TUGraz OPEN Library

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EDITORIAL Open Access
Editorial
Michael Narodoslawsky1 and Dagmar Fiedler2*
Dear colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,
It is with great pleasure that we present to you our
new multidisciplinary, international open access journal
in the field of novel energies published by Springer in
cooperation with the European Sustainable Energy Inno-
vation Alliance [eseia] and principal investigators from
the Helmholtz Association. This journal is intended to
provide the necessary scientific exchange platform to
support a broad, interdisciplinary discourse in the com-
plex field of innovative energy systems and sustainable
development indispensable in this time of challenge and
change.
We are currently witnessing profound challenges to
the existing fossil- and nuclear-based energy system:
high and volatile prices of crude oil, looming climate
changes caused by carbon emissions, and finally, the
nuclear disaster in Fukoshima with the still unknown
ecological, social, and economic consequences. An ever
increasing number of scientists, business leaders, and
politicians as well as a growing section of the general
public in many nations are more and more convinced
that these challenges can only be met by dramatically
changing the total structure of our global energy system.
This change will encompass all elements of our cur-
rent energy system, from resources and technologies to
distribution grids. It will also deeply impact the interac-
tion among the energy system, our natural environment,
and society. As energy is the crucial foundation of
almost all human activities, a profound change in the
underlying energy system will have considerable reper-
cussions on the structure of our society, economy, and
even political power.
Almost all existing international ISI-indexed journals
in the field of energy address scientific/technical and/or
economic/political discipline-specific questions. This is a
necessary service to scientific progress, but it is not suf-
ficient to support the discourse about a systemic change
as we see it rising over the horizon.
Complex topics such as (1) featuring a sustainable and
economically feasible, as well as an environmentally and
socially compatible, energy supply for human society, (2)
considering ‘ecological’ conflicts introduced by renew-
able energy technologies, and (3) including new holistic
and systemic solutions for the development of innova-
tive future energy options have not been sufficiently
covered thus far since they demand thorough interdisci-
plinary research as well as appropriate means of
publication.
The challenge of providing an active platform for an
interdisciplinary scientific discourse requires a broad
and solid base of cooperation in editing and promoting
this journal. Editors from the Helmholtz Association
and the eseia are partners in this project which focuses
on the challenges and expectations at the interface of
science, environment, technology, and society.
Our new journal will be truly international in its
scope, both in terms of contributions and editorial
board structure. Therefore, we have invited a number of
Advisory Board members from various areas of expertise
in the field of novel energies with the primary duties of
(1) cooperating in the review process, (2) winning the
support of other colleagues, and (3) advising and making
recommendations for the editorial policy and to the
authors.
The broad base of expertise represented within our
editorial team will allow us to guarantee high scientific
standards, on the one side, and to publish interdisciplin-
ary papers in the wide field characterized by change and
innovation in the energy system, on the other.
The aim of our new journal is to provide an interna-
tional and interdisciplinary forum for the discourse
between natural, social, and political scientists and engi-
neers, as well as experts from the industry and the pub-
lic sector, who drive the innovation of sustainable
energy systems. It is the particular aim of this journal to
publish papers reaching across different disciplines and
providing a substantial contribution to the holistic inno-
vation of sustainable energy systems.
In line with the goal of this journal to offer an inter-
disciplinary forum of discourse for systemic energy
* Correspondence: dagmar.fiedler@ufz.de
2Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung GmbH - UFZ, Permoserstr. 15,
04318 Leipzig, Germany
Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
Narodoslawsky and Fiedler Energy, Sustainability and Society 2011, 1:1
http://www.energsustainsoc.com/content/1/1/1
© 2011 Narodoslawsky; licensee Springer This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in
any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
innovation, the scope of the journal encompasses the
whole innovation process ranging from scientific
research to innovative approaches for the implementa-
tion of technology and the analysis of economic, social,
and environmental impacts of sustainable energy sys-
tems. Primary emphasis will be placed on contributions
addressing complex issues with innovation potential at
the interface among technical solutions, their implemen-
tation, and their social, environmental, and economic
impacts.
The journal publishes independently peer-reviewed
original full-length research and review papers as well as
book reviews. Of special interest are also short commu-
nications on innovative approaches. The editorial team
will take particular responsibility to provide speedy and
top-quality reviewing to our authors and to keep time
from submission to publication as short as possible.
From time to time, Energy, Sustainability and Society
will feature special editions (i.e., topical or conference
article collections) that will focus on specific fields of
interests. As an example, a special article collection will
concentrate on the Micro Perspectives for Decentralized
Energy Supply (with Martina Schaefer from the Techni-
cal University of Berlin as the guest editor). We will be
pleased to publish this selected collection of invited
papers providing an overview of the current status and
the advances in this field in early 2012.
We are proud that our journal appears on Sprin-
gerOpen, Springer’s new platform of fully open access
journals which will cover all disciplines. SpringerOpen
journals are fully and immediately accessible, i.e., they
provide free access to peer-reviewed research articles.
All articles published in Energy, Sustainability and
Society are therefore made freely and permanently acces-
sible online immediately after publication, without sub-
scription charges or registration barriers.
The format of an open access journal has been delib-
erately chosen for several reasons. We not only intend
to have a strong impact on the scientific community,
but we also acknowledge the necessity to reach a wider
audience of actors involved in energy system innovation.
An open access journal allows us to reach across disci-
plinary as well as sectoral limitations. Furthermore,
scientists and innovators from the third world have
greater access to published research information than
ever before, an advantage that is particularly important
for a journal covering a field requiring global
cooperation.
Moreover, a journal that encompasses a field which is
regarded as being as dynamic as sustainable energy sys-
tems must also be quick in its processing of contribu-
tions from our authors. It is quite evident that a journal
that uses electronic distribution has many advantages in
this respect.
Open access journals also allow for a greater variation
in the format of contributions to be published. This will
also enable us to accommodate papers addressing com-
plex issues that may not be sufficiently dealt with within
the strict limitations of printed journals.
Other advantages are as follows:
• High visibility and international readership in our
field
• Reuse of data by the public and by the industry
• Easy online submission and rapid publication
• Online manuscript tracking
• No color figure charges
• Authors retain copyright
• Increased impact factors and Thomas Reuters cita-
tion tracking
• Inclusion in all major bibliographic databases.
We would be pleased if you would accept our concept
for Energy, Sustainability and Society and become read-
ers of as well as contributors to our new journal. We
are grateful for your trust and confidence, interest, and
support best demonstrated by submitting articles of a
high scientific quality.
Last but not the least, it is with great pleasure that we
acknowledge the support and help we received during
the course of concept preparation and the launch of our
new journal. In particular, we would like to express our
deepest gratitude to the staff of the staff of Springer
(Heidelberg), Paul Roos and Monika Bechtold.
Dagmar Fiedler, first and foremost, would like to
thank Wolfgang Babel (Leipzig) for his invaluable sup-
port and stimulating discussions throughout all stages of
concept preparation for our new journal.
She would certainly like to acknowledge the great help
and encouragement which she has received and continues
to receive from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental
Research GmbH – UFZ (Leipzig) and in particular from
Georg Teutsch and Frank Messner. Lastly, she is especially
indebted to Beatrice Menz of the Birkhäuser Publishing
LTD. (Basel) and Heinz Pampel of the Helmholtz Open
Access Project (Potsdam) for their valuable advice.
Now, all that remains is for us to look forward to fruitful
research in the exciting field of energy yet to come and
hope to ensure that Energy, Sustainability and Society
becomes an ultimate venue for publishing the results.
Sincerely yours,
Michael Narodoslawsky and Dagmar Fiedler
(Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor)
Author details
1Technische Universitaet Graz, Rechbauerstr. 12, 8010 Graz, Austria
2Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung GmbH - UFZ, Permoserstr. 15,
04318 Leipzig, Germany
Narodoslawsky and Fiedler Energy, Sustainability and Society 2011, 1:1
http://www.energsustainsoc.com/content/1/1/1
Page 2 of 3
Received: 20 July 2011 Accepted: 21 November 2011
Published: 21 November 2011
doi:10.1186/2192-0567-1-1
Cite this article as: Narodoslawsky and Fiedler: Editorial. Energy,
Sustainability and Society 2011 1:1.
Submit your manuscript to a 
journal and benefi t from:
7 Convenient online submission
7 Rigorous peer review
7 Immediate publication on acceptance
7 Open access: articles freely available online
7 High visibility within the fi eld
7 Retaining the copyright to your article
    Submit your next manuscript at 7 springeropen.com
Narodoslawsky and Fiedler Energy, Sustainability and Society 2011, 1:1
http://www.energsustainsoc.com/content/1/1/1
Page 3 of 3


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