Consilience: The Journal of Sustainable Development
Consilience: The Journal of Sustainable Development was founded at Columbia University in 2007. The journal, published biannually, uses an interdisciplinary approach to sustainable development and can be read online at www.consiliencejournal.org
Mission
Consilience: The Journal of Sustainable Development is a global, online journal dedicated to promoting interdisciplinary dialogue on sustainable development. By providing a public platform for discussion, Consilience hopes to encourage a global community to think more broadly, thoroughly, and analytically about sustainable development. Published biannually, the journal aims to bring students, researchers, professors, and practitioners from a variety of discipline and geographical regions in direct conversation with each other through an online, academically rigorous medium.
History
Consilience (inspired by E.O. Wilson’s eponymous book) has student, professor, and practitioner participation and promotes solution-oriented research. Noticeable is its cross-pollination of methodologies between disciplines as evidenced by the inaugural issue's articles exploring issues of physician migration in global health, the role of uncertainty in climate change, and human rights, and biotechnology in healthcare, among others.
Issue One of the journal, published in the spring of 2008, features thirteen articles, including academic papers, field notes and opinion pieces. Also included is a photo essay displaying events in Afghanistan. Issue II was published in the spring of 2009 and featured fourteen articles. Issue III is due to be published in October 2009.
The Consilience launch event was conducted on February 18, 2008 in Low Rotunda on Columbia University's campus with Dr. Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, as the keynote speaker. A release event for Issue II was held and co-sponsored with IDAYA, a journal of African studies.
Consilience is featured on the New York Times blog "Dot Earth", a climate change and sustainability resource written by Andrew C. Revkin.
Consilience is run by an editorial board of undergraduate and graduate students at Columbia University.
Publication
Since its creation in 2007, Consilience has already published three full issues, all accessible online. The editorial board is currently working on Issue IV, due to be published in the spring of 2010.
Consilience publishes four categories of written work: Scholarly Articles, Field Notes, Opinion Pieces, and Photo Essays. In addition, our Features Column, published biweekly, includes editorials and interviews with leaders in the field of sustainable development. The journal publishes authors from across the world and has been viewed in over 160 countries and territories. Consilience welcomes undergraduate students, graduate students, professors, and practitioners alike to submit to the journal.
Those interested in submitting to Consilience should begin by reviewing the submissions guidelines at www.consiliencejournal.org. Consilience is currently accepting submissions for Issue IV, and submissions to the Features Column are accepted on a rolling basis.
Contact
For more information or to join the mailing list, please email contact@consiliencejournal.org.
The editorial board of Consilience is based at Columbia University in the City of New York.
