Project Appraisal

IAPA is an international refereed journal. It welcomes papers on the environmental, social, health, technology, integrated, sustainability, etc assessment of projects, programmes, plans and policies. Its authors reach its many library users, plus the 1,500 members of the International Association for Impact Assessment, and searchers online. IAPA is online at Ingenta Connect, EbscoHost, SwetsWise, etc and joined CrossRef in 2007.

Manuscripts

Papers, practice reports and book reviews should be submitted to the appropriate editors, ideally by email. If a manuscript can only be posted, then send three copies.

Papers should normally be from 4,000 to 8,000 words. Shorter original papers describing conceptual, methodological, or empirical innovations are also encouraged. Send papers to Professor Colin Kirkpatrick or Dr Carys E Jones at editor.iapa@manchester.ac.uk (or School of Environment and Development, at the University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK).

The first page, which referees will not see, should give author name(s) and address(es), a contact point, and (if needed) mention sponsorship and acknowledgments. The next page should include the title, an abstract of around 100 words and up to 10 keywords. Please confirm it has not been published in print nor submitted elsewhere.

Papers and practice reports will be assessed in terms of:

i) originality of approach or insights;

ii) validity of the work reported;

iii) quality, brevity and clarity of presentation;

iv) significance, relevance and timeliness.

Practice reports (1,000 to 4,000 words) are encouraged. They should describe innovations in practice that are likely to be generally applicable. Send reports to the editors (see above).

Book reviews are edited by Angus Morrison-Saunders at A.Morrison-Saunders@murdoch.edu.au (Environmental Assessment, Division of Science and Engineering, Murdoch University, South Street, Murdoch, WA 6150, Australia) and by Maria Partidário at mp@fct.unl.pt (Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), Av Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal).

Style

We accept any standard spelling (UK, US, Australian, etc). The readership is diverse, so define any technical terms, avoid spurious jargon and explain all acronyms. Tables should be mentioned in the text, and numbered 1, 2, 3, etc. Figures and equations should also be referred to in the text, with their own 1, 2, 3, etc sequences. Figures should be in black and white, with no subtle shading, in any usual format such as .tif, .jpg or .xls. Avoid graphics from websites: redraw them or get detailed originals. Notes should be used sparingly and be indicated with raised numbers, like this,¹ and then be given at the end of the paper, between the text and the list of references.

References

References should be done thus: “Smith (2006) claims that …” or “One survey (Smith, 2001a; 2001b) …”. Page numbers may be included, as in “Smith (2006: 23)”. Anonymous articles should be given thus: “(Time, 3 May 1996)”; avoid dates like 11/3/01, as they are ambiguous. Full citations should be listed at the end, in the following style. Please avoid the common error of different dates and spelling of names from those earlier in your text.

Brown, C C, D C Black Jr and E F White 2000. Full-Time Work. Washington DC: US Department of Labor. Available at <http://www.dol.org/articles.pdf>, last accessed 12 June 2005.

Dylan, R Z 2005. The Impact of Weather. Chicago: Stone.

Jones, A A and J D Thomas 1997. Impact assessment in East Lynne. In Assessment Around the World, eds. B B King and J Dean, pp. 22–73. New York: World Publishers.

King, B B 2007. Environmental impact assessment of mud puddles in West Overshoe. Journal of the Society for Waterproofing, 22(3), June, 177–179.

Editorial decision

We acknowledge receipt of manuscripts. We aim to obtain referees’ reports within three months (but that is not always possible). Neither you nor the referee will be told who the other is (unless, for example, you unambiguously refer to your previous papers). Once a paper has been accepted, we hope to publish it within six months (even if it is subject to minor revision), and possibly sooner.

After acceptance

You will be given a publication date. All papers are copy edited. You will receive proofs for checking before publication.

Special free-copies service and online publication

On publication, you will receive up to 50 free copies (offprints) of your paper, with two copies of the journal for each author. We will gladly mail out offprints to people you specify – up to a hundred or more, if you like – and all at no charge.