1. General Submission Policy

Societies & Sustainability (SAS) welcomes high-quality scholarly manuscripts that contribute to the advancement of social sciences, sustainability studies, governance, education, sustainability, resource management, and related interdisciplinary fields. The journal publishes original and methodologically sound research that strengthens scientific understanding, supports academic debate, and contributes to the responsible dissemination of knowledge.

Authors are expected to submit manuscripts that are original, clearly structured, ethically prepared, and relevant to the journal's aims and scope. Submissions should demonstrate scientific value, transparent methodology, appropriate use of evidence, and a meaningful contribution to the field. The journal follows internationally recognized principles of transparency, editorial responsibility, peer review, copyright, licensing, author fees, and publication ethics, in line with modern best practices for scholarly publishing.

Before submitting a manuscript, authors should carefully review the journal's Aims and Scope, Publication Ethics, Peer Review Policy, Copyright and Licensing Policy, and Submission Preparation Checklist.

2. Types of Manuscripts Accepted

SAS considers the following types of scholarly contributions:

• Original Research Articles: Full-length papers presenting original research, data, methodology, analysis, and interpretation.
• Review Articles: Critical and systematic overviews of existing research, identifying trends, gaps, debates, and future research directions.
• Case Studies: Detailed studies of specific locations, projects, events, datasets, fieldwork, technologies, or environmental/geoscientific applications.
• Methodological Papers: Manuscripts introducing, testing, comparing, or refining scientific methods, models, tools, workflows, or analytical approaches.
• Short Communications: Concise reports of significant findings, preliminary results, technical observations, or emerging research directions.
• Editorials and Invited Contributions: Scholarly reflections, thematic introductions, or invited perspectives approved by the editorial team.

All manuscript types must meet the journal's standards for originality, clarity, academic relevance, ethical compliance, and proper citation practice.

3. Manuscript Structure

Authors should prepare manuscripts in a clear, logical, and internationally recognizable academic structure. Depending on the article type, the following structure is recommended:

Title

The title should be concise, informative, and specific. It should clearly reflect the subject, scope, and main contribution of the manuscript. Avoid vague, overly broad, or promotional titles.

Author Names and Affiliations

Authors should provide full names, institutional affiliations, country, and email address for the corresponding author. Where available, authors are encouraged to include their ORCID iD to support accurate identification and scholarly visibility.

The order of authors in the manuscript must match the order entered in the submission system.

Abstract

The abstract should provide a clear and self-contained summary of the manuscript. It should normally include research background, aim or research question, methodology or approach, key findings, main conclusion, and scientific or practical significance.

The abstract should not contain unexplained abbreviations, references, footnotes, or excessive technical details.

Keywords

Authors should provide 5-8 keywords that accurately describe the manuscript's subject area, methods, geographical scope, and main concepts. Keywords should support discoverability in academic databases, search engines, and indexing systems.

Main Text

For original research articles, the main text should normally include: Introduction; Materials and Methods / Methodology; Results; Discussion; Conclusion; Acknowledgements, if applicable; Funding Statement, if applicable; Conflict of Interest Statement; Data Availability Statement, if applicable; References.

Alternative structures may be accepted for review articles, case studies, theoretical papers, or interdisciplinary contributions, provided that the manuscript remains clear, coherent, and academically rigorous.

4. Introduction

The introduction should present the scientific background, define the research problem, explain the relevance of the topic, and identify the knowledge gap addressed by the manuscript. It should clearly state the aim of the study and, where appropriate, the research questions, hypotheses, or objectives.

A strong introduction should not merely describe the topic. It should explain why the research is necessary, what is missing in current knowledge, and how the manuscript contributes to the field.

5. Methodology

The methodology section must describe the research design, materials, data sources, study area, sampling strategy, analytical methods, models, software, laboratory procedures, field techniques, or computational workflows used in the study.

The description should be detailed enough to allow assessment, verification, and, where possible, reproducibility. Authors should clearly explain why the selected methods are appropriate for the research aim.

For studies involving datasets, maps, remote sensing, GIS, laboratory analysis, modelling, surveys, or experimental procedures, authors should provide sufficient technical detail, including data origin, resolution, parameters, processing steps, limitations, and validation methods where applicable.

6. Results

The results section should present the main findings clearly and objectively. Results should be supported by appropriate tables, figures, maps, graphs, statistical outputs, or other evidence.

Authors should avoid mixing excessive interpretation into the results section. Interpretation, implications, and comparison with existing literature should normally be presented in the discussion section.

7. Discussion

The discussion should interpret the results in relation to the research aim, previous studies, theoretical frameworks, methodological limitations, and broader scientific relevance.

A strong discussion should explain the meaning of the findings; compare results with relevant literature; identify agreements, differences, and possible explanations; discuss limitations of the study; clarify the manuscript's contribution; and suggest future research directions where appropriate.

8. Conclusion

The conclusion should provide a concise synthesis of the main findings and their significance. It should not simply repeat the abstract or results. Authors should highlight the contribution of the study, its implications, and possible future directions.

The conclusion should avoid unsupported claims, exaggerated statements, or generalizations that go beyond the evidence presented in the manuscript.

9. Tables, Figures, Maps, and Illustrations

Tables and figures should be clear, necessary, and directly relevant to the manuscript. Each table and figure must be cited in the text and accompanied by a descriptive caption.

Authors should ensure that figures are high resolution; maps include scale, legend, coordinate system where relevant, and data source; graphs are readable and properly labelled; tables are editable where possible; all third-party material has permission or is properly licensed; and captions explain what the reader is seeing without requiring excessive interpretation.

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyrighted images, maps, figures, tables, or other protected material.

10. References and Citation Style

All sources cited in the manuscript must appear in the reference list, and all references listed must be cited in the text. References should be accurate, complete, and formatted according to the journal's required citation style.

Authors should cite current, relevant, and reliable scholarly sources. Excessive self-citation, irrelevant citation, citation manipulation, or citation padding is not acceptable.

Where available, references should include DOI links or other persistent identifiers. Accurate referencing supports transparency, discoverability, citation tracking, and long-term scholarly visibility.

11. Language and Academic Style

Manuscripts must be written in clear academic English. Authors should ensure that the text is grammatically correct, logically organized, and suitable for an international scholarly audience.

The journal expects precise terminology, coherent paragraph structure, objective academic tone, clear explanation of methods and results, avoidance of promotional or unsupported language, and consistent use of abbreviations, units, and technical terms.

Authors whose first language is not English are encouraged to have the manuscript reviewed or edited before submission. However, language editing does not guarantee acceptance; the manuscript must also meet scientific, methodological, and ethical standards.

12. Authorship and Contribution

Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made a substantial intellectual contribution to the work. Authors should be able to take responsibility for the content of the manuscript and approve the final version submitted for publication.

The ICMJE recommendations define authorship through substantial contribution, drafting or critical revision, final approval, and accountability for the work. Although developed originally for medical journals, these criteria are widely used as a strong international reference for responsible authorship.

All contributors who do not meet authorship criteria but provided technical, administrative, editorial, funding, fieldwork, or other support should be acknowledged in the Acknowledgements section, with their permission.

Changes to authorship after submission must be explained and approved by all authors. The journal may request written confirmation from all affected authors before accepting any authorship change.

13. Originality, Plagiarism, and Redundant Publication

Submitted manuscripts must be original and must not be under consideration by another journal or publisher at the same time. Authors must not submit work that has already been published in substantially the same form.

Plagiarism, self-plagiarism, duplicate publication, data fabrication, data falsification, image manipulation, citation manipulation, and unethical text recycling are not acceptable.

The journal may use similarity screening and editorial checks to assess originality. Manuscripts with serious ethical concerns may be rejected, corrected, retracted, or referred for further investigation according to the journal's publication ethics procedures.

14. Research Ethics

Authors are responsible for ensuring that their research complies with all applicable ethical, legal, institutional, and professional standards.

Where relevant, manuscripts should include information about ethical approval, informed consent, fieldwork permissions, environmental permits, data collection permissions, sensitive locations or protected areas, human participants, communities or indigenous/local knowledge, animal or ecological research compliance, laboratory safety, and responsible research conduct.

If ethical approval was not required, authors should state this where appropriate.

15. Conflict of Interest

Authors must disclose any financial, personal, professional, institutional, or other relationships that could be perceived to influence the research, interpretation, or publication of the manuscript.

Conflict of interest disclosure is essential for maintaining trust in the scientific process. ICMJE emphasizes that transparent disclosure of financial and non-financial relationships is important for the credibility of published research.

If there are no conflicts of interest, authors should include the statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

16. Funding Statement

Authors must disclose all sources of funding, grants, institutional support, project numbers, or financial assistance related to the research.

If the research received no external funding, authors should include: This research received no external funding.

The funding statement should clearly distinguish direct funding for the research from general institutional support.

17. Data Availability Statement

Where applicable, authors should include a data availability statement explaining whether the data supporting the findings are publicly available, available upon reasonable request, restricted, confidential, or not applicable.

Examples include: The data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are available in [repository name], [persistent link/DOI]. Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new datasets were generated or analysed.

Authors are encouraged to deposit datasets, code, models, supplementary files, or research materials in recognized repositories where appropriate and ethically possible.

18. Use of AI and AI-Assisted Tools

Authors must disclose any use of generative AI or AI-assisted tools in the preparation of the manuscript. AI tools must not be listed as authors, because authorship requires responsibility and accountability for the work.

If AI tools were used for language refinement, formatting, coding assistance, data processing support, or other purposes, authors should explain the tool used, the purpose of use, and the extent of human oversight. Elsevier's current journal policy guidance similarly requires authors to disclose generative AI use in a separate declaration statement.

Suggested statement: During the preparation of this manuscript, the author(s) used [name of tool/service] for [purpose]. The author(s) reviewed, edited, and verified the output and take full responsibility for the content of the publication.

If no AI tools were used, authors may state: The authors declare that no generative AI or AI-assisted technologies were used in the preparation of this manuscript.

AI tools must not be used to fabricate data, generate false references, manipulate images, create misleading interpretations, or replace the authors' scientific responsibility.

19. Supplementary Materials

Authors may submit supplementary materials when these support the main manuscript but are too extensive to include in the article body. Supplementary materials may include datasets, extended tables, additional figures, maps, code, methodological appendices, multimedia files, survey instruments, and technical documentation.

Supplementary files should be clearly labelled and referenced in the manuscript. Authors are responsible for ensuring that supplementary materials are accurate, ethical, and free from copyright violations.

20. Submission Process

Authors must register or log in through the journal platform before submitting a manuscript. The submission process includes manuscript upload, metadata entry, author information, file confirmation, and final approval.

During submission, authors should ensure that the manuscript file is complete; all authors are listed correctly; the title, abstract, and keywords are accurate; affiliations and contact details are correct; references are complete; supplementary files are uploaded where applicable; ethical, funding, conflict of interest, AI, and data statements are included; and the manuscript is not under review elsewhere.

Incomplete submissions may be returned to authors before editorial assessment.

21. Editorial Screening

All submissions undergo an initial editorial screening before peer review. At this stage, the editorial office may assess relevance to the journal's aims and scope, completeness of the manuscript, originality and similarity level, academic quality, language clarity, structure and formatting, ethical compliance, reference quality, and suitability for peer review.

Manuscripts may be rejected before peer review if they are outside the journal scope, insufficiently developed, ethically problematic, poorly structured, substantially similar to existing work, or not prepared according to the journal's requirements.

22. Peer Review Process

Manuscripts that pass editorial screening are sent for peer review by qualified experts in the relevant field. The review process is designed to evaluate scientific quality, originality, methodology, clarity, relevance, and contribution to the field.

Reviewers may assess relevance to the journal, originality and scientific contribution, clarity of research aim, appropriateness of methodology, quality of data and analysis, validity of conclusions, structure and academic writing, quality of figures, tables and references, and ethical and professional standards.

Editorial decisions may include accept, minor revisions, major revisions, resubmit for review, or reject. Authors receiving revision requests should respond carefully to all reviewer and editor comments. A revised manuscript should be accompanied by a response letter explaining how each point was addressed.

23. Revision Guidelines

When submitting a revised manuscript, authors should provide a clean revised version, a marked or highlighted version showing changes if requested, a detailed response to reviewers, explanations for any comments not fully accepted, and updated declarations or metadata where necessary.

Responses should be polite, precise, and evidence-based. Authors should not ignore reviewer comments or make unsupported changes.

24. Acceptance and Publication

After acceptance, the manuscript enters the production process. The editorial team may perform copyediting, layout preparation, metadata checks, DOI preparation, proofreading, and final publication procedures.

Authors may be asked to review proofs before publication. Proof corrections should be limited to typographical errors, formatting issues, factual corrections, or production-related problems. Major content changes after acceptance are normally not permitted unless approved by the editor.

Published articles become part of the journal's scholarly record and should be cited using the official citation information provided on the article page.

25. Copyright and Licensing

Authors should review the journal's copyright and licensing policy before submission. The journal supports responsible open access publishing and transparent reuse conditions.

If the journal uses a Creative Commons license, the exact license should be clearly indicated on the article page and in the journal policy. Authors are responsible for ensuring that third-party materials included in the manuscript are compatible with the article's license or have appropriate permission.

26. Article Processing Charges and Fees

Any submission fees, publication fees, article processing charges, or other author charges must be clearly stated on the journal website before submission. If no fees are charged, this should also be clearly stated. Transparent fee information is part of recognized best practice in scholarly publishing.

Suggested statements: There are currently no article processing charges for submissions to Societies & Sustainability. or Any applicable publication fees are clearly communicated to authors before submission and publication.

27. Submission Preparation Checklist

Before submitting, authors should confirm that the manuscript fits the aims and scope of SAS; is original and not under review elsewhere; has clear title, abstract and keywords; lists all authors and affiliations correctly; includes ORCID iDs where available; follows the required structure; includes complete figures, tables, maps and captions; has accurate references; includes permissions for third-party material; states ethics, funding, conflicts of interest, data availability and AI-assisted tool use where applicable; includes supplementary materials where relevant; and has been checked for language, formatting and consistency.

28. Contact

For questions regarding manuscript preparation, submission requirements, editorial policies, peer review, publication ethics, licensing, or technical issues with the submission system, authors are welcome to contact the editorial office.

Societies & Sustainability (SAS) is committed to supporting authors through a transparent, responsible, and academically rigorous publication process. The journal welcomes contributions that strengthen international scholarly dialogue and advance knowledge in social sciences and sustainability.