About Challenges

Aims

Challenges—Journal of Planetary Health  ISSN (2078-1547) is a transdisciplinary, peer-reviewed open access journal dedicated to advancing planetary health—"a solutions-focused field and global movement that addresses the impacts of human disruption to Earth's systems on the health and flourishing of all life”. We seek to foster collaboration and knowledge exchange to promote a holistic understanding of the interdependence of all natural and human systems.

The journal provides a platform for diverse contributions from the sciences, humanities, and beyond, inviting ecological, technical, social, economic, cultural, behavioral, philosophical, spiritual, and educational perspectives. We welcome innovative ideas, theoretical reflections, and practical solutions that help tackle the interconnected Grand Challenges of the Anthropocene.

Recognizing that lasting change requires more than technical fixes, Challenges—Journal of Planetary Health emphasizes the importance of values, worldviews, and social justice in shaping human behavior and systems. We seek work that supports more compassionate, cooperative, and regenerative futures, including ancestral and Indigenous perspectives—expanding traditional concepts of health to include flourishing, meaning, and purpose.

All submissions should clearly articulate their relevance to planetary health and demonstrate potential impact on the wellbeing of people and the diverse aspects of the environments on which we depend. Where possible, authors should indicate how their work addresses the sustainable development goals (SDGs) of the 2015 United Nations Action Plan for People, Planet, Prosperity, and Peace. All regional studies should be framed within a global context, and all papers should be written with a wide transdisciplinary audience in mind.

Challenges—Journal of Planetary Health publishes scholarly content including high-quality reviews, novel viewpoints, regular research papers, communications, case/project reports, and Special Issues. This may include subjects and formats not typically found in traditional research journals, such as research proposals, policy studies, descriptions of prototypes, creative and artistic perspectives, and open contests. The aim of Challenges—Journal of Planetary Health is to encourage scientists to publish their experimental and theoretical results in as much detail as possible. Therefore, the journal has no restrictions on the length of papers. Full experimental details should be provided so that the results can be reproduced.

It is our hope that Challenges—Journal of Planetary Health will facilitate collaborative vision and shared agendas aimed at solving the interconnected challenges of the Anthropocene and promoting the wellbeing of people, places, and planet.

Scope

We welcome manuscripts that address the challenges posed to different aspects of planetary health. Regardless of their specific focus, authors should underscore the relevance of their submission to the flourishing of human societies and the natural systems on which we depend. Topics may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Human Flourishing (health and wellbeing)—including inner development, i.e., the Inner Development Goals (IDGs) and the interplay between human beings and their physical, emotional, social, economic, and political environments.
• Climate Change and Earth’s Biophysical Systems (human interdependence and impact on large scale “planetary boundaries”).
• Biodiversity and Natural Ecology (including microbial systems).
• Food Systems.
• Regenerative Economies (including regenerative business and wellbeing economies).
• Indigenous and Traditional Ecological Knowledge.
• Sustainable Energies (with an emphasis on the risks and benefits to human and planetary systems).
• Social Trends and Transitions (including psychology, attitudes, behaviors, and movement building).
• Technologies (solutions and risks to planetary health).
• Ethics, Values, and Spirituality (worldviews and mindsets that influence planetary health and justice).
• Planetary Health Education (including knowledge, skills, emotional intelligence, and moral wisdom)
• Governance, Development, Policy, Peace, and Justice (including infrastructure, planning, and law, for more livable, fair, and sustainable systems).

MDPI Publication Ethics Statement

MDPI is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). MDPI takes the responsibility to enforce a rigorous peer-review together with strict ethical policies and standards to ensure to add high quality scientific works to the field of scholarly publication. Unfortunately, cases of plagiarism, data falsification, inappropriate authorship credit, and the like, do arise. MDPI takes such publishing ethics issues very seriously and our editors are trained to proceed in such cases with a zero tolerance policy. To verify the originality of content submitted to our journals, we use iThenticate to check submissions against previous publications.

Book Reviews

Authors and publishers are encouraged to send review copies of their recent related books to the following address. Received books will be listed as Books Received within the journal's News & Announcements section.

MDPI
Grosspeteranlage 5
CH-4052 Basel
Switzerland

Copyright / Open Access

Articles published in Challenges will be Open-Access articles distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The copyright is retained by the author(s). MDPI will insert the following note at the end of the published text:

Reprints

Reprints may be ordered. Please contact publisher@mdpi.com for more information on how to order reprints.

Announcement and Advertisement

Announcements regarding academic activities such as conferences are published for free in the News & Announcements section of the journal. Advertisement can be either published or placed on the pertinent website. Contact e-mail address is challenges@mdpi.com.

Editorial Office

For further MDPI contacts, see here.