We are welcoming contributions for a Virtual Special Issue to be published in the journal Soil Security. The title of the VSI is “The Economics of Soil Health” and it will be guest edited by Mara Thiene (University of Padova, Italy) and Richard T. Woodward (Texas A&M University, USA).

Soil Security (https://www.journals.elsevier.com/soil-security/) is a new multidisciplinary journal that focuses on a wide range of research related to soil’s role in sustaining functions to provide planetary services and human wellbeing. Published by Elsevier, the editors of the journal are Alex B McBratney (University of Sydney, Australia) and Cristine Morgan (Soil Health Institute, North Carolina, USAA).

For this special issue, we are open to multidisciplinary efforts that might include biophysics and other social sciences focusing on the array of services provided by soil and its repercussions on health and the environment. Submissions from policy ideas to econometric analysis to descriptions of case studies might be suitable.

Submission Process

We are using a two stages process.

First, we request that interested authors submit abstracts (500 words) with titles, and authors (contact details and affiliation). These should be sent by email to the guest editors (mara.thiene@unipd.it and r-woodward@tamu.edu). The guest editors will quickly decide on encouraging submission. This step is mostly to know the number and scope of the papers to be submitted.

The second stage will be a standard refereed journal process with blind reviews. An author from each paper invited for a full submission will be expected to review another paper from the special issue.

Timeline:

·       Deadline for abstract submissions: 15 October 2022

·       Deadline for selected manuscript submissions:  1 March 2023.

·       Editorial Acceptance Deadline: 1 November 2023 (The journal will waive the Article Publishing Charge for submissions completed before the end of 2023).