Open Access Pub · Aims and Scope
Aims and Scope
International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine publishes peer-reviewed research on exposures encountered at work and in the wider environment, their effects on human health, and the surveillance, prevention and clinical practice that follow.
Occupational and environmental medicine are treated as one field because a single exposure regularly crosses the boundary between a workplace, a community, a clinic and a population, and because the response that removes it usually has to cross the same boundary.
- Short nameIJOE
- ISSN2690-0904
- PublisherOpen Access Pub
- AccessOpen access; the Creative Commons Attribution License is stated on each article
- Scope governsEvery other page of this journal states its remit from this page
The field of inquiry
From environment to action
The journal is organized around a sequence rather than a technique. Work that belongs here can enter that sequence at any point, and much of the most useful work moves between points.
Environments
Work and the wider environment are one continuous field of exposure. A shift pattern, a ventilation system, a catchment, a housing stock and a regional airshed all place people in contact with agents that can reach their health.
Exposure may be chemical, physical, biological, ergonomic, psychosocial or environmental.
Evidence
Exposure has to be described before it can be connected to anything. The journal publishes industrial hygiene and personal monitoring, environmental measurement, biomonitoring, and the analytical methods and biomarkers that let one study be compared with another.
Interpretation
Between an exposure and a health effect sits an inference. Occupational and environmental epidemiology, surveillance systems, registries and clinical assessment are the ways that inference is tested, and all of them are in scope.
Action
Evidence in this field is written to be used. Control measures, prevention programs, regulation, standards, implementation research and the clinical management of exposed patients complete the sequence, and the journal follows it to the end.
What the journal publishes
Subject domains
Each domain below is a full part of the remit, not an example of it.
- Occupational medicine Health, safety and fitness for work across industries and forms of employment, including the organization of work itself.
- Environmental medicine Health effects of exposures in air, water, soil, housing, and the built and natural environment.
- Exposure science Industrial hygiene, personal and environmental monitoring, biomonitoring, and the methods and biomarkers that make measurement comparable.
- Epidemiology and surveillance Distribution, determinants and trends of exposure-related disease and injury, and the registries and surveillance systems that follow them.
- Prevention and population health Control measures, workplace and community prevention programs, and evaluation of what those measures achieve in practice.
- Clinical assessment and management Diagnosis of occupational and environmental disease, exposure history, fitness for work, rehabilitation and return to work.
- Policy and implementation Regulation, standards and implementation research where it materially concerns occupational or environmental health.
Inclusion and boundary
What makes a manuscript eligible
Observational, analytical, methodological, clinical, surveillance-based, preventive, synthesis and policy or implementation work all belong here. A manuscript does not need field sampling, a clinical outcome, or experimental validation to be eligible; the evidence has to match the claim it makes.
Mechanistic and laboratory work is welcome where it advances understanding of real human exposure, its assessment, or its prevention. The test the journal applies is the connection to people: a study earns its place when its findings can be traced to human exposure, health, surveillance, prevention or care.
Formats
Article types
The journal accepts the following formats. Word counts are guides to length, not thresholds for assessment.
- Original ResearchFull investigations reporting new findings.5,000–7,000 words
- Review ArticlesSystematic or narrative syntheses of current knowledge.6,000–8,000 words
- Case ReportsUnusual occupational or environmental cases with clinical value.2,000–3,000 words
- Methods PapersValidation studies for diagnostic tools or exposure-assessment methods.3,000–4,000 words
Assessment
How a submission is judged against this scope
All submissions undergo initial editorial screening. Manuscripts that meet the journal’s scope and minimum requirements proceed to independent peer review. Single-blind by default; double-blind review is available on request.
Editorial decisions are based on scope, scientific quality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, reporting quality, and relevance to the journal. Decisions remain independent of fees, services, memberships, and editorial or reviewer roles.
Next
Where to go from here
- About the JournalJournal identity, readership and editorial responsibility.Read
- Instructions for AuthorsManuscript requirements to review before preparing a submission.Read
- Editorial PoliciesPeer review, ethics, authorship and the complete policy set.Read
- Call for PapersWhat the journal is inviting now.Read
- Submit a manuscriptThe approved submission routes, and what each one is for.Read