AUTHOR GUIDELINES
The Editors invite submissions from academics, practitioners, professionals, and PhD students whose work aligns with the aims of the journal.
Contributions should address an international audience and be relevant to academics, professionals, and planning officers.
Papers should be analytical and critical rather than purely descriptive, and any theoretical concepts should be presented clearly.
The journal welcomes case studies of practice, critical assessments of planning authorities, book reviews, and analyses of planning legislation and policies.
The Journal does not charge article processing fees (APCs) or article submission fees (ASCs).
1. Preparing your article
Submissions are first assessed for the quality and accuracy of academic English. Papers that do not meet this standard are returned to the authors for revision.
If language and scope requirements are satisfied, the article is sent to selected reviewers for a double-blind peer review process, which ideally takes no longer than eight weeks.
Following the review, the paper may be accepted, rejected, or accepted subject to specific conditions indicated by the reviewers
1.2. Word count
Articles must not exceed 8,000 words, including references and tables.
The first page must include the title of the article and the abstract of no more than 200 words.
1.3. English language
All submitted manuscripts must undergo professional proofreading. AI-based language checks alone are not sufficient.
Professional proofreading is required prior to initial submission and whenever deemed necessary during the review process.
Papers written in languages other than English will not be accepted.
Any non-English terms used within the text must be written in italics and accompanied by an English translation, unless they are proper nouns.
2. Submission
Papers must be submitted electronically as an email attachment to the editors at ijpp.dicam@unitn.it.
2.1. Authors
Authors must clearly provide their names, affiliations, and contact details.
For multiple-author submissions, the corresponding author must be identified as the person in contact with the editorial team.
2.2. Files
Authors are required to submit two separate files: one containing the title page with author details, and one anonymized version in which all author information has been removed.
Submissions are considered for review only if they have not been published elsewhere.
After submission and successful completion of the review process, the article will be published online first (open access) and later included in the first available issue.
3. Formatting
The journal is published in A4 format.
The title should clearly reflect the content of the article.
The main text must be written in 12-point Times New Roman.
Footnotes should be used only when strictly necessary and authors are encouraged to incorporate essential points into the main text.
Endnotes should not be used.
4. Referencing
Papers must be properly referenced in accordance with the guidelines outlined below.
Authors should ensure that every in-text citation appears in the reference list at the end of the article, and that the reference list does not include works that are not cited in the text.
An exception applies to author self-citations, as explained below.
4.1. Referencing system
Please use the American Psychological Association (APA) referencing system. Examples are available at: http://www.bibme.org/citation-guide/apa/
In-text citations should include the author’s surname and the year of publication, either in brackets (Baron, 2008) or as part of the sentence (Boughton, 2002).
When citing multiple works by the same author published in the same year, distinguish them by adding letters to the year (for example, 2003a, 2003b).
Page numbers must be provided for all direct quotations.
Self-citations should be presented as “Author” followed by the year of publication, for example, Author (2000).
4.2. Reference list
References must be listed in alphabetical order at the end of the paper. Authors are encouraged to include DOIs where available.
- Boyer, E. L. (1990). Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities of the professoriate. Menlo Park, CA: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
- Goldstein, H. A., & Carmin, J. A. (2006). Compact, diffuse, or would-be discipline? Assessing cohesion in planning scholarship, 1963–2002. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 26(1), 66–79. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X05282353.
- Mazza, L. (2002). Technical knowledge and planning actions. Planning Theory, 1(1), 11–26. https://doi.org/10.1177/147309520200100102.
Titles of journals should not be abbreviated.
5. Figures and illustrations
Illustrations, figures, and photographs must be of good quality.
All images used in the text must also be provided as separate files.
All illustrations, figures, and tables must have a caption.
They should be numbered consecutively (1, 2, 3, etc.) and referred to in the text.
Files should be submitted in commonly used electronic formats (.jpg, .png, .tiff, .pdf).
6. Download IJPP Article Template
Please use the provided template, which contains all formatting guidelines for preparing your article.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
Authors retain the copyright and publishing rights to their articles published in IJPP.
PRIVACY STATEMENT
Names and email addresses submitted to the journal will be used solely for the purposes of this journal and will not be shared with any other party or used for any other purpose.