Sustainability
Our Climate Pledge
Working toward net-zero carbon by 2040 — for research, and for the planet it serves.
A Signatory of The Climate Pledge
Boston Research Journals is a signatory of The Climate Pledge, committing us to reach net-zero carbon across our operations by 2040 — a decade ahead of the Paris Agreement's 2050 goal. Scholarly publishing has a real environmental cost: paper, printing, shipping, travel, and the energy that powers digital infrastructure. We believe a research publisher should account for that cost as rigorously as it reviews the research it publishes.
This page describes what that commitment means in practice today — what we have already changed, what we are still working toward, and how we hold ourselves accountable.
How We Are Reducing Our Carbon Footprint
1. Digital-First Distribution
We actively encourage libraries and institutions to subscribe to our online REST APIs in addition to their print subscriptions. Every issue delivered digitally is an issue that does not need to be printed, packaged, and shipped around the world — and our APIs integrate directly with library discovery systems, so readers get faster access with a fraction of the footprint.
2. A Fully Paperless Editorial Workflow
All of our editorial work is carried out without the use of any paper. Manuscript submission, peer review, editorial correspondence, proofing, and production are handled entirely through digital systems, from the moment an author submits to the moment an article is published.
3. Energy-Efficient Digital Infrastructure
Our website, published archives, and preservation copies are hosted on modern, energy-efficient cloud infrastructure rather than dedicated always-on servers. Long-term archiving is digital by design, avoiding the storage, climate control, and duplication costs of physical archives.
4. Remote-First Collaboration
Our editorial boards, reviewers, and staff collaborate across continents without routine travel. Editorial meetings are held virtually by default, keeping flights — one of the largest sources of emissions in academic publishing — to a minimum.
Working Toward Recycled Paper
Print remains an important part of how libraries preserve and provide access to scholarship, and we are trying our best to print our journal issues on recycled paper. We have not yet achieved this: sourcing archival-quality recycled stock that meets library preservation standards, at every print location we use, is still a work in progress. Rather than overstate where we are, we prefer to say it plainly — this is a goal we are actively pursuing, and we will update this page when our issues are printed on recycled paper.
Supporting Environmental Research — Without Bias
We support and encourage environmental and climate research published across the Boston Research Journals family, including our Earth, Marine & Environmental Science subjects. That support never extends into the editorial process: every submission, environmental or otherwise, is evaluated through the same rigorous, impartial peer review. Our commitment to the planet does not create a bias in what we publish — sound science does.
How We Hold Ourselves Accountable
Measure and Reduce
We regularly assess the carbon footprint of our operations and infrastructure, and prioritise reductions at the source before considering offsets.
Report Honestly
We describe our progress candidly — including the goals we have not yet reached — and update this page as our practices improve.
Improve Continuously
Sustainable publishing practices evolve, and so do we. We review our climate commitments annually against current best practices.
Our Pledge
Boston Research Journals pledges to reduce the carbon footprint of everything we do — from submission to publication to preservation — and to reach net-zero carbon by 2040. We will publish the world's research responsibly, report our progress honestly, and never let our environmental commitments compromise the impartiality of our editorial judgement.
Questions about our climate commitments? Write to us at support@bostonresearch.org.