Pollutants: Renewing the Aims and Scope for a Changing Pollution Landscape

1. Introduction

Environmental pollution remains one of the major challenges facing ecosystems and human societies worldwide. Rapid industrialization, urbanization, agricultural intensification, technological development, and changing patterns of production and consumption have resulted in the release of an increasingly diverse range of chemical, biological, and physical pollutants into the environment. At the same time, the emergence of new contaminants and the growing recognition of interactions between pollution, climate change, biodiversity loss, and human and animal health are reshaping the way environmental pollution is investigated and managed. Since its establishment, Pollutants has provided an international, peer-reviewed, open-access platform for research addressing the occurrence, behaviour, effects, monitoring, and management of pollutants across environmental compartments. The field has continued to evolve rapidly, with increasing emphasis on emerging contaminants, multiple-stressor effects, advanced monitoring and modelling approaches, ecosystem resilience, One Health, and sustainable strategies for pollution prevention and remediation. To reflect on these developments and to provide a clearer framework for the scientific communities served by the journal, we have updated the Aims and Scope of Pollutants. The revised scope strengthens the journal’s multidisciplinary identity while defining six thematic sections that encompass the major and emerging areas of contemporary pollution research.

2. Updated Aims and Scope

Pollutants (ISSN 2673-4672) is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal that fosters interdisciplinary research on environmental contaminants, pollution mitigation strategies, and their implications for ecosystem resilience and public health. The journal publishes research articles, reviews, systematic reviews, communications, and other article types (e.g., perspectives) related to chemical, biological, and physical pollutants affecting air, water, soil, sediments, and biota. There are no restrictions on the maximum length of manuscripts, provided that the study is presented concisely and scientifically. To ensure the transparency and reproducibility of published research, authors must describe their methodology in sufficient detail to allow the reported results to be reproduced and independently verified.

The journal welcomes multidisciplinary research on the sources, occurrence, environmental fate, transport, transformation, exposure pathways, bioavailability, toxicity, ecological effects, monitoring, prevention, mitigation, removal, and remediation of pollutants. Particular attention is given to emerging contaminants, including micro(nano)plastics, PFAS, pharmaceuticals, nanomaterials, endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and other contaminants of environmental concern, as well as to pollution-related biological and physical stressors. Studies addressing biodiversity conservation, ecosystem functioning and resilience, climate change–pollution interactions, environmental microbiology, One Health, and sustainable environmental management are considered when they are directly related to environmental pollution and its impacts.

To better reflect the breadth and interdisciplinary nature of contemporary pollution research, the journal is organized into six thematic sections covering environmental chemistry, toxicology and risk assessment, environmental monitoring and modelling, pollution impacts on ecosystems and health, environmental microbiology and One Health, and pollution prevention, remediation, and sustainable environmental management.

• Environmental Chemistry and Emerging Contaminants
  • Environmental chemistry, analytical sciences, and pollutant characterization;
  • Environmental fate, transport, transformation, bioavailability, and bioaccumulation of pollutants and contaminants;
  • Emerging contaminants, including micro(nano)plastics, PFAS, pharmaceuticals, nanomaterials, and other contaminants of environmental concern.
• Environmental Toxicology, Ecotoxicology, and Risk Assessment
  • Environmental toxicology and ecotoxicology across molecular, organism, population, community, and ecosystem levels;
  • Ecological and human health risk assessment of environmental pollutants, including mixture toxicity and pollution-related multiple-stressor effects.
• Environmental Monitoring, Modelling, and Data Science
  • Environmental monitoring, surveillance, and early-warning systems for pollutants;
  • Computational toxicology, predictive modelling, artificial intelligence, and environmental data analytics;
  • Data-driven assessment of pollutant sources, occurrence, trends, exposure, and impacts.
• Pollution, Ecosystem Health, and Global Change
  • Pollution impacts on biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and ecosystem services;
  • Climate change–pollution interactions, pollution-related multiple stressors, and ecosystem resilience;
  • Ecological responses and recovery of polluted ecosystems.
• Environmental Microbiology, One-Health, and Environmental Health
  • Environmental microbiology of polluted environments, including antimicrobial resistance associated with environmental contamination;
  • One-Health and Planetary Health approaches to pollution and environmental contaminants;
  • Pollution-mediated interactions among environmental, animal, plant, and human health.
• Pollution Prevention and Sustainable Remediation
  • Pollution prevention, source control, and sustainable pollution management;
  • Pollution abatement technologies and emission reduction systems;
  • Pollutant removal, contaminant treatment, and resource recovery technologies;
  • Green remediation technologies and pollution mitigation strategies;
  • Restoration of contaminated ecosystems and nature-based solutions for pollution remediation;
  • Sustainable agriculture, contaminated land management, and environmental policies for pollution prevention and control.

3. Future Perspectives

The updated Aims and Scope reflect our intention to position Pollutants as a comprehensive and interdisciplinary forum for pollution research, connecting environmental chemistry, toxicology, ecology, microbiology, health sciences, monitoring, modelling, and remediation. The six thematic sections are intended not to create rigid boundaries between disciplines, but rather to provide a clearer scientific structure while encouraging interactions among complementary areas of research.

We particularly aim to promote studies that move beyond the assessment of individual pollutants in isolation and address environmentally relevant exposure scenarios, emerging contaminants, mixtures, multiple stressors, interactions with global environmental change, and consequences across different levels of biological organization. At the same time, Pollutants will continue to support methodological and technological advances that improve our ability to detect, understand, predict, prevent, and mitigate environmental pollution. The revised scope also reinforces the importance of translating scientific knowledge into effective environmental management. Integrating pollution monitoring and assessment with prevention, remediation, ecosystem restoration, and sustainable management will be increasingly important for protecting biodiversity, ecosystem services, and environmental and human health. Together with our Publisher, Editorial Board Members, and Reviewers we look forward to further developing Pollutants as an international platform for rigorous, innovative, and impactful pollution research. We invite researchers from across disciplines to contribute to this next stage of the journal and to help advance the scientific understanding and solutions required to address current and emerging pollution challenges.