As the managing editor for Environmental Practice, I work with the National Association of Environmental Professionals (NAEP) Publications Pillar and our readers to identify topics and issues that we feel are of interest to the journal’s readership. Some volumes have a theme, which is usually suggested to us by our readers. This approach has been effective in bringing in new perspectives and topics on environmental issues and maintains the NAEP mission by providing quality articles that balance the interests of both the practitioner and the scholar in the environmental professions.

Please send us your ideas for interesting and relevant thematic topics in the field of environmental practice. Also, if you are particularly passionate about a topic, then consider signing on as a guest editor. Contact me at ruth.gaulke@gmail.com if you are interested.

Environmental Practice currently has five manuscript categories:

Peer reviewed:

• ∙ Research Articles

• ∙ Environmental Reviews and Case Studies

Non-peer reviewed:

• ∙ Perspectives from the Field

• ∙ Reviews

• ∙ Dialogue

Recently, we added the following categories:

Counterpoint

For our Counterpoint category, we will look for discussion-generating articles. When we receive an interesting, provocative submittal, we plan to recruit authors to write a response piece to the initial piece. An initial article or a response manuscript would be similar in length to a Perspectives from the Field piece, in the range of 1,000–1,500 words. However, the goal of a Counterpoint piece would be to respond to a cited, peer-reviewed article and, as a result, each manuscript would need to be grounded in literature citations, unlike a Perspectives from the Field piece, which does not. These manuscripts would not be peer reviewed.

Working Group

In this category, we will give the NAEP working groups an outlet to report their findings. These manuscripts will vary in length according to the specific projects being reported on by the working group, but will be similar in length to our peer-reviewed manuscripts (roughly 5,000–6,000 words). These manuscripts would be peer reviewed.

Student Perspective

Students are the future of NAEP. As such, we will work with the NAEP student chapters to provide students with an outlet for writing their first peer-reviewed publication. These manuscripts would be written in the same format as our usual peer-reviewed manuscripts, but would be identified as a student work. Ideally, the student series will highlight the work of up-and-coming student practitioners, aiding them in their future careers, and will also identify the NAEP as a beneficial organization for student practitioners.

Career Development

This manuscript category would act as a topic-focused version of our Perspectives from the Field section. The NAEP has members who work in a wide variety of fields, all of whom can provide particular insights into the future of careers in their industry. We would like to recruit these professionals to write short opinion pieces, in the range of 1,000–1,500 words, on career development, with advice for other working professionals. These manuscripts would not be peer reviewed.

If you have ideas for other categories, please let us know!