Highlighting early career scientists

We are delighted to introduce the fourth Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts Emerging Investigator issue, highlighting the best and brightest early career scientists in the environmental chemical sciences. This year we took a different approach, and rather than having Guest Editors for the issue as we have in the past, we asked Editorial Board members, Advisory Board members and authors from the 2014 Emerging Investigator issue for their suggestions of whom should be invited to contribute to the issue. We were delighted by the response we received to our invitations to contribute to this issue, and present contributions from 15 Emerging Investigators in this issue. These articles highlight the challenges facing the environmental chemical sciences, with articles on aquatic environments, the urban environment, and those analysing different environmental systems. An article introducing the Emerging Investigators is also published in this issue.

Not every invited contributor who wished to participate in this themed issue could, due to the familiar fact that scientific research does not always cooperate with deadlines. In an effort to allow more flexibility in the timing of Emerging Investigator contributions, we have decided to change our approach going forwards. Therefore this is to be the last themed issue of the Journal dedicated to Emerging Investigators, and from 2017 we will be introducing an Emerging Investigator Series, similar to the successful series of our sister journal Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology (http://rsc.li/emerging-series).

If you are an Emerging Investigator reading this issue, and would like your work featured in the new series, please do contact us at E-mail: espi-rsc@rsc.org; with an outline of your article, which will be reviewed by members of the Editorial Board. If your proposed article is considered positively by the Editorial Board you will be invited to submit your article to the Journal, which will undergo the standard peer-review process. We will shortly be appointing an Editorial Board member to manage the Emerging Investigator Series for the Journal, so keep an eye on the Journal blog and Twitter account (http://www.twitter.com/EnvSciRSC) for this announcement.

To be eligible for the new Emerging Investigator Series you will need to have completed your PhD (or equivalent degree) within the last 10 years, and have an independent career. If you are interested in the Series please send us the following information:

• Your up-to-date CV (no longer than 2 pages), which should include a summary of education and career, a list of relevant publications, any notable awards, honours or professional activities in the field, and a website URL if relevant;

• A synopsis of the article intended to be submitted to the Series, including a tentative submission date. This can be an original research or review article.

All articles published as part of the Emerging Investigator Series will be widely promoted, and will be collated into a collection on the Journal website.

And finally, we would like to take this opportunity to inform Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts authors, readers and reviewers that further to recent discussions with the Editorial Board members we have updated the scope of the Journal, available on our website – a multidisciplinary journal for the environmental chemical sciences.

We hope you enjoy reading this issue and welcome any comments.

 

Kris McNeill, Editor-in-Chief

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Sarah Ruthven, Executive Editor

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