Environmental Evidence

Environmental Evidence aims to provide objective scientific evidence to inform policy and practice by publishing evidence syntheses relevant to environmental management and policy. The journal is managed by the Collaboration for Environmental Evidence (CEE) andfacilitates rapid publication of rigorous evidence syntheses, in the form of Systematic Reviews and Systematic Maps, conducted to CEE Guidelines and Standards. Our scope covers all forms of environmental management and human impacts and therefore spans the natural and social sciences. Subjects include water security, agriculture, food security, forestry, fisheries, natural resource management, biodiversity conservation, climate change, ecosystem services, pollution, invasive species, environmental impacts on human wellbeing, sustainable energy use, soil management, environmental legislation and environmental education. The syntheses we publish are intended to inform decision making in environmental policy and practice, and specifically on the effectiveness of environmental management interventions and the impact of human activities on the environment. Plain language summaries of syntheses intended for evidence users are available here https://environmentalevidence.org/policy-briefs/ 

Objective use of scientific evidence to inform policy or practice is a major aim and to that end the Journal also publishes methodology papers and encourages submissions that promise advances in the field of evidence synthesis, including methodological contributions to advance co-design processes used in syntheses, communication of findings or evidence uptake.

Discussion of wider issues surrounding the production of evidence syntheses and use of research evidence in decision making are welcome in the form of commentary articles.

Research articles are welcome that are empirical natural or social science studies that examine various aspects of evidence generation, systhesis, use and impact. 

Evidence in Action articles should involve a discussion on the impact of evidence-based practice on environmental managers, of evidence synthesis on policy making, or a discussion of developments at the science-policy interface.

Proposals for Special Series of papers on a specific theme are welcomed and you should contact the Editor-in-Chief at an early stage.

Environmental management is now a mainstream political activity with major resources being committed to growing challenges related to climate change, natural resource management, ecosystem services and human wellbeing. Despite the large and rapidly increasing amounts of primary environmental research, the potential of the data to address questions of concern to policy makers and managers has not been fully realised. CEE promotes and facilitates the conduct of evidence syntheses and seeks to make this information more accessible to all through open access publishing.