Journal profile · Energy-Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
Circular Economy
ISSN 2773-1685 · eISSN 2773-1677 · ELSEVIER · CHINA MAINLAND · Quarterly · Founded 2022
Circular Economy: CAS Zone 2 · Management (2026 Xinrui edition); impact factor 10.9 (journal website); fully open access; APC about USD 1,400; review about 139 days (submission to acceptance, publisher); 26 articles a year; indexed in ESCI and Scopus; the journal's website says it has ceased publication.
The journal's website says it has ceased publication: Circular Economy will cease publication with Elsevier after the completion of Volume 5/2026. From Volume 6 (2027), the journal will be published by Tsinghua University Press on the SciOpen platform with the official journal website at https://www.sciopen.com/journal/2773-1685. Source ↗Publisher website ·
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
An official journal of Tsinghua University Press'Circular Economy' refers to all the activities of reduce, reuse, and recycle in production, circulation, and consumption. As an important route to achieving a resource-saving and environmental friendly society, 'Circular Economy' is becoming increasingly important both strategically and economically.Circular Economy (CE) is an international journal serving as a sharing and communication platform for novel contributions and outcomes on innovative techniques, systematic analysis, and policy tools of global, regional, national, local, and industrial park's waste management system to improve the reduce, reuse, recycle, and disposal of waste in a sustainable way.CE aims at providing comprehensive and systematic solutions to sustainable management of waste with consideration of economy, society, and environment to achieve a model of green, low-carbon and circular development, by means of cleaner production, industrial structure optimization, policy tools and regulations adjustment, social governance by green consumption, efficient management, and preservation of renewable and natural resources, etc.The detailed scope includes but is not limited to:Reduce - prevent waste generation and pollution from the source, and reduce waste for final disposal, including products eco-design; information analysis, policy tools and techniques of green life, green purchase, green application towards reducing the consumption of energy, water and other reosuces, and minimizing of waste generaton; improvement of resource efficiency by sustainable exploitation, efficient management and preservation; green consumption based on sharing services and products.Reuse - adopt sustainable strategies to prolong the life span of products, including sustainable consumption; designs and techniques towards reuse, repair, refurbishment, cascade use, and remanufacturing.Recycle - turn waste to secondary resources, including waste collection, classification, and conversion; mechanical and physical recycling of materials; heat recovery; comprehensive utilization techniques; design of extended producer responsibility system.Disposal - develop techniques, designs, operations, and management of waste treatment and disposal engineering in response to circular economy and sustainable development, including pretreatment, disinfection, incineration and other heat treatment, landfill, solidification, stabilization, and co-disposal; contaminated site remediation; underground filling of waste; material flow analysis, risk assessment.Synergy - create comprehensive, systematic, and innovative solutions, ideas, and techniques to promote sustainable management of waste, including carbon reduction and carbon neutrality; zero-waste cities construction; technology integration and demonstration, such as inter-industrial or inter-enterprises collaborative technologies, cloud and information technologies; life-cycle management of materials; green supply chain.Circular Economy is a fully open access journal. It is co-published by Tsinghua University Press and Elsevier, and academically supported by the School of Environment, Tsinghua University, and the Circular Economy Branch, Chinese Society for Environmental Sciences. At its discretion, Tsinghua University Press will pay the Open Access Fee for all published papers from 2022 to 2026.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Energy-Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
Editorial board by country: 22 in mainland China (about 47%); most named Mainland China 22, United States 6, Japan 3, Australia 3, Germany 2 (47 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Management Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Management | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Engineering, Environmental | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Environmental Sciences | Zone 2 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
Database indexing
ESCIScopusDOAJLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Editions, and major and minor categories, are shown separately and never merged into one zone; check which edition your institution uses before you submit or report.
Metrics
Impact metrics and publication volume
Impact
- Impact factor (publisher)
- 10.9Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 17.5LetPub ·
- CiteScore (publisher)
- 17.5Publisher website ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 2.53LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 2.43LetPub ·
- Self-citation rate
- 4.6%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 100%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 26LetPub ·
- Articles per year (publisher)
- 2,022Publisher website ·
Sources count differently and were observed at different times, so each source's own value is kept; "publisher" marks figures from the journal's website.
Review & acceptance
Review time and acceptance
Publisher-reported review time from the journal's website
139 dayssubmission to acceptance · community reports about 10 weeks
The publisher's own definition applies; dates from this journal's articles in the last 24 months are not available yet, so the publisher's figure is used.
Figures by source
- Average review time (community reports)
- about 10 weeksLetPub ·
- Submission to first decision
- 4 daysPublisher website ·
- First decision after review
- 66 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to acceptance
- 139 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication
- 39 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 29 weeksDOAJ ·
- Peer review
- Single anonymous peer reviewDOAJ
Community reports come from authors' own submissions (confidence 0.5) and are not a promise from the journal; for publisher figures, the journal's own definitions apply.
Fees & open access
APC and open-access policy
Fully open accessDOAJ
Every article is open access; authors usually pay an article processing charge (APC).
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOAJ | USD 1,400 | Yes | CC BY, CC BY-NC-ND | |
| LetPub | USD 1,400 | Yes | — |
The journal's website is authoritative for fees; sources were observed at different times and each keeps its own value, without averaging.
Submission
Article types and submission policies (journal website)
What to prepare5 items from the author guidelines
- Abstract
- ≤ 250 words
- Keywords
- 1–7
- Reference style
- Vancouver
- Highlights
- Required
- Graphical abstract
- Required
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAI use, Authorship, Conflicts of interest, License & copyright, Open access, Peer review, Preprints
- AI use Declaration of generative AI use
Authors must declare the use of generative AI tools in the manuscript preparation process upon submission of the paper.Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies (“AI tools”) have been rapidly adopted in research and scholarly publishing, offering significant benefits while requiring clear standards for responsible and transparent use.Authors preparing a manuscript for this journal may use AI tool…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Authorship Group authorship
Group authorship refers to the attribution of an article to a defined and named group of authors whose members have contributed to the work. Examples include research consortia, clinical trial groups, collaborative networks, task forces or working groups, expert panels or consensus groups, and participatory research groups. Group authorship must be declared on the title page at submission. When av…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Conflicts of interest Declaration of competing interests
All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence or bias their work. Examples of potential competing interests include:EmploymentConsultanciesStock ownershipHonorariaPaid expert testimonyPatent applications or registrationsGrants or any other fundingAffiliation with the journal as an Editor or Advisory Board …
Source ↗Publisher website ·- License & copyright License options
Authors will be offered open access user license options which will determine how you, and third parties, can reuse your open access article. We advise that you review these options and any funding body license requirements before selecting a license option.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Open access
fully open access journal Model summary
We refer you to our open access information page to learn about open access options for this journal.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer review
single anonymized review process Model summary
This journal follows a single anonymized review process. Your submission will initially be assessed by our editors. If your submission is deemed suitable, it will typically be sent to be reviewed by a minimum of two reviewers for an independent expert assessment of the scientific quality. The decision as to whether your article is accepted or rejected for publication will be made by our editors.Re…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Preprints Preprints
Preprint sharingAuthors may share preprints in line with Elsevier's article sharing policy. Sharing preprints, such as on a preprint server, will not count as prior publication.We advise you to read our policy on multiple, redundant or concurrent publication.
Source ↗Publisher website ·
Excerpts are quoted from the journal's website; "model summary" lines are written by Workers AI and checked against the text. The journal's website is authoritative.
Profile
Publication details and official links
- Publisher
- ELSEVIER
- Country or region
- CHINA MAINLAND
- Language
- English
- Frequency
- Quarterly
- Founded
- 2022
- ISSN
- 2773-1685
- Electronic ISSN
- 2773-1677
- Society / sponsor
- Tsinghua University Press
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗LetPub
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Author guidelines ↗LetPub
- Aims & Scope ↗LetPub
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
- APC information ↗DOAJ
- Fee waivers ↗DOAJ
- Open access statement ↗DOAJ
- License & copyright ↗DOAJ
- Peer review process ↗LetPub
- Editorial board ↗LetPub
- Plagiarism policy ↗DOAJ
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Circular Economy
What CAS zone is Circular Economy in?
In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 2 of Management. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Circular Economy?
The journal's website gives an impact factor of 10.9; this is the journal's own figure, as LetPub lists none for it; CiteScore 17.5.
How long does peer review take at Circular Economy?
The publisher reports about 139 days (submission to acceptance); authors report an average review time of about 10 weeks. Article statistics cover accepted papers only, publisher figures follow the journal's own definitions, and community reports come from authors' own submissions; none is a promise from the journal.
What are the manuscript requirements of Circular Economy?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Abstract: ≤ 250 words; Keywords: 1–7; Reference style: Vancouver; Highlights: Required; Graphical abstract: Required. A model extracted these from the author guidelines and each was checked against the text; check the latest version on the journal's website before submitting.
Where are the editorial board members of Circular Economy based?
Of the 47 board members whose country the journal's board page names, 22 (about 47%) are in mainland China; the countries named most often are Mainland China (22), United States (6) and Japan (3). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Circular Economy?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Circular Economy is indexed in ESCI, Scopus and DOAJ.
Is Circular Economy open access, and what is the APC?
Circular Economy is a fully open-access journal. APC about USD 1,400.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, Publisher website, DOAJ; every figure is tagged with its source and the date it was observed, and conflicting values are kept per source. LetPub source page: view ↗ (archived 2026-08-26). Last updated: .