Journal

Originality, clarity of writing style, logical structure of argument and integrity of empirical data are essential for an article’s acceptance. Authors are asked to submit articles that convey a strong sense of urban place. Relevant contextual background must be provided to enable an international readership to be fully cognizant of the urban location under study. Any local terms must be explained. The article should not assume any prior knowledge of the local setting. Authors are encouraged to reflect on urban debates in this journal and beyond.

Authors need to choose an analytical structure that supports the logical unfolding of the text and assists the reader in following the argument. The structure of an article is greatly enhanced by a strong introduction and conclusion. The introduction is key to signposting what the article is about and the conclusion must highlight the article’s various finding and themes, inter-relating them and drawing attention to their more general analytical significance.

The word restriction on submitted manuscripts is between 4,000 and 8,500 words (including references, notes, appendices, tables and figures). Each table or figure will count as 250 words (approximately half a page of text) regardless of size – please disregard its actual word count. If your paper exceeds the specified word limit it will be withdrawn.

The journal does not provide a manuscript template, but the following provides some guidance on how to format your article for submission.

• Single column; double spaced; standard 12 point black font (e.g. Times New Roman); 3cm margins.
• No headers or footers; no page numbers; no line numbers.
• Include abstract and keywords in the Main Document file.
• Put headings or sub headings in bold or italics.
• Upload tables and figures as separate files and use placeholders (e.g. “Insert Figure 1 here”) in the Main Document.
• Do not use automated numbering for tables or figures.
• Do not upload pdf files; main text file should be in an editable format (Journal preference is for Microsoft Word).
• Use Sage Harvard style to format references – please note this is not the same as Harvard style.
• Avoid using author identifiers. The author’s own published work may be cited, unless it makes identification obvious (e.g. own PhD; statements such as “In my/our previous study …”). In such cases, use “Author, year” and omit the reference from the bibliography. For unpublished/forthcoming work, use “Author, forthcoming” in the text and omit the reference from bibliography.
• If citing a working paper, conference paper or dissertation, provide a URL link and date accessed where possible.
• Upload author names/affiliations and any acknowledgements/funding statement on a separate ‘Title Page’. Do not include this information within the Main Document file.

Scroll down to the link below to download our formatting guidelines.

For general information on suitability of a potential contribution in advance of submission, please contact Ruth Harkin. 

Critical commentaries retain a distinctive place within the journal. They aim to provide a forum for urban scholars and researchers to address some of the ‘bigger questions’ surrounding cities and urban development through critical argument and reflection rather than the primary research findings that underpin the conventional research article. They allow for a reasoned and powerful point of view to be presented in a somewhat less formal (and possibly more polemical) style.

Critical commentaries aim to provide a forum for novel viewpoints of urban issues and questions, where our aim as editors is to encourage submissions from authors capable of taking a critical urban issue and developing a reasoned argument, exposing, inter alia, its nature, context, presentation as discourse, contradictions and implications. Whilst often written from a deep knowledge of particular cities, the scope of Critical commentaries should not be confined to an individual city, seeking to always connect to broader aspects of the urban condition that are of interest to our international readership (see below).

Critical commentaries are envisioned as shorter, topical think-pieces rather than full-length articles. The target length is 4000–6000 words, (including references and tables/figures).

The journal does not provide a manuscript template, but the following provides some guidance on how to format your article for submission.

• Single column; double spaced; standard 12 point black font (e.g. Times New Roman); 3cm margins.
• No headers or footers; no page numbers; no line numbers.
• Include abstract and keywords in the Main Document file.
• Put headings or sub headings in bold or italics.
• Upload tables and figures as separate files and use placeholders (e.g. “Insert Figure 1 here”) in the Main Document.
• Do not use automated numbering for tables or figures.
• Do not upload pdf files; main text file should be in an editable format (Journal preference is for Microsoft Word).
• Use Sage Harvard style to format references – please note this is not the same as Harvard style.
• Avoid using author identifiers. The author’s own published work may be cited, unless it makes identification obvious (e.g. own PhD; statements such as “In my/our previous study …”). In such cases, use “Author, year” and omit the reference from the bibliography. For unpublished/forthcoming work, use “Author, forthcoming” in the text and omit the reference from bibliography.
• If citing a working paper, conference paper or dissertation, provide a URL link and date accessed where possible.
• Upload author names/affiliations and any acknowledgements/funding statement on a separate ‘Title Page’. Do not include this information within the Main Document file.

Scroll down to the link below to download our formatting guidelines.

Critical commentaries published by Urban Studies in recent years have covered topics such as urban resilience, the subprime crisis, gentrification and ‘smart urbanism’. We are particularly keen to encourage critical debate through the Critical commentary symposia format which incorporates short responses to the original commentary by other researchers, alongside a reply by the original author. The first of these (published in May 2016) is comprised of a set of responses to Loïc Wacquant’s reflections on his Urban Outcasts book, while the second debates the meaning and significance of the post-political condition for cities. For more examples of past Critical commentaries, please see here.

If you would like to discuss a possible Critical Commentary submission to Urban Studies, please contact the Critical Commentaries Editor, Professor Alison Bain. 

The Debates section complements our existing and well-regarded Critical commentaries section. Critical commentaries allow for the development of a reasoned and powerful point of view in a somewhat less formal style than normal articles; short, topical think-pieces rather than full-length review articles.

Articles in Debates in urban studies will engage with ongoing debates around specific concepts, trends and urban processes, but offer significant new insights or syntheses, extend urban debates into new areas, or capture an emergent literature around new urban phenomena. We invite papers that will promote new thinking and analysis on the broader urban condition, challenge existing thinking and wisdom, or foster debates within specialist subfields (politics and governance, economic development, culture, housing and real estate, finance and financialisation, labour markets, environment and climate transition, gentrification, marginalisation and exclusion, etc.).

Debates in urban studies offers a potential platform for early career researchers (ECRs) who, through their PhD work or post-doctoral research, have been involved in a substantive and critical engagement with a corpus of urban literature and debate; and also to established scholars wishing to offer meta-perspectives on progress and future directions in their chosen fields of inquiry. For both ECRs and established scholars, the Debates in urban studies section provides a space for new and provocative insights on the urban condition, which, at the same time, demonstrate in-depth and critical knowledge of established and ongoing work in the field.

We expect Debates in urban studies to offer more than a literature review – be that systematic literature review or a traditional literature review. These could be part of your manuscript but papers must make a novel contribution. This can be in a plethora of different ways (advancing a specific debate through a new theoretical approach, opening up new research pathways, sketching a novel research agenda etc). In this respect, innovation and creativity in approach are also encouraged.

We invite papers of between 8000 and 10,000 words for Debates in urban studies, to allow sufficient space for rigorous and critical dialogue with existing perspectives and traditions in urban research.

The journal does not provide a manuscript template, but the following provides some guidance on how to format your article for submission.

• Single column; double spaced; standard 12 point black font (e.g. Times New Roman); 3cm margins.
• No headers or footers; no page numbers; no line numbers.
• Include abstract and keywords in the Main Document file.
• Put headings or sub headings in bold or italics.
• Upload tables and figures as separate files and use placeholders (e.g. “Insert Figure 1 here”) in the Main Document.
• Do not use automated numbering for tables or figures.
• Do not upload pdf files; main text file should be in an editable format (Journal preference is for Microsoft Word).
• Use Sage Harvard style to format references – please note this is not the same as Harvard style.
• Avoid using author identifiers. The author’s own published work may be cited, unless it makes identification obvious (e.g. own PhD; statements such as “In my/our previous study …”). In such cases, use “Author, year” and omit the reference from the bibliography. For unpublished/forthcoming work, use “Author, forthcoming” in the text and omit the reference from bibliography.
• If citing a working paper, conference paper or dissertation, provide a URL link and date accessed where possible.
• Upload author names/affiliations and any acknowledgements/funding statement on a separate ‘Title Page’. Do not include this information within the Main Document file.

Scroll down to the link below to download our formatting guidelines.

For further information or advice prior to submitting a paper, prospective authors are strongly encouraged to contact the Debates Editor, Dr Lazaros Karaliotas, in the first instance with a brief 150-word synopsis setting out the broad idea that they have in mind.