Environmental Journals

Ecozon@: European Journal of Literature, Culture and Environment

Eurocentric and biased against Americans. Neocolonial in thought and deed. Received terrible and condescending reviews that weren’t even written in passable English. They basically told me I was incompetent. So I published my paper as part of my monograph with a University Press.

Environmental Humanities

It seems that things are moving very slowly under the new editors. (9/2024)
Helpful to know that the process is also slow for other authors, rather than the problem being my submission. It's been over a year since my initial submission and I'm still awaiting a decision following a major revision (09/2024)
Great experience. I submitted an abstract first, as requested, and heard back within two weeks as promised. I submitted the full paper and heard back from an editor within a few days about the changes they'd want to send it out to review. The suggestions were very helpful; the editor had clearly read the article carefully and knew the area. I ended up withdrawing it because the changes would have made it into a different article, but had suspected it might not be quite suitable. I was impressed and would submit to them again. (2/2019)
Excellent experience. Got back to me very quickly when I proposed an article, and then received a decision (with detailed information) within three months of submission. They may not always be this fast, but they are very thoughtful and professional. Would highly recommend working with them. 10/2018

Environment, Space, Place

Very positive and smooth experience (spring/summer 2023). The editor, Troy Paddock, was responsive, amiable, and down to earth throughout. I received two largely positive reviews (which took four months to come), resulting in a minor revision. Eight months passed between acceptance and publication, but there seemed to have been complications with some other articles in the issue, so that's likely unrepresentative. The journal itself is truly interdisciplinary and nicely produced; I'd submit to it again.

Green Letters: Studies in Ecocriticism

Experiences anyone?

ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment

10/24 - So glad to have submitted to ISLE. Although they did not wind up publishing my manuscript, I had three reviews in about a month. The editorial team also followed up quickly to emails. Their submissions rates have increased a lot over the past year the editor said at the ASLE conference last summer in Portland and that they have to make tough calls to keep ensuring a quick timeline to publication. Really grateful for the helpful reader reports. Good experience.
There are more reviews of this journal on the Comparative Literature page.
5/24: terrific experience. My manuscript was checked in for review in under a day. I received three helpful reviews in 30-60 days. Had a few questions about them. Emailed the editor, who replied quickly and helpfully. Revised and resubmitted. Manuscript published on-line in under 30 days and scheduled to be published in an issue soon. Again, terrific experience and highly recommended.
2023: Poor show. I received two extremely positive peer reviews on an article, made the minor revisions requested, and then had that revision accepted by at least one of the reviewers (the other was not mentioned). But the article was rejected. When asked for some explanation, the editor told me that the board had decided that it was not a fit. To me, rejecting an article on these grounds only after two rounds of review and a revision suggests a contempt for authors' and reviewers' time. What a waste of work. It could be that there isn't a coherent view on the scope of this journal that is shared between and among the editor editorial board. Despite the encompassing scope on its webpage (and its intermittent publishing on all kinds of topics), if you're unsure as to whether you're fimly in ISLE's wheelhouse it might be safest to submit your work elsewhere.
6/22 - Amazing experience. Submitted essay. Received an email that it was checked in that same day. Then, received a decision in under a month with four very helpful reviews. (They told me their average for first decisions is 1-2 months.) Revised and resubmitted. Received final decision again in well under a month. My article was published within a year of initial submission! They replied to my emails and queries quickly. All in all, I couldn't be happier with the experience. Apparently, they have a new team as of July 2020 and they have worked intensely to improve the timeline from submission to decision and also from submission to publication. All I can say given my experience is, it seems to be working!
I've refereed for ISLE and submitted an article for publication. Two totally different experiences. Refereeing was easy and my contact with the journal was helpful and professional. My essay, on the other hand, took 11 months to review and was sent to a hostile reviewer who pretty much dismissed it out of hand. To be fair, it was a revise and resubmit, but the reader offered no revision suggestions--total garbage review that took a year. Still annoyed.
[3/17] Now nine months in, still awaiting a decision. The editorial team have been open about their difficulties securing reliable readers: they seem like terrific people working to secure solid feedback. To this point, I disagree that they are "unprofessional" or a "joke"; rather, they're pretty standard for the profession. It's worth the wait for the prestige in the sub-field and to reach their audience, but probably not an optimal target if you need publications for tenure in short order. (I could say that about almost all of my published essays, though. . .).
Six weeks for a decision (minor revisions) with one detailed reader's report, one month between revisions and acceptance, and 9-10 months between final acceptance and publication.
Eleven months from submission to rejection. After ten months of complete silence with no communication and no indication on the submission manager that anything was happening, I sent an inquiry. And even then it took several emails to extract a decision, the first few of which received no reply at all. Finally they replied with some excuses for the delay and the failure to respond. It's the flagship journal of ecocrit, but I've heard from several colleagues that such treatment is not unusual.
So far, my submission has been stuck on "Awaiting Admin Processing" for 3 months...

Yes, that seems to be automatic (the ME appeared immediately after I had submitted). UPDATE: I've contacted them now via email. Let's see... UPDATE: After 3.5 months its now under review. So I'll stop complaining ;-)
[Edited for brevity] Submitted 2/2015. After 6 months (8/2015) and an inquiry, got R&R. System indicated "Major Revision" but single reader report asked for relatively straightforward revisions. Resubmitted 2/2016. It does not appear that system status is frequently updated. Journal is responsive to inquiries. Stated timeline on revised manuscripts (<3 months) is very optimistic. This journal is really, really slow. Just hoping for a decision at this point. UPDATE#1: Editorial assistant told me, four weeks ago (7/2016), that final decision coming "very soon." Still nothing as of 8/2016. UPDATE #2: Manuscript has been in the queue for final decision for two months. Pinged editorial assistant and received pretty much the same response. So, no end in sight. UPDATE #3: Received a decision: eventual publication with minor revisions. Long wait but excited to be a part of this journal. UPDATE #4: Resubmitted for second time two weeks after most recent decision (eventual pub., minor revisions) on 10/19/16. Still no final decision by 1/9/17. Emailed editor (with cc to editorial assistant) to ask and received acceptance 30 minutes later. Inquiries by email seem to get things moving here. Happy to be a part of this journal, but ~2 years from submission to acceptance might make it a bad choice for those w/ upcoming tenure reviews. UPDATE #4: Article was published today ~32 months after submission.
Submitted 7/2015 and have thus far had a very similar experience to those listed above. After ~4 mos of "Awaiting Admin Processing" I received an R&R and one detailed readers report. Like poster above, I was told "Major Revision" but the report, which was helpful and friendly, asked for straightforward revisions (essentially asking me to do my due diligence regarding extent scholarship - only appropriate).
An amazingly unprofessional journal. They've had a manuscript of mine for 14 months now. After around half of that I received one (!) not very helpful (uninterested and brief) reader's report and have been waiting seven months on feedback on my revisions--including over one month of waiting for the editor's decision. What a joke.
Submitted at end of September 2015. Now end of June 2016. No reply other than form letter sent after submission, which provides that the expected review time is 6-9 months. System still says "Awaiting Reviewer Selection." UPDATE: Now it's July 2016. Status is "Awaiting reviewer scores." UPDATE 2: Sent email request for status at the end of August 2016. Was told that manuscript is out of review and in queue for a final decision. Now nearing the end of September but still no decision. Status says "Awaiting decision." UPDATE 3: Received revise and resubmit beginning of October 2016. Resubmitted mid-October. UPDATE 4: Now "Awaiting Recommendation." Reviews are apparently in. 1 year and 5 months have elapsed since the original submission. UPDATE 5: End of April 2017 wrote to editor assigned to my manuscript in ScholarOne system. He replied to say that he was no longer affiliated with the journal. Wrote to Managing Editor and Editor-in-Chief, who both promptly replied and were helpful. Manuscript is apparently in queue for a final decision. UPDATE 6: Manuscript accepted beginning of September. UPDATE 7: August 2018 signed copyright; proofs to come soon.
Eight months after I submitted my manuscript, and it's still not sent out to reviewers! Ridiculous.
Three years and one month from submission to publication, which includes the one month it took me to revise and resubmit.
My experience with the journal is in line with what others have said above. I submitted an article in Sept. 2016. I asked for updates on the process in summer and fall 2017, and finally received one reader's report and a decision in Nov. 2017. The report called for minor revisions, and I resubmitted the article the next month (Dec. 2017). In July 2018, the article was accepted. The proofs were sent to me in February 2019 (which they wanted me to return in like 2 business days). I love the work this journal is doing, but this really is a terribly slow timeline, even by the standards of academic publishing. I wanted to share this experience so that anyone submitting to this journal with, say, tenure/promotion deadlines in mind is aware of the timeline.
May 2015: Submitted article. Waited 15 months. August 2016: Received request for minor revisions. August 2016: Submitted minor revisions. Waited 11 months. July 2017: Article accepted. Waited 22 months. May 2019: Received proofs and assurance that they would try to publish it by end of 2019. So, 4.5 years from submission to publication.

Resilience: A Journal of the Environmental Humanities

Middle paced but worth it. Eight months for initial review with a revise and resubmit with detailed, specific and manageable comments. Given another eight months to revise. After resubmission four months for acceptance. Publication date is two years out. Editorial staff gets back to you quickly. Overall, great experience. (4/2020)