The Journal of Litter & Environmental Quality

Background to the Journal: The Journal of Litter and Environmental Quality is an, open-access, peer-reviewed journal, supported by the British Cleaning Council, that shares and discuss research that has been carried out by academics, practitioners and wider stakeholders into litter and environmental quality. The Journal is available online and through a limited print run. The purpose is to highlight the latest research in this area, to stimulate further research and encourage the use of research to develop practical innovation on the ground.

Aims and Scope

The Journal of Litter and Environmental Quality is interested in a broad range of article submissions around the issues of litter and environmental quality.

Litter refers to waste products that have been disposed of improperly, without consent, at an inappropriate location. 

Environmental quality refers to the standard of the local area and includes all/any issues that might affect the appearance of the area and/or how people perceive the area.

Topics of interest could include articles relating to specific litter type (e.g. packaging, cigarettes, wrappers), marine litter, monitoring and evaluation, packaging, research methods, social impact, environmental impact, behaviour change, personal impact, enforcement, private land, partnership working, public spaces (e.g. beaches, parks and waterways), innovation and community engagement among other issues.         

If you are unsure if the article you have written or are considering writing is suitable for Journal of Litter and Environmental Quality, please get in touch and we will be able to advise you on suitability.

Timeline

Submission deadline: Submissions are taken on a rolling basis, but the current deadline for the 5^th edition is Friday, 8^th October 2021. Please try to submit your article as early as possible to enable us to have time to have it reviewed and please contact us to let us know that you are planning to submit a piece.

 

Categorisation of articles

Authors should choose a category which most closely describes their article from the list below. You may select more than one if applicable.

Research article. This category covers articles which report on any type of research undertaken by the author(s). The research may involve the construction or testing of a model or framework, action research, testing of data, market research or surveys, empirical or scientific research.

Viewpoint. Any article where content is dependent on the author's opinion and interpretation should be included in this category; this also includes journalistic pieces.

Technical article. Describes and evaluates technical products, processes or services.

Conceptual article. These articles will not be based on research but will develop hypotheses. The articles are likely to be discursive and will cover philosophical discussions and comparative studies of others' work and thinking.

Case study. Case studies describe actual interventions or experiences within organisations. They may well be subjective and will not generally report on research. A description of a legal case or a hypothetical case study used as a teaching exercise would also fit into this category.

Literature review. It is expected that all types of article cite any relevant literature so this category should only be used if the main purpose of the article is to annotate and/or critique the literature in a particular subject area. It may be a selective bibliography providing advice on information sources or it may be comprehensive in that the aim of the article is to cover the main contributors to the development of a topic and explore their different views.

General review. This category covers those articles which provide an overview or historical examination of some concept, technique or phenomenon. The articles are likely to be more descriptive or instructional ("how to" articles) than discursive.

 

Review process

Each article passes an initial screening and is then sent to two reviewers in the field for double blind peer review. The reviewers will then assess if the article is suitable for publication. If it is and if needed, they will provide comments back to the authors for edits.

Third party copyright permissions

Prior to article submission, authors should clear permission to use any content e.g. figures, tables, images etc. that has not been created by them. Failure to do so may lead to lengthy delays in publication. Journal of Litter and Environmental Quality is unable to publish any article which has permissions pending. 

Copyright forms

If an article is accepted for publication the author will be asked to assign copyright to Journal of Litter and Environmental Quality, please get in touch to discuss this with us if there are any issues.

Final submission

The author must ensure that their article is complete, grammatically correct and without spelling or typographical errors. Before submitting, authors should check their submission completeness using the available pre-submission checklist.

Please provide us with the completed pre-submission checklist with your submission. Submissions are made by email to valeska.matziol@keepbritaintidy.org.