Reviewer Guidelines

Authors submitting to Future – Environmental Policy and Sustainable Development (Future-EPSD) are expected to follow the guidelines below to ensure clarity, academic rigor, and relevance. Peer review is essential to maintaining the journal’s standards of excellence.

1. Review Structure

Each manuscript review typically includes four components:

  • Summary: A concise summary of the paper's key contributions, highlighting its originality, impact, and relevance to the field of environmental policy and sustainable development.

  • Evaluation: A balanced assessment of strengths and weaknesses based on four criteria—originality, significance, methodological soundness, and presentation quality.

  • Recommendation: A clear decision recommendation: Accept, Minor Revision, Major Revision, or Reject.

  • Detailed Comments: Constructive feedback intended to improve the manuscript. Confidential comments to the Editorial Board may also be included, where appropriate.

All reviews are conducted anonymously to ensure fairness and objectivity.

2. Criteria for Acceptable Papers

Manuscripts must align with the journal’s focus on environmental policy, climate governance, and sustainable development. Evaluations are based on the following four factors:

  • Originality: Presents new policy frameworks, analytical approaches, or empirical findings that advance understanding of environmental or sustainability issues.

  • Significance and Relevance: Addresses pressing challenges in policy or practice, with clear implications for real-world decision-making.

  • Methodological Soundness: Employs robust, transparent, and reproducible methods, whether qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-method.

  • Presentation Quality: Written in clear academic language, logically organized, and properly cited in accordance with APA 6th style.

Failure to meet any of these standards may result in revision requests or rejection.

3. Expectations for Paper Content

Manuscripts should include:

  • Clear Motivation and Objectives: Define the problem and explain its importance in the environmental policy or sustainability context.

  • Demonstration of Novelty: Clearly identify the contribution compared to existing literature or policy frameworks.

  • Evidence of Effectiveness: Provide empirical or theoretical validation through data, case studies, or comparative policy analysis. Reproducibility and scalability should be addressed when applicable.

  • Scientific Integrity: All claims should be supported by logical argumentation and credible evidence.

4. Types of Submissions

  • Theoretical or Methodological Papers: Introduce new concepts or tools with direct applicability to policy or practice in environmental and sustainability domains.

  • Empirical Papers: Present data-driven research with policy implications, including environmental impact assessments, governance studies, or implementation evaluations.

  • Policy and Practice Reports: Accepted if they offer significant insights into the real-world application of environmental policies or sustainable development strategies.

5. Comparative Analysis with Existing Literature

All submissions must demonstrate a strong understanding of existing research. Authors should clearly position their work within the current body of literature and identify how their findings build upon or challenge prior work.

6. Quality and Precision

  • Conciseness: Avoid excessive jargon and complexity. Clearly define terms and maintain consistency throughout the manuscript.

  • Technical Precision: Ensure that key concepts, variables, and frameworks are unambiguous and well explained. Avoid inconsistent terminology.

7. Revision and Review Process

  • Minor Revisions: Evaluated by the assigned Associate Editor. Authors must provide a point-by-point cover letter addressing each reviewer comment.

  • Major Revisions: Typically returned to the original reviewers. Authors are expected to implement substantive changes and provide detailed responses in a cover letter. A second round of major revisions may lead to rejection, though this is uncommon.

8. Confidentiality

All submitted manuscripts are treated as confidential. Authors must not share or reference manuscripts under review. Reviewer identities are not disclosed to authors. All communications regarding manuscripts must remain professional and confidential.

9. Submission Instructions

Please ensure your manuscript adheres to the journal's template and formatting guidelines, available on the Future-EPSD submission portal.
If you experience technical issues or have questions about the submission process, please contact the editorial office at:
epsd@fupress.org