A statement indicating that the proposal is and the ms will be original works, that is, the proposal is not, or the future ms will not be, under consideration for publication elsewhere (in other publications). You may use conference presentations if you have at least 30% additional material in your final ms, and that full reference is made to the real (not fake) presentation. You may use unpublished part(s) of a PhD thesis or dissertation, as long as full reference is given to the original work, and that it has been updated for the special, issue.
- * A statement indicating your willingness to review up to three articles by other authors. This is important; if everyone is willing to contribute to our authoring community, then everyone has a greater chance of being assigned reviewers for their own article.
- * An indication of total word count (use the word processor word count function for that). Maximim is normally 1400 words.
Notes
@ In choosing reviewers, please keep in mind the following criteria:
- Reliable = they do the review that they agree to do, and they respond in a timely manner;
- If they are not reliable, it will considerably lengthen the review time for your article; You should seek agreement from them beforehand.
- Thorough = they do a thorough review, not a skimpy one;
- Knowledgeable =
- they are familiar with disciplines of, and issues related to, sustainable development, climate change, environment, learning, experiential, learning, participatory learning, etc.,
- they know the special field(s) of your article,
- if necessary, they are well versed in scholarship protocols (research methods, statistics, etc.);
- Positive = they focus on helping the author to do a good article, providing help for improvement, rather than bashing the article or its author. See the guidelines that reviewers will be asked to follow here.
* If a starred item above is missing, you will be asked to supply it before your proposal can be considered.
Please keep the total length of your proposal to <1400 words; the abstract and plan within 1000 words; in 14pt, Times Roman; 1.5 spacing, left justified only (incl titles, headings, etc).
Email subject and filename. To help us keep track of emails and files, please use the following format for your emails and for the filename of your abstract:
- Yoursurname, Three-keywords-of-the-title, anything else etc.doc or docx
§ If you would like to co-author and do not know one, please let David know. In the past, David has successfully brought together authors unknown to each other and who subsequently produced an excellent article. It might be, for example, that your work has been in some experiential aspect of sustainability, but you are unsure of the learning (pedagogical) aspects. Or it might be that you are an NGO worker, having tremendous experience in sustainability and learning, but have never written an academic article. You can also add on co-authors during your writing.
Please send your article proposal to David only, the Lead Guest Editor, here e4l.jrnl at gmail dot com. David may forward your proposal to one or more of the Guest Editors, members of the Editorial Board. They will send comments directly to you, with CC to David. Never send your proposal or ms to members of the Ed Board, except David.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As you write your proposal, you may wish to think in terms of the article
types, style and formatting that are published in Sustainable Earth:Keep in mind the policy of the journal (text already provided on the main page); key phrases are provided here:
- community-focused journal
- both the realms of academia and the general public
- strengthen the bond between them
- traditional and innovative scientific communication
- contemporary topics in the public eye
- socio economic importance
- subtitle – ‘Science, Policy, Society’
- connectivity between core research, policy and everyday life
- welcomes articles that may influence policy or alter societal paradigms.
- varying length
- communicate novel findings
- provide consensus or direction in the context of existing sustainability research
- research- and review-style articles
- articles that provide ‘Guidelines’
- direct suggestions for policy implementation or change.
- include images, graphics and videos
- summarise research in a creative way
- attach data sets to their articles and make them available in open access repositories
- https://sustainableearth.biomedcentral.com/about
- https://www.biomedcentral.com/about/policies
- https://www.biomedcentral.com/getpublished/editorial-policies
As this is an Open Access (OA) journal, authors have to foot the bill, via an article-processing charge (APC). Hold on!, please continue to read - all is not lost. OA is in contrast to the more traditional paywall system, where readers have to pay to read your article. One great advantage of an OA system is that more people can, more easily, access your article, and thus your article has a greater chance of being cited. In the case of this particular article collection (special issue) on Learning Sustainability, it may be that readers will be more numerous in lower income countries, readers who would be (even) less able to access your article than if it was in a paywall journal.
The following pages will give you more info on money matters related to your article.
- https://sustainableearth.biomedcentral.com/about#article-processing+charges
- https://sustainableearth.biomedcentral.com/submission-guidelines/fees-and-funding
- https://www.springernature.com/gp/open-research/funding
Remember, submit your full ms to the online ms manager only after it has been cleared by the Guest Editors of this Article Collection, at which point you will get further instructions.
Please also remember that the final word about whether or not your article is accepted, after the peer review process, is in the hands of the journal Editors-in-Chief.
