Urban & Regional Planning Review

Guide for authors

Outline

Urban and Regional Planning Review (URPR) is an interdisciplinary journal for urban and regional planning, established by three academic institutes in Japan (City Planning Institute of Japan, Japanese Institute of Landscape Architecture and Japanese Association for Planning and Public Management). It publishes reviewed manuscripts in electrical format and the first issue was published in 2014.

Articles for URPR may be theoretical or contain empirical research outcomes, written in English, not only by academics but also professional planners. They are expected to have original content and should not have been previously published, nor be under simultaneous consideration by another academic journal.
Objectives, research methodologies, and conclusions must be logically consistent, and the conclusion in particular must highlight not only previously unknown findings but also new themes for further research in urban and regional planning.

Accepted one will be formally published in electrical format on the J-Stage* website [here] sequentially.

Confirmations for Submission

Authors should check following confirmation items in advance. More specific content of each item will be asked to author(s) in the submission website when submitting a manuscript.

Corresponding author
In principle, the manuscript is submitted by the corresponding author. Otherwise, the person who submits already obtained the consent of the corresponding author before submission.

Co-authors, etc.
The manuscript obtained consent from all those who have contributed in advance, regarding whether or not the name of each co-author should be displayed, their order, and the notation in the acknowledgments. The corresponding author also obtained consent from all co-authors regarding their responsibility for the contents of the manuscript.

Copyright
The copyright belongs to CPIJ, the responsible institute for publishing the journal.

Ethics, etc.
In conducting any of the surveys described in the submitted manuscript, research ethics has been properly upheld. In particular, for those that correspond to human research or those that require informed consent, the necessary procedures were completed before submission.

Conflict of interest
If at least one of the authors is in a state of conflict of interest in relation to the contents of the submitted manuscript, it will be clearly stated after the publication is decided.

Double submission, etc.
There is no double submission, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, fabrication, or theft other than the author's own academic dissertation (graduation thesis, master's thesis, doctoral dissertation).

English proofreading
If all or part of the manuscript is written by a non-native speaker, English proofreading was already carried out before submission.

Indication of grants
If the cost of all or part of the research in the manuscript is covered by any grant, the specific name(s) of the grant(s) will be stated clearly in the manuscript after the publication is decided.

Infringement of the rights of others
The author does not infringe copyrights or any other rights of others.

Proof by the corresponding author regarding the above
If any doubt is raised by the journal or by a third party, the above confirmations can be made in a form that can be clearly proved in writing or by the statements of the persons concerned.

Writing manuscript

Your manuscript must be written in accordance with [Guidelines for authors submitting papers to URPR], which can be also used as the template of your manuscript for URPR.

Review of manuscripts

1. The URPR submission website accepts manuscript twice a year (usually June and December).
2. The URPR Editorial Board determines whether your manuscript is accepted or rejected based on the established peer review process, and notify you the result within four months from the deadline. In reviewing a manuscript, particular consideration will be given to the following factors.

   1) Positioning: Are previous studies properly reviewed?
   2) Purpose: Is the purpose clearly indicated?
   3) Target / Method: Is the target / method of the study set properly according to the purpose?
   4) Data reliability: Is the data used in the analysis reliable?
   5) Objectivity / Logic: Are the description logical and objective?
   6) Expression / Format: Is expression / format appropriate as an academic paper?

3. If the manuscript is requested to be revised for the approval, author(s) should respond appropriately to all the requests and submit the revised manuscript within four weeks from the notification.
4. The Board checks whether the revised manuscript is appropriately revised and notify you the final result within around four to five weeks from the acceptance of the revised manuscript. Minor corrections may be requested again for the revised manuscript. If so, author(s) should respond appropriately to all the requests again.
5. The Board notifies the acceptance finally and published in J-Stage website [here] in the next month.

Submission of manuscripts

Your manuscript should be submitted through the [submission website] of URPR which was open in May 2022. It is operated by Editorial Manager(R).

* An electronic journal platform for science and technology information in Japan, developed and managed by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST)