Japan Society on Water Environment

Journal of Water and Environment Technology

Journal of Water and Environment Technology Guidelines


Printable version of the Instructions to Authors

Ethical Provisions of Journals of Japan Society on Water Environment

Japan Society on Water Environment: Journal Copyrights Regulations(in Japanese)

Japan Society on Water Environment: Journal Copyrights Regulations(in English)


Templates for submission to Journal of Water and Environment Technology
Articles should be prepared using the following templates and submitted through the online submission site
Template for main part of the article (JWET_template_230519)
Template for Supplementary Materials (JWET_template_SM_161118)

Instructions to Authors

The Journal of Water and Environment Technology(JWET) welcomes submissions from all authors, regardless of their location or background. Articles can span local, regional, or global scales, but must be placed in a context that ensures relevance and interest to a global audience. JWET is committed to an ethical, fair, and rapid peer-review process.
AIMS & SCOPE
JWET is an open access, fully peer-reviewed international journal which covers all aspects of the science, technology, and management of water and the environment. The journal's content is clearly placed in a broader context to make it relevant and interesting to our global audience of researchers, engineers, water technologists, and policymakers.
JWET is the official journal of the Japan Society on Water Environment (JSWE) published in English, and welcomes submissions that take basic, applied, or modeling approaches to the interesting issues being faced in the field. Topics can include, but are not limited to, water environment, soil and groundwater, drinking water, biological and physicochemical treatments, sludge and solid waste, toxicity, public health and risk assessment, test and analytical methods, environmental education, among others. JWET also welcomes seminal studies that help lay the foundation for future research in the field.
JWET is committed to an ethical, fair, and rapid peer-review process. It is published six times per year and consists of two article types: Original Articles and Review Articles.
JOURNAL POLICIES
Authors should carefully read the journal policies below as submission to the journal implies that all authors have read and approved them. Further details about the journal's ethical processes are available in the document: "Ethical Provisions for the Journals of the Japan Society on Water Environment," available at https://www.jswe.or.jp/eng/publications/instructions/Ethical_Provisions.pdf
Submission to the journal also implies that all authors have seen and approved of the manuscript, have agreed to its submission, have the right to publish the work, and that it is not libelous or defamatory. All authors also undertake that the manuscript is an original work that has neither been previously published in any language, nor is it under consideration elsewhere. Authors must inform the editors if any related publications are under consideration or in press elsewhere.
Authorship
Contributors to JWET should meet the following criteria for authorship. They must have:
  • made a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work;
  • drafted the manuscript or revised it critically for important intellectual content;
  • approved the final version of the manuscript for publication; and
  • agreed to be held accountable for all aspects of the work.
  • Submission to the journal implies that all authors have agreed to the author list and its order. Any amendments to the list (such as changing the order or adding or removing authors) after submission must be approved by all authors and the editor.
    Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Assisted Tools/Technologies
    In consonance with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) position statement, World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) recommendations, and International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommendations, JWET does not allow artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted tools/technologies such as Large Language Models (LLMs), chatbots, or image creators to be listed as author or co-author. As described in the ICMJE, those tools cannot be responsible for the work's accuracy, integrity, and originality; thus, they do not meet the ICMJE's criteria for authorship listed above. The authors (humans) are fully responsible for any materials of the submitted work, including the use of AI-assisted tools or technologies. AI should not be cited as an author. Authors (humans) are also responsible for plagiarism, including in text and AI-produced images. Authors must disclose, upon submission and in the Materials and Methods section or the Acknowledgments section, any use of AI-assisted tools or technologies in the writing of a manuscript, production of images or graphical elements of the paper, or in the collection and analysis of data. Basic AI-assisted tools/technologies are exempted to check spelling, grammar, and general editing.
    Unoriginal material
    The authors consider their submission to the journal to be original works. The journal uses iThenticate software to screen material, and the authors agree to this process on each submission. The journal reserves the right to return material that is found to contain an unacceptable amount of unoriginal material.
    Preprints
    The journal considers the publication of manuscripts previously available as preprints on non-commercial servers. It is the responsibility of the authors to inform the journal at the time of submission if and where their article has been previously posted. If the manuscript is accepted for publication in the journal, the authors are required to update the preprint with a citation to the final published article via its Digital Object Identifier (DOI) along with a link.
    Image integrity
    Community standards must be met during the presentation of the images. While digital manipulation or processing of images is allowed, all figures must accurately reflect the underlying data. The editors reserve the right to request original data and images from the authors.
    Reproducing copyrighted material, including maps
    Manuscripts that contain figures, maps, or other previously published materials that are subject to copyright are required to have the copyright holder's permission and provide evidence of this upon submission.
    Availability of data and materials
    The journal supports the use of supplementary materials for supporting data and relevant materials, or the use of relevant and accepted public repositories and databases. See the Supplementary Materials section for further details on the format and style of these materials.
    If data have been used from repositories or databases, relevant identifiers or details must be included with the submission.
    Animal/human experimentation
    In submissions dealing with human experimentation or materials derived from humans, the authors must demonstrate that the work was undertaken in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and its revisions
    (https://www.wma.net/what-we-do/medical-ethics/declaration-of-helsinki/), and any guidelines approved by the authors' institutions. For experiments conducted using animals or materials derived from animals, the authors must demonstrate approval for the work under the authors' institutional guidelines.
    A statement to this effect must be included in either the Materials and Methods section or a separate section after the Acknowledgments.
    Conflicts of interest
    The journal maintains strong policies for conflicts of interest among editors, reviewers, editorial board members, staff, and authors. Further, all authors must declare any conflicts of interest, and this text must be explicitly included upon submission of their manuscript. In addition, authors should list all funding sources for their work in the Acknowledgments section, including grant numbers where applicable.
    Confidentiality
    All manuscripts that are under consideration or have been rejected are kept confidential. The authors agree to keep all correspondence from editors and the editorial office concerning their submission confidential.
    The journal undertakes a single-anonymous peer review, and as such, no reviewers' identities are disclosed, unless explicitly requested by the reviewer. As part of their agreement to review articles for the journal, reviewers agreed to maintain the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts.
    Editorial and peer-review process
    The section editors allocate submitted manuscripts to an associate editor who oversees the peer-review process. The associate editor invites at least two reviewers to provide an assessment of the submission; reviewers are selected based on their knowledge, reputation, and experience as peer reviewers. When the reviews have been received, the associate editor assesses the manuscripts, review reports, and makes a first decision.
    If a manuscript does not meet the journal's requirements for acceptance but has a high probability of acceptance after minor or major revisions, the associate editor may ask the authors to revise it accordingly. Revised manuscripts must attend to the points raised by the reviewers and the associate editor and be re-submitted within one month for minor revision and two months for major revision; otherwise, they will be treated as new submissions. Revised manuscripts may be sent back to the original or new referees, as determined by the associate editor.
    After revision and reassessment, if the manuscript satisfies the journal's requirements and represents an original contribution to the published literature, the associate editor will accept the manuscript for publication in the journal.
    However, if a manuscript does not meet the journal's requirements for acceptance, the associate editor may decide to return the manuscript to the authors.
    Other members of the editorial board act in advisory roles, act as reviewers and make suggestions to improve JWET. The co-editors-in-chief act as arbiters, as required.
    Editorial board members are not involved in editorial decisions regarding manuscripts that have been authored by either themselves or their relatives/colleagues. Such submissions are subject to all the usual procedures of JWET and undergo fair peer reviews that are independent of the invested editorial board members and their research groups. This applies also to products or services in which editorial board members may have obvious interests.
    Reviewer suggestions
    The authors should suggest potential reviewers who would be suitable for reviewing their manuscript. Reviewers put forward should be qualified and knowledgeable to provide valuable advice. The authors declare no current or former relationship with those suggested. Potential reviewers who the authors wish to be excluded can also be referred to. The journal may consider these requests but is under no obligation to grant them; the editors maintain complete discretion regarding the selection of reviewers.
    Appeals
    The journal will consider appeals that provide specific evidence of misunderstandings, mistakes, or errors by a reviewer or editor. Appeals will be considered by the co-editors-in-chief and their decision is final.
    Errata and retractions
    The journal supports the maintenance of a complete record of science and, hence, the correction of any significant errors in the journal. If authors discover a significant error or inaccuracy in their published article, they are obligated to promptly notify the co-editors-in-chief and cooperate with their instructions. The co-editors-in-chief will also assess any third-party advice received and, in both cases, determine whether an erratum or a retraction is appropriate.
    Errata describe errors that significantly affect the scientific integrity of a publication or the reputation of a journal or authors. Retractions are used when the results or conclusions are found to be invalid or misleading, or when there is sufficient evidence of research, or breaches in publication ethics. Minor errors that result from the authors' actions will not be addressed.
    If co-authors do not agree to a correction being published, the journal reserves the right to proceed with the publication of an erratum or retraction that names the dissenting co-authors.
    OPEN ACCESS
    JWET has recently moved to a fully open access publication model. For more information on the journal's open access policies, see the Open Access Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) available at https://www.jswe.or.jp/eng/publications/instructions/OA_FAQs.html.
    Article Processing Charges
    Accepted manuscripts are currently published free of article processing charges. Note that JSWE is now preparing to charge article processing fees in the near future.
    License to Publish
    Authors are required to sign a license to publish to grant JSWE permission to reproduce the work in JWET under a Creative Commons license (see below).
    Creative Commons licenses
    Open Access publications in JWET are published under one of the Creative Commons International licenses that follow. (It is the author's responsibility to ensure that the license selected complies with the funding body's requirements. Once selected, the terms of the Creative Commons licenses are irrevocable.)
    CC BY (Attribution) license: This license permits others copy, distribute, remix, and build upon the article, even commercially, provided the original source and authors are credited (see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
    CC BY-NC (Attribution-NonCommercial) license: This license permits others to non-commercially distribute, modify, and reproduce the article, provided the original source and the authors are credited (see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).
    CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives) License: This license allows users to non-commercially distribute and reproduce the unmodified article, provided the original source and the authors are credited (see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
    For more information about Creative Commons licenses, see the Open Access Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) at https://www.jswe.or.jp/eng/publications/instructions/OA_FAQs.html.
    HOW TO SUBMIT
    Authors should navigate to the journal's ScholarOne site at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jwet where all submissions must be entered.
    Original and revised manuscript texts may be uploaded as a PDF or as a word processor file, but an editable word processor file (with file extension .doc or .docx) is required for the final manuscript. The figures may be submitted separately in several other standard formats.
    If you encounter any problems with your submission, please contact the editorial office at jwet@jswe.or.jp or via the information below.
    Japan Society on Water Environment (JSWE)
    Green Plaza Fukagawa Tokiwa 201, 2-9-7 Tokiwa, Koto, Tokyo 135-0006, JAPAN
    Fax: +81-3-3632-5352

    ARTICLE TYPE SPECIFICATIONS
    Original Article
    Original articles are full articles that describe novel work within the journal's scope with the standard format of Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion, References, and so forth, as further described below. The length of the main text should be less than 6,000 words.
    Review Article
    Review articles are critical and novel examinations that provide an overview of a given topic within the journal's scope. Review articles must be insightful and use appropriate and fully presented evidence; note that exhaustive general summaries will not be published. Standard sections such as Abstract, Introduction, References, and Acknowledgments must be provided, however, the main body of a review article can utilize any consistent and logical heading structure developed by the authors. The length of the main text should be less than 6,000 words.
    ARTICLE PREPARATION
    English standard
    Manuscripts should be written in comprehensive and grammatically correct English. Authors are strongly encouraged to have their manuscript checked by a native English speaker or an editing service prior to submission. A manuscript with poor English quality may be rejected without peer review.
    Style and Format
    A template for submissions is available at https://www.jswe.or.jp/eng/publications/instructions/index.html. Microsoft Word is recommended for use in preparing manuscripts, although the journal can process most of the popular word-processing packages. To avoid compatibility and readability issues, authors should not change the style, add their own macros, include the revision history, or leave any comments in the final submitted file.
    Submissions should be single-spaced and include page numbers. Please use Times New Roman 11 pt, except for the title, which should be 14 pt. Do not use symbol font. Currency symbols such as $, €, ₤, and ¥; instead, USD, EUR, GBP, and JPY can be used in their place.
    The first page of each manuscript should contain the title, authors' full names, affiliations, keywords, and the name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address of the corresponding author.
    Abbreviations
    Define abbreviations upon first appearance in the main text (except in the Abstract). The use of abbreviations should be minimized, especially in the Abstract.
    Title
    The title should be specific, descriptive, and intelligible to readers outside a specific field. Specialist abbreviations should not be included in the title. The title should be formatted in sentence case.
    Authors / Corresponding author
    Include the full names of all authors and format in sentence case. Note that the last name listed is most often used as the family name in most databases.
    Affiliations
    Affiliations include department, university, or organizational affiliation, and the name of the city and country of location. When authors belong to different institutions, their respective addresses are indicated by superscript letters.
    Abstract
    The Abstract is vital to attracting interest in your work and should present a compelling and cogent overview of your paper that is accessible to a broader audience. In a maximum of 200 words, it should describe the main objective(s) of the study, a brief methodology, and the most important results and their significance. Please do not cite references in the Abstract.
    Keywords
    A maximum of five keywords should be given so that information retrieval systems can better locate an article. Authors are encouraged to include significant terms that are not in the title.
    Introduction
    The Introduction should describe the context and background of the work to ensure that it is accessible, relevant, and of interest to all the journal's readers. It should also ensure that the significance of your work can be fully understood. Readers, both inside and outside the specific field, ought to be able to understand the purpose and significance of the study. The problem(s) being addressed must be clearly defined, and a brief review of the key literature can be included. It should conclude with a brief statement of the overall aim(s) of the work.
    Materials and Methods
    The Materials and Methods section should include the design of the study, the type of materials involved, a clear description of all comparisons, and the analyses used to enable replication by skilled researchers. If materials, methods, and protocols are well established, authors may cite articles in which these protocols are described in detail.
    The name of the manufacturer should be accompanied with information on its location (city and country), unless commonly recognized by international readers. For field studies, the study site should be described so that readers who are not familiar with the site can fully understand the issues relevant to it.
    Results and Discussion
    The Results and Discussion section should adequately detail the results of the experiments and outline the outcomes of the relevant analyses. Interpretations drawn from the results should be provided and used to support the conclusions of the study. The Results and Discussion may be combined into one section or presented separately.
    Conclusions
    The Conclusions section briefly describes the significance and implications of the work reported. An itemized style using bullet points is acceptable.
    Acknowledgements
    The Acknowledgements section should include anyone who contributed substantially to the paper but did not meet the criteria for authorship. Funding sources (including grant numbers) should also be included.
    References
    All work cited in the text should be included in the References section. References must always be given in sufficient detail to enable the reader to locate the work cited.
    The journal uses a modified Vancouver (numerical) format for references in the body of the manuscript and the References section. That is, each reference should be numbered in the order that they appear in the text as follows: for example, [1], [2], [3],.... If multiple sources are cited simultaneously, the following style should be used: [1, 4, 7–10]. Each numbered reference must be listed in the References section in order.
    If a reference was published in a non-English language such as in References [3], [5], and [6] below, the title should be translated into English and the original language provided in the format shown below. If allowable under the relevant copyright provisions, we encourage the authors to provide reference information in their original language(s) in Supplementary Materials to help readers identify the original source.
    Including AI-generated material as the primary source in the reference is not allowed.
    Journal articles
    [1] Gunawardana EGW, Satoh H, Mino T: Analysis of bacterial communities in treated water and activated sludge and evaluation of an easy methodology for preparing PCR-compatible DNA extracts. J. Water Environ. Technol., 12(1), 1–12, 2014.
    [2] Matsubayashi M, Shimada Y, Li Y-Y, Harada H, Kubota K: Phylogenetic diversity and in situ detection of eukaryotes in anaerobic sludge digesters. PLoS ONE, 12(3), e0172888, 2017. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0172888
    [3] Sawada K, Inoue D, Sei K, Ike M: Monitoring the fates of retinoic acids and 4-oxo-retinoic acids in municipal wastewater treatment plants. J. Jpn. Soc. Water Environ., 36(2), 57–65, 2013. [in Japanese with English abstract]
    Test guidelines
    [4] APHA-AWWA-WEF: Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater, 23rd edition. American Public Health Association/American Water Works Association/Water Environment Federation, Washington DC, USA, 2017.
    [5] Japan Water Works Association: Test Guidelines for Drinking Water Quality, 2011 edition. Japan Water Works Association, Tokyo, Japan, 2011. [in Japanese]
    [6] Japan Sewage Works Association: Wastewater Examination Method, 2012 edition. Japan Sewage Works Association, Tokyo, Japan, 2012. [in Japanese]
    Books
    [7] Henze M, Harremoes P, LaCour Jansen J, Arvin E: Wastewater Treatment: Biological and Chemical Processes. Springer, Heidelberg, Germany, 1995.
    [8] Rudnick RL, Gao S: Composition of the continental crust. In: Holland HD, Turekian KK (eds.): Treatise on Geochemistry, Elsevier, Amsterdam, Netherlands, Vol. 3, pp. 1–64, 2003.
    Theses
    [9] Tamminen T: Eutrophication and the Baltic Sea: Studies on Phytoplankton, Bacterioplankton and Pelagic Nutrient Cycles. PhD thesis, Department of Environmental Conservation, University of Helsinki, Finland, 1990.
    Websites and reports available on websites
    [10] Japan Meteorological Agency: Analysis and Forecast of Precipitation.
    http://www.jma.go.jp/en/kaikotan/index.html [accessed in April, 2023]
    [11] National Institute of Technology and Evaluation (NITE): NITE Chemical Risk Information Platform (NITE-CHRIP).
    https://www.nite.go.jp/en/chem/chrip/chrip_search/systemTop [accessed in April, 2023]
    [12]WHO: Global Vaccine Action Plan 2011–2020. 2013. ISBN: 9789241504980, p. 17. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/78141 [accessed on April 20, 2023]
    Conference papers
    [13] Watanabe H, Nakajima F, Kasuga I, Furumai H: Toxicity characterization of road dust using whole sediment toxicity identification evaluation procedures with a benthic ostracod. 4th IWA-ASPIRE Conference & Exhibition, Tokyo, Japan, 2011.
    [14] Fujinaga A, Yamanaka D, Tamatani T, Heya M, Takanami R, Taniguchi S, Ozaki H: The effect of repeating charge-discharge to electricity generated by soil microbial fuel cell. Proceedings of the 49th Annual Conference of Japan Society on Water Environment, Kanazawa, Japan, p. 225, 2015. [in Japanese]
    [15] Garrido DR, Tartakovsky B, Perrier M: Staged microbial fuel cells with periodic connection of external resistance. 11th IFAC Symposium on Dynamics and Control of Process Systems, including Biosystems, Trondheim, Norway, 2016.
    Unpublished data and personal communications
    Cite unpublished data only in the main text along these lines: "The trend was confirmed by additional experiment (unpublished data)." Citation of unpublished data and personal communications should be avoided as far as possible.
    Tables
    Tables should be provided on separate page(s) after the main text (see the template file for examples). Tables must be numbered with Arabic numerals, followed by a brief title and numbered as e.g., Table XX (where XX = 1, 2,...), both in the table title and in the main text where the table is cited. We recommend using the ‘Tables' feature in Microsoft Word to create tables. Do not paste tables as pictures. Footnotes should be placed directly after the table.
    Figures
    Figures should be provided on separate page(s) after the Tables section (see the template file for more details). Figure should be numbered as e.g., Fig. XX (XX = 1, 2,...) in the figure legends. In the main text or elsewhere, figures should be cited as Fig. XX, but should not be abbreviated if they appear at the head of a sentence, e.g., "Figure XX shows the results…."
    Note that the figures should be clear and informative. Authors should bear in mind that figures may be re-sized to fit into the journal's two-column format and may therefore be smaller than that submitted, and intricate details can be lost.
    The relevant copyright provisions must be adhered to and permissions sought, provided, and attributed, for any materials (especially maps) that are not fully owned by the authors. We encourage the use of maps where and when relevant, and encourage authors to re-draw maps where possible.
    Supplementary materials
    Any non-essential but supportive figures and tables can be included in the Supplementary Materials. The supplementary figures and tables should be numbered as follows: Fig. S1, S2,... and Tables S1, S2, … to differentiate from main figures and tables (e.g., Figs. 1, 2, … and Tables 1, 2, …). If a reference cited in the manuscript has been published in a language other than English and copyright issues are addressed, the authors can include the reference information in the original language in Supplementary Materials.
    Supplementary Materials should be prepared using the template file (https://www.jswe.or.jp/eng/publications/instructions/JWET_template_SM_161118.doc) and provided as a single PDF or MS Word file. Note that when accepted for publication, the authors will be requested to convert the file into a pdf file with a size less than 50 MB. In addition, see the main text template file (https://www.jswe.or.jp/eng/publications/instructions/JWET_template_190701.docx) for how to refer to supplementary materials in the main text.
    Nomenclature and units
    The terminology and notation used in manuscripts must be widely accepted and understood by the water science and technology research community. SI units are strongly recommended. When non-SI units are used, SI equivalents (or conversion factors) must also be given. The symbol for liter should be 'L', not 'l'. The unit should be specified carefully to avoid ambiguity. For example, the use of 'kg-dry' or 'kg-wet' may be more suitable rather than 'kg' alone. We accept both expression styles, mg/L and mg L–1, but the style should be consistent within the manuscript.
    Equations
    MathType is the preferred software for preparing equations and related terms. Simple equations can be prepared using the built-in function of Microsoft Word. Tex format should be avoided.
    Equations should be numbered with Arabic numbers, and the equation numbers should appear immediately after each equation as (XX). In the main text or elsewhere, equations should be cited as, e.g., 'equation (1)'.
    POST-ACCEPTANCE PROCESS
    The authors must submit the final version of the manuscript as an editable word processor file via the submission system. Upon notification of the acceptance of your manuscript, the corresponding author must license JSWE to reproduce the work in JWET, as mentioned in the OPEN ACCESS section in this document.
    The authors will receive galley proofs approximately two months after manuscript acceptance, and any suggested corrections should be returned within one week. Note that major changes are not permissible at this stage of the production process. Authors who expect to be away at this time should notify the editorial office of their absence and the contact method to be used during this period. If the galley proofreading process is delayed, the publication of your article may be postponed.
    If the manuscript previously available as the preprint is accepted for publication in JWET, authors are required to update the preprint with a citation to the final published article that includes its DOI along with a link.
    CONTACT DETAILS
    Co-Editors-in-Chief:
    Hiroaki FURUMAI, Chuo University, Japan
    Daisuke INOUE, Osaka University, Japan
    Please contact the co-editors-in-chief for all editorial inquiries via the Japan Society on Water Environment(JSWE).
    E-mail: jwet###jswe.or.jp (### = @)
    Green Plaza Fukagawa Tokiwa 201, 2-9-7 Tokiwa, Koto, Tokyo 135-0006, JAPAN
    Fax:+81-3-3632-5352
    Approved May 20, 2008, by Editorial Board of Journal of Water and Environment Technology
    Amended May 20, 2013; Oct. 2, 2015; Nov. 18, 2016; Mar. 17, 2017; Jul. 1, 2019; Nov. 12, 2019; Nov. 30, 2021; Jul. 1, 2022; Nov. 24, 2022; May 19, 2023; Dec. 1, 2023
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