Mission, aims and scope: the audience for JEM now and in the future

As you will see from the Guidelines for Authors inside the back cover of this issue, the mission of JEM is “To promote physical, chemical and biological research relating to the measurement, pathways, impact and management of contaminants in all environments, with a particular emphasis on the interface of these subjects with analytical science.” JEM does not aim to become an archive for large data sets from routine environmental monitoring surveys. Rather, it sets out to gather together the best, state-of-the-art analytical sciences as they may be applied across the whole spectrum of matters environmental. Environmental science is inevitably both multi- and interdisciplinary. So, here, it is not surprising that “analytical science” may be interpreted to mean different things to different people. Of course, for a large proportion of our readers, based on JEM's distinguished pedigree, inherited from the Royal Society of Chemistry, it relates to the analytical procedures and strategies by which chemicals in the environment—in air, water, soil and food—may be identified, detected, discriminated, characterized, speciated and/or quantified. It may also relate to the same range of procedures applied to organisms impacted by exposure to agents in those environments, including humans, animals and plant life. However we observe that there is a growing audience for JEM where analytical science embraces a wider range of methodologies, including physical, biological and mathematical/statistical procedures. It is this full range of research opportunities, as expressed in our mission, that underpins much of the strength, relevance and wide appeal of JEM.

The more specific Scope and Content of JEM are described in terms of the comprehensive coverage given to physical, chemical and biological research relating to the detection, measurement, impact pathways and management of contaminants, as well as other agents and environmental indices, in all natural and anthropogenic environments. These point to our goal of making JEM the leading outlet for the publication of current science at these important interfaces. In turn, therefore, the work that appears in our pages should be at the cutting edge of science in those areas, representing new knowledge that can be carried forward beyond today and long into the future. It should be available and relevant to the efforts of environmental scientists of all persuasions around the world for years to come. So, in principle, all the scientific works that appear in our pages should be of interest to a high proportion of those that pick up JEM.

We receive many submissions from scientists from many countries around the world. Some deal with laboratory-based studies that describe new or improved instrumentation and procedures for environmental monitoring. Others deal with applications of those analytical methods in real-life environmental situations. In general, in order to satisfy the majority of members of the scientific community that JEM reaches, we apply as one of the initial criteria for suitability of acceptable articles that they should be of interest to that wider readership. For those real-life studies, therefore, we seek that the results that are presented, or their interpretation, should be generalizable beyond the local situation that was the original object of the enquiry. We have seen many excellent manuscripts that deal with specific local environmental monitoring situations around the world. Such studies will no doubt have been very important to scientists, policy makers and the populations in those locales, and so have very great regional value. Many such papers are very well written and describe researches that were very well executed. But many are of little interest beyond their initial audiences. In turn, therefore, they do not meet the criterion we have outlined above. We, the Editorial Board, therefore strongly urge all our scientific colleagues around the world to take note of the requirement for an enduring impact of local studies. To ensure that their work is suitable to appear in the pages of JEM, we respectfully request that our authors should strive to articulate how it can be generalized (e.g., to similar situations elsewhere), or can provide insights that go beyond those of the original local interest. In this way, we can maintain the profile of JEM as a premier venue—for authors and readers—for the whole international environmental science community.

JEM Editorial Board:

James H. Vincent (Chair)

Joerg Feldman, Roy Harrison

Paul S. Monks, Adriana Oller

Brit Salbu, William Shotyk

April 2004

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