Environmental Epidemiology Journal

January 13, 2026

Dear members of the ISEE,

First of all, on behalf of Environmental Epidemiology, we would like to wish you a happy new year! What it will bring is anybody's guess, but let's focus on the positives that we have some control over, such as our journal.

We're happy to mention that the number of papers submitted to EE has again increased, from 150 in 2024 to 210 in 2025. Not all of these submissions are good, and our rejection rate has crept up to about 50%.

The detailed numbers for last year are 79 rejected after editorial review, 22 rejected after external peer review. We have accepted 64 papers of the 210 that were submitted last year. Then there are still 45 papers under review, of which 14 are currently being revised after external review. Experience shows that we have to wait until the middle of this year before the final fate of all 2025 submissions is known.

Jamie Hart has accepted to share being Editor in Chief with Bert Brunekreef. She started July 1, and we have developed a close collaboration which includes doing the first triage of submissions together. We have also recruited 4 associate editors who deal with the external peer review of papers we assign to them. They are Maggie Clark, Narges Khanjani, Rajen Naidoo and Elaine Fuertes. The final decision about the fate of papers assigned to them is then made in consultation with one of us (Jaime or Bert). We have regular teleconferences to make sure we develop a joint identity.

Compared to other journals, our editorial board is rather small. Our board has been very responsive to invitations to review for EE. As we are dealing with a rather large increase in submissions, it might be wise to enlarge the board. We will take steps to make that happen soon. Adequate peer review is crucial, and we need to work hard to obtain timely and sound review reports.

All of this is happening in the midst of a very dynamic phase in scientific publishing. We are only beginning to come to grips with the role of AI, we're seeing environmental health science becoming 'under siege', we need to be vigilant about 'paper mills' that churn out partly or completely faked papers, about predatory journals luring potential authors away etc. We also note that new environmental health studies are being published at a faster rate than ever before, and it's a challenge to ascertain that papers being submitted to us are really going to make a difference. Our affiliation with ISEE has also become stronger, as an example of which we point to ISEE actively promoting the publication of commentaries in EE.

Finally, we have negotiated a new contract with Wolters Kluwer, our publisher. Working relationships between us and WK have been fruitful until now, and we look forward to continuing collaboration with them. The ISEE annual conference will be in Munich this year, and we hope to organize a face-to-face meeting with the editorial board there. Of course, we hope to interact with many ISEE members as well. We’ll keep you posted!

Bert Brunekreef, Jaime Hart, Ingrid Dahmen