About the Journal

ISSN 2345-0363 (Online)

Focus and Scope

The Journal of Water Security publishes peer-reviewed papers on water science, technology, management and innovation with emphasis on Water quantity and quality; Advanced (Methods in) Water Engineering; Water Policy and Economics.
Topics include:
•    Water physics and chemistry
•    Water cycle and climate change
•    Water demand and consumption
•    Applied surface and groundwater hydrology
•    Modelling of water resource systems
•    Irrigation and drainage
•    Droughts and flood control
•    Hydrodynamics and sedimentation
•    Hydroinformatics
•    Aquatic environment
•    Water monitoring
•    Water quality and its management
•    Environmental restoration
•    Water supply and purification
•    Water sanitation
•    Water legislation and cost savings
•    Social aspects of water use

All articles published in Journal of Water Security (JWS) are presented online immediately as they are ready for publication, i.e. after peer-review, copy-editing, typesetting and final proofreading. The journal does not collate numbered issues published regularly but all articles will be gathered into an annual volume, assigned an article ID and a DOI number (Digital Object Identifier)

Section Policies

Original Articles

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

Book Reviews

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Unchecked Peer Reviewed

PhD Reviews

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Unchecked Peer Reviewed
 

Peer Review Process

Manuscripts submitted to the Journal of Water Security are subject to peer review to maintain the standards of the journal, promote rigorous research within the fields and to offer authors constructive feedback on their submissions.
The Journal of Water Security has a 'double blind' review process: Authors are not told who reviewed their paper, and referees do not know the name of the authors whose papers they review. The peer referees’ identity remains unknown to the authors.

Manuscripts are sent out for review electronically, and all correspondence takes place via e-mail. Although the peer review process is accelerated by the use of electronic communication, traditional, high-quality peer-review standards are applied to all manuscripts submitted to the journal.

Peer reviewers are asked to give their opinion on a number of issues pertinent to the quality and suitability of a paper, and to judge papers on grounds of originality and importance. We pride ourselves on providing constructive and formative feedback to authors.

Reviewer Guidelines: Reviewers of the journal are asked to consider the following points during their evaluation:
– Does the paper have clear aims and objectives / research questions that can be achieved within the scope of a Journal of Water Security journal paper?
– Does the paper make a contribution to knowledge?
– Is the work suitably grounded in the literature to justify its contribution and frame the analysis/evaluation?
– Is the research/evaluation methodology justified, clear and appropriate? (Including ethical considerations / approval where appropriate)
– Does the analysis/ evaluation have a clear flow and logical argument?
– Does the analysis/evaluation link to an appropriate discussion and conclusions?
– Is it presented in a way which is suitable for the journal’s international audience?
    
Peer reviewers will have five possible options, for any paper:
1. Accept manuscript (i.e. no need for any revision)
2. Accept after revision (i.e. accepted if the author makes the requested revisions)
3. Revise and resubmit (i.e. accepted or rejected after revisions have been made - paper will be sent out for another peer review round)
4. Reject manuscript (i.e. if the manuscript is not sufficiently developed for publication)
5. See comments (i.e. if the reviewer cannot choose from any of the above)

In addition, papers may be returned to authors by the Editors prior to review, if judged to be out of scope, out of the limits of the word length guidance or not sufficiently prepared for publication.

To facilitate rapid publication, authors are given a maximum of 6 weeks for revision. After 6 weeks, revised manuscripts will normally be considered new submissions.

Publication Frequency

The articles of the Journal of Water Security will be published electronically as soon as they are ready with no delay waiting for other papers. Please note that all articles are published after peer-review, copy-editing, typesetting and final proofreading so it can take 4-6 weeks in general.

As it is an e-journal, it doesn't collate numbered issues published regularly but all articles will be gathered into an annual volume, assigned an article ID and a DOI number (Digital Object Identifier) whereby they become searchable and citable without delay.

Open Access Policy

The Journal of Water Security (JWS) provides immediate Open Access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

It means that all 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 in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access. 

Archiving

This journal utilizes the LOCKSS system to create a distributed archiving system among participating libraries and permits those libraries to create permanent archives of the journal for purposes of preservation and restoration. More...

 

Author Self-Archiving

Authors are permitted and encouraged to post items submitted to the JOURNAL of WATER SECURITY on personal or institutional websites, prior to and after publication (while providing the bibliographic details of the latter).

Publication Ethics and Publication Statement

Journal of Water Security is committed to maintaining the highest ethical standards. Our ethic statements are based on COPE’s Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors (http://publicationethics.org/resources/code-conduct).

In order to provide our readers with the journal of high quality, Journal of Water Security is guided by the following principles:

EDITORS

  • The editor is responsible for maintaining the integrity of the academic record, for having processes in place to assure the quality of the material they publish and for precluding business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards.
  • Editors’ decisions to accept or reject a paper for publication should be based on the paper’s importance, originality and clarity, and the study’s validity and its relevance to the remit of the journal.
  • The editor ensures that appropriate reviewers are selected for submissions (i.e. individuals who are able to judge the work and are free from disqualifying competing interests).
  • The editor has systems in place to give authors the opportunity to make original research articles freely available.
  • The editor has systems to ensure that material submitted to their journal remains confidential while under review.
  • Journal of Water Security employs the double-blind peer review: reviewers are unaware of the identity of the authors, and authors are also unaware of the identity of reviewers. There are at least two or more reviewers (scientists with a degree in the relevant field) for the total number of articles in each issue.
  • Editors should be alert to intellectual property issues and work with their publisher to handle potential breaches of intellectual property laws and conventions.

REVIEWERS

  • The reviewers of Journal of Water Security assist the editors in taking the decision of publishing a submitted manuscript. By formulating suggestions to the authors, the reviewers can contribute to the improvement of submitted works.
  • Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.
  • Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
  • The reviewers should comment on the originality and importance of submissions and should be alert to redundant publication and plagiarism.

AUTHORS

  • The authors ensure that they have submitted original works which has not been published before, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others that this has been appropriately cited or quoted.
  • Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal is considered as an unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable.
  • Proper acknowledgment of the work of others (individuals who provided help during the research) and research grants must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work.
  • When an author founds error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to notify the journal editor and cooperate with him to retract or correct the paper.

Indexing

Since Journal of Water Security (JWS) is a new journal (launched in 2015), the Publisher is currently dedicated to having it indexed by a number of relevant databases, including  in EBSCO, Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ),  Ulrich’s and Google Scholar. Material in JWS is also further distributed by CAB Abstracts, Index Copernicus.

Publication Fee

Publishing in the JWS is free of charge for authors.