The
Journal of Planning Education and Research (
JPER) is the official journal of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) and consistently ranks among leading peer-reviewed planning journals. Aimed at scholars and educators in urban and regional planning, political science, policy analysis, urban geography, economics, and sociology,
JPER presents the most vital contemporary trends and issues in planning theory, practice, and pedagogy. Submissions are selected for publication based upon a double-blind review process.
JPER is published by Sage Publications on behalf of ACSP.
Electronic Submission: Starting on January 1, 2009,
JPER will accept new manuscripts electronically via Manuscript Central – our new online submission and review system. The website is
http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jper. If we received your original submission before January 1, 2009, through our old online system (bepress), you should continue to submit revisions and monitor the status of your submission via
http://services.bepress.com/jper until further notice.
Papers should be double-spaced and generally should not exceed thirty typed pages, including illustrations, tables, and references. Any submission significantly longer might be automatically returned to the author. The manuscript should reveal no evidence of the author’s identity and institutional affiliation. An abstract of no more than 100 words and a brief biographical sketch must accompany the manuscript.
Submission of a manuscript implies the author's commitment to publish in this journal. An author submitting a manuscript to JPER should not submit it to another journal; nor should the manuscript repeat information published elsewhere in substantially similar form or with substantially similar content. Authors in doubt about what constitutes prior publication should consult the editors.
The electronic system allows authors to monitor the status of submissions and submit revisions. Authors can expect a decision within four months of the submission, and should feel free to inquire about the status of their manuscripts. Once manuscripts are accepted by the editors and forwarded to the publisher (SAGE) in final form, it normally takes about six months for them to appear in print.
Research-Based Articles: Research articles should make clear the research question, why it is important and pertinent to planning, how the research procedures address the question, what results have been obtained, and how these results should be interpreted. Both quantitative researchers and those whose scholarship is qualitative or theoretical should consider their work for submission.
The editors encourage the submission of a diverse mix of articles representing the breadth of the planning profession, and are hospitable to diverse views and schools of thought. In addition, scholars are encouraged to advance the frontiers of the analytical methods used in planning, and to present robust research in a comparative context and/or at the global scale. Contributions to and applications of other literatures drawn upon by planners (such as urban geography, welfare economics, interest-group politics, policy analysis, and others of the full range of fields used in the planning classroom) are welcome as well.
Manuscripts should clearly demonstrate their relevance to planning. JPER defines planning as concerned with public actions that are efficient, effective, and equitable. JPER addresses planning practice at all levels of government and at nongovernmental organizations and in all substantive areas.
Instruction Articles: Manuscripts concerned with pedagogical topics also are considered and may include descriptive accounts of innovative approaches to teaching; locally derived analyses of student recruitment, advising, or alumni career successes; or illustrations of classroom exercises and techniques.
Accounts of a specific course or teaching innovation should be grounded in pedagogical theories and offer strong evidence of learning outcomes to support their conclusions.
Reports: As a publication of ACSP, reports of general importance to ACSP and its membership are welcome and serve as a record of the actions and ideas that propel the organization of planning education. Eligible materials include, but are not limited to, reports of ACSP study commissions and texts of general addresses given at ACSP conferences. Entries in the Reports section will ordinarily be invited and subject to a limited referee process. Inquiries regarding possible report submissions are encouraged.
Commentary: Essays addressing current issues and developments in planning education or scholarship are welcome for the Commentary section. Speculative arguments may be accepted for publication if they are seen as convincing, important, or provocative. Commentary manuscripts should not exceed ten typewritten pages and are subject to a limited referee process.
Letters: Letters responding to articles, commentary, reviews, or editorials are welcome. Authors will be offered the opportunity to reply. Contributors should address the substance of issues in a way that avoids attacking individuals.
Style, Spelling, and Usage: Manuscripts should conform to requirements set forth in the Chicago Manual of Style, fifteenth edition (University of Chicago Press 2003). JPER's spelling authority is Webster's Third New International Dictionary (Merriam-Webster Co. 2000).
Citations and Notes: References should be cited in the text using the author's last name, year of publication, and page numbers where appropriate. For example, (Turner and Murray 2001), (Wheeler 2000, 130), (Florida Department of Environmental Regulation 1987, 129-43). Page numbers are necessary whenever a specific argument or finding, rather than the general focus of a work, is cited. For details, see the Chicago Manual. Statutes, government regulations, and court decisions should be cited in the text without a corresponding reference list entry using the style presented in The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation, eighteenth edition (Harvard Law Review Association 2005). Notes should be typed double-spaced at the end of the manuscript. Length and number should be kept to a minimum, and they should not be used for the purpose of citation or acknowledgments.
Illustrations: Professional quality copies of tables and figures should be submitted with manuscripts for review. These should be clearly coordinated with text material and with specific references made to the tables or figures. All must be captioned and numbered sequentially. Upon acceptance, authors will be expected to provide native files for all illustrations.
Copyright Concerns: Authors whose articles are accepted for publication are expected to sign a prepublication agreement that assigns the article's copyright to JPER. Permission to reprint any previously published material must be obtained by the author from Sage Publications.
Inquiries regarding articles should be sent to jper.editors@gmail.com. You also can reach the editors at 804-827-3413 by phone, or by mail to Weiping Wu, Urban and Regional Planning Program, Virginia Commonwealth University, Box 842021, Richmond, VA 23284-2021.
Those interested in reviewing books or other materials, please send a brief resume to Seymour J. Mandelbaum, the Reviews Editor, indicating your area of expertise and a short publication record. Professor Mandelbaum also welcomes suggestions for materials that merit review in JPER. Please, however, do not volunteer to review a particular book or to nominate a particular reviewer. You can reach Professor Mandelbaum at the Department of City and Regional Planning, 127 Meyerson Hall, 210 S. 34th Street, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6311, at mandel@pobox.upenn.edu, or by fax at 215-898-5731.
