Journal of Environmental Law and Policy

Guidelines for Authors (How to Prepare Manuscript)

General Information

The Journal publishes 2 times a year and considers submissions of articles, analysis pieces, and review articles. Information about all three can be found below. In all cases, the Journal is committed to publishing pieces of the highest academic quality. Please note that because of the distinct nature of articles, analysis pieces and review articles they all have a same submission, reviewing and preparation process. Note that all submissions share the same policies in relation to formatting (style), production, licence to publish, open access, self-archiving, and conflict of interest. Work submitted for publication must be previously unpublished and not under consideration for publication elsewhere and, if accepted, it should not then be published elsewhere in the same form or language. Please read other sections such as FOR AUTHORS, RESEARCH ETHICS, PUBLICATION ETHICS to understand our journal’s policies.

Articles

The Journal welcomes submissions of articles that pertain to law and environmental problems in any jurisdiction. Articles are only accepted for publication after a single blind refereeing process. The key criterion for acceptance is scholarly rigor and quality. Besides reading through the website of Grassroots Journals. Of those articles that are ultimately accepted for publication, most are accepted with the need for some revision. The length of time between submission, final acceptance and publication can thus vary significantly.

Articles should be submitted using Online Submission System on the website of Grassroots Journals. The manuscript document should be uploaded in the system. It should contain name(s) of author(s) followed by affiliation and email address. Emails of all the authors are mandatory.

Articles should be between 5,000 and 15,000 words in length inclusive of footnotes and abstract. Articles should be consistent with our House Style.

Particularly if English is not your first language, before submitting your manuscript you may wish to have it edited for language. This is not a mandatory step but may help to ensure that the academic content of your paper is fully understood by journal editors and reviewers.

Language editing does not guarantee that your manuscript will be accepted for publication. Authors are liable for all costs associated with such services. To access our English Language Service, you may click the link on the website.

Analysis

A particular point to keep in mind is that analyses can act as succinct but valuable pieces of scholarship, and ambitious efforts to analyse recent developments within a broader frame of scholarly reference – comparative, doctrinal, socio-legal – are encouraged. In that spirit, we welcome analysis of significant case-law, legislative or policy developments on environmental issues from any jurisdiction. We also welcome analysis of cases which that are under appeal, particularly where it is possible to publish the analysis online, ahead of the printed issue. A single analysis may cover a number of related cases or policy papers.

We encourage contributions from senior and junior academics alike. In particular, we are open to analysis writing from doctoral students, who are focusing their work in a particular area of environmental law and building a research profile. Note that the Analysis section generally no longer publishes the full judgment of cases. Similarly, the text of legislation and policy documents is not likely to be included. This allows the analysis to concentrate on the implications and wider context of the item under discussion. Where the relevant judgment of a case is not reproduced, authors should give a brief summary of the facts of the case and the holding.

Editorial Process and Guidelines for Analysis Authors

Analyses should be in the region of 1500-5000 words. Where possible, the Journal is keen to encourage a larger number of shorter analyses per issue. All analysis manuscripts received will be refereed by both the editors and at least one external academic. Authors should provide a title for the case analysis, and a list of up to 5 keywords. The Journal will not consider accepting analyses which have originally been published other than in English.

Review Articles

The Journal’s Review Articles section carries reviews of original works in the area of environmental law, policy, and practice. In support of the Journal’s broad remit, the section encourages Review Article contributions which promote scholarly discourse across a spectrum of themes related to environmental law principles, policy and practice, or draw out the relevance of connections to work in cognate disciplines. Review Articles should be in the region of 5,000 to 15000 words, excluding references. This allows authors space to say something substantive about the work(s) under review. All Review Article manuscripts received will be refereed by referees.

House Style - OSCOLA

Layout

Articles, analysis pieces and review articles should be in English, double spaced (including footnotes) and should include page numbers. Authors please comply with the following.

• An abstract of the paper, of around 150-300 words, should be included at the start of the article, followed by up to 7 keywords.
• Article titles should be UPPER CASE AND CENTRED
• Author names should be Title Case and Centred, along with affiliation and email
• Corresponding author name should be asterisk/marked. ORCID should be mentioned of the Corresponding author.
• Article headings:

H1> 1. Numbered, Title Case and Ranged Left

H2> 1.1 Numbered, Title Case and Ranged Left

H3> 1.1.1 Numbered, sentence case and ranged left

• Please DO NOT use the tab key when indenting for a paragraph. This Journals of The Grassroots Institute use one line space between two paragraphs and do not use tab key to begin a new paragraph.

Referencing

Footnotes and references should be numbered consecutively and should use OSCOLA citation style. Authors are responsible for checking the accuracy of all references. All references cited shall be requiring DOI or online source. On publication, all footnotes appear at the bottom of each page. Authors are encouraged to use footnotes for the elaboration of text as appropriate, and in particular to explain the context of national laws and policies, bearing in mind the international readership.

Besides the information on the OSCOLA website the following may be useful to know.

For material from jurisdictions not covered by OSCOLA authors should use the approved form that is standard in the jurisdiction in question; above all, consistency within the article is paramount.

Please note that the 4th edition of OSCOLA does not give guidance on international materials. In relation to international treaties, cite the treaty series in the following order of preference:

• Primary international treaty series, eg UNTS (United Nations Treaty Series), CTS (Consolidated Treaty Series) or LNTS (League of Nations Treaty Series);
• Official treaty series of one of the States parties, e.g., UKTS (UK Treaty Series), (ATS) (Australian Treaty Series); and
• Other international treaty series (e.g., British and Foreign State Papers).
• For post-1960 treaties not yet published in an official series, the usual source is International Legal Materials (ILM). Prior to January 2000, the ILM volumes were given in roman numerals. However, the ILM itself uses Arabic numerals in its own citations of ILM volumes; therefore, always cite in Arabic numerals.
• When citing documents from the major bodies of the United Nations, include the unique document reference numbers that identify both the body from which the document issues and the nature of the document. Cite UN documents in the following order: author, ‘title’ date document number. Italicize the title of a UN document only if it has been published as a book (i.e., it has an ISBN), in which case the UN Doc number is not necessary.

While websites can be an important source of information, please cite them with care. The general principle is only including cites to webpages when the information can only be found there and is more authoritative than more traditional sources. Websites can often disappear overnight, and it is thus vital to include the ‘last accessed’ date as this can provide a tool to finding the information on that site. Do not cite webpages for PDF documents but rather cite the webpage on which the PDF document can be downloaded. With policy documents, please provide as much information as you can besides the webpage address.

NEXT GUIDING NOTES FOR AUTHORS ARE COMMON FOR ALL THE JOURNALS OF THE GRASSROOTS INSTITUTE.