The Quarterly Journal of ESG Investing

The ESG Investing Journal is published quarterly and features peer-reviewed and non-peer reviewed articles on

radical and reformist initiatives for social responsiveness in global financial markets. The Journal specifically focuses on environmental, developmental, social and governance principles as formulated in the financial markets, managed investment, banking, micro-finance, project finance and philanthropy.

The Journal develops the understanding of sustainable investment theory and practice by providing a venue for in-depth discussion and offering a range of accessible, impartial perspectives for researchers and professionals.

The use of sustainable principles has become a major movement in finance. Investment institutions in the major centres are required to disclose how environmental, developmental, social and governance factors are used in portfolio construction. Guidelines issued by the Chartered Financial Analysts Institute, and initiatives such as the Equator Principles, the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment, and the Carbon Disclosure Project, all suggest a shift of institutional thinking. While these initiatives intersect with and reflect wider commitments including understanding environmental management, corporate governance and social equity, they also reflect unease about the ways globalised financial markets have managed attendant risks.

Such concerns have been met by research from a number of conventionally unrelated fields. By presenting the latest research from a wide range of research directions, the Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment furthers knowledge of the institutional and policy connections needed to progress the goals of sustainability.

The Journal is supported by an editorial board of leading researchers and professionals in sustainable finance.

original research contributions to scientific knowledge. All manuscript submissions are subject to initial appraisal by the Editors, and, if found suitable for further consideration, to peer review by independent, anonymous expert referees. All peer review is double blind and submission is online via ScholarOne Manuscripts.

Read the Instructions for Authors for information on how to submit your article.

Thank you for choosing to submit your paper to us. These instructions will ensure we have everything required so your paper can move through peer review, production and publication smoothly. Please take the time to read and follow them as closely as possible, as doing so will ensure your paper matches the journal’s requirements.

Author Services
For general guidance on every stage of the publication process, please visit our Author Services website.

Editing Services
For editing support, including translation and language polishing, explore our Editing Services website
ScholarOne Manuscripts
This journal uses ScholarOne Manuscripts (previously Manuscript Central) to peer review manuscript submissions. Please read the guide for ScholarOne authors before making a submission. Complete guidelines for preparing and submitting your manuscript to this journal are provided below.

Contents
About the Journal
Open Access
Peer Review and Ethics
Preparing Your Paper
Style Guidelines
Formatting and Templates
References
Editing Services
Checklist
Using Third-Party Material
Submitting Your Paper
Data Sharing Policy
Publication Charges
Copyright Options
Complying with Funding Agencies
My Authored Works
Reprints
About the Journal
Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment is an international, peer-reviewed journal publishing high-quality, original research. Please see the journal’s Aims & Scope for information about its focus and peer-review policy.

Please note that this journal only publishes manuscripts in English.

Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment accepts the following types of article:

Perspectives
Methodology and Policy
Analysis
Book Reviews

Open Access
You have the option to publish open access in this journal via our Open Select publishing program. Publishing open access means that your article will be free to access online immediately on publication, increasing the visibility, readership and impact of your research. Articles published Open Select with Taylor & Francis typically receive 32% more citations* and over 6 times as many downloads** compared to those that are not published Open Select.

Your research funder or your institution may require you to publish your article open access. Visit our Author Services website to find out more about open access policies and how you can comply with these.

You will be asked to pay an article publishing charge (APC) to make your article open access and this cost can often be covered by your institution or funder. Use our APC finder to view the APC for this journal.

Please visit our Author Services website or contact openaccess@tandf.co.uk if you would like more information about our Open Select Program.

*Citations received up to Jan 31st 2020 for articles published in 2015-2019 in journals listed in Web of Science®.
**Usage in 2017-2019 for articles published in 2015-2019.

Peer Review and Ethics
Taylor & Francis is committed to peer-review integrity and upholding the highest standards of review. Once your paper has been assessed for suitability by the editor, it will then be double blind peer reviewed by independent, anonymous expert referees. Find out more about what to expect during peer review and read our guidance on publishing ethics.

Preparing Your Paper
Perspectives
Should be written with the following elements in the following order: title page; abstract; keywords; main text; acknowledgments; declaration of interest statement; references; appendices (as appropriate); table(s) with caption(s) (on individual pages); figures; figure captions (as a list)
Should be no more than 1500 words, inclusive of the abstract, tables, figure captions.
Should contain between 2 and 10 keywords. Read making your article more discoverable, including information on choosing a title and search engine optimization.
Topical and timely short pieces reviewed by the editor and/or one reviewer at the editor’s discretion. This may include editorials, news items, policy discussions, and essays discussing critical issues.
Methodology and Policy
Should be written with the following elements in the following order: title page; abstract; keywords; main text introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion; acknowledgments; declaration of interest statement; references; appendices (as appropriate); table(s) with caption(s) (on individual pages); figures; figure captions (as a list)
Should be no more than 8000 words, inclusive of the abstract, tables, figure captions.
Should contain an unstructured abstract of 150 words.
Should contain between 2 and 10 keywords. Read making your article more discoverable, including information on choosing a title and search engine optimization.
Research articles investigating new methodologies and policy frameworks. These are reviewed by two reviewers.
Analysis
Should be written with the following elements in the following order: title page; abstract; keywords; main text introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion; acknowledgments; declaration of interest statement; references; appendices (as appropriate); table(s) with caption(s) (on individual pages); figures; figure captions (as a list)
Should be no more than 8000 words, inclusive of the abstract, tables, figure captions.
Should contain an unstructured abstract of 150 words.
Should contain between 2 and 10 keywords. Read making your article more discoverable, including information on choosing a title and search engine optimization.
Research articles devoted to analysis of questions in the field. The focus should be given to the roles of financial institutions, and finance and investment practices. These are reviewed by two reviewers.
Book Reviews
Should be written with the following elements in the following order: title page; main text; acknowledgments; declaration of interest statement; references
Should be no more than 1200 words, inclusive of footnotes.
Read making your article more discoverable, including information on choosing a title and search engine optimization.
These will be reviewed by one reviewer.
Style Guidelines
Please refer to these quick style guidelines when preparing your paper, rather than any published articles or a sample copy.

Any spelling style is acceptable so long as it is consistent within the manuscript.

Please use single quotation marks, except where ‘a quotation is “within” a quotation’. Please note that long quotations should be indented without quotation marks.

Formatting and Templates
Papers may be submitted in Word or LaTeX formats. Figures should be saved separately from the text. To assist you in preparing your paper, we provide formatting template(s).

Word templates are available for this journal. Please save the template to your hard drive, ready for use.

A LaTeX template is available for this journal. Please save the LaTeX template to your hard drive and open it, ready for use, by clicking on the icon in Windows Explorer.

If you are not able to use the template via the links (or if you have any other template queries) please contact us here.

References
Please use this reference guide when preparing your paper.

An EndNote output style is also available to assist you.

Taylor & Francis Editing Services
To help you improve your manuscript and prepare it for submission, Taylor & Francis provides a range of editing services. Choose from options such as English Language Editing, which will ensure that your article is free of spelling and grammar errors, Translation, and Artwork Preparation. For more information, including pricing, visit this website.

Checklist: What to Include
Author details. All authors of a manuscript should include their full name and affiliation on the cover page of the manuscript. Where available, please also include ORCiDs and social media handles (Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn). One author will need to be identified as the corresponding author, with their email address normally displayed in the article PDF (depending on the journal) and the online article. Authors’ affiliations are the affiliations where the research was conducted. If any of the named co-authors moves affiliation during the peer-review process, the new affiliation can be given as a footnote. Please note that no changes to affiliation can be made after your paper is accepted. Read more on authorship.
Graphical abstract (optional). This is an image to give readers a clear idea of the content of your article. It should be a maximum width of 525 pixels. If your image is narrower than 525 pixels, please place it on a white background 525 pixels wide to ensure the dimensions are maintained. Save the graphical abstract as a .jpg, .png, or .tiff. Please do not embed it in the manuscript file but save it as a separate file, labelled GraphicalAbstract1.
You can opt to include a video abstract with your article. Find out how these can help your work reach a wider audience, and what to think about when filming.
Funding details. Please supply all details required by your funding and grant-awarding bodies as follows:
For single agency grants
This work was supported by the [Funding Agency] under Grant [number xxxx].
For multiple agency grants
This work was supported by the [Funding Agency #1] under Grant [number xxxx]; [Funding Agency #2] under Grant [number xxxx]; and [Funding Agency #3] under Grant [number xxxx].
Disclosure statement. This is to acknowledge any financial interest or benefit that has arisen from the direct applications of your research. Further guidance on what is a conflict of interest and how to disclose it.
Data availability statement. If there is a data set associated with the paper, please provide information about where the data supporting the results or analyses presented in the paper can be found. Where applicable, this should include the hyperlink, DOI or other persistent identifier associated with the data set(s). Templates are also available to support authors.
Data deposition. If you choose to share or make the data underlying the study open, please deposit your data in a recognized data repository prior to or at the time of submission. You will be asked to provide the DOI, pre-reserved DOI, or other persistent identifier for the data set.
Supplemental online material. Supplemental material can be a video, dataset, fileset, sound file or anything which supports (and is pertinent to) your paper. We publish supplemental material online via Figshare. Find out more about supplemental material and how to submit it with your article.
Figures. Figures should be high quality (1200 dpi for line art, 600 dpi for grayscale and 300 dpi for colour, at the correct size). Figures should be supplied in one of our preferred file formats: EPS, PS, JPEG, TIFF, or Microsoft Word (DOC or DOCX) files are acceptable for figures that have been drawn in Word. For information relating to other file types, please consult our Submission of electronic artwork document.
Tables. Tables should present new information rather than duplicating what is in the text. Readers should be able to interpret the table without reference to the text. Please supply editable files.
Equations. If you are submitting your manuscript as a Word document, please ensure that equations are editable. More information about mathematical symbols and equations.
Units. Please use SI units (non-italicized).
Using Third-Party Material in your Paper
You must obtain the necessary permission to reuse third-party material in your article. The use of short extracts of text and some other types of material is usually permitted, on a limited basis, for the purposes of criticism and review without securing formal permission. If you wish to include any material in your paper for which you do not hold copyright, and which is not covered by this informal agreement, you will need to obtain written permission from the copyright owner prior to submission. More information on requesting permission to reproduce work(s) under copyright.

Submitting Your Paper
This journal uses ScholarOne Manuscripts to manage the peer-review process. If you haven’t submitted a paper to this journal before, you will need to create an account in ScholarOne. Please read the guidelines above and then submit your paper in the relevant Author Centre, where you will find user guides and a helpdesk.

If you are submitting in LaTeX, please convert the files to PDF beforehand (you will also need to upload your LaTeX source files with the PDF).

Please note that Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment uses Crossref™ to screen papers for unoriginal material. By submitting your paper to Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment you are agreeing to originality checks during the peer-review and production processes.

On acceptance, we recommend that you keep a copy of your Accepted Manuscript. Find out more about sharing your work.

Data Sharing Policy
This journal applies the Taylor & Francis Basic Data Sharing Policy. Authors are encouraged to share or make open the data supporting the results or analyses presented in their paper where this does not violate the protection of human subjects or other valid privacy or security concerns.

Authors are encouraged to deposit the dataset(s) in a recognized data repository that can mint a persistent digital identifier, preferably a digital object identifier (DOI) and recognizes a long-term preservation plan. If you are uncertain about where to deposit your data, please see this information regarding repositories.

Authors are further encouraged to cite any data sets referenced in the article and provide a Data Availability Statement.

At the point of submission, you will be asked if there is a data set associated with the paper. If you reply yes, you will be asked to provide the DOI, pre-registered DOI, hyperlink, or other persistent identifier associated with the data set(s). If you have selected to provide a pre-registered DOI, please be prepared to share the reviewer URL associated with your data deposit, upon request by reviewers.

Where one or multiple data sets are associated with a manuscript, these are not formally peer reviewed as a part of the journal submission process. It is the author’s responsibility to ensure the soundness of data. Any errors in the data rest solely with the producers of the data set(s).

Publication Charges
There are no submission fees, publication fees or page charges for this journal.

Colour figures will be reproduced in colour in your online article free of charge. If it is necessary for the figures to be reproduced in colour in the print version, a charge will apply.

Charges for colour figures in print are £300 per figure ($400 US Dollars; $500 Australian Dollars; €350). For more than 4 colour figures, figures 5 and above will be charged at £50 per figure ($75 US Dollars; $100 Australian Dollars; €65). Depending on your location, these charges may be subject to local taxes.

Copyright Options
Copyright allows you to protect your original material, and stop others from using your work without your permission. Taylor & Francis offers a number of different license and reuse options, including Creative Commons licenses when publishing open access. Read more on publishing agreements.

Complying with Funding Agencies
We will deposit all National Institutes of Health or Wellcome Trust-funded papers into PubMedCentral on behalf of authors, meeting the requirements of their respective open access policies. If this applies to you, please tell our production team when you receive your article proofs, so we can do this for you. Check funders’ open access policy mandates here. Find out more about sharing your work.

My Authored Works
On publication, you will be able to view, download and check your article’s metrics (downloads, citations and Altmetric data) via My Authored Works on Taylor & Francis Online. This is where you can access every article you have published with us, as well as your free eprints link, so you can quickly and easily share your work with friends and colleagues.

We are committed to promoting and increasing the visibility of your article. Here are some tips and ideas on how you can work with us to promote your research.

Article Reprints
You will be sent a link to order article reprints via your account in our production system. For enquiries about reprints, please contact the Taylor & Francis Author Services team at reprints@tandf.co.uk. You can also order print copies of the journal issue in which your article appears.

Queries