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Indoor and Built Environment

Indoor and Built Environment


eISSN: 14230070 | ISSN: 1420326X | Current volume: 33 | Current issue: 4 Frequency: 10 Times/Year

Indoor and Built Environment publishes reports on any topic pertaining to the quality of the indoor and built environment, and how these might effect the health, performance, efficiency and comfort of persons living or working there. Topics range from urban infrastructure, design of buildings, and materials used to laboratory studies including building airflow simulations and health effects. This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

All issues of Indoor and Built Environment are available to browse online.


Read: Drive to improve housing can bring unintended consequences, as featured on The Conversation.

Indoor and Built Environment is a peer reviewed journal that publishes original reports on any topics pertaining to the quality of the indoor and built environment, and how these might affect the safety, health, performance, efficiency and comfort of occupants living and working in these environments.

The journal specialises in disseminating research developments leading to design guides for architects and building professionals, as well as national and international standards and guidelines on indoor environmental quality, green building assessment methods and energy efficient buildings. We also publish workshop discussion papers formulating requirements for policies and standards regarding development of sustainable built environments.

Editor-in-Chief
Prof Chuck Yu President and Executive Director, EnviroAct Consultants, ISBE Ltd., UK
Deputy Editors
Prof. Shijie Cao School of Architecture, Southeast University, China
Prof. Xilian Luo Xi'an Jiaotong University, China
Assistant Editors
Dr. Chan-Juan Sun University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, China
Dr. Hui Zhu Qingdao University of Technology, China
Operational Editor
Dr. Chunwen Xu China University of Petroleum, China
Regional Editors
Prof. Nasrin Aghamohammadi University of Malaya, Malaysia
Prof. Charlene Bayer Georgia Institute of Technology and US GBC, USA
Prof Christopher Chao Hong Kong University, Hong Kong
Prof. Che-Ming Chiang National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan
Prof. Zhaolin Gu Xi'an Jiaotong University, China
Prof Kazuhide Ito Kyushu University, Japan
Prof. Phil Jones Cardiff University, UK
Dr Stylianos Kephalopoulos European Commission, Joint Research Centre (ISPRA), Italy
Dr. Berangere Lartigue Paul Sabatier University, France
Dr. Josephine Lau University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA
Prof. Jin-Sook Lee Chungnam National University, Korea
Prof Xianting Li Tsinghua University, China
Prof. Vivian Loftness Carnegie Mellon University, USA
Prof Lidia Morawska Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Prof. Chandra Sekhar National University of Singapore, Singapore
Prof. Joost van Hoof Hague University, Netherlands
Dr. Pawel Wargocki Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
Editorial Board
Prof Dariush Azimi Ashford University, USA
Prof. Li Bai School of Municipal and Environmental Engineering, Jilin Jianzhu University, China
Dr. Stephen Brown CSIRO, Australia
Prof. Wan-Ki Chow Department of Building Services Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Prof. Rajat Gupta Oxford Brookes University, UK
Prof. Runa T. Hellwig Aalborg University, Denmark
Jian Kang University College London, UK
Prof. Risto Kosonen Aalto University, Finland
Prof. Prashant Kumar Surrey University, UK
Prof. Alvin Lai City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Dr Young Lee Michigan State University, USA
Prof Jiawei Leng Southeast University, China
Dr. Mei-Yung Leung City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Prof. Angui Li Xi'an University of Architecture & Technology, China
Dr Danny Li City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Dr. Xiaoyu Liu US EPA, USA
Prof. Ahmed Megri North Carolina A&T State University, USA
Prof. Catherine Noakes University of Leeds, UK
Prof. Thomas Olofsson Department of Applied Physics and Electronics, Umeå University, Sweden
Prof. Shin-ichi Tanabe Waseda University, Japan
Prof. Xuan Tang Sustainable Development - Social and Economic development, Guangzhou Univeristy, China
Dr. Marcella Ucci University College London, UK
Jim Uttley Sheffield University, UK
Dr. Fan Wang School of the Energy, Geosciences, Infrastructure and Society, Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, UK
Prof. Hanqing Wang University of South China, China
Prof Fang Wang Peking University, China
Prof Jianguo Wang Southeast University, China
Prof Yupeng Wang Xi’an Jiaotong University, China
Dr. Xin Wang Tsinghua University, China
Prof Yi Wang Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, China
Dr. Doyun Won National Research Council, Canada
Dr Ling Tim Wong The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Prof. Wei Xu China Academy of Building Research, China
Prof Bin Yang Umeå University, Sweden
Prof. John Zhai University of Colorado at Boulder, USA
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  • Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Indoor and Built Environment

    This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics.

    Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ibe to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.

    Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Indoor and Built Environment will be reviewed.

    There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.

    As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.

    If you have any questions about publishing with Sage, please visit the Sage Journal Solutions Portal

    1. What do we publish?
      1.1 Aims & Scope
      1.2 Article types
      1.3 Writing your paper
    2. Editorial policies
      2.1 Peer review policy
      2.2 Authorship
      2.3 Acknowledgements
      2.4 Funding
      2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
      2.6 Research Data
    3. Publishing policies
      3.1 Publication ethics
      3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
      3.3 Open access and author archiving
    4. Preparing your manuscript
      4.1 Formatting
      4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
      4.3 Supplementary material
      4.4 Reference style
      4.5 English language editing services
    5. Submitting your manuscript
      5.1 ORCID
      5.2 Information required for completing your submission
      5.3 Permissions
    6. On acceptance and publication
      6.1 Sage Production
      6.2 Online First publication
      6.3 Access to your published article
      6.4 Promoting your article
    7. Further information

     

    1. What do we publish?

    1.1 Aims & Scope

    Before submitting your manuscript to Indoor and Built Environment, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.

    1.2 Article Types

    Indoor and Built Environment considers the following kinds of article for publication:

    Editorials: These will normally be published by the Editor accompanying with an issue; however, in some cases the Editor may invite contributions from other authors on topics related to a special issue of the journal or a special event at the time of publication.

    Original papers: Original research findings, designs and new developments relevant to the scope of the journal will be published after acceptance, as recommended by the peer review.

    Reviews: Authoritative reviews will be published from both invited experts and by direct submission. In both cases, the work will be subject to editorial peer review.

    Opinion: Short articles, which stress an original point of view of a controversial nature. Matters of a political or lobbying nature should not be considered under this heading.

    Case Reports: Articles which do not present new findings or original research, but are case studies illustrating problems related to particular types of built environment or methods of investigations of building related problems.

    Book Reviews: From time to time books which the Editor thinks may be of interest to the readership will be reviewed. Publishers wishing to have a book reviewed should send information to the Editor-in-Chief.

    Correspondence: Matters arising from articles published in the journal.

    Standards, Guidelines and Policy papers

    1.3 Writing your paper

    The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.

    1.3.1 Make your article discoverable

    When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.

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    2. Editorial policies

    2.1 Peer review policy

    Indoor and Built Environment operates a conventional single-anonymize reviewing policy in which the reviewer’s name is always concealed from the submitting author. All manuscripts are reviewed as rapidly as possible, and an editorial decision is generally reached within 6-8 weeks of submission.

    As part of the submission process you will be asked to provide the names of 3 peers who could be called upon to review your manuscript. Recommended reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Please be aware of any conflicts of interest when recommending reviewers. Examples of conflicts of interest include (but are not limited to) the below: 

      • The reviewer should have no prior knowledge of your submission
      • The reviewer should not have recently collaborated with any of the authors
      • Reviewer nominees from the same institution as any of the authors are not permitted

    Please note that the Editors are not obliged to invite any recommended/opposed reviewers to assess your manuscript.

    Indoor and Built Environment is committed to delivering high quality, fast peer-review for your paper, and as such has partnered with Publons. Publons is a third party service that seeks to track, verify and give credit for peer review. Reviewers for the journal can opt in to Publons in order to claim their reviews or have them automatically verified and added to their reviewer profile. Reviewers claiming credit for their review will be associated with the relevant journal, but the article name, reviewer’s decision and the content of their review is not published on the site. For more information visit the Publons website.

    The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own manuscripts for possible publication in the journal. In these cases, the peer review process will be managed by alternative members of the Board and the submitting Editor/Board member will have no involvement in the decision-making process.

    2.2 Authorship

    Papers should only be submitted for consideration once consent is given by all contributing authors. Those submitting papers should carefully check that all those whose work contributed to the paper are acknowledged as contributing authors.

    The list of authors should include all those who can legitimately claim authorship. This is all those who:

      1. Made a substantial contribution to the concept or design of the work; or acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data,
      2. Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content,
      3. Approved the version to be published,
      4. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.

    Authors should meet the conditions of all of the points above. When a large, multicentre group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship.

    Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship, although all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgments section. Please refer to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) authorship guidelines for more information on authorship.

    Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.

    2.3 Acknowledgements

    All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.

    2.3.1 Third party submissions
    Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:

    • Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
    • Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
    • Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.

    Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.

    2.3.2 Writing assistance

    Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance. It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.

    2.4 Funding

    Indoor and Built Environment requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading.  Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. 

    2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests

    It is the policy of Indoor and Built Environment to require a declaration of conflicting interests from all authors enabling a statement to be carried within the paginated pages of all published articles.

    Please ensure that a ‘Declaration of Conflicting Interests’ statement is included at the end of your manuscript, after any acknowledgements and prior to the references. If no conflict exists, please state that ‘The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest’. For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations here

    2.6 Research Data

    The journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages.

    Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:

    • share your research data in a relevant public data repository
    • include a data availability statement linking to your data. If it is not possible to share your data, we encourage you to consider using the statement to explain why it cannot be shared.
    • cite this data in your research

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    3. Publishing Policies

    3.1 Publication ethics

    Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway

    3.1.1 Plagiarism

    Indoor and Built Environment and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.

    3.1.2 Prior publication

    If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.

    3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement

    Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway

    3.3 Open access and author archiving

    Indoor and Built Environment offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.

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    4. Preparing your manuscript for submission

    4.1 Formatting

    The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.

    4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics

    For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.  

    Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.

    4.3 Supplementary material

    This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files.

    4.4 Reference style

    Indoor and Built Environment adheres to the Sage Vancouver reference style. View the Sage Vancouver guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.

    If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the Sage Vancouver EndNote output file

    4.5 English language editing services

    Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.

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    5. Submitting your manuscript

    Indoor and Built Environment is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ibe to login and submit your article online.

    IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created.  For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.

    5.1 ORCID

    As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.

    The collection of ORCID iDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID iD you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID iD will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID iD is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.

    If you do not already have an ORCID iD please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.

    5.2 Information required for completing your submission

    You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).

    5.3 Permissions

    Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway.

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    6. On acceptance and publication

    6.1 Sage Production

    Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be sent by PDF to the corresponding author and should be returned promptly.  Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate. 

    6.2 Online First publication

    Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.

    6.3 Access to your published article

    Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.

    6.4 Promoting your article

    Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.

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    7. Further information

    Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Indoor and Built Environment editorial office as follows:

    Editor-in-Chief: Prof Chuck Yu
    Email: chuck.yu@btinternet.com

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