Focus and Scope

UPLanD promotes an interdisciplinary approach to urban planning, landscape and environmental design as an effective form of the governance - sustainable and eco-efficient - of processes for the protection, enhancement and development of urban contexts. In publishing research and experimentation results and innovative solutions, expressing positions toward current issues, and suggesting new avenues of research and product and process innovation, the journal aims to:

  • disseminate meaningful, responsible, accurate and independent contributions in the field of urban planning, landscape and environmental design, which are supported by research and original experiments carried out both in scientific environments and practice;
  • provide an international comparison tool for research work being done on the subject of the sustainable governance of the built environment, in view of the advancement of knowledge, methods and tools in comparison with the global scientific community;
  • promote the dissemination of research and experimentation, whose results and effects are of interest due to their social, economic, environmental, cultural and ecological impact;
  • promote the recognition of scientific contributions according to the criteria for the evaluation of research in the academic field, as defined internationally;
  • offer young researchers a user friendly environment for the promotion and dissemination of products in the international scientific community and for the relevant measurement of their impact;
  • promote the sustainable governance of the territory as a central and essential strategy for the growth of the collective well-being;
  • promote encounters / comparisons among scientific researchers, the profession, producers and decision makers.



Peer Review Process

Submissions are first evaluated by the Editors / Board of Directors and by the members of the Editorial Boards. If the manuscript is considered suitable for publication, it is sent to at least two reviewers. The peer review process is double-blind, whereby both referees and authors are kept anonymous. If the reviews are positive, but the manuscript requires to be revised and resubmitted, the author is expected to submit the revised version.

Publication decisions by the Editors / Board of Directors are final.



Article Processing Charge

UPLanD does not ask any economic contribution to the authors but, in order to maintain a high level of international quality, all articles, before being published, undergo a rigorous double-blind peer review process.



Publication Frequency

UPLanD publishes two issues per year.
Every year two call for submissions are announced and journal items are published as soon as they are ready, by adding them to one of current issues.
The first issue closes on June. The second issue closes on December.



Open Access Policy

UPLanD provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.
This journal is published under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND).
This license allows allows users to copy and distribute the Article, provided this is not done for commercial purposes and further does not permit distribution of the Article if it is changed or edited in any way, and provided the user gives appropriate credit (with a link to the formal publication), provides a link to the license, and that the licensor is not represented as endorsing the use made of the work. The full details of the license are available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Authors who publish on this journal maintain the copyrights.



Publication ethics

The publication of an article in a peer-reviewed journal is an essential model for UPLanD Journal of Urban Planning, Landscape & Environmental Design.
It is necessary to agree upon standards of expected ethical behavior for all parties involved in the act of publishing: the author, the journal editor, the peer reviewer and the publisher.
UPLanD Journal's ethic statements are based on COPE's Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.

 

  • Duties of Editors
    • Publication decision
      • The editors of UPLanD - Journal of Urban Planning, Landscape & Environmental Design are responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published. The editors may be guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The editors may confer with other editors or reviewers in making this decision.
    • Fair play
      • The editors at any time evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.
    • Confidentiality
      • The editors and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.
    • Disclosure and conflicts of interest
      • Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor's own research without the express written consent of the author.
    • Preventing research misconduct
      • Publisher and editors should prevent the publication of papers where research misconduct has occurred and, in no case they encourage such misconduct, or knowingly allow such misconduct to take place.
      • In the event that a journal’s editors are made aware of any allegation of research misconduct the editor shall deal with allegations appropriately.
      • Publishers and editors should always be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed.
  • Duties of Reviewers
    • Contribution to Editorial Decisions
      • Peer review assists the editors in making editorial decisions and through the editorial communications with the author may also assist the author in improving the paper.
    • Promptness
      • Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process.
    • Confidentiality
      • Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editors.
    • Standards of Objectivity
      • Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
    • Acknowledgement of Sources
      • Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also call to the editor's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.
    • Disclosure and Conflict of Interest
      • Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.
  • Duties of Authors
    • Reporting standards
      • Authors of reports of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.
    • Data Access and Retention
      • If applicable, authors are asked to provide the raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review, and should be prepared to provide public access to such data, and should in any event be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.
    • Originality and Plagiarism
      • The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others, that this has been appropriately cited or quoted.
    • Multiple, Redundant or Concurrent Publication
      • An author should not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable.
    • Acknowledgement of Sources
      • Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work.
    • Authorship of the Paper
      • Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors.The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.
    • Disclosure and Conflict of Interest
      • All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.
    • Fundamental errors in published works
      • When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editors or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.



Information for Librarians

We encourage research librarians to list this journal among their library's electronic journal holdings. As well, it may be worth noting that this journal's open source publishing system is suitable for libraries to host for their faculty members to use with journals they are involved in editing (see Open Journal Systems).

 

 

Sponsors

  • National Center for Urban Studies