Natural Resources Forum

A United Nations Sustainable Development Journal

Edited by:
David Le Blanc

Print ISSN: 0165-0203
Online ISSN: 1477-8947
Frequency: Quarterly
Current Volume: 33 / 2009
Impact Factor: 0.792

TopAuthor Guidelines

The NRF, A United Nations Sustainable Development Journal, considers papers on all topics relevant to sustainable development. Articles must be based on original research and must be relevant to policy-making. A strong focus on restitution and evaluation from groundbreaking national level implementation projects, programmes, and policies is pursued. Manuscripts should be between 6,000 and 8,000 words in length.

Criteria for submitted articles include:

1) Relevance and importance of the topic discussed to sustainable development in general, both in terms of policy impacts and gaps in current knowledge being addressed by the article;
2) Treatment of the topic that incorporates social, economic and environmental aspects of sustainable development, rather than focusing purely on sectoral and/or technical aspects;
3) Articles must contain original applied material drawn from concrete projects, policy implementation, or literature reviews; purely theoretical papers are not entertained.

MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSIONS

Online Manuscript Submissions

Authors are strongly encouraged to submit their manuscripts online using ScholarOne Manuscript. To make a submission, simply visit http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/nrf. Full instructions and support are available on the site and a user ID and password can be obtained on the first visit. Support can be contacted by phone (+1 434 964 4100) Monday-Friday, or at http://mchelp.manuscriptcentral.com/gethelpnow/support.htm.

E-mail Submissions

If online manuscript submission is not an option, articles may be submitted by email at nrforum@un.org.

All submitted articles should follow the Format Guidelines.

REVIEW PROCESS

The NRF uses a two-tier reviewing system. In the first stage, the editorial team evaluates the paper on the basis of length and construction, clarity of the exposition, English language, and relevance of the topic to the Journal. The Editor also assesses whether the paper's findings are novel and ground-breaking enough to warrant publication in NRF.

Papers that pass the first stage are sent out for review to outside referees. Reviewers are queried not just on the scientific quality and correctness, but also on whether the findings are of interest to the Journal readership. The Editor relies on the referees' comments along with his own opinion of the manuscript to make a decision regarding publication. Decisions from the Editor are chosen from the following options:

• to accept the manuscript as submitted or pending minor changes;
• to request major or minor revision to the manuscript;
• to reject the manuscript, but encourage revision and invite resubmission;
• to reject the manuscript.

In order to expedite the decision process, authors sending a revised version of their article may also wish to include a note describing how the revised paper addresses the referees' comments. Revised papers may be sent back to referees for a second review. The review process continues until the Editor either rejects or accepts the paper. The role of the referees to the NRF is advisory. The final decision to accept or reject a manuscript rests with the Editor.

ONLINE PRODUCTION TRACKING AND PROOFS

Visit the Author Services website to find out how authors can track the production status of their article online, choose to receive e-mail alerts on article status, and to get free access to their article when it is published online. Once proofs are ready, authors receive an email alert; proofs must be reviewed promptly. The publishers reserve the right to charge for any changes made at proof stage (other than printer's errors) since the insertion or deletion of a single word may necessitate the resetting of whole paragraphs.

EXCLUSIVE LICENCE FORM

Authors will be required to sign an Exclusive Licence Form (ELF) for all papers accepted for publication. Signature of the ELF is a condition of publication and papers will not be passed to the publisher for production unless a signed form has been received. Please note that signature of the Exclusive Licence Form does not affect ownership of copyright in the material. (Government employees need to complete the Author Warranty sections, although copyright in such cases does not need to be assigned). After submission authors will retain the right to publish their paper in various medium/circumstances (please see the form for further details). To assist authors an appropriate form will be supplied by the editorial office. Alternatively, authors may like to download a copy of the form here.

PRE-SUBMISSION ENGLISH-LANGUAGE EDITING

Authors for whom English is a second language may choose to have their manuscripts professionally edited before submission to improve the English. A list of independent suppliers of editing services can be found at http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/english_language.asp
All services are paid for and arranged by the author, and use of one of these services does not guarantee acceptance or preference for publication.

SUPPORTING INFORMATION

Wiley-Blackwell is able to host online approved supporting information that authors submit with their paper. Supporting information must be important, ancillary information that is relevant to the parent article but which does not or cannot appear in the printed edition of the journal. Authors should consult the individual journal's Editor to see whether supporting information is accepted. For more information please see http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/suppmat.asp.

VIEWPOINTS AND BOOK REVIEWS

Each issue of the journal poses a question of relevance to sustainable development in the "Viewpoints" section of the journal. NRF invites practitioners and experts to share their perspective in about 200 words. Selected responses will appear in the "Viewpoints" section.

NRF welcomes reviews of recently published books with a focus on sustainable development. Reviews should range between 800-1200 words.

Viewpoints and Book Reviews may be submitted by e-mail at nrforum@un.org

FREE COPIES TO CONTRIBUTORS

The Publisher will provide PDF files of published articles, plus 2 copies of the entire issue, to each contributing author. Book reviewers and Viewpoints contributors will receive one copy of the whole issue, as will publishers of books reviewed.