Focus and Scope

Journal of Circular Environmental Infrastructure and Systems (CIRCULAR) is a peer-reviewed, open-access scientific journal that publishes original research articles, review articles, conceptual papers, and technological development studies in the field of environmental engineering. The journal focuses on advancing sustainable environmental infrastructure and systems through the principles of circular economy, life cycle thinking, and resource efficiency.

CIRCULAR provides a platform for high-quality interdisciplinary research that addresses environmental challenges by integrating engineering innovation, environmental science, sustainable technologies, and policy development. The journal also encourages the incorporation of ethical and philosophical perspectives, including Islamic sustainability values, as complementary approaches to environmental stewardship while remaining open to scientific contributions from researchers of diverse disciplines and backgrounds.

The journal accepts manuscripts in English to enhance international visibility and readership.

The scope of the journal includes, but is not limited to, the following areas:

1. Circular Environmental Systems Engineering, including circular economy, industrial symbiosis, resource recovery, material circularity, life cycle thinking, and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).
2. Water and Wastewater Engineering, including drinking water treatment, wastewater treatment, water reuse, water recycling, decentralized sanitation systems, and circular water management.
3. Solid Waste and Resource Recovery Technologies, including waste minimization, recycling, composting, anaerobic digestion, waste-to-energy, waste valorization, and sustainable material management.
4. Air Quality and Environmental Pollution Control, including emission control technologies, air quality management, pollution prevention, environmental monitoring, and life cycle-based environmental assessment.
5. Renewable Energy and Circular Bioenergy Systems, including biomass utilization, bioenergy, biogas, biofuels, renewable energy integration, and sustainable energy systems.
6. Sustainable Environmental Infrastructure and Green Technologies, including eco-design, green infrastructure, resilient infrastructure, nature-based solutions, low-impact development, and sustainable urban environmental systems.
7. Environmental Assessment, Modeling, and Decision Support Systems, including environmental impact assessment, environmental risk assessment, GIS applications, environmental modeling, digital technologies, and decision-support tools for sustainable environmental management.
8. Environmental Policy, Governance, and Sustainability Education, including environmental management systems, environmental governance, circular economy policy, environmental economics, sustainability education, and institutional approaches to environmental protection.
9. Islamic Environmental Ethics and Sustainable Development, including Islamic ecotheology, environmental ethics, maqāṣid al-sharīʿah and sustainability, stewardship (khalifah fil ardh), environmental justice, and the integration of Islamic values into sustainable environmental management.
10. Community-Based Environmental Innovation and Appropriate Technology, including participatory environmental management, community empowerment, indigenous knowledge, social innovation, appropriate technologies, and sustainable community development.

Section Policies

Articles

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Peer Review Process

a. General Policy

The Journal of Circular Environmental Infrastructure and Systems (CIRCULAR) implements a Double-Blind Peer Review system, in which the identities of both authors and reviewers remain anonymous throughout the review process. All submitted manuscripts undergo a rigorous evaluation to ensure scientific quality, originality, methodological rigor, ethical integrity, and relevance to the journal's aims and scope.

b. Review Process

1. Initial Editorial Screening

Upon submission, each manuscript is evaluated by the Editorial Office to determine:

• Suitability with the journal's aims and scope;
• Compliance with the Author Guidelines and manuscript formatting requirements;
• Completeness of submission files and ethical compliance, where applicable;
• Plagiarism screening using similarity detection software.

Manuscripts that do not meet these requirements may be returned to the authors for revision or rejected before external peer review.

2. Reviewer Selection

Manuscripts that successfully pass the initial editorial screening are assigned to at least two (2) independent reviewers with expertise relevant to the manuscript's subject area. Reviewers are selected based on their academic qualifications, research experience, publication record, and absence of any conflicts of interest.

3. Peer Review Assessment

Reviewers are requested to evaluate each submitted manuscript objectively, independently, and confidentially based on the following assessment criteria:

1. Article Title
   Assess the relevance, clarity, originality, and appropriateness of the title in representing the substance of the manuscript.
2. Abstract
   Evaluate the clarity and completeness of the abstract, including the research background, objectives, methodology, and principal findings.
3. Introduction
   Assess the quality of the research background, problem formulation, research objectives, literature review, research gap, and the significance of the study.
4. Methods
   Evaluate the appropriateness, clarity, and scientific rigor of the research design, data collection procedures, and analytical methods employed to achieve the research objectives.
5. Results and Discussion
   Assess the presentation of research findings, the depth of analysis, the relevance of the data, and the integration of the findings with relevant theories and previous studies.
6. Conclusion
   Evaluate whether the conclusions clearly synthesize the research findings, demonstrate the scientific contribution of the study, and provide appropriate recommendations or future research directions.
7. Reference Usage and Citation
   Assess the quality, relevance, diversity, recency, and proper citation of the references used to support the manuscript.
8. Compliance with Manuscript Template
   Evaluate the manuscript's conformity with the journal's formatting guidelines, including article structure, formatting of tables and figures, and the completeness of all required sections.
9. Language Use
   Assess grammatical accuracy, clarity of expression, academic writing quality, and the overall readability of the manuscript.
10. Quality of Figures and Illustrations
    Evaluate the visual quality, readability, relevance, and effectiveness of figures, tables, and illustrations in supporting the manuscript.

In addition to the assessment above, reviewers are encouraged to provide constructive comments and recommendations that may assist the authors in improving the quality of their manuscripts.

Based on the overall evaluation, reviewers should recommend one of the following editorial decisions:

• Accept without Revision
• Accept with Minor Revision (Revised submission is due within 7 calendar days)
• Accept with Major Revision (Revised submission is due within 14 calendar days)
• Reconsider after Resubmission (Revised submission is due within 21 calendar days)
• Reject (The manuscript does not meet the journal's scientific quality standards or falls outside the journal's aims and scope.)

By submitting the review, reviewers confirm that the evaluation has been conducted objectively, independently, confidentially, and in accordance with the ethical principles of scholarly publishing.

4. Editorial Decision

Based on the reviewers' recommendations, the Editor will make one of the following decisions:

• Accept;
• Minor Revision;
• Major Revision;
• Reject.

If the reviewers provide substantially conflicting recommendations, the Editor may assign the manuscript to an additional reviewer before making the final decision.

5. Revision and Final Decision

Authors are required to revise their manuscripts in accordance with the reviewers' comments within the specified revision period. Revised manuscripts may be returned to the reviewers for further evaluation when necessary. The final publication decision is made by the Editor based on the reviewers' recommendations and the scientific merit of the manuscript.

c. Review Timeline

The peer review process typically takes 4–8 weeks, depending on reviewer availability, the responsiveness of the authors during the revision process, and the complexity of the manuscript.

d. Reviewer Ethics

Reviewers are expected to:

• Maintain the confidentiality of all submitted manuscripts;
• Provide objective, constructive, and evidence-based comments;
• Evaluate manuscripts solely on their academic merit, without discrimination;
• Declare any actual or potential conflicts of interest;
• Complete the review process within the requested timeframe.

e. Plagiarism Screening

The Journal of Circular Environmental Infrastructure and Systems (CIRCULAR) is committed to maintaining academic integrity and preventing all forms of plagiarism.

All submitted manuscripts are screened using plagiarism detection software before entering the peer-review process. As a general policy, manuscripts should not exceed a similarity index of 20%, excluding references, quotations, and small matches where applicable. The Editorial Office evaluates the similarity report together with the context of the overlapping text, since similarity percentages alone do not necessarily indicate plagiarism.

Manuscripts containing evidence of plagiarism, duplicate publication, data fabrication, or other forms of academic misconduct may be rejected immediately or returned to the authors for clarification or revision, depending on the nature and extent of the issue.

If plagiarism or other ethical misconduct is identified after publication, the Editorial Board will take appropriate actions in accordance with the journal's Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement, which may include the publication of corrections, article retraction, or other editorial measures.

Publication Frequency

The Journal of Circular Environmental Infrastructure and Systems (CIRCULAR) is published biannually, with two issues per year, in March and October.

CIRCULAR follows an issue-based publication model, whereby all accepted articles assigned to an issue are published collectively as a complete issue with its own Table of Contents.

Each issue contains original research articles and review articles that have successfully completed the editorial and double-blind peer-review process.

The journal is committed to maintaining a consistent publication schedule to ensure the timely dissemination of high-quality scholarly research in environmental engineering and sustainable environmental systems.

Open Access Policy

Journal of Circular Environmental Infrastructure and Systems (CIRCULAR) provides immediate open access to all published content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge and accelerates scientific advancement.

All articles published in CIRCULAR are freely accessible, downloadable, readable, and shareable without subscription or access fees.

Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, adaptation, and reproduction in any medium, provided that appropriate credit is given to the original author(s) and the source.

By adopting an open access publishing model, CIRCULAR aims to maximize the visibility, accessibility, dissemination, and scholarly impact of research in environmental engineering, circular environmental systems, and sustainable development.

Archiving

This journal utilizes the LOCKSS system to create a distributed archiving system among participating libraries and permits those libraries to create permanent archives of the journal for purposes of preservation and restoration.

The LOCKSS Publisher Manifest page for this journal is available at:
https://ejournal.uin-malang.ac.id/index.php/jceis/gateway/lockss

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

a. General Principles

The Journal of Circular Environmental Infrastructure and Systems (CIRCULAR) is committed to ethical scholarly publishing, research integrity, transparency, and accountability. The journal applies these principles to research in environmental engineering, environmental infrastructure, resource management, and sustainable circular systems.

CIRCULAR uses the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Core Practices as a reference for handling publication ethics and research integrity issues. The journal's editorial policies are implemented consistently throughout submission, peer review, publication, and post-publication processes.

Authors, editors, reviewers, and the publisher share responsibility for maintaining the accuracy, credibility, and integrity of the scholarly record.

b. Author Responsibilities

Authors submitting manuscripts to CIRCULAR must:

1. Submit original work that has not been published previously and is not under consideration by another journal.

2. Report research methods, data, and findings accurately and without fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, or misleading manipulation.

3. Cite relevant sources appropriately and distinguish their own findings from previously published work.

4. Ensure that all listed authors have made substantial scholarly contributions, approved the final manuscript, and agreed to its submission.

5. Disclose relevant financial and non-financial conflicts of interest and acknowledge research funding.

6. Obtain necessary ethical approvals and permissions before conducting research where applicable.

7. Provide supporting data, methodological clarification, or other information reasonably requested by the editors to assess the validity of the research.

8. Respond to editorial queries and cooperate with requests for corrections when necessary.

9. Disclose the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) or AI-assisted tools in preparing the manuscript when such use affects the content, analysis, or presentation of the research. AI tools cannot be listed as authors, and human authors remain responsible for the entire manuscript.

c. Authorship and Contributorship Policy

CIRCULAR recognizes authorship based on substantive scholarly contributions to the research and manuscript. Authorship must not be granted solely because of academic position, seniority, institutional affiliation, funding provision, or administrative supervision.

The journal applies the following requirements:

1. Each author must have made a meaningful contribution to the conception or design of the study, data acquisition, analysis, interpretation, or another substantial aspect of the research.

2. Each author must participate in drafting the manuscript or critically revising it for important intellectual content.

3. All authors must approve the final version and accept accountability for the integrity of the work.

4. The corresponding author must ensure that all eligible contributors are included, that the author order is agreed upon by all authors, and that individual contributions are accurately reported.

5. CIRCULAR normally limits manuscripts to a maximum of five authors. Requests to exceed this limit must be justified by the corresponding author and approved by the editorial team before peer review. The justification must explain the need for additional authors and identify their individual contributions.

6. Changes to the author list after submission, including additions, removals, or changes in author order, require a written explanation and confirmation from all affected authors. Such changes are subject to editorial approval.

CIRCULAR may request an author-contribution statement using the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT) or an equivalent structured format. Contributors who do not meet the authorship criteria may be acknowledged with their permission.

d. Editor Responsibilities

Editors must:

1. Assess manuscripts according to their scientific quality, originality, relevance to the journal's scope, and contribution to the field.

2. Make editorial decisions independently and fairly, without discrimination based on personal characteristics, nationality, institutional affiliation, or academic status.

3. Maintain the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts and related communications.

4. Declare and appropriately manage conflicts of interest, including recusal from decisions involving their own work, close collaborators, or other competing interests.

5. Ensure that manuscripts undergo the journal's established peer-review process.

6. Investigate credible allegations of publication misconduct and document editorial decisions appropriately.

7. Apply publication ethics policies consistently to all authors, including members of the editorial board.

e. Reviewer Responsibilities

Reviewers must:

1. Treat all manuscripts and review materials as confidential.

2. Provide objective, evidence-based, constructive, and timely assessments.

3. Evaluate the scientific merit, methodology, interpretation, originality, and relevance of the manuscript.

4. Declare any conflicts of interest and decline assignments when impartiality may be compromised.

5. Avoid using unpublished information from manuscripts for personal research or advantage.

6. Notify the editor of suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, unreliable data, inappropriate citations, or other potential ethical violations.

7. Not upload confidential manuscripts or identifiable manuscript content to external AI tools without authorization from the journal and appropriate safeguards for confidentiality.

f. Research Ethics and Integrity

Authors must comply with applicable ethical standards, institutional requirements, and relevant laws and regulations.

Research involving human participants, identifiable personal data, or animals must include the necessary ethical approval or an appropriate explanation of why approval was not required. Where applicable, manuscripts must report informed consent, relevant permits, and measures taken to protect participants, animals, and sensitive information.

Research involving environmental sampling, field investigations, or access to protected areas must comply with applicable sampling permits, access permissions, and environmental protection requirements.

The editorial team may request supporting ethical approval documents, research permits, or methodological clarification when necessary.

g. Conflicts of Interest and Funding Disclosure

All authors must disclose financial and non-financial interests that could reasonably be perceived to influence the research, its interpretation, or its publication.

Authors must identify funding sources and describe the role of funders in study design, data collection, analysis, manuscript preparation, and the decision to submit the work for publication.

Editors and reviewers must disclose relevant conflicts of interest and withdraw from the relevant editorial or review assignment when impartiality cannot reasonably be maintained.

A declaration of no competing interests should be provided when no relevant conflict exists.

h. Data Availability and Research Transparency

Authors must ensure that the data, methods, calculations, and supporting materials presented in their manuscripts are sufficiently accurate and transparent to support the reported findings.

Where appropriate and legally permissible, authors are encouraged to provide access to the data underlying their findings through a suitable repository or supplementary files. Any data availability statement must accurately describe where the data can be accessed or explain the restrictions that apply.

Confidential, personal, proprietary, or environmentally sensitive data must be protected in accordance with applicable ethical, legal, and institutional requirements.

CIRCULAR may request access to relevant supporting data or materials when necessary to investigate concerns regarding the reliability of published or submitted research.

i. Publication Malpractice and Research Misconduct

CIRCULAR does not tolerate publication misconduct, including:

• Plagiarism and inappropriate reuse of previously published material.

• Fabrication or falsification of data and research results.

• Duplicate submission or redundant publication.

• Inappropriate authorship attribution, including gift, guest, or ghost authorship.

• Citation manipulation or coercive citation practices.

• Undisclosed conflicts of interest that materially affect the integrity of the research.

• Unethical research practices, unauthorized use of data, or misleading manipulation of figures and images.

• Material misrepresentation of the use of AI-generated content or AI-assisted research outputs.

Submitted manuscripts may be screened using plagiarism-detection software and other appropriate editorial checks. Screening results are assessed by the editorial team; similarity scores alone do not determine whether misconduct has occurred.

When concerns arise, the editorial team will assess the available evidence, request explanations or supporting documentation where appropriate, and provide the parties concerned with a fair opportunity to respond. Where necessary, CIRCULAR may contact the relevant institution or other appropriate authority.

Depending on the findings and severity of the issue, actions may include rejection, correction, an expression of concern, retraction, or notification to relevant institutions. Decisions will be documented and communicated appropriately.

j. Complaints, Appeals, Corrections, and Retractions

Authors may appeal an editorial decision by submitting a reasoned written explanation identifying the decision being challenged and the relevant scientific or procedural grounds. Appeals will be assessed by an editor who is not conflicted in the matter, where feasible. An appeal does not guarantee reversal of the original decision.

Complaints concerning editorial conduct, peer review, conflicts of interest, or publication ethics should be submitted to the editorial office with supporting information. Complaints involving the Editor-in-Chief will be referred to an appropriate independent editorial representative or the publisher.

When errors or ethical concerns are identified after publication, CIRCULAR will assess their effect on the reliability and integrity of the published record. Depending on the circumstances, the journal may publish a correction, an expression of concern, or a retraction. Published notices will clearly identify the affected article and explain the reason for the action.

k. Editorial Independence and Policy Compliance

Editorial decisions are based on scholarly merit, relevance, research integrity, and compliance with the journal's published policies. Commercial, institutional, personal, or other external interests must not improperly influence editorial decisions.

CIRCULAR expects all participants in the publication process to comply with these policies. The journal may revise its procedures when necessary to maintain alignment with recognized publication ethics practices and developments in scholarly publishing.

Section Policies

Contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

CIRCULAR supports research that contributes to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly those related to environmental sustainability, resource efficiency, circular systems, and resilient infrastructure. The journal welcomes research that demonstrates clear scientific or practical contributions to the following goals:

• SDG 6 – Clean Water and Sanitation: Sustainable water and wastewater treatment, sanitation systems, water reuse, and circular water management.

• SDG 7 – Affordable and Clean Energy: Renewable energy, bioenergy, biogas, and energy recovery from waste and biomass.

• SDG 9 – Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure: Environmental engineering innovation, sustainable infrastructure, resource-efficient technologies, and resilient environmental systems.

• SDG 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities: Sustainable urban environmental systems, resilient infrastructure, decentralized sanitation, and community-based environmental solutions.

• SDG 12 – Responsible Consumption and Production: Circular economy, waste minimization, recycling, resource recovery, material circularity, and life cycle assessment.

• SDG 13 – Climate Action: Climate change mitigation, emission reduction, environmental modeling, and climate-resilient infrastructure.

• SDG 14 – Life Below Water: Aquatic pollution prevention, water quality protection, and sustainable management of aquatic environments.

CIRCULAR welcomes interdisciplinary contributions addressing one or more of these goals. Manuscripts should demonstrate a clear and substantive connection between the research objectives, methods, findings, and relevant SDG targets. Mentioning an SDG alone does not establish relevance; the manuscript must provide a meaningful scientific or practical contribution to the selected goal.