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Aims and scope


Ensuring universal access to affordable and clean energy is one of the goals of the UN agenda for sustainable development. Progress towards these SDG targets is therefore a priority need, demanding not only techno-economic efforts for energy provisioning but also societal engagement for its implementing. Transformation towards sustainable energy systems requires systemic and holistic innovations that include a sustainable supply of resources, the development of highly efficient technical solutions and the adaptation of energy systems to the environmental, economic and cultural context as well as the social and political framework.

The aim of the journal is to provide an international and interdisciplinary forum for the discourse between natural scientists, engineers, social & political scientists as well as experts from industry who drive the innovation of sustainable energy systems. It is the particular aim of this journal to publish papers extending across different disciplines and providing a substantial contribution to the holistic innovation of these energy systems.

The scope of the journal encompasses the whole innovation process ranging from scientific research to both innovative approaches for technology implementation and the analysis of economic, social and environmental impacts of sustainable energy systems. Main emphasis will therefore be placed on papers addressing complex issues with innovation potential at the interface between technical solutions, their implementation and their social, environmental and economic impacts and indicating both novelty and potential for practical application.

Hence, the journal covers papers in complex topics dealing with

  • research, development and implementation of sustainable energy sources and systems, including for instance bio-refineries, carbon capture, reuse systems;
  • from start to finish the efficient supply of resources by means of their technological cascading conversion, via their storage and distribution through to their end-use;
  • the development of regionally adapted sustainable energy and material supply systems and discourse on how to transform urban settlements into smart cities;
  • systemic approaches to link information technologies with energy technologies that meet the social and environmental criteria for sustainable development;
  • political and economic frameworks to improve the environmental, economic and social performance of energy systems;
  • concepts for discovering novel energy sources, energy mixes and energy systems requiring a large variety of technological solutions, sophisticated computer simulations, novel laboratory technologies, large-scale research facilities, as well as scenario development and national and international networks;
  • and in general, inform about the complex interactions between energy, sustainable development and societal change.


The editors particularly welcome papers that integrate at least two dimensions of the energy, sustainability and society nexus and contribute to new holistic system solutions for the development of novel future energy.

The journal does not consider manuscripts focusing solely on fossil and nuclear energy resources; sustainability and/or society; or more specific technical aspects regarding energy engineering, electrical or electronical engineering, etc.

Energy, Sustainability and Society publishes independently peer-reviewed original full-length research papers, review papers and forum articles. Of special interest are papers on innovative approaches. From time to time, the journal includes special topical or conference issues that concentrate on specific areas.

We partner with scientists from the Helmholtz Association and the European Sustainable Energy Innovation Alliance (ESEIA) as the topics of the journal reflect their research field and focus.
 

Benefits of publishing with BMC

High visibility

Energy, Sustainability and Society's open access policy allows maximum visibility of articles published in the journal as they are available to a wide, global audience. 

Speed of publication

Energy, Sustainability and Society offers a fast publication schedule whilst maintaining rigorous peer review; all articles must be submitted online, and peer review is managed fully electronically (articles are distributed in PDF form, which is automatically generated from the submitted files). Articles will be published with their final citation after acceptance, in both fully browsable web form, and as a formatted PDF.

Flexibility

Online publication in Energy, Sustainability and Society gives you the opportunity to publish large datasets, large numbers of color illustrations and moving pictures, to display data in a form that can be read directly by other software packages so as to allow readers to manipulate the data for themselves, and to create all relevant links (for example, to PubMed, to sequence and other databases, and to other articles).

Promotion and press coverage

Articles published in Energy, Sustainability and Society are included in article alerts and regular email updates. Some may be highlighted on Energy, Sustainability and Society’s pages and on the BMC homepage.

In addition, articles published in Energy, Sustainability and Society may be promoted by press releases to the general or scientific press. These activities increase the exposure and number of accesses for articles published in Energy, Sustainability and Society. A list of articles recently press-released by journals published by BMC is available here.

Copyright

As an author of an article published in Energy, Sustainability and Society you retain the copyright of your article and you are free to reproduce and disseminate your work (for further details, see the BMC license agreement).

For further information about the advantages of publishing in a journal from BMC, please click here.

Open access

All articles published by Energy, Sustainability and Society are made freely and permanently accessible online immediately upon publication, without subscription charges or registration barriers. Further information about open access can be found here.

As authors of articles published in Energy, Sustainability and Society you are the copyright holders of your article and have granted to any third party, in advance and in perpetuity, the right to use, reproduce or disseminate your article, according to the BMC license agreement.

For those of you who are US government employees or are prevented from being copyright holders for similar reasons, BMC can accommodate non-standard copyright lines. Please contact us if further information is needed.

Article processing charges (APC)

Authors who publish open access in Energy, Sustainability and Society are required to pay an article processing charge (APC). The APC price will be determined from the date on which the article is accepted for publication.

The current APC, subject to VAT or local taxes where applicable, is: £1590.00/$2090.00/€1890.00

Visit our open access support portal and our Journal Pricing FAQs for further information.

Open access funding

Visit Springer Nature’s open access funding & support services for information about research funders and institutions that provide funding for APCs.

Springer Nature offers agreements that enable institutions to cover open access publishing costs. Learn more about our open access agreements to check your eligibility and discover whether this journal is included.

Springer Nature offers APC waivers and discounts for articles published in our fully open access journals whose corresponding authors are based in the world’s lowest income countries (see our APC waivers and discounts policy for further information). Requests for APC waivers and discounts from other authors will be considered on a case-by-case basis, and may be granted in cases of financial need (see our open access policies for journals for more information). All applications for discretionary APC waivers and discounts should be made at the point of manuscript submission; requests made during the review process or after acceptance are unable to be considered.

Indexing services

The full text of all articles is deposited in digital archives around the world to guarantee long-term digital preservation. You can also access all articles published by BMC on SpringerLink.
We are working closely with relevant indexing services including PubMed Central and Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics) to ensure that articles published in Energy, Sustainability and Society will be available in their databases when appropriate.

Energy, Sustainability and Society is currently indexed in the following services:

ANVUR

CNKI

Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) - GoOA

DOAJ

Dimensions

EBSCO Business Source

EBSCO Discovery Service

EBSCO Sustainability Reference Center

EI Compendex

Gale

Geobase

Google Scholar

INIS Atomindex

INSPEC

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China

Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition

Naver

OCLC WorldCat Discovery Service

ProQuest ABI/INFORM

ProQuest Advanced Technologies & Aerospace Database

ProQuest Agricultural & Environmental Science Database

ProQuest Business Premium Collection

ProQuest Central

ProQuest Earth, Atmospheric & Aquatic Science Database

ProQuest Engineering

ProQuest Environmental Science

ProQuest Materials Science and Engineering Database

ProQuest Natural Science Collection

ProQuest SciTech Premium Collection

ProQuest Social Science Collection

ProQuest Sustainability Science Abstracts

ProQuest Technology Collection

ProQuest-ExLibris Primo

ProQuest-ExLibris Summon

SCImago

SCOPUS

Science Citation Index Expanded (SciSearch)

TD Net Discovery Service

UGC-CARE List (India)

WTI Frankfurt eG

Peer-review policy

Peer-review is the system used to assess the quality of a manuscript before it is published. Independent researchers in the relevant research area assess submitted manuscripts for originality, validity and significance to help editors determine whether the manuscript should be published in their journal. You can read more about the peer-review process here.

Energy, Sustainability and Society operates a single-blind peer-review system, where the reviewers are aware of the names and affiliations of the authors, but the reviewer reports provided to authors are anonymous Publication of research articles by Energy, Sustainability and Society is dependent primarily on their scientific validity and coherence as judged by our external expert editors and/or peer reviewers, who will also assess whether the writing is comprehensible and whether the work represents a useful contribution to the field.

Submitted manuscripts will generally be reviewed by two to three experts who will be asked to evaluate whether the manuscript is scientifically sound and coherent, whether it duplicates already published work, and whether or not the manuscript is sufficiently clear for publication. Reviewers will also be asked to indicate how interesting and significant the research is. The Editors will reach a decision based on these reports and, where necessary, they will consult with members of the Editorial Board.

Energy, Sustainability and Society also publishes special issues. The peer review process of any submission associated with a special issue is handled by Guest Editors who are responsible for assigning at least two referees to each article and evaluating the reviews. Like our Associate Editors, Guest Editors make recommendations and request and evaluate revisions, but only the Editors-in-Chief can make final decisions of accept or reject on any special issue article. Any articles submitted to a special issue by Guest Editors are also handled confidentially by Associate Editors outside of the normal refereeing process of the special issue to ensure that the evaluation of these articles is completely objective.

Editorial policies

All manuscripts submitted to Energy, Sustainability and Society should adhere to BMC's editorial policies.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Citing articles in Energy, Sustainability and Society

Articles in Energy, Sustainability and Society  should be cited in the same way as articles in a traditional journal. Because articles are not printed, they do not have page numbers; instead, they are given a unique article number.

Article citations follow this format:

Authors: Title. Energ Sustain Soc [year], [volume number]:[article number].

e.g. Domedarius WE, Bactrician BU, Boson IB, Taurustic ME (2009) The role of livestock in human identity and family naming practices. Energ Sustain Soc 1:115.

Appeals and complaints

Authors who wish to appeal a rejection or make a complaint should follow the procedure outlined in the BMC Editorial Policies.

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Annual Journal Metrics

  • 2022 Citation Impact
    4.9 - 2-year Impact Factor
    4.2 - 5-year Impact Factor
    1.332 - SNIP (Source Normalized Impact per Paper)
    0.981 - SJR (SCImago Journal Rank)

    2023 Speed
    14 days submission to first editorial decision for all manuscripts (Median)
    270 days submission to accept (Median)

    2023 Usage 
    734,552 downloads
    224 Altmetric mentions

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Institutional membership

Visit the membership page to check if your institution is a member and learn how you could save on article-processing charges (APCs).

Funding your APC

Open access funding and policy support by SpringerOpen​​

​​​​We offer a free open access support service to make it easier for you to discover and apply for article-processing charge (APC) funding. Learn more here