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Submission Guidelines

Please submit your manuscript via the journal's peer-review management system: editorialmanager.com/epl. First, please see the guidelines (links below). These offer general guidelines for preparing your manuscript (Research and Review Articles). 

As of 2020, Environmental Policy and Law has a newly-broadened coverage that has been updated to coincide with the publication of Volume 50 of the journal. For a full list of the topics covered in the journal, see the Aims & Scope. We also welcome other content, such as Commentaries (Perspectives and Policy Forums), Meeting Reports, Short Reports, Letters to the Editor, and Book Reviews, etc. For guidelines on these submissions, go here.

If you are interested to submit to the journal and have any queries/comments, please email: editorial@iospress.nl.

Submission of Manuscripts

By submitting my article to this journal, I agree to the Author Copyright Agreement, the IOS Press Ethics Policy, and the IOS Press Privacy Policy.

Environmental Policy and Law does not charge a publication fee.

EPL has transitioned to a Subscribe to Open (S2O) model for 2023, which means that articles published between 1 January 2023 and 31 December 2023 are open access and fully accessible, published under a CC-BY-NC 4.0 license. Another benefit is that there are no author fees or article processing charges (APCs) associated with this open access model. S2O is an alternative sustainable subscription model that converts scholarly subscription journals to open access one year at a time. Under this model, institutions continue to subscribe to journals of value to their community, and if sufficient revenue is generated, the entire year's content will be published open access. Read more about S2O.

This journal supports the IOS Press Diversity and Inclusion Statement. Discover more about planned sustainability actions by the journal, please check the IOS Press website here and the EPL website here.

Preparation of Manuscripts

Organization of the paper and style of presentation
All article manuscript submissions should be between 5,000 and 8,000 words in length inclusive of abstract, keywords, footnotes, tables and figures. In special cases, longer articles may be considered.

Manuscripts must be written in English. Authors whose native language is not English are advised to seek the advice of a native English speaker, before submitting their manuscripts.

Manuscripts should be prepared with wide margins and double spacing throughout, including the abstract, footnotes and references. Every page of the manuscript, including the title page, tables, etc., should be numbered. However, in the text no reference should be made to page numbers; if necessary, one may refer to sections. Try to avoid the excessive use of italics and bold face. All the citations shall be shown as footnotes at bottom of the same page, numbered as 1, 2, 3, etc.

Manuscripts should be organized in the following order:

  • Title page
  • Body of text (divided by subheadings)
  • Acknowledgements
  • Tables
  • Figure captions
  • Figures

Headings and subheadings should be numbered and typed on a separate line, without indentation.
SI units should be used, i.e., the units based on the meter, kilogram, second, etc.

Title page
The title page document should be uploaded separately and should provide the following information:

  • Title (should be clear, descriptive and not too long)
  • Name(s) of author(s); please indicate who is the corresponding author
  • Full affiliation(s)
  • Present address of author(s), if different from affiliation
  • Complete address of corresponding author, including telephone number and email address
  • Abstract; should be clear, descriptive, self-explanatory and not longer than 200 words, it should also be suitable for publication in abstracting services
  • Keywords

Authorship
Any author included in the author list should have contributed significantly to the paper, and no person who has made a significant contribution should be omitted from the list of authors. Please read the IOS Press authorship policy for further information.

Tables
Number as Table 1, Table 2, etc., and refer to all of them in the text.
Each table should be provided on a separate page of the manuscript. Tables should not be included in the text.
Each table should have a brief and self-explanatory title.
Column headings should be brief, but sufficiently explanatory. Standard abbreviations of units of measurement should be added between parentheses.
Vertical lines should not be used to separate columns. Leave some extra space between the columns instead.
Any explanations essential to the understanding of the table should be given in footnotes at the bottom of the table.

Footnotes
All citations in the articles need to be given only as footnotes, shown at the bottom of the same page and numbered as 1, 2, 3 etc. Lengthy footnotes should only be used if absolutely essential. In most cases it is possible to incorporate the information in the text. Separate bibliography should not be given.

Illustrations and Figures
Authors are encouraged to submit figures, tables, photographs and other illustrations for inclusion in the publication, and are responsible for any necessary permissions relative to use of these materials (see here). EPL may, in some cases, include relevant illustrations and figures, selected with attention to the content of the article. It is possible to have figures printed in color, provided the cost of their reproduction is paid for by the author.

Additional Information

Pre-Press 
Shortly after the author corrections are received, the corrected proof is published online in the journal's pre-press module. The pre-press article is fully citable by using the DOI number. This is not the final version. When the article is published in an issue, the final, updated version replaces the pre-press version.

Kudos 
Authors of published articles (non-prepress, final articles) will be contacted by Kudos. Kudos is a service that helps researchers maximize the impact and visibility of their research. It allows authors to enrich their articles with lay metadata, add links to related materials and promote their articles through the Kudos system to a wider public. Authors will receive no more than three emails: one invitation and a maximum of two reminders to register for the service and link the published article to their profile. Using and registering for Kudos remains entirely optional. For more information, please have a look at the IOS Press website here.

Promotion of your Article 
IOS Press will seek to promote your article via this website, content platform, social media (follow the EPL Twitter here and tag us if you tweet about your work) and through the journal's newsletter. Be sure to sign up to the mailing (via this link) so you can forward it on to your colleagues and spread the news of your article. The marketing team at IOS Press will be in contact with you to once your article is published in regard to promotional matters. If you wish to answer some questions for a Q&A to be published on our blog, please get in touch by email. Would you like some other pointers on how to help your research achieve a wider reach and greater impact? Please visit the IOS Press website section Promote Your Article consult and also consult our Promotional Toolkit for Authors (PDF) for tips.