How publishing works in this field
Where this differs from environmental science proper is the unit of analysis. This work assesses systems, products and policies rather than natural processes, and the dominant methods are life-cycle assessment, material flow analysis, techno-economic assessment and multi-criteria decision analysis — each with its own reporting standard that reviewers apply.
For life-cycle work, the ISO 14040 and 14044 framework governs what must be reported: goal and scope, functional unit, system boundary, allocation choices, impact assessment method and version, and a sensitivity analysis. Omitting the functional unit or the boundary makes the result uninterpretable, and is the single most common reason LCA papers are returned.
What slows papers down here
Claims outrunning the data is the field's characteristic weakness. A cradle-to-gate study does not support a statement about total environmental benefit; a single-indicator result does not support "more sustainable". Reviewers increasingly treat this as greenwashing risk rather than imprecision.
Journal targeting is genuinely hard here. Engineering-leaning journals want the model and the inventory; policy-leaning journals want the implications and the governance context. The same manuscript sent to both gets opposite reviews, so decide which contribution is primary before writing the introduction.
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Questions we are asked in this field
Goal and scope, the functional unit, the system boundary, data sources and their vintage, allocation choices and their justification, the impact assessment method and version, and a sensitivity or uncertainty analysis. Reviewers check these against ISO 14040 and 14044 directly.
By which contribution is primary. If the novelty is in the model, the inventory or the method, aim at the technical journals; if it is in the policy or governance implication, aim at the policy journals. State the primary contribution in the first paragraph either way.
Only within the boundary and indicators you assessed. A gate-to-gate or single-indicator study cannot support a general sustainability claim, and reviewers now treat overreach here as a serious problem rather than loose wording.