Journal profile · Social Sciences-Law
Environmental Policy and Law
ISSN 0378-777X · eISSN 1878-5395 · SAGE Publications (formerly IOS Press)
Environmental Policy and Law: subscription journal; APC charged, amount not published; 27 articles in 2025; indexed in Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Environmental Policy and Law is published by SAGE Publications (formerly IOS Press). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are International Environmental Law and Policies, Environmental law and policy and International Maritime Law Issues, together about 58.5% of its articles. Its main subfields are Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Environmental Policy and Law (EPL) is a global journal that seeks to publish cutting-edge scholarly works that have global significance. It provides a platform to facilitate an ideational understanding of international environmental policy, law, and … | View full journal description
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Social Sciences-Law
Editor-in-chief Bharat H. DesaiPublisher website
Editorial board by country: 1 in mainland China (about 3%); most named United Kingdom 4, India 4, Germany 4, United States 3, Spain 3 (38 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- International Environmental Law and PoliciesEnvironmental Science29.3%
- Environmental law and policySocial Sciences23%
- International Maritime Law IssuesEnvironmental Science6.3%
- Sustainable Development and Environmental ManagementEnvironmental Science5.4%
- World Trade Organization LawSocial Sciences3.6%
- International Law and Human RightsSocial Sciences3.5%
- Coastal and Marine ManagementEnvironmental Science3.3%
- Environmental Policies and EmissionsEnvironmental Science2.6%
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)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
CiteScore quartiles (Scopus, June 2026 release)
| Subject | Quartile | Rank | Percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Law | Q2 | 349/1162 | 69th |
| Environmental Science (miscellaneous) | Q3 | 182/307 | 40th |
| Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law | Q3 | 270/432 | 37th |
Scopus ranks journals by CiteScore within each subject: the 75th percentile and above is Q1, then a quartile every 25 points. A different system from the CAS zones.LetPub
Database indexing
ScopusLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
Journal indexing and metricsPublisher website
As the journal's website lists them, not checked against each database; for Web of Science editions the records above apply.
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
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 2.2LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.31LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 0.58LetPub ·
- h-index
- 27OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 88OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 1.91OpenAlex ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 0%LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 3,547 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 14 | 12 | 344 |
| 2025 | 27 | 27 | 589 |
| 2024 | 37 | 37 | 584 |
| 2023 | 26 | 26 | 571 |
| 2022 | 44 | 21 | 481 |
| 2021 | 68 | 19 | 644 |
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
- Peer review
- Double anonymous peer reviewPublisher website
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
Subscription journalLetPub
A subscription journal: articles are read by subscription or purchase, and authors usually pay no publication charge.
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAlex | USD 0 | — | — | |
| Publisher website | Yes, amount not published | — | — |
Other charges and waivers (author guidelines)
- Other fees
- No other fees
- Submission fee
- No submission fee
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 prepare8 items from the author guidelines
- Abstract
- ≤ 200 words
- Manuscript length
- ≤ 8,000 words
- Reference style
- APA
- First submission
- Free format: the journal's layout is not required
- Suggested reviewers
- Required
- Highlights
- Required
- Graphical abstract
- Required
- Cover letter
- Required
Article types accepted5
- editorialEditorialLength not stated
- original research articleOriginal Research articles: Research Articles should present novel work within the scope of the journal which represents an important advancement in knowledge o…Length not stated
- original research articlesOriginal Research articles: Research Articles should present novel work within the scope of the journal which represents an important advancement in knowledge o…Length not stated
- research articleOriginal Research articles: Research Articles should present novel work within the scope of the journal which represents an important advancement in knowledge o…Length not stated
- reviewOriginal Research articles: Research Articles should present novel work within the scope of the journal which represents an important advancement in knowledge o…Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAuthorship, Data availability, Publication ethics, Open access, Peer review, Plagiarism, Preprints, Trial registration / reporting guidelines
- Authorship Author contributions
You will be asked to list the contribution of each author as part of the submission process. Please include the Author Contributions heading within your submission after the Acknowledgements section. The information you give on submission will then show under the Author Contributions heading later at the proofing stage.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Data availability Data availability
The Journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages. Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to: Share your research data in a relevant public data repository Include a data ava…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Publication ethics Ethical considerations
Please include your ethics approval statements under this heading, even if you have already included ethics approval information in your methods section. If ethical approval was not required, you need to explicitly state this. All papers reporting studies involving human participants, human data or human tissue must state that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board approved th…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Publishing fees and open access
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this journal. Figures submitted in color will be published in color in the online version of the journal at no cost. It is possible to have figures printed in colour, provided the cost of their reproduction is paid for by the author. Optional open access publishing is available for a fee via the Sage Choice program, and Open Access agreements, wher…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer review policy
Double anonymized peer review. Model summary
The following summary describes the peer review process for this journal: Identity transparency: Double-anonymized Reviewer interacts with: Editor Review information published: None Your manuscript will undergo an initial evaluation. If it does not conform to the requirements laid out in these guidelines, it will be returned to you for amendments prior to peer review. Manuscripts may be desk rejec…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Plagiarism Plagiarism
The journal and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. Please read Sage's complete policy on plagiarism and the actions we may take.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Preprints Preprints
The journal will consider submissions of manuscripts that have been posted on preprint servers. Please enter the preprint DOI in the designated field when submitting your manuscript. We advise that you inform the Journal Editorial office about your posted preprint at submission. Note that you should not post an updated version of your manuscript on a preprint server while it is being peer reviewed…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Trial registration / reporting guidelines Clinical trial registration
The journal endorses the ICMJE requirement that clinical trials are registered in a WHO-approved public trials registry at or before the time of first participant enrollment. However, consistent with the AllTrials campaign, retrospectively registered trials will be considered if the justification for late registration is acceptable. The trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be …
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
- SAGE Publications (formerly IOS Press)
- ISSN
- 0378-777X
- Electronic ISSN
- 1878-5395
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗LetPub
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Author guidelines ↗LetPub
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Environmental Policy and Law
What are the manuscript requirements of Environmental Policy and Law?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Abstract: ≤ 200 words; Manuscript length: ≤ 8,000 words; Reference style: APA; First submission: Free format: the journal's layout is not required; Suggested reviewers: Required; Highlights: Required; Graphical abstract: Required; Cover letter: 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 Environmental Policy and Law based?
Of the 38 board members whose country the journal's board page names, 1 (about 3%) are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United Kingdom (4), India (4) and Germany (4). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Environmental Policy and Law?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Environmental Policy and Law is indexed in Scopus.
Is Environmental Policy and Law open access, and what is the APC?
Environmental Policy and Law is a subscription journal. APC charged, amount not published.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, OpenAlex, Publisher website; 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: .