About Challenges

Aims

Challenges ISSN (2078-1547) provides an advanced forum for publishing content related to planetary health, including ecological, technical, social, economic, cultural, behavioral, theoretical, organizational, philosophical, spiritual, and educational solutions that address the Grand Challenges of the Anthropocene.

Planetary Health is a rapidly growing “solutions-oriented, transdisciplinary field and social movement focused on analyzing and addressing the impacts of human disruptions to Earth’s natural systems on human health and all life on Earth”. In this context, Challenges seeks to foster collaboration and knowledge exchange among diverse fields in the sciences and humanities in order to promote planetary health through a holistic understanding of the interdependence of all natural and human systems.

All submissions to Challenges are expected to highlight how the work is relevant to planetary health and how the findings directly impact the flourishing of humans and/or the environments on which we depend. Where possible, authors should indicate how their work addresses the sustainable development goals (SDG) 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 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 typically not 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 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 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 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.
• Sustainable 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, 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
St. Alban-Anlage 66
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 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 .

Editorial Office

For further MDPI contacts, see here.