Journal Information
Mission
PLOS Sustainability and Transformation provides a supportive and innovative space to a diversity of researchers across disciplines, sectors, and geographies to analyze global and locally-tailored transformative approaches to guide and co-create more just and sustainable futures for all. We work alongside researchers to shape Open Science practices, to build trust, transparency, and access to research that has lasting impacts on the sustainability of intertwined environmental, societal and economic systems.
Scope
PLOS Sustainability and Transformation is a selective Open Access journal publishing original, leading research aimed at catalyzing progress towards transformative changes across sectors to create more just and sustainable futures for all.
Our journal connects a diverse community of researchers, practitioners and decision-makers by cross-fertilizing knowledge that addresses both opportunities and challenges regarding key interventions required for sustainability transformations from disciplinary, inter- and trans-disciplinary perspectives as well as from diverse knowledge systems.
We work alongside researchers to make their impactful work openly available to all people to inform actions in the face of local to global sustainability challenges.
The journal provides a forum for researchers focusing on transformative change for sustainability, based on the research practice values of fairness, openness, diversity, reflexivity, and transparency. We are especially interested in plural framings regarding problems related to sustainability, including decolonial praxis, and in novel co-produced knowledge about how to navigate towards sustainability through a transformative lens across sectors and systems, such as terrestrial (including freshwater) and marine ecosystems, agro-ecosystems and urban systems. We welcome research on transformative change that explicitly addresses sustainability challenges in realms such as climate change, energy, food and agriculture, fisheries, water, urban planning, consumption and production, and social innovation, as well as those that are based on a justice, nexus or systems perspective, grounded in the realities of the Global South (including in Indigenous peoples and Local communities contexts) and the Global North.
Contents
PLOS Sustainability and Transformation features engaging primary Research Articles, and Reviews, Opinions, and Editorials.
Journal Sections
Kindly note these section descriptions are intended to provide an overview of the topics covered and are not an exhaustive list.
Agri-food Systems
We welcome studies examining agri-food systems, from the resource base to consumption, with attention to their transformative capacities and barriers (e.g. consumption and production decisions, value chains) and the role of alternative agricultural systems, e.g. agroecology, regenerative agriculture, etc. Interdisciplinary approaches are warmly welcomed, from across different domains including cultural, political, economic and technological innovation perspectives with traction for transforming agri-food systems.
Circular Economy
We invite studies analysing governance mechanisms, policy frameworks, and innovative financing mechanisms that facilitate transitioning to an equitable circular economy and bioeconomy. Topics of interest include cross-border value chain collaboration, analyses of trade-offs between local and global solutions, the role of institutions, including finance and multilateral bodies. Submissions examining partnerships between the Global North and South, South-South and trilateral cooperation are highly encouraged.
Climate Change
We welcome studies focusing on, but not limited to, how transformations are brought forth and grounded in climate actions such as opportunities for and limits of incremental climate adaptation, synergies and tradeoffs of integrating adaptation and mitigation actions, the thinking and practices of the climate change community, the climate political economy of transformation, and critical reflections on action-based research.
Energy Systems
We welcome studies with a focus on energy system transformation (across multiple energy vectors, technologies, institutions or sectors) that considers the whole energy system (to include socioeconomic, cultural, political, and/or environmental aspects alongside technical) to meet the multiple objectives of climate emissions reduction (towards Net Zero), reducing air pollution, providing affordable and accessible energy in support of health and wellbeing, and justice in energy transitions.
Marine Ecosystems
We welcome studies that focus on transformative approaches to achieve resilient and equitable/just oceans, informing, inter-alia visions, scenarios and pathways towards sustainable marine ecosystems and coastal communities, governance of marine ecosystems and fisheries management systems, resilience of seafood value chains to social-ecological changes and social vulnerability of coastal communities, and technologies for sustainability transformations of marine ecosystems.
Social innovation
We welcome contributions that seek to understand the role of social innovation in transformative change processes (from the individual actors through to global system change). Such contributions may include - but are not limited to studies on diverse practices to reimagine transformative futures, including alternative systems and practices that can draw from diverse knowledge systems and include issues around just transformation, decolonial praxis, transformative social or economic models, civic and governance structures and institutions.
Terrestrial Ecosystems
We welcome manuscripts focusing on the effects of land cover and land use change on properties and processes of land systems, social-ecological systems, land governance, zoning, management, as well as on telecoupled drivers of change in land systems, with a particular focus on inter- and transdisciplinary studies generating transformation knowledge and informing practices for sustainability.
Urban Systems
We welcome studies exploring transformation in cities broadly understood as complex, social-ecological-technological systems. Areas of emphasis include but are not limited to: environmental justice, climate adaptation and mitigation, pathways to transformation, disruptive change, urban futures, infrastructure, and governance. Perspectives from the Global South, Indigenous knowledge holders, and equity-deserving groups are warmly welcomed.
Water Security
We welcome studies that focus on the biophysical and/or socio-economic research addressing aspects related to access, availability, use and status of freshwater ecosystems, and that use inter- or transdisciplinary approaches that can inform acting upon transformative approaches towards achieving water security. This may also include aspects of governance and political economy of the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem-Health Nexus.
Criteria for Publication
To be considered for publication in PLOS Sustainability and Transformation, any given manuscript must satisfy the following criteria:
- Originality
- High importance and broad interest to the community of researchers, policy and decision makers working in fields that drive transformation towards sustainability of our renewable resources, economy, and society
- High methodological rigor and ethical standards
- Substantial evidence for its conclusions
- Follow appropriate standards and practice of open science
Scientists commonly refer to research as “scooped” when independent groups working on the same topic reach similar conclusions and one group publishes the results first. Although originality is one criterion for studies published in PLOS Sustainability and Transformation, “scooped” manuscripts that confirm, replicate, extend, or are complementary to a recently published, significant advance are still eligible for consideration in PLOS Sustainability and Transformation. The complementary manuscript must present equally or more rigorous findings than the published study and any submission must also meet the criteria for publication listed above. Authors of the complementary work have six months after the first article’s publication date to submit their manuscript to PLOS Sustainability and Transformation. Studies must be performed comprehensively, and preliminary placeholder studies will not be considered.
Editorial Oversight
PLOS Sustainability and Transformation is run by an international Editorial Board, headed by the Editor-in-Chief.
Editor-in-Chief
Editorial Board
View the PLOS Sustainability and Transformation Editorial Board.
Submit Your Manuscript
For more information about submitting to PLOS Sustainability and Transformation, read our guidelines for preparing a submission.
Publication Fees
PLOS employs several business models to support equitable Open Access. A full list of our publication fees, funding initiatives and fee assistance information is available here.
Open Access
PLOS applies the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license to works we publish. Under this license, authors agree to make articles legally available for reuse, without permission or fees, for virtually any purpose. Anyone may copy, distribute, or reuse these articles, as long as the author and original source are properly cited. Learn more.
Journal Impact and Article Metrics
PLOS does not consider Impact Factor to be a reliable or useful metric to assess the performance of individual articles. PLOS supports DORA – the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment – and does not promote our journal Impact Factors. We will provide the metric to individuals when specifically requested.
PLOS promotes the use of Article-Level Metrics (ALMs), which enable scientists and the general public to engage more dynamically with published research. ALMs reflect the changing impact of research over time, incorporate academic as well as social impacts of research, and assess the impact of research before the accrual of academic citations. Read more about ALMs.
Indexing and Archiving
To ensure research is widely accessible and discoverable, PLOS submits all of our titles to major indexing services for evaluation as soon as possible according to the schedule of the specific service. PLOS Sustainability and Transformation began publishing its first articles in March 2022 and is currently indexed by the services listed below:
CABI CAB Abstracts, CABI Global Health, CAPES, Crossref, Dimensions, DOAJ, Google Scholar, Scopus and Web of Science.
This is not a comprehensive list, as PLOS Sustainability and Transformation is indexed on a broader range of services than those referenced.
If you have specific questions about indexing for this or other titles, please contact us at customercare@plos.org.
- See publishing details for all PLOS journal titles, including ISSN and indexing and archiving information.
PLOS
PLOS is a non-profit organization on a mission to drive open science forward with measurable, meaningful change in research publishing, policy, and practice. We believe in a better future where science is open to all, for all.
Contact
Visit the Contact page for details about whom to contact with different queries.