water research impact factor

• Water Research

Journal Abbreviation: WATER RES Journal ISSN: 0043-1354

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Journal Impact

Water Research

Volume 20 • Issue 20

• ISSN: 0043-1354

Editor-In-Chief: Eberhard Morgenroth

• 5 Year impact factor: 13.3
• Impact factor: 12.8
• Journal metrics

In association with the International Water Association Water Research has an open access companion journal Water Research X, sharing the same aims and scope, editor… Read more

Subscription options

Institutional subscription on sciencedirect.

In association with the International Water Association Water Research has an open access companion journal Water Research X , sharing the same aims and scope, editorial team, submission system and rigorous peer review. Water Research publishes refereed, original research papers on all aspects of the science and technology of the anthropogenic water cycle, water quality, and its management worldwide. A broad outline of the journal's scope includes:

Treatment processes for water and wastewaters (municipal, agricultural, industrial, and on-site treatment), including resource recovery and residuals management;

Urban hydrology including sewer systems, stormwater management, and green infrastructure;

Drinking water treatment and distribution;

Potable and non-potable water reuse;

Sanitation, public health, and risk assessment;

Anaerobic digestion, solid and hazardous waste management, including source characterization and the effects and control of leachates and gaseous emissions;

Contaminants (chemical, microbial, anthropogenic particles such as nanoparticles or microplastics) and related water quality sensing, monitoring, fate, and assessment;

Anthropogenic impacts on inland, tidal, coastal and urban waters, focusing on surface and ground waters, and point and non-point sources of pollution;

Environmental restoration, linked to surface water, groundwater and groundwater remediation;

Analysis of the interfaces between sediments and water, and between water and atmosphere, focusing specifically on anthropogenic impacts;

Mathematical modelling, systems analysis, machine learning, and beneficial use of big data related to the anthropogenic water cycle;

Socio-economic, policy, and regulations studies.

Water Research is an interdisciplinary journal with an applied edge. This means that papers that go into too many details of one of the supporting disciplines (such as chemistry, toxicology, microbiology, material sciences, etc.) without making a good link with water research in general may be rejected up-front. More information on types of manuscripts that are not suitable for Water Research are discussed in an editorial available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2012.01.038 .

Audience: Biologists, chemical engineers, chemists, civil engineers, environmental engineers, limnologists, and microbiologists.

Note that Water Research / Water Research X do not do pre-submission evaluations. Please carefully review the journal scope and previous issues of the journals to assess the fit of your manuscript. The handling editor will then evaluate suitability of your full manuscript.

Elsevier and IWA have also jointly launched two specialist titles which authors are welcome to submit to:

The open access Water Resources and Industry focuses on the role that industry plays in the exploitation, management and treatment of water resources.

Water Resources and Economics addresses the financial and economic dimensions associated with water resources use and governance.

Benefits to authors We also provide many author benefits, including a liberal copyright policy, special discounts on Elsevier publications and much more. Please click here for more information on our author services .

Please see our Guide for Authors for information on article submission. If you require any further information or help, please visit our Support Center

Water Research impact factor, indexing, ranking (2024)

Aim and Scope

The Water Research is a research journal that publishes research related to Engineering; Environmental Science . This journal is published by the Elsevier Ltd.. The ISSN of this journal is 00431354, 18792448 . Based on the Scopus data, the SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) of water research is 3.338 .

Water Research Ranking

The Impact Factor of Water Research is 13.4.

The impact factor (IF) is a measure of the frequency with which the average article in a journal has been cited in a particular year. It is used to measure the importance or rank of a journal by calculating the times its articles are cited.

The impact factor was devised by Eugene Garfield, the founder of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) in Philadelphia. Impact factors began to be calculated yearly starting from 1975 for journals listed in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR). ISI was acquired by Thomson Scientific & Healthcare in 1992, and became known as Thomson ISI. In 2018, Thomson-Reuters spun off and sold ISI to Onex Corporation and Baring Private Equity Asia. They founded a new corporation, Clarivate , which is now the publisher of the JCR.

Important Metrics

water research Indexing

The water research is indexed in:

• Web of Science (SCIE)

An indexed journal means that the journal has gone through and passed a review process of certain requirements done by a journal indexer.

The Web of Science Core Collection includes the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Arts & Humanities Citation Index (AHCI), and Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI).

Water Research Impact Factor 2024

The latest impact factor of water research is 13.4 .

The impact factor (IF) is a measure of the frequency with which the average article in a journal has been cited in a particular year. It is used to measure the importance or rank of a journal by calculating the times it's articles are cited.

Note: Every year, The Clarivate releases the Journal Citation Report (JCR). The JCR provides information about academic journals including impact factor. The latest JCR was released in June, 2023. The JCR 2024 will be released in the June 2024.

Water Research Quartile

The latest Quartile of water research is Q1 .

Each subject category of journals is divided into four quartiles: Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4. Q1 is occupied by the top 25% of journals in the list; Q2 is occupied by journals in the 25 to 50% group; Q3 is occupied by journals in the 50 to 75% group and Q4 is occupied by journals in the 75 to 100% group.

Journal Publication Time

The publication time may vary depending on factors such as the complexity of the research and the current workload of the editorial team. Journals typically request reviewers to submit their reviews within 3-4 weeks. However, some journals lack mechanisms to enforce this deadline, making it difficult to predict the duration of the peer review process.

The review time also depends upon the quality of the research paper.

Call for Papers

Visit to the official website of the journal/ conference to check the details about call for papers.

How to publish in Water Research?

If your research is related to Engineering; Environmental Science, then visit the official website of water research and send your manuscript.

Tips for publishing in Water Research:

• Selection of research problem.
• Presenting a solution.
• Designing the paper.
• Make your manuscript publication worthy.
• Write an effective results section.
• Mind your references.

Acceptance Rate

Final summary.

• The impact factor of water research is 13.4.
• The water research is a reputed research journal.
• It is published by Elsevier Ltd. .
• The journal is indexed in UGC CARE, Scopus, SCIE .
• The (SJR) SCImago Journal Rank is 3.338 .

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GEFAHRSTOFFE REINHALTUNG DER LUFT

JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

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Water Research - Impact Score, Ranking, SJR, h-index, Citescore, Rating, Publisher, ISSN, and Other Important Details

Published By: Elsevier Ltd.

Abbreviation: Water Res.

Impact Score The impact Score or journal impact score (JIS) is equivalent to Impact Factor. The impact factor (IF) or journal impact factor (JIF) of an academic journal is a scientometric index calculated by Clarivate that reflects the yearly mean number of citations of articles published in the last two years in a given journal, as indexed by Clarivate's Web of Science. On the other hand, Impact Score is based on Scopus data.

Important details.

Water Research

Journal info (provided by editor), % accepted last year, % immediately rejected last year, articles published last year, manuscripts received last year, open access status, manuscript handling fee, impact factors (provided by editor), two-year impact factor, five-year impact factor, aims and scope.

Water Research publishes refereed, original research papers on all aspects of the science and technology of water quality and its management worldwide. A broad outline of the journal's scope includes: Treatment processes for water and wastewaters, municipal, agricultural and industrial, including residuals management. Water quality monitoring and assessment, based on chemical, physical and biological methods. Studies on inland, tidal or coastal waters and urban waters, including surface and ground waters, and point and non-point sources of pollution. The limnology of lakes, impoundments and rivers. Solid and hazardous waste management, including source characterization and the effects and control of leachates and gaseous emissions. Environmental restoration, including soil and grou

Duration of manuscript handling phases

Duration first review round, tot. handling time acc. manuscripts, decision time immediate rejection, average number of review rounds, difficulty of reviewer comments, average number of review reports, characteristics of peer review process, quality of review reports, overall rating manuscript handling, latest review.

First review round: 8.1 weeks. Overall rating: 4 (very good). Outcome: Accepted.

Motivation: Review process a bit slow - this was a review article and since the review phase took so long we had to update the review with the new papers that had come out since then (quite a lot actually). Besides one of the reviewers was overzealous, picking on things that made no sense. The other two were quite fine. The editor is charming. Once the revised version was submitted the decision happened fat. Overall a nice experience.

Very good process

Disciplines

Related journals.

Water Research Impact Factor & Key Scientometrics

Water research overview, impact factor, i. basic journal info, journal issn: 00431354, 18792448, publisher: elsevier bv, history: 1967-ongoing, journal hompage: link, how to get published:, research categories, scope/description:, ii. science citation report (scr), water research scr impact factor, water research scr journal ranking, water research scimago sjr rank, water research scopus 2-year impact factor trend, water research scopus 3-year impact factor trend, water research scopus 4-year impact factor trend, water research impact factor history, iii. other science influence indicators, water research h-index, water research h-index history.

Water Research X

Subject Area and Category

• Ecological Modeling
• Waste Management and Disposal
• Water Science and Technology

Elsevier Ltd

Publication type

Information.

How to publish in this journal

[email protected]

The set of journals have been ranked according to their SJR and divided into four equal groups, four quartiles. Q1 (green) comprises the quarter of the journals with the highest values, Q2 (yellow) the second highest values, Q3 (orange) the third highest values and Q4 (red) the lowest values.

The SJR is a size-independent prestige indicator that ranks journals by their 'average prestige per article'. It is based on the idea that 'all citations are not created equal'. SJR is a measure of scientific influence of journals that accounts for both the number of citations received by a journal and the importance or prestige of the journals where such citations come from It measures the scientific influence of the average article in a journal, it expresses how central to the global scientific discussion an average article of the journal is.

Evolution of the number of published documents. All types of documents are considered, including citable and non citable documents.

This indicator counts the number of citations received by documents from a journal and divides them by the total number of documents published in that journal. The chart shows the evolution of the average number of times documents published in a journal in the past two, three and four years have been cited in the current year. The two years line is equivalent to journal impact factor ™ (Thomson Reuters) metric.

Evolution of the total number of citations and journal's self-citations received by a journal's published documents during the three previous years. Journal Self-citation is defined as the number of citation from a journal citing article to articles published by the same journal.

Evolution of the number of total citation per document and external citation per document (i.e. journal self-citations removed) received by a journal's published documents during the three previous years. External citations are calculated by subtracting the number of self-citations from the total number of citations received by the journal’s documents.

International Collaboration accounts for the articles that have been produced by researchers from several countries. The chart shows the ratio of a journal's documents signed by researchers from more than one country; that is including more than one country address.

Not every article in a journal is considered primary research and therefore "citable", this chart shows the ratio of a journal's articles including substantial research (research articles, conference papers and reviews) in three year windows vs. those documents other than research articles, reviews and conference papers.

Ratio of a journal's items, grouped in three years windows, that have been cited at least once vs. those not cited during the following year.

Evolution of the percentage of female authors.

Evolution of the number of documents cited by public policy documents according to Overton database.

Evoution of the number of documents related to Sustainable Development Goals defined by United Nations. Available from 2018 onwards.

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• Our journals

Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology

Innovation for sustainable water

You can find details about how to access information remotely in this step-by-step guide . The guide will also help if for any reason you have difficulty accessing the content you want.

What would you like to know about this journal?

Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology  is a Transformative Journal, and Plan S compliant

Impact factor: 5.0*

Time to first decision (all decisions): 14.0 days**

Time to first decision (peer reviewed only): 52.0 days***

Editor-in-Chief: Graham Gagnon

Open access publishing options available

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Meet the team

Read our latest themed issues Urban stormwater management Data-intensive water systems management and operation Polymers in liquid formulations Drinking water oxidation and disinfection processes

Journal scope

Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology  seeks to showcase high quality research about fundamental science, innovative technologies, and management practices that promote sustainable water.

The journal aims to provide a comprehensive and relevant forum that unites the diverse communities and disciplines conducting water research relevant to engineered systems and the built environment. This includes fundamental science geared toward understanding physical, chemical, and biological phenomena in these systems as well as applied research focused on the development and optimisation of engineered treatment, management, and supply strategies.

Papers must report a significant advance in the theory, fundamental understanding, practice or application of water research, management, engineering or technology, within the following areas:

• Treatment and fate of chemical and microbial contaminants, including emerging contaminants
• Water distribution and wastewater collection
• Green infrastructure
• Stormwater management and treatment
• Potable reuse
• Residue management
• Sustainability analysis and design, including life cycle assessment studies
• Municipal and industrial wastewater treatment and resource recovery
• Drinking water treatment
• Water policy and regulation
• Applications of new water technologies* 
• Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH)
• Water-energy nexus
• Simulation and data science applications to engineered water systems
• Environmental remediation of soil, sediment, and groundwater
• Impacts of climate change on engineered water systems

The journal places special focus on issues associated with water sustainability, as well as research that may lead to more secure, resilient and reliable water supplies. And it welcomes inter- and multidisciplinary work contributing to any of the above developments that are likely to be of interest to the broad community that the Journal addresses.

Manuscripts should be written to be accessible to scientists and engineers in all disciplines associated with the Journal.

All manuscripts must highlight their novel features and explain the significance of the work relative to related studies in their field as well as the likely impact on relevant water communities in the industry, government or academia.

*Please see the below expandable section for specific guidance regarding this area of our scope.

Measurement advances and analysis: these papers are encouraged and must clearly focus on the relevance of the work to engineered water systems and clearly explain the implications of the analysis or observations for sustainable water management. Papers dealing only with analysis, analytical method development or that simply report measured concentrations of target analytes (for example, occurrence and effluent concentrations of novel pollutant classes) will not be considered for publication.

Modeling: papers that lack appropriate validation through either experimental data or available and reliable datasets will not be considered for publication.

New materials or technologies for water treatment: emphasis must be placed on one of the following:

• Developing a fundamental understanding of the underlying mechanisms integral to technology performance
• Demonstrating how the practical application of the technology advances the field and improves upon existing treatment options

Papers in this area are strongly discouraged from focusing solely on technology demonstrations in model systems with model pollutant targets. Rather, they are encouraged to consider performance in complex (that is, environmentally relevant) systems and performance metrics (for example, efficacy across multiple pollutant targets, longevity, regeneration during application, and sustainability assessment) most relevant to real world application. 

Technology papers: we will not consider papers that focus solely on any of the following:

• Heavily focused on material synthesis and characterisation (such as nanomaterial catalysts)
• Consider only the removal of highly idealised targets (such as dyes)
• Work exclusively in clean laboratory systems
• Do not demonstrate innovation that advances the treatment field, or develops a technology without a clear and viable pathway to full scale implementation

Sustainability assessments: papers that cover, for example, life cycle assessment or life cycle cost analysis, of water-related technologies and systems must emphasize the fundamental insight into the factors governing technology or system performance. Papers are strongly discouraged from solely reporting absolute or comparative assessments of technologies/systems without uncovering novel insight or identifying critical barriers to sustainability.

These guidelines will be used by our Associate editors and reviewers to assess the significance of each submitted manuscript.

See who's on the team

Meet Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology  Editor-in-Chief and board members.

Editor-in-chief

Graham Gagnon , Dalhousie University, Canada

Associate editors

Sebastià Puig Broch , Universitat de Girona, Spain

Wenhai Chu , Tongji University, China

Ning Dai , University at Buffalo, USA

Lauren Stadler , Rice University, USA

Liu Ye , The University of Queensland, Australia

Editorial board members

Takahiro Fujioka , Nagasaki University, Japan

Branko Kerkez , University of Michigan, USA

Jeonghwan Kim , Inha University, South Korea

Linda Lawton , Robert Gordon University, UK

Luca Vezzaro , Technical University of Denmark, Denmark

Eveline Volcke , Ghent University, Belgium

Federico Aulenta , National Research Council, Italy

Nicholas Ashbolt , University of Alberta, Canada

Tom Bond , University of Surrey, UK

Joby Boxall , The University of Sheffield, UK

Kartik Chandran , Columbia University in the City of New York, USA

Amy Childress , University of Southern California, USA

David Cwiertny , University of Iowa  

Joel Ducoste , North Carolina State University, USA

Marc Edwards , Virginia Tech, USA

Jingyun Fang , Sun Yat-sen University, China

Maria Jose Farre , Catalan Institute for Water Research, Spain

Yujie Feng , Harbin Institute of Technology, China

Kathrin Fenner , Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Eawag, Switzerland 

Ramesh Goel , University of Utah, USA

Ola Gomaa , National Center for Radiation Research and Technology, Egypt

Chris Gordon , University of Ghana, Ghana

April Gu , Cornell University, USA

Jochen Hack , TU Darmstadt, Germany

Zhen "Jason" He , Washington University in St. Louis, USA

Xia Huang , Tsinghua University, China

Cynthia Joll , Curtin University, Australia

Tamar Kohn , École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, EPFL, Switzerland

Peng Liang , Tsinghua University, China

Irene Lo , Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong

Julie Minton , WateReuse Foundation, USA

Vincenzo Naddeo , University of Salerno, Italy

Indumathi M Nambi , Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India

Long Ngheim , University of Technology Sydney, Australia

Paige Novak , University of Minnesota, USA

Yong Sik Ok , Korea University, South Korea

Ligy Philip , Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India

Thalappil Pradeep , Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India

Zhiyong "Jason" Ren , Princeton University, USA

Peter Robertson , Queen's University Belfast, UK

Michael Templeton , Imperial College London, UK

Kai Udert , Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Switzerland

Subramanyan Vasudevan , CSIR-Central Electrochemical Research Institute, India

Xin Wang , Nankai University, China

David Weissbrodt , TU Delft, The Netherlands

Krista Wigginton , University of Michigan, USA

Di Wu , Ghent University, South Korea

Defeng Xing , Harbin Institute of Technology, China

Jeyong Yoon , Seoul National University, South Korea

Neil Scriven , Executive Editor

Grace Thoburn , Deputy Editor

Nour Tanbouza , Development Editor

Claire Darby , Editorial Production Manager, ORCID 0000-0003-3059-6020

Emma Carlisle,  Publishing Editor

Hannah Hamilton , Publishing Editor

Ephraim Otumudia , Publishing Editor

Irene Sanchez Molina Santos , Publishing Editor

Michael Spencelayh , Publishing Editor

Lauren Yarrow-Wright , Publishing Editor

Kate Bandoo , Editorial Assistant

Linda Warncke , Publishing Assistant

Sam Keltie , Publisher, Journals, ORCID 0000-0002-9369-8414

Article types

Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology publishes:

Communications

Full papers, perspectives, critical reviews, frontier reviews, tutorial reviews, comments and replies.

Reviews & Perspectives are normally invited, however suggestions for timely Reviews are very welcome. Interested authors should contact the Editorial Office at [email protected] with an abstract or brief synopsis of their intended Review.

These must report preliminary research findings that are novel and original, of immediate interest and are likely to have a high impact on the Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology community. Authors must provide a short paragraph explaining why their work justifies rapid publication as a communication.

Original research papers on any of the subjects outlined in the scope section and related areas are encouraged and welcomed. All papers should give due attention to overcoming limitations and to underlying principles. All contributions will be judged on the following four criteria. 1. Novelty and insight 2. Quality of scientific work and content 3. Clarity of objectives and aims of the work 4. Appropriateness of length to content of new science

These may be articles providing a personal view of part of one discipline associated with Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology or a philosophical look at a topic of relevance. Alternatively, Perspectives may be historical articles covering a particular subject area or the development of particular legislation, technologies, methodologies or other subjects within the scope of the journal.

Critical reviews must be a critical evaluation of the existing state of knowledge on a particular facet of water research or water technologies as they affect environmental science. They should be timely and provide insights based on existing literature. They should be of general interest to the journal's wide readership.

All Critical reviews undergo a rigorous and full peer review procedure, in the same way as regular research papers. Authors are encouraged to identify areas in the field where further developments are imminent or of urgent need, and any areas that may be of significance to the community in general. Critical reviews should not contain any unpublished original research.

These are shorter, more focused versions of Critical reviews on a well-defined, specific topic area covering approximately the last two-three years. Articles should cover only the most interesting/significant developments in that specific subject area.

The article should be highly critical and selective in referencing published work. One or two paragraphs of speculation about possible future developments may also be appropriate in the conclusion section.

Frontier reviews may also cover techniques/technologies that are too new for a Critical review or may address a subset of technologies available for a given area of research within the journal scope.

Frontier reviews should not contain unpublished original research.

Tutorial reviews should provide an introduction and overview of an important topic of relevance to the journal readership. The topic should be of relevance to both researchers who are new to the field as well as experts and provide a good introduction to the development of a subject, its current state and indications of future directions the field is expected to take. Tutorial reviews should not contain unpublished original research.

Comments and Replies are a medium for the discussion and exchange of scientific opinions between authors and readers concerning material published in Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology.

For publication, a Comment should present an alternative analysis of and/or new insight into the previously published material. Any Reply should further the discussion presented in the original article and the Comment. Comments and Replies that contain any form of personal attack are not suitable for publication. 

Comments that are acceptable for publication will be forwarded to the authors of the work being discussed, and these authors will be given the opportunity to submit a Reply. The Comment and Reply will both be subject to rigorous peer review in consultation with the journal’s Editorial Board where appropriate. The Comment and Reply will be published together.

Journal specific guidelines

See a summary of ESWRT’s journal-specific guidelines . More details are also provided below.

Use of RSC template

There are no submission specifics regarding formatting; use of Royal Society of Chemistry template is not required. Bibliographies should be formatted according to the following Endnote and Zotero style files to include the cited article’s title.

Authors are encouraged to include line numbering in submitted manuscripts. Although there is no page limit for Full papers, appropriateness of length to content of new science will be taken into consideration by reviewers.

Water Impact Statement

All submitted manuscripts must include a 'Water Impact Statement' (60 words maximum; approximately three sentences) that clearly states in plain language the broad-scale implications and real-world relevance of the work. True potential for immediate real-world impact may be subject to further study, but the pathways towards achieving that impact in future should at least be envisioned and explained.

Read Professor Michael Templeton’s Editorial Perspective “ Achieving real-world impact ” for further discussion on expectations for the journal.

Authors should use this statement to show that they have given serious consideration as to how their work addresses current challenges related to water sustainability in a realistic sense. This statement will be carefully considered by the editors and the reviewers and will help ascertain the relevance of the article for a broad audience. Absence of potential for real-world impact is reason for rejection. If the manuscript is accepted this statement will be included in the published article. Please note that manuscripts without this statement will not be peer-reviewed.

Double-anonymised peer review option

Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology is now offering authors the option of double-anonymised peer review. Both single- and double-anonymised peer review are now available to authors.

• Single-anonymised peer review - where reviewers are anonymous but author names and affiliations are known to reviewers. (This is the traditional peer review model used on Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology)
• Double-anonymised peer review - where authors and reviewers' identities are concealed from each other.

Guidelines for authors and reviewers can be found  here

Organisation of material

An article should have a short, straightforward title directed at the general reader. Lengthy systematic names and complicated and numerous chemical formulae should therefore be avoided where possible. The use of non-standard abbreviations and symbols in a title is not encouraged. Please bear in mind that readers increasingly use search engines to find literature; recognisable, key words should be included in the title where possible, to maximise the impact and discoverability of your work. Brevity in a title, though desirable, should be balanced against its accuracy and usefulness.

The use of series titles and part numbers in titles of papers is discouraged. Instead these can be included as a footnote to the first page together with a reference (reference 1) to the preceding part. When the preceding part has been submitted to a Royal Society of Chemistry journal but is not yet published, the paper reference number should be given.

Author names

Full names for all the authors of an article should be given. To give due acknowledgement to all workers contributing to the work, those who have contributed significantly to the research should be listed as co-authors. Authors who contributed equally can be noted with a Footnote and referenced with a symbol.

On submission of the manuscript, the corresponding author attests to the fact that those named as co-authors have agreed to its submission for publication and accepts the responsibility for having properly included all (and only) co- authors. If there are more than 10 co-authors on the manuscript, the corresponding author should provide a statement to specify the contribution of each co-author. The corresponding author signs a copyright licence on behalf of all the authors.

Table of contents entry

This entry should include a colour image (no larger than 8 cm wide x 4 cm high), and 20-30 words of text that highlight the novel aspects of your work. Graphics should be as clear as possible; simple schematic diagrams or reaction schemes are preferred to ORTEP- style crystal structure depictions and complicated graphs, for example. The graphic used in the table of contents entry need not necessarily appear in the article itself. Authors should bear in mind the final size of any lettering on the graphic. For examples, please see the online version of the journal.

Every paper must be accompanied by a summary (50-250 words) setting out briefly and clearly the main objects and results of the work; it should give the reader a clear idea of what has been achieved. The summary should be essentially independent of the main text; however, names, partial names or linear formulae of compounds may be accompanied by the numbers referring to the corresponding displayed formulae in the body of the text.

Please bear in mind that readers increasingly use search engines to find literature; recognisable, searchable terms and key words should be included in the abstract to enable readers to more effectively find your paper. The abstract should aim to address the following questions.

• What is the problem or research question being addressed?
• What experimental approach was used to address the problem or question?
• What key data and results were obtained?
• What conclusions can be drawn from the experimental results?
• What are the broader implications for the study with respect to water sustainability?

Water Impact Statement 

Authors must provide a 'Water Impact Statement' (60 words maximum) that clearly highlights the broad-scale implications and real-world relevance of the work. This statement should be different from the abstract and must set the work in broader context with regards to water sustainability. True potential for immediate real-world impact may be subject to further study, but the pathways towards achieving that impact in future should at least be envisioned and explained in this statement.

When composing your Water Impact Statement, please consider the following points:

1.What is the problem? 2.Why is it important? 3.How does this translate to real-world applications/scenarios? 4.How can this be generalised?  5.Why is this work significant for ensuring sustainable water resources?  

This statement will be seen by the reviewers and will help ascertain the relevance of the article for a broad but technical audience. Authors should use it to show that they have given serious consideration to the impact of their presented study. Absence of potential for real-world impact is reason for rejection. If the paper is accepted this statement will also be published. Please note that papers cannot be peer-reviewed without this statement.

Introduction

This should give clearly and briefly, with relevant references, both the nature of the problem under investigation and its background.

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Work Trend Index Special Report

Research Proves Your Brain Needs Breaks

New options help you carve out downtime between meetings.

April 20, 2021

Illustration by Ben Wiseman

F For many people , back-to-back video meetings are a hallmark of the pandemic era. One conversation ends, another begins, and too often there’s no chance to stretch, pour a glass of water, or just clear your head. or many people , back-to-back video meetings are a hallmark of the pandemic era. One conversation ends, another begins, and too often there’s no chance to stretch, pour a glass of water, or just clear your head.

In our latest study of brain wave activity, researchers confirmed what many people sense from experience: Back-to-back virtual meetings are stressful. But the research also points to a simple remedy—short breaks.

“Our research shows breaks are important, not just to make us less exhausted by the end of the day, but to actually improve our ability to focus and engage while in those meetings,” says Michael Bohan, senior director of Microsoft’s Human Factors Engineering group, who oversaw the project.

Settings in Microsoft Outlook make it easier and automatic to carve out these essential breaks between back-to-backs—and because we know that one size does not fit all, companies have two options. Individuals can set scheduling defaults that automatically shorten meetings they schedule. And now customers have the ability to set organization-wide scheduling defaults that shorten meetings and create space for breaks for everyone at the company.

“The back-to-back meetings that have become the norm over the last 12 months just aren't sustainable,” says Jared Spataro, CVP, Microsoft 365. “Outlook and Microsoft Teams are used by millions of people around the world, and this small change can help customers develop new cultural norms and improve wellbeing for everyone.”

“ In today’s world of remote and hybrid work, it’s not sufficient to only encourage self-care. We need to innovate and leverage technology to help employees operationalize much-needed breaks into their daily routines. ”

Kathleen Hogan, Chief People Officer at Microsoft

Here at Microsoft, because we have many employees in different functions around the world, we’re encouraging individuals to turn on the setting if it works for them and their team. And as we shift into hybrid work, we’ll continue to learn and look for ways to improve the way we work together in this new, more digital world.

The case for breaks: what the research says

As the pandemic upended routines and heightened the digital intensity of workdays, hundreds of researchers across Microsoft came together to study how work is changing, amassing one of the world's largest bodies of research on the subject.

Our most recent study builds on that work. Microsoft’s Human Factors Lab sought to find a solution for meeting fatigue—a pressing concern in our new era of remote and hybrid work. Researchers from the lab, which examines how humans interact with technology, asked 14 people to take part in video meetings while wearing electroencephalogram (EEG) equipment—a cap to monitor the electrical activity in their brains.

The 14 volunteers each participated in two different sessions of meetings. On one day they attended stretches of four half-hour meetings back-to-back, with each call devoted to different tasks—designing an office layout, for example, or creating a marketing plan. On another day, the four half-hour meetings were interspersed with 10-minute breaks. Instead of hurriedly jumping from one meeting to the next, participants meditated with the Headspace app during the breaks.

To ensure clean data, all the participants taking breaks were assigned the same downtime activity—in this case meditation—so the results would be comparable. The sessions took place on two consecutive Mondays; some participants started with back-to-backs while the others had breaks between meetings, and the next week they switched. We also had additional people join meetings with the research subjects to simulate a typical day interacting with various teams.

The research showed three main takeaways.

1. Breaks between meetings allow the brain to “reset,” reducing a cumulative buildup of stress across meetings.

As we’ve seen in previous studies , in two straight hours of back-to-back meetings, the average activity of beta waves—those associated with stress—increased over time. In other words, the stress kept accumulating.

But when participants were given a chance to rest using meditation, beta activity dropped, allowing for a “reset.” This reset meant participants started their next meeting in a more relaxed state. It also meant the average level of beta waves held steady through four meetings, with no buildup of stress even as four video calls continued.

The antidote to meeting fatigue is simple: taking short breaks.

Your brain works differently when you take breaks

Taking time out between video calls prevents stress from building up.

Microsoft’s Human Factors Lab used EEG caps to measure beta wave activity—associated with stress—in the brains of meeting participants. For those given breaks, their average beta wave activity remained largely steady over time; the “coolness” of their stress levels is visualized here in blues and greens. For those deprived of breaks, their average beta wave activity rose as time passed, suggesting a buildup of stress; that increase is depicted here with colors shifting from cool to hot. The chart represents the relative difference in beta activity between break and no-break conditions at the top of each meeting (averaged across the 14 research participants).

Illustration by Brown Bird Design

2. Back-to-back meetings can decrease your ability to focus and engage.

When participants had meditation breaks, brainwave patterns showed positive levels of frontal alpha asymmetry, which correlates to higher engagement during the meeting. Without breaks, the levels were negative, suggesting the participants were withdrawn, or less engaged in the meeting. This shows that when the brain is experiencing stress, it’s harder to stay focused and engaged.

In sum, breaks are not only good for wellbeing, they also improve our ability to do our best work.

Taking breaks helps you engage better

Breathers don’t just alleviate stress, they help your performance.

To gauge whether people are engaged or withdrawn, researchers study a brainwave pattern known as frontal alpha asymmetry (the difference between right and left alpha wave activity in the frontal area of the brain). In Microsoft’s study, those taking breaks showed positive asymmetry, which is associated with higher engagement. Those who didn’t take breaks showed negative asymmetry, which is associated with being more withdrawn.

3. Transitioning between meetings can be a source of high stress.

For the participants deprived of breaks, researchers also noticed that the transition period between calls caused beta activity, or stress levels, to spike.

That might be because “you’re coming to the end of the meeting, knowing you have another one coming right up, and you’re going to have to switch gears and use your brain to think hard about something else,” Bohan says.

For those participants, beta wave activity jumped again when new check ins started. When people took meditation breaks, by contrast, the increase in beta activity dropped between meetings, and the increase at the start of the next meeting was much gentler and smoother.

Jumping directly from one meeting to another can cause spikes of stress

Taking breaks between conversations eases that stress.

An infographic shows how—without breaks—beta wave activity in the brain can rise sharply at the beginning and end of meetings, suggesting heightened stress.

Without breaks, beta wave activity in the brain can rise sharply at the beginning and end of meetings, suggesting heightened stress. Taking breaks not only prevents those spikes but causes a dip in beta activity—which correlates with less stress.

Illustration by Valerio Pellegrini

The takeaway: Breaks, even short ones, are important to make the transitions between meetings feel less stressful.

“What makes this study so powerful and relatable is that we’re effectively visualizing for people what they experience phenomenologically inside,” Bohan says. “It’s not an abstraction—quite the opposite. It's a scientific expression of the stress and fatigue people feel during back-to-backs.”

How we are adapting our products—and practices

These findings helped inform settings in Outlook that allow individuals or organizations to set defaults that shave five, 10, or 15 minutes off Microsoft Teams meetings to carve out breaks between conversations.

For example, an individual or company might decide to start its meetings five minutes after the hour or half-hour, so that 30-minute check ins drop to 25 minutes and hour-long conversations shorten to 55 minutes. That means a half-hour meeting that would have started at 11 a.m. will become a 25-minute meeting beginning at 11:05 a.m.

It’s not just the brain research that supports this change. Digital overload has become an urgent issue in the new era of remote and hybrid work. In Microsoft’s 2021 Work Trend Index published in March, 54 percent of respondents in a global external survey said they feel overworked, while 39 percent described themselves as outright exhausted.

Over the past year, we have introduced several new capabilities to foster wellbeing in this time of rapid change. Together mode in Microsoft Teams helps combat meeting fatigue; a virtual commute helps reestablish boundaries between work and home; and a Headspace integration coming with the Microsoft Viva Insights app promotes mindfulness. This new Outlook setting is a next step in this wellbeing journey, with more to come.

One final note: If you’re using the new setting in Outlook to build in break times between meetings, consider stepping away from your computer. “Try not to use that five or 10 minutes to squeeze in some other kind of work,” Bohan says. “Catch your breath and take a break away from your screen.”

Strategies for making breaks successful—and beating meeting fatigue

Because we know making space for breaks is easier said than done, we've pulled together some research-backed tips on carving out time to pause, getting the most from moments of respite, and making meetings more effective and energizing.

Shift your mindset. While it might feel more productive to power through back-to-backs, research shows the opposite is true. View breaks away from your computer as an essential part of your workday.

Find break activities that calm your mind. Meditation is one effective way to relax and recharge between meetings, but other studies show that physical activity such as walking is also beneficial. Past Microsoft studies suggest that doodling or reading something enjoyable also bring benefits. “It can be anything that takes your mind away from work-related things and focuses it on something that you feel is relaxing,” Bohan says. That will help you be refreshed and recharged when you start your next meeting.

Create even more time for breaks by considering other modes of communication. Before scheduling a video call, pause and ask yourself: Do we really need a meeting on this issue? More dynamic, creative, or emotional topics may require a meeting, while status check ins and informational subjects may benefit from document collaboration, a Teams channel, or email. Other simple tasks may be handled via chat. Read more about creating time for breaks.

Make meetings more intentional. The best—and often shortest—meetings are more intentional. Best practices like creating and sending an agenda ahead of time, being thoughtful about who attends, starting and stopping on time, and transitioning to a recap for the final five minutes will make it easier to accomplish your goals in less time. Read more about intentional meetings.

Keep participants engaged and energized. In virtual meetings, it can be hard to chime in remotely. A moderator can help ensure remote participants are included. Features like Raise your hand, Whiteboard, and Breakout Rooms in Microsoft Teams are great ways to use technology to elicit creative and strategic conversations.

Methodology

Study conducted from March 8-18, 2021, by Microsoft Human Factors Lab with 14 people participating in video meetings while wearing electroencephalogram (EEG) equipment to monitor the electrical activity in their brains. Participants consisted of Microsoft and non-Microsoft employees who are US-based information workers and who typically work remotely. Volunteers each participated in two different session blocks of meetings. In the first session, half the participants attended a stretch of four half-hour meetings back-to-back (two continuous hours), with each call devoted to different tasks (designing an office layout, for example, or creating a marketing plan). For the others, the four half-hour meetings were interspersed with 10-minute breaks, during which participants meditated with the Headspace app. The following week, the groups switched; those who had done back-to-backs had breaks, and vice versa. Three to four additional non-EEG-measured volunteers participated in each 30-minute meeting to create variation of attendees collaborating to complete the assigned tasks. Note: Headspace was not involved in the design or execution of the study.

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How Do Beaver Dams Affect Water Quality?

Published June 11, 2024

Considered nature’s engineers, beavers build dams across streams to create ponds. The lodges within these dams can only be accessed through underwater entrances, keeping beavers safe from predators like bears and wolves . After historical overhunting, beaver populations are growing—in part because of recent reintroduction programs—and are settling down in places they’ve never been found before, including Tierra del Fuego and the Arctic. Beavers are a  keystone species because of their significant impact on streams, the movement of water, water quality, and the other animals that live there. Beavers can alter their environments in many ways, especially through dam construction. The effects of these dams can be different in geographical regions ( also known as biomes), but scientists do n o t have a clear understanding of how they impact water quality, habitat, and sedimentation in floodplains.  

“Due to limited study in many biomes, some research scientists and land use managers must make decisions on how the conservation, expansion, and reintroduction of beavers can alter their local streams based on findings from ecosystems that are more frequently studied and better understood,” said EPA researcher Ken Fritz.

The Scientific Question

Because stream ecosystems are complex, it can be difficult to understand how disturbances and changing environmental conditions will impact the ecosystem. Additionally, the impacts of beaver dams may vary widely across biomes because the underlying watershed characteristics are different .

EPA scientists Ken Fritz, Tammy Newcomer-Johnson, Heather Golden, and Brent Johnson, in collaboration with researchers from Miami University, Ohio, conducted a scientific literature review to better understand how beaver dams impact stream systems across different biogeographical regions . Their paper, “ A global review of beaver dam impacts: Stream conservation implications across biomes , ” used 267 peer-reviewed studies to quantify the effects of beaver dams .   L iterature reviews summarize the main points of scientific research already published on a specific topic, which helps determine future efforts . The paper provides a current understanding for environmental managers on how the conservation, expansion, and reintroduction of beavers can alter streams in different geographical locations.

What the Scientists Discovered

The literature review found that beaver dams had significant environmental effects across all studied biomes. The impacts on stream morphology ( the shape of  river   channels  and how they change in shape and direction over time) and stream hydrology (water movement) were similar across geographical regions. Stream integrity, or health, also appeared to improve with beaver conservation in all biomes. The geographical region influenced how water quality and plant and animal life changed in response to beaver dams.

Specifically, results show that while nitrate and suspended sediments (which block the sunlight that bottom-dwelling plants need to survive) decreased downstream from beaver dams, pollutants like methyl mercury, dissolved organic carbon, and ammonium concentrations increased. Total nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations tended to not be affected by beaver dams. The effects beaver dams have on pollutants vary depending on environmental conditions —like temperature, sunlight, water velocity and depth – that aid in changing and transporting certain pollutants. EPA scientist Heather Golden noted that “the effects of beaver dams on water quality can often vary with time of year, or season.” 

On a larger scale, beaver dams slow water flow and increase sedimentation, and most pollutants likely settle out of the water into sediments upstream of the beaver dam. These areas could become zones of high concentration of some pollutants and harmful hotspots for exposed wildlife. For certain pollutants like nitrogen, this temporary storage can provide time for microbes to convert nitrate pollution into harmless nitrogen gas, a process known as microbial denitrification.

“When you clean your drinking water in your home, you throw away the dirty filter and put in a new one. This doesn’t happen with beaver dams,” said EPA researcher Tammy Newcomer-Johnson. “Dams slow the flow of water so that heavier particles settle out. Over time, storms and floodwaters can damage the dams and wash the sediments stored behind them downstream.”

The paper found that b eaver dams can significantly influence the areas around them. The se findings can be useful for stream conservation and restoration efforts that introduce or protect beavers. The review also found that the impacts of beaver dams were most often studied in temperate forests. A dditional studies are needed in dry or cold biomes historically occupied by beaver s and in new environments where beaver populations are currently expanding.

Learn More About the Science

Read the journal article :  A global review of beaver dam impacts: Stream conservation implications across biomes

This article was written by EPA's Melissa Payne. 

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