The environmental SCIENTIST

The IES produces four editions a year of its highly regarded journal, environmental SCIENTIST, as part of our commitment to disseminating new and groundbreaking developments in environmental science. While IES members are our primary readership, the environmental SCIENTIST archive is freely available, and our tone is informative and accessible. This allows a wider audience, both within and beyond the field of environmental science, to benefit from the expertise shared in each edition. 

Every issue brings together experts in environmental science, to examine a relevant theme from a variety of perspectives. A guest editor – a leading subject expert – curates a selection of original and insightful articles written by IES members, academics, and professionals, to respond to the topic at hand.

While the journal is an engaging way of staying informed about the latest news and research in the sector, it also represents the level of expertise and commitment to innovation shown by our members.

Could you contribute to a future edition of the journal? If you’d like to share your expertise with an engaged and multi-disciplinary readership, please get in touch with us at publications@the-ies.org.

Latest Journals

  • The water crisis is now a familiar feature in the UK media: from sewage discharges released into our rivers and seas, to plastic pollution damaging our wastewater systems, and droughts and floods becoming an increasingly frequent concern as our climate changes.

    However, amongst the growing pressures our water infrastructure faces, there are innovative governance, technological, and behavioural solutions emerging from experts and professionals across the water sector. Contributors to this issue of environmental SCIENTIST cover topics that range from wastewater to citizen science and pollution, and they address the crucial ways we can adapt our understanding and management of water in the UK, to respond to multiple environmental and anthropogenic challenges.

  • How we respond to matters of environmental justice in the present will shape our society well into the future, as the world grapples with the intensifying effects of climate change and countless other environmental pressures.

    Exploring a range of environmental injustices - from the dumping of hazardous waste in a predominantly Black neighbourhood in Dallas, Texas, to disaster capitalism in Barbuda following Hurricane Irma - this edition sheds light on the inequalities inherent in environmental damage. Crucially, these articles also consider routes to attaining environmental justice: such as working with legal systems, engaging in civil disobedience, or creating innovative new ways to hold corporations and authorities to account for environmental wrongdoing. Ultimately, this issue of environmental SCIENTIST examines how – and if – environmental justice can be achieved, particularly for the most vulnerable communities on the front line of the climate crisis.

  • No profession operates in a vacuum and it is imperative that we pay attention to emerging drivers of change.

    This edition of environmental SCIENTIST explores how the European Environment Agency's eleven global megatrends are influencing the work of the land condition community. Tackling diverse topics from microplastics and antimicrobial resistance through to climate change, the journal suggests how we should be developing approaches to accommodate these momentous changes. In this way, land condition professionals, and other environmental disciplines that interact with land, can be prepared for future conditions and contribute meaningfully to sustainable development.

  • The continuing energy crisis, in the midst of an ongoing fight against climate change and movement towards renewable power, has brought the importance of energy systems into sharp relief. As scientists and the public grapple with how to transform our dependent relationship with energy, many complex and competing factors must be navigated, from public opinion and social wellbeing to economic development and net zero commitments.

    In this edition of environmental SCIENTIST, the IES brings together key voices from multiple academic and professional fields to examine both the progress made and the challenges yet to overcome.

    If you are an education provider, our learning resources provide information for informal, seminar-style discussions of the topics explored in each issue of the journal. Download the ...

  • By understanding risk, we can see potential futures and pathways for the society and economy we want to create for future generations. As the global community makes decisions about which approach to take to the interconnected issues of climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental pollution, we must grapple with many of these concepts lest we cross thresholds from which we cannot return.

    This edition of environmental SCIENTIST unites interdisciplinary voices to share understandings of risk, revealing how its consideration is also increasingly crucial beyond the scientific community.

    If you are an education provider, our learning resources provide information for informal, seminar-style discussions of the topics explored in each issue of the journal. Download the learning resource (docx) for this issue.

Forthcoming journals

Theme Publication date Submission deadline
Britain's natural capital Mar 2024 Mid-Jan 2024
Technology Jun 2024 Mid-Apr 2024
Net Gain Sept 2024 Mid-Jul 2024
Health Dec 2024  Mid-Oct 2024

Submission FAQs

Who to contact

Bea Gilbert

Publications Lead

Email