ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Correspondence. Readers are encouraged to comment on articles and issues discussed in the magazine and research sections or other significant issues facing the environmental community. Contributions are limited to 500 words and should be sent to the Managing Editor within two months of the date of publication of the original article. The authors of the original article will be allowed to reply provided they do so within two months. Research section Current research papers. The research pages of ES&T are devoted to the publication of critically reviewed papers concerned with the fields of water, air, soil, and waste chemistry, and with other scientific and technical fields that are relevant to the understanding and management of natural and engineered environments. Contributed research papers, in general, describe complete and fully interpreted results of original research. ES&T seeks to publish papers of an original and significant nature. Originality should be evidenced by new experimental data, new interpretations of existing data, or new theoretical analysis of environmental phenomena. Significance will be interpreted with respect to the breadth of impact of the reported findings. Manuscripts reporting data of a routine nature that do not offer heretofore unavailable important information or do not substantially augment or reinterpret already available data will be declined publication. The scope of the reported data in ambient monitoring studies should be such that broad conclusions applicable to more than the particular local scale are possible. All research articles emphasizing analytical methodology for air or water analysis must include substantial application to environmental samples. ES&T faces some overlap with other journals in this area, and articles that do not contain, in the editors' judgment, a significant emphasis on environmental analysis will be returned to the authors for submission elsewhere. Research articles describing advances in environmental technology should go beyond treatability studies; that is, they should explore the mechanisms of the technology or develop process models to describe it. Articles that describe laboratory-scale studies should not make claims about the economics or relative advantages of the technology without pilot- or full-scale validation studies. Comparisons with competitive technologies should be avoided without definite and unbiased assessments. Manuscripts should be prepared with strict attention to brevity. The vast majority of articles are expected to be fewer
than five published pages (25 pages of double-spaced text including references, graphs, and tables). Processing time will be shortened if the editors do not have to return manuscripts to be condensed. Research Communications. Research Communications are short research reports describing results of unusual significance. The subject of the Communication should be of such importance and the report of such quality that rapid publication is warranted. Communications are expected to be preliminary reports that will be followed by a more detailed publication. The Communication should be no longer than two printed pages including figures, tables, and references. Every effort should be made to keep the length substantially below this maximum, such as by avoiding a lengthy introductory section. The Experimental Section should be as brief as possible, giving only essential details. A short (100-word) abstract should be sent with the Communication for publication in Chemical Abstracts but it will not be published in ES&T. See Current Research Author's Guide for directions for preparation of abstract. Communications will be reviewed expeditiously and published as rapidly as possible. To ensure prompt attention to their manuscript, authors should consider sending Communications by fax to the manuscript office or by express courier. A fax number for return communications should be included, if available. If minor revisions are required, manuscripts will be returned to authors as expeditiously as possible and a revised manuscript should be returned within two weeks. The need for major revision is just cause for rejection of the Communication. Critical Reviews. Critical Reviews are thoroughly documented, peer- reviewed assessments of selected areas of the environmental science research literature for the purpose of identifying critical research needs. Criteria for acceptability include current importance of the field under review, thoroughness of the literature coverage, clarity of text, and adequacy of research need identification. Correspondence. Readers are encouraged to comment on articles appearing in the research section. Contributions are limited to 1000 words and can include a brief table or figure plus citations and should be sent to the Editor within two months of the date of publication of the original article. The authors of the original article will be allowed to reply provided they do so within two months.
Peer review Environmental Science & Technology stands out among American Chemical Society journals in that it combines both a magazine and a journal. Only one other ACS publication, Analytical Chemistry, contains this combination. Because of the hybrid nature of our publication, it serves a large and diverse audience. Central to the evaluation of all contributions to ES&T is a commitment to provide our readers with information of the highest quality. The publication seeks the most significant, original, and broadly applicable types of articles for its current research section and its section on policy analysis. In addition, the office of the Managing Editor in Washington seeks feature articles that are also of the highest quality. Original manuscript contributions are reviewed by qualified individuals who indicate in their evaluations the originality and validity of the work, as well as the appropriateness of the material for our publication. The Manuscript Office for ES&T was relocated in 1995 to the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and is managed by the Editor and an Editorial Assistant. The Editor and Associate Editors, who are located at the California Institute of Technology, EAWAG, Indiana University, the University of Iowa, the University of Oklahoma, Oregon Graduate Institute, and Carnegie Mellon University, are fully responsible for all material published in ES&T. This policy is a general one applicable to all editors of ACS publications. The members of the Advisory Board are chosen by the Editor to provide input to ES&T operations. The members represent various constituent groups in the research and reader communities, and they serve three-year terms. Although the editors seek advice and help from individuals in the scientific community and from advisory groups, it is ultimately the editors' responsibility to provide editorial direction, set editorial policies, and make individual publication decisions. General guidelines and overall editorial policies set by the editors form the basis for evaluating reviewers comments on research articles. The peer review process Each manuscript submitted to the current research section is reviewed by the Editor and, on the basis of its content, assigned to one of the Associate Editors or to the Editor (hereafter called technical editor). The subject matter of the manuscript determines which editor will receive the file. The technical editor and local editorial assistant are responsible for the manuscript, including choosing reviewers; evaluating the content of the
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ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY paper; taking into account the comments of reviewers; communicating ultimate acceptance or rejection to the corresponding authors; monitoring the progress of the review process; and carrying out a final check of accepted manuscripts for appropriate format and style. Reviewers are picked by the technical editors. At least two reviewers are carefully selected for each paper; selection is based on the subject matter of the paper, the experts available in a given area, and the editorial staff member's knowledge of the habits of proposed reviewers. Thus, known slow reviewers are avoided when possible. Potential reviewers for each paper are identified through various means, one of which may be a computer search of subjects that reviewers have indicated are their areas of expertise. Reviewers are normally asked to respond within four weeks, and if they are late, reminders are sent. Late review notifications are generated and dispatched as fax messages on a weekly basis. Reviews are sent directly to the technical editor to whom the paper has been assigned. Reviews may be returned by fax, electronic mail, and regular mail. If the reviewers do not agree on the disposition of the paper, or if the technical and scientific strengths or shortcomings of the work have not been adequately addressed, additional reviewers may be selected. The reviews (usually at least two) are used by the technical editor in making the final decision about the disposition of the manuscript. Letters communicating the decision proceed directly from the office of the technical editor to the corresponding author. Tips for authors • Prepare your paper with the audience of the publication in mind. Papers prepared for other journals are likely to need some revision to make them suitable for ES&T. • Clearly state in the introduction the purpose of the work and put the work into perspective with earlier work in the area. This may appear obvious, but authors often fail to clearly state the purpose and significance of their work. • Write concisely. The majority of articles are expected to be fewer than five published pages (less than 25 word processor produced pages, double-spaced with 12point type, including tables and figures). Long manuscripts are looked at much more closely and critically by both reviewers and editors and may be summarily rejected. Do not repeat information, figures, or tables that have appeared elsewhere. Use illustrative data rather than complete data where appropriate. • Suggest names and addresses of possible reviewers for your paper. You may
also suggest the names of persons whom you do not want to review the paper. The editors try to use at least one reviewer who has been suggested by authors. This cannot be assured, however, since specific reviewers may not be available or may already be overloaded. • Follow the Current Research Author's Guide. • If your manuscript is rejected or requires revision: Read the reviews carefully. If the reviewers have missed the point, as authors often claim, consider how the presentation can be clarified and improved to make the point clear. If reviewers have not understood, it is unlikely that readers will understand. Is the manuscript, after all, more suitable for another journal? Is the work sufficiently complete, or do you need to do more work before seeking publication? If you feel strongly that the paper has not been judged fairly, then carefully revise the manuscript, taking into account the reviewers' criticisms, and send the manuscript to the office of the technical editor with a rebuttal letter asking that the manuscript be reconsidered. Provide an itemized list of changes made in the manuscript in response to reviewer comments, as well as objective rebuttals to all other criticisms.
Current research author's guide This manuscript preparation guide is published to aid authors in writing, and editors and reviewers in expediting the review and publication of, research manuscripts in Environmental Science & Technology, including full research articles and communications. For a detailed discussion with examples of the major aspects of manuscript preparation, please refer to The ACS Style Guide (1986). Submission of manuscript The following procedure applies to the submission of manuscripts for consideration as research articles, Research Communications, Critical Reviews, Policy Analysis articles, and Correspondence. Five copies of the manuscript and a cover letter should be sent to the Editor, Environmental Science & Technology, Department of Environmental Sciences & Engineering, School of Public Health, 131 Rosenau Hall, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7400. Include e-mail and fax addresses for the corresponding author, if possible. Title Use specific and informative titles. They should be as brief as possible, consistent
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with the need for defining the subject of the paper. If trade names are used, give generic names in parentheses. Key words in titles assist in effective literature retrieval. Authorship List the first name, middle initial, and last name of each author. Omit professional and official titles. Give the complete mailing address where work was performed. When present address of an author is different, include the new information in a footnote. In each paper with more than one author, the name of the author to whom inquiries should be addressed carries an asterisk. The explanation appears on the contents page. Include an e-mail address, telephone and fax number for the corresponding author, if possible. Abstract An abstract, which will appear at the beginning of each paper, must accompany each manuscript. Authors' abstracts frequently are used directly for Chemical Abstracts. Use between 150-200 words to give purpose, methods or procedures, significant new results, and conclusions. Write for literature searchers as well as journal readers, but do not include background material in the Abstract. Abstracts submitted to ACS journals as part of an accepted manuscript will be published in Advance ACS Abstracts up to eight weeks before the journal is published. Authors should take this into account when planning their intellectual and patent activities related to the paper. The actual date of the abstract publication is recorded in a footnote in the published paper. Notice: Authors have the option of designating a figure or table from their paper to be published along with their abstract in the new publication, ES&T News and Research Notes. The selected figure should convey significant details of the research; maps, photographs, and other types of background information are not recommended. Designation of the selected figure or table should be indicated right after the abstract of the manuscript. If no figure or table is designated, it will be assumed that the author has chosen not to select one. Publication of the abstract is contingent upon acceptance of the full paper. A separate abstract should not be prepared specifically for this new product. Key words Authors are asked to suggest up to six key words that may be used by Chemical Abstracts and other electronic search systems at ACS for identifying and cataloging the manuscript after publication.
