Use when targeting Environmental Pollution or deciding whether a contamination/pollutant-impact manuscript fits this venue. Encodes the journal's fit, the source-fate-impact evidence bar, measurement-and-controls expectations, house style, official-submission re-check, and desk-reject heuristics.
SkillScore91Maintained
Automatic
◆Writing & Editing pack
Last verified 8/15/2026
What it changes
Passed 21 of 23 test cases with the skill, and 8 of 23 without it.
Without skill35%
With skill91%
Checks it passed that the model alone missed
Rates the fit as Low
Uses exact header `[Fit]`
Rates the fit as Low or Medium
and 12 more in the full report
13 fixed8 passed either way2 still failing0 broke
Pass-rate lift
+57 pp
Tokens
+20%
Agent turns
0%
Response time
-47%
Model gemini-3.6-flashMeasured 8/15/2026v121 of 23 cases passed with skill
Tokens, turns and time describe resource use, not a dollar price.
See it in action
One of 13 test cases the skill fixed. Same model, same prompt, with and without the skill.
1 of 13
Prompt
We analyzed tree ring-width series across boreal forests to assess climate-driven tree mortality and growth declines under multi-year heatwaves. Please evaluate our paper for Environmental Pollution using the standard evaluation template.
What was checked, without and with the skill
Checked
Without skill
With skill
Re-routes or suggests `global-change-biology`
Missed
Passed
Rates the fit as Low
Missed
Passed
case-10 · gemini-3.6-flash · 8/15/2026 · answers are capped and redacted
What's inside
The instructions your model reads when the skill loads.
SKILL.md117 linessingle file
Environmental Pollution (environmental-pollution)
Journal positioning
Environmental Pollution is the Elsevier journal for environmental contamination and its
effects — the sources, fate, transport, and ecological and health impacts of pollutants
across air, water, soil, and biota, including emerging contaminants, microplastics, metals,
and persistent organics. Its defining expectation is rigorous evidence of pollutant impact,
not mere detection: a study that quantifies a contaminant with sound measurement and
controls and connects it to fate, transport, exposure, or an ecological/health effect. A
"we detected X in Y" survey with no impact, mechanism, or fate insight — and no
quantification beyond presence — is a weak fit. This skill is a fit / venue-selection /
re-framing tool. It does not replace the journal's current author guidelines. Before
submitting, re-check the live Environmental Pollution submission guidance.
When to trigger
The author names Environmental Pollution and wants a fit/framing check for a contamination
or pollutant-impact paper.
An occurrence/monitoring survey must be re-framed around fate, transport, exposure, or a
demonstrated ecological/health effect.
The author is choosing between Environmental Pollution, an environmental-health venue, and a
general environmental-science journal.
The author needs this journal's measurement-rigor and impact-evidence bar and desk-reject heuristics.
Scope & topic fit
Sources, occurrence, and environmental behavior (fate, transport, transformation,
partitioning) of pollutants in air, water, soil, sediment, and biota.
Emerging contaminants and microplastics/nanoplastics: occurrence, characterization, and
documented environmental or biological effects.
Metals, persistent organic pollutants, pesticides, and their bioaccumulation,
biomagnification, and toxicity.
Ecotoxicology and ecological impact of contamination at organism, population, community, or
ecosystem level, with mechanistic or effect evidence.
Human-exposure-relevant contamination when the environmental contamination process is
central (the health endpoint is supportive, not the whole study).
Remediation, mitigation, and pollution-control studies when contaminant behavior and
effectiveness are quantitatively demonstrated.