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Human dimensions journals
The following links provide access to a number of journals that publish papers on human dimensions research within the sustainability, environment and development areas. Some of these journals include interdisciplinary and action-research based material. I begin by
These cover scholarly journals that are available on-line without a financial barrier to access. The main advantage of these journals is that the content is available to users everywhere regardless of affiliation with a subscribing library. This particularly serves to benefit authors - who will potentially see their papers more read, more cited, and better integrated into the structure of science; researchers and practitioners who work on their own or at smaller institutions - where they and/or their library cannot afford journal subscriptions; and private readers in general - who may be interested in the subject matter. Another useful list can also be found from David Sonnenfeld's Society and Environment scholarly journals page:On-line (or open access) journals
There are two main gateways to open access journals. The Directory of Open Access Journals is a one stop shop for users to Open Access Journals. It aims to be comprehensive and cover all open access scientific and scholarly journals that use a quality control system to guarantee the content. It currently covers 3769 journals, with 1327 of these being searchable at article level. The other is Open J-gate. This portal indexes articles from 4654 academic, research and industry journals, with 2531 of them being peer-reviewed scholarly journals.
- Free access full-text journals This page from Colin Robson provides a selected list of journals where the full text of their articles are freely available to all via the Web (in some cases the most recent numbers of the journals are only available to subscribers). These journals are listed here primarily as a resource for readers who do not have membership of an academic library (through which many more mainstream journals can usually be accessed, either in print or e-journal format). they cover the following general fields: General journals; Business and management journals; Education journals; Nursing and other health-related areas journals; Psychology journals; Social anthropology journals; Social work and social policy journals; Sociology journals; Sport and leisure studies journals; and Journals in other areas.
- Ecology and Society Ecology and Society seeks papers that are novel, integrative and written in a way that is accessible to a wide audience that includes an array of disciplines from the natural sciences, social sciences, and the humanities concerned with the relationship between society and the life-supporting ecosystems on which human wellbeing ultimately depends. It is an electronic, peer-reviewed, multi-disciplinary journal devoted to the rapid dissemination of current research. Manuscript submission, peer review, and publication are all handled on the Internet.
- Land Use and Water Resources Research LUWRR is a web-based journal devoted to the water resource, ecological, economic, climate change, socio-economic, policy and sustainable development issues related to land use. A particular aim of the journal is to connect better science and policy so that management solutions can be found which take into account the competing demands for land uses which are both productive, which sustain peoples livelihoods, which deliver conservation, amenity, recreation and environment/ecology (CARE) products and which also provide water with the quality and quantity we require for sustainable development.
- Journal of Extension (JOE) JOE is the official refereed journal of the U.S. Cooperative Extension System. It seeks to expand and update the research and knowledge base for Extension professionals and other adult educators to improve their effectiveness. JOE is an electronic journal, available only on the World Wide Web.
- Sustainability: Science, Practice & Policy (SSPP) SSPP is a new peer-reviewed, open access journal that provides a platform for the dissemination of new practices and for dialogue emerging out of the field of sustainability. The e-Journal fills a gap in the literature by establishing a forum for cross-disciplinary discussion of empirical and social sciences, practices, and policies related to sustainability. Sustainability will facilitate communication among scientists, practitioners, and policy makers who are investigating and shaping nature-society interactions and working towards sustainable solutions.
- The Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning (IJPBL) This journal publishes relevant, interesting, and challenging articles of research, analysis, or promising practice related to all aspects of implementing problem-based learning (PBL) in K12 and post-secondary classrooms.Submission of articles that report on original research, classroom or project descriptions and evaluations, syntheses of the literature, assessments of the state of the art, and theoretical or conceptual positions that relate to the use of PBL, including the planning, management, operation, and evaluation of PBL are highly desired.
- The Journal of Social Change This journal is devoted to theoretical advancement and applied research on social change that improves the human condition and progresses people, groups, organizations, cultures, and society towards a more positive future. The editors invite papers from scholars, scholar-practitioners, and advanced graduate students who are working in the area of social change. The journal's approach to social change is interdisciplinary and multicultural. Contributions are welcomed from any discipline or conceptual perspective, and may focus on any aspect of theory or research that relates to ideas and efforts to engender positive social change, and focuses on real-world applications of these ideas and efforts. JSC is an online, refereed journal published semi-annually.
- Knowledge Management for Development Journal (KM4D Journal) The KM4D Journal is produced by the KM4Dev-community and appears three times a year: in May, September and December. The main impetus for the creation of the journal came when the group realized that there is a need to formally capture the knowledge generated within the KM4Dev community. This community gathers researchers and practitioners the world over, who act as authors, reviewers, editorial board members, chief editors, management team members, etc. while supporting and contributing their knowledge and expertise.
- Conservation and Society Conservation and Society is a peer-reviewed interdisciplinary open access journal dedicated to the advancement of the theory and practice of conservation. The journal draws on both natural and social sciences and covers basic and applied research in areas including but not restricted to political ecology, human-wildlife conflicts, decentralised conservation, conservation policy, ecosystem structure and functioning, systematics, community and species ecology, behavioural ecology, landscape ecology, restoration ecology and conservation biology. Volume 1, Number 5, August 2007 has a special (and very good) section with five papers on the Politics of Engagement between Biodiversity Conservation and the Social Sciences.
Subscription-based journals
- EcoHealth EcoHealth is an international, peer-reviewed journal focused on the integration of knowledge at the interface between ecological and health sciences. Launched in 2004, EcoHealth builds on the foundation laid by the complementary journals 'Ecosystem Health' and the 'Global Change and Human Health'. By merging these two journals and linking with the Consortium for Conservation Medicine, the journal provides an authoritative forum for research and practice that integrates human, wildlife and ecosystem health. The focus on human and wildlife health reflects their centrality as criterion for humankind's search for a sustainable future.
- Agriculture and Human Values Agriculture and Human Values is an interdisciplinary journal for educators, researchers, policy makers, and research managers who have an interest in understanding the implications of alternative food and agricultural policies and practices.
- Society and Natural Resources Bringing together social science research on present and emerging environmental and natural resource issues, Society and Natural Resources provides a forum for scientific, refereed research that underlies management decisions on natural resource development from multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary social science perspectives. The knowledge base focuses on natural resource management issues, including biological and physical changes, such as: acid rain; biological and genetic diversity in worldwide agriculture; hazardous and solid waste disposal; and forest, fishery, soil, and water degradation.
- Community Development Journal Published four times a year and circulated in over 80 countries, the Community Development Journal provides an international forum for political, economic and social programmes, which link the activities of people with institutions and government. Dealing with the theory and practice of the policies, programmes and methods employed, the Community Development Journal covers a wide range of topics including community action, village, town, and regional planning, community studies and rural development.
- International Journal of Sustainable Society (IJSSoc) Sustainability is usually associated with ecological and political economics, as well as social and economic development: the associated consequences on national and global levels and the related trade-off and compromises between social, environmental and economic benefits. Furthermore, "society systems science" or "society science", as we have termed it, is the interface of natural science and social science, where both natural scientists and social scientists confront the real-world problems and challenges that exist in our society, and work towards formulating effective solutions. IJSSoc aims to provide a professional forum for formulating, discussing and disseminating these solutions, which relate to the design, development, deployment, management, measurement, and adjustment of these social networks. They should form a common ground on which a sustainable society can be built, shared and supported by professionals from different disciplines. The universal goal of achieving peace, prosperity, and harmony in our society should go beyond disciplines, and ultimately be coordinated across different nationalities, cultures, races, and religions, and be sustainable.
- International Journal of Climate Strategies and Management (IJCSM) This journal has been created in response to the general dearth of academic peer-reviewed publications specifically focused on the management aspects of climate change or on approaches, methods, strategies and other types of action needed in order to cope with the challenge of climate change. IJCSM will report on climate change programmes, strategies and action plans and will disseminate case studies with consideration to market opportunities, cost savings and the increased value of climate mitigation and adaptation measures. The journal seeks to focus on the dissemination of experiences and information exchange with respect to pilot projects in areas such as climate change and carbon dioxide emissions, the contribution of industry to global warming, the impacts of transport on climate, the influence of legislation and appraisals of the impacts of regulations, as well as the links between climate change and disaster management. Papers are now being invited for this journal.
Ranking journals
- ERA ranked journal listing
The Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative assesses research quality within Australia's higher education institutions using a combination of indicators and expert review by committees comprising experienced, internationally-recognised experts. ERA uses leading researchers to evaluate research in eight discipline clusters. One of these indicators is discipline-specific tiered outlet rankings and you can access these for both journals and conferences here as excel spreadsheets.