About the Journal

Focus and Scope

The International Journal of Environment (IJE) is a peer reviewed journal (online only), aiming to publish high quality original articles (not published or submitted elsewhere for publication) on diverse issues of the Environmental Sciences particularly in the fields of agriculture, entomology, soil science, agro-forestry, food chemistry, environmental health, biochemistry, biotechnology, microbiology, taxonomy, environmental economics, ecology, natural resources, biodiversity, environmental management and policy, climate change, pollution, health and environmental risk assessment, toxicology, epidemiology, land use and management, ecosystem services, environmental modelling, nanomaterials, plant science, GIS and remote sensing, waste and water treatment. IJE provides a platform for Nepalese and international researchers especially in Asia and Africa to publish good articles in different areas of the environment. IJE publishes original research works, article reviews, short communications, announcements and commentaries.

The editors discourage submission of papers from studies such as anthropology, genetics and genomics, evolution, ethnomedicine, animal science (pasture and forage, breeding, nutrition and health), aquaculture and seed science. Experimental studies without a testable hypothesis are also discouraged.

Peer Review Process

i) Upon receipt of a manuscript, the Managing Editor will send an e-mail of confirmation to the corresponding author on the same day or within 48 hours.

ii) The Managing Editor will return any un-reviewed manuscript which falls outside the scope and policy of IJE to the corresponding within three working days.

iii) The peer review process will be handled by the Editorial Board led by the Editor-in-Chief. IJE uses a double blind peer-review where reviewers’ and authors’ identities remain anonymous. Manuscripts will be reviewed by at least two experts.

iv) A reviewer is asked to review the manuscript and to transmit within three weeks. Each reviewer perform a review in a track change mode and makes a specific recommendation for the manuscript based on the following aspects:

  • Significance of the research
  • Originality of the work
  • Appropriateness of the approach and experimental design
  • Adequacy of experimental techniques
  • Results and presentation
  • Relevance of discussion
  • Soundness of conclusions and interpretations
  • Clarity of presentation and organization of the article
  • English and grammar composition  

v) Reviewers’ comments/decisions/remarks are notified to the corresponding author by e-mail.

vi) If the manuscript is accepted, the authors should revise accordingly and submit the final version as soon as possible. Decision of the Editorial Board shall be final in this regard.

vii) After publication, the corresponding author will receive an e-mail notification.

Publication Frequency

The journal publishes four issues per year.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Publication ethics and malpractice statement

We trust on what we publish. The International Journal of Environment (IJE) strictly follows the ethical guidelines as stated in the webpage of Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and encourage our authors, reviewers and editors to go through the COPE website for comprehensive information on publication ethics. We look for every effort to maintain the reputation of our journal against malpractice.

IJE closely investigates and takes serious action on any unethical behaviours that may violate the best practices in scholarly publishing.  

There are many practices adhered to, but the most important guidelines are listed below:

Ethical guidelines for IJE authors

We ask every author to go through these points before they submit any submission.

  • Every author should send their original work and ensure that the work has not been submitted to multiple journals at the same time for publication. The content will be checked by using plagiarism checking software, and if an unacceptable similarity percentage is detected, the manuscript will automatically disqualify and receive desk-rejection.
  • Authors must submit a letter of permission with their article in order to use materials that require a copyright permission to be reproduced (e.g. published figures, tables, etc.).
  • The credit of authorship should be limited to those who have contributed on: research concept, data collection and analysis, securing funds, methods, supervision, writing original draft, review and editing. Others can be acknowledged in the acknowledgement section. The corresponding author assures that the credit of authorship is approved by all authors and they have read article thoroughly before submission. If the article after peer-review gets accepted, all authors must sign the copyright transfer form before publication. 
  • Authors should not submit already published, work-either wholly or partly.
  • Authors must ensure that the citation and referencing is complete and correct.
  • Authors must obtain formal ethical approval (if necessary) from the authorized department/institution. Studies on human and/or animal may be subjected to the need of ethical approval.
  • During the peer-review process and/or after publication, editor(s) may ask authors to provide additional data related to their article for which they must agree to send.
  • Authors must disclose any potential conflict of interest.
  • Authors must clearly mention the support if they have received any for conducting the research. The name of the institution and the project number should be mentioned.
  • If authors notice any significant error in their published article, it is the responsibility of author(s) to immediately write a letter to the Editor-in-Chief about the issue. Authors and the editor may reach to a decision to publish a corrigendum.  
  • If authors have posted their article in preprint servers prior submitting to a journal, it is important that they share the link via cover letter to the journal. IJE considers submission of manuscripts that have been archived in preprints.

Ethical guidelines for IJE reviewers

We ask every reviewer to go through these points before they review any submission.

  • All reviewers must help the editors by providing comments to the manuscript in a timely,  objective manner. Comments should be clear and concise with their unbiased judgements and arguments. Reviewers may either use the journal’s form to submit their comments or perform a peer-review in a track change mode. In a track change mode, the identity of reviewers should be hidden. Criticism not related to the manuscript is discouraged. Reviewers are the facilitators, hence should try to help the authors get their work improved.   
  • Reviewers should not copy the content or ideas of the manuscript until a decision to publish has been made. The peer-review process should be confidential.
  • Reviewers must notify the editor if the content is substantially similar to either published article or the article that is under review.
  • Reviewers should disclose any probable conflicts of interests to the journal editor such as financial, organizational, collaboration, family relations or problems with the ethics of the study performed. If such circumstances arise, either reviewers should make judgement without bias or deny the review invitations. Also, if a reviewer’s expertise does not match closely to the manuscript, he/she should immediately notify the editor. If reviewers cannot accept the review invitations due to unavoidable circumstances, they should inform the editor with reasons (if possible).   
  • Reviewers should crosscheck if citations, references, tables, and figures are correctly included in text. Unpublished works and their citations should be discouraged.
  • IJE expects all reviewers adhere to the COPE ethical guidelines for peer reviewers.
  • If reviewers discover the identity of author(s)–via means such as reading a preprint and conference proceedings– they should write to the editor promptly. 
  • If reviewers wish to ask their junior researchers/students to act as a reviewer for a manuscript to which they are assigned to, they may do so, but it is important that this permission is granted from the editor beforehand.

Ethical guidelines for IJE editors

We ask every editor to go through these points before they handle any submission.

  • Editorial decision must not be biased with respect to gender, culture and religion, ethnicity, citizenship and political faith.
  • Editors should keep the peer-review process confidential.
  • Editors have the responsibility to reject the manuscript if it is of low quality or do not meet the focus and scope of the journal. The final decision should not be affected due to any conflicts of interest.
  • Editors are responsible to handle any complaints during the peer-review process.
  • Editors are responsible to process manuscripts timely and efficiently.
  • Articles authored by an editor of a journal will be handled by other editor.
  • Editors have the responsibility to review articles which they handle, otherwise she/he should look for other potential reviewers.
  • Editors should continuously work to improve the quality of the journal.
  • Editors should ensure the content and the quality of the research which they accept.
  • Editors should immediately handle a corrigendum and retract the publication as needed. An article gets retracted due to unethical behaviour, such as extensive plagiarism, copyright infringement, false claims on authorship, and data fabrication and its use. All authors must agree and a signed letter is required in advance before a retraction is published. Reasons of retraction will be published and linked to the original article, clearly marked as “retracted” in red ink.   
  • Editors should be unbiased, objective and polite in helping authors improve their work. Discrimination based on gender, religion, politics and ethnicity is not acceptable.
  • Editors should listen to an author’s appeal against editorial decision. It is rare, but the editorial decision is final. If a serious problem is identified in the manuscript after acceptance, the editorial decision can be reversed and the manuscript may be rejected.
  • Editors ensure that manuscripts submitted to the journal remains confidential from the beginning to the end.
  • If an unintentional mistake/error has been detected in published articles, authors and editor should agree to publish the corrigendum at earliest.      

Full guidelines for authors, peer reviewers and editors can be found on the COPE webpage.

Article Charges

International Journal of Environment does NOT charge article submission fees and it does NOT charge article processing fees.