Aims, objectives and scope

Nature Environment and Pollution Technology (NEPT) is an international, interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal that aims to publish cutting-edge research on environmental science, technology, and pollution control. The journal was first launched in 1994 by the name ‘Journal of Environment and Pollution’ and in 2002 it was renamed as Nature Environment and Pollution Technology and has since become a prominent platform for researchers in the field of environment. Till 2016 the journal had print copies, but from 2017 it has become a fully open access online journal with eISSN as 2395-3454.
NEPT focuses on a broad range of topics related to environmental science, including air pollution, water pollution, soil pollution, waste management, climate change, and environmental biotechnology. The journal aims to publish original research articles and review articles, that contribute to advancing knowledge and understanding of environmental issues. One of the unique features of NEPT is its focus on the application of technology in addressing environmental challenges. The journal publishes research that explores innovative technologies, techniques, and approaches for mitigating environmental pollution and promoting sustainable development.
The journal welcomes submissions from researchers, academics, and practitioners from around the world, and it has a rigorous peer-review process to ensure the quality and accuracy of the published research. It is a part of many reputed international indexing and abstracting agencies.

Frequency of the journal

The Journal is published quarterly in the months of March, June, September and December every year.

Editorial and Peer Review Process

When a manuscript is submitted to the journal, the editor-in-chief or the executive editor screens the submission to ensure that it meets the journal's scope, format requirements, plagiarism, originality and linguistic quality. If the manuscript does not meet the requirements, it is returned to the author without further review. If the manuscript passes the initial screening, the manuscript proceeds to the review process. The manuscript is sent to two or more peer reviewers (single-blind review process) who are experts in the same or related field. The peer reviewers evaluate the manuscript for its scientific rigor, validity, and significance. They provide feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of the research, the quality of the methodology, and the clarity of the presentation. They may also suggest revisions or additional experiments that could strengthen the research. Based on the feedback from the peer reviewers, the authors revise the manuscript and submit it back to the editor. The editor evaluates the revisions and accepts/rejects the manuscript considering acceptance criteria of the journal. The manuscript is copyedited and typeset, and the final version is published online.

Copyright and License

• Technoscience Publications follows the CC BY license (Creative Commons Attribution v4.0 International License) for its open access journal ‘Nature Environment and Pollution Technology.
• The CC BY license is the most common open license available and is considered the industry 'gold standard' for open access.
• This license allows users to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, and to alter, transform, or build upon the material, including for commercial use, provided that the original author is credited.
• Copyright on any open access article in the journal ‘Nature Environment and Pollution Technology’ published by Technoscience Publications is retained by the author(s).
• Authors grant Technoscience Publications a license to publish the article and identify itself as the original publisher.

Plagiarism policy

Plagiarism is using someone else's work without attribution, paraphrasing someone else's work without proper citation, and self-plagiarism is when an author tries to re-publish his previously published articles/data in some other journal.
NEPT journal uses the Turnitin plagiarism detection software to screen all the submitted manuscripts for potential plagiarism. After reviewing the similarity report, the editors decide if the paper is rejected (depending on the similarity rate) or sent back to author to remove the similarity and give proper attributions.

Processing and Publication Charges

Nature Environment and Pollution Technology is an open-access journal and is not funded by any institution or government. As such, the journal does not receive subscription fees or access fees from readers. To cover the costs of maintaining the journal, authors are required to pay a handling and processing fee for the processing of their articles.

• No Submission Charges: Authors are not charged for submitting their manuscripts.
• Article Processing/Publication Charges (APC): Authors are required to pay APC charges after their articles have undergone the peer-review process and been accepted for publication. The APC varies based on the length of the paper and the economic status of the first author's affiliation country with no waiver.
• International Authors: APC ranges from US$ 375 to US$ 775.
• SAARC Countries and Certain Low Economy Countries: Concessional rates ranging from US$ 150 to US$ 250 apply.
• India: APC charges of INR 10,950 and above, depending on the paper's length.
• Number of authors in the paper: The journal does not encourage gift authorship. The standard number of authors in the paper is 5 authors. Each author above 5 shall be charged 10% extra of the total APC charges.

The specific APC charges are communicated to authors after the peer-review process. Please note that APC charges are non-refundable once the paper is accepted or if it is retracted from the website due to exceptional circumstances.

Publication Ethics

Because publications form the basis for both new research and the application of findings, they can affect not only the research community but also, indirectly, society at large. Researchers, therefore, have a responsibility to ensure that their publications are honest, clear, accurate, complete and balanced, and should avoid misleading, selective or ambiguous reporting. The journal supports the code of conduct set out by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)  (https://publicationethics.org/).
Following are some publication ethics as per the COPE guidelines that the authors need to follow:

Soundness and reliability: The research being reported should have been conducted in an ethical and responsible manner and follow all relevant legislation. Authors should use appropriate methods of data analysis and display (and, if needed, seek and follow specialist advice on this). Authors should take collective responsibility for their work and for the content of their publications. Authors should check their publications carefully at all stages to ensure methods and findings are reported accurately. Authors should carefully check calculations, data presentations, typescripts/submissions and proofs.

Originality and Acknowledgement of Sources: The authors should make sure that their writing is wholly unique, and if they have utilized someone else's ideas or words, they should make sure that they have quoted or cited them correctly and, if required, acquired permission. Plagiarism, including duplicate publication of the author's own work, in whole or in part without proper citation is not allowed by the journal. Plagiarism of any sort is forbidden and is considered unethical behavior.

Multiple, Redundant or Concurrent Publication: Duplicate or redundant submission refers to the same manuscript (or the same data) that is submitted to different journals at the same time. Authors should not submit a manuscript that has been already published or submitted elsewhere. Such manuscript will be immediately rejected. The Journal do not view the following uses of a work as prior publication: publication in the form of an abstract; publication as an academic thesis; publication as an electronic preprint.

Authorship of the Paper: Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study, drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content in accordance with COPE guidelines.  The journal does not accept “gift” authorship to those who did not contribute to the paper. The editors can ask the authors to provide a contribution certificate signed by the institute’s authorities, if required. The corresponding authors should ensure that every author has approved all submissions, including revisions. Editors and Publishers cannot be asked to be involved in an authorship dispute. The authors may be asked to sign an ‘Author Certificate’ having the statement that all the authors have approved the manuscript and have contributed significantly to the paper

Hazards and Human or Animal Subjects: If the work involves chemicals, procedures or equipment that have any unusual hazards inherent in their use, the authors must clearly identify these in the manuscript. This could be products, chemicals, operations, or technologies posing a threat to public health and safety, the environment, plants, animals, or equipment.
If the work involves the use of animal or human subjects, the author should ensure that the manuscript contains a statement that all procedures were performed in compliance with relevant laws and institutional guidelines and that the appropriate institutional committee(s) have approved them. Authors should include a statement in the manuscript that informed consent was obtained for experimentation with human subjects. The privacy rights of human subjects must always be observed.
For human subjects, the author should ensure that the work described has been carried out in accordance with The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) for experiments involving humans.  All animal experiments should comply with the ARRIVE guidelines and should be carried out in accordance with the U.K. Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 and associated guidelines, or  EU Directive 2010/63/EU on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes, or the U.S. Public Health Service Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals and, as applicable, the Animal Welfare Act.

Research involving plants: Manuscripts should include a statement specifying the appropriate permissions and/or licenses for collection of plant or seed specimens. We recommend that authors comply with the IUCN Policy Statement on Research Involving Species at Risk of Extinction and the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

Conflicts of Interest: Authors, reviewers and editors all have a duty to report possible conflicts of interest. In the case of authors, they should declare anything that may have influenced the research or could influence the review process or the publication of the article. If the author is unsure whether it’s a conflict of interest, always check with the editor or publisher ahead of submission.
Possible conflicts of interest include:

• A prior relationship between author and editor.
• A financial or personal interest in the outcomes of the research.
• Undisclosed financial support for the research by an interested third party.
• A financial or personal interest in the suppression of the research.
• A pending patent.

When submitting the work, the authors should include a note outlining any financial support received for the research from outside sources and drawing attention to any other potential conflicts of interest.
Editors and Reviewers
Editors and reviewers should decline to be involved with a submission when they

• Have a recent publication or current submission with any author
• Share or recently shared an affiliation with any author
• Collaborate or recently collaborated with any author
• Have a close personal connection to any author
• Have a financial interest in the subject of the work
• Feel unable to be objective

Editors and reviewers must declare if they have previously discussed the manuscript with the authors.

Notification of Fundamental Errors: When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.

Open Access Statement of the Journal

This is an open access journal which means that all the content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author, provided proper attribution to the original work is given. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.