Environment & Urbanization
Development Studies (General) | Geography, Earth & Environmental Science | Urban Geography
Environment and Urbanization (E&U) seeks to advance a more socially just and environmentally sustainable urban world through the provision of knowledge. Our focus is the global South, where an estimated one in three of the urban population live in informal settlements and where more than half work within the informal economy. UN projections suggest that almost all the world’s growth in population in the next few decades will be in urban centres in the Global South.
Contributors to E&U include those engaging with critical social science to add theoretical and conceptual insights, those reporting innovative empirical findings that augment our understanding of context and solutions (and their significance for theories and concepts), and those able to share the voices of activist representative groups and movements that are rarely seen in the scholarly literature. In other words, our journal aims both to advance social justice and be the change we strive for by encouraging contributions that share the perspectives of disadvantaged and marginalized groups.
E&U particularly encourages researchers, NGO staff, professionals and activists in Africa, Asia and Latin America to write about their work, present their ideas and debate issues. We promote the work of French, Spanish and Portuguese-speaking authors by arranging for the translation of their work into English.
Papers commonly deal with poverty, inequality, and the power relations underpinning both disadvantage and transformation. Papers also report on trends, policies, programmes and practices related to urbanization, urban development and urban environments. We are concerned with processes of progressive change, while recognizing that these are contested, and that change is neither uni-linear nor necessarily progressive. Urbanization processes are often poorly understood and papers that contribute insights supporting an accurate understanding of grounded realities are important to us. We recognize that sustainable development, including needed responses to climate change, is critical to both current and future populations, and that ecosystems have a critical role in the wellbeing of urban populations and the resilience of their cities. We encourage contributions related to such themes.
Published since 1989, Environment and Urbanization is one of the most widely read and distributed journals in its field. Free or discounted subscriptions are available to NGOs and teaching/training institutions in the Global South.
Each issue has a special theme and includes:
around 7–11 papers on that theme
feedback papers on the themes of previous issues
papers on climate change
Discounted rates are available for charities and individuals, institutions and students in middle and low- income countries. This includes all nations in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Please contact subscriptions@sagepub.co.uk +44 (0) 20 7324 8701 for more information.
For a list of the themes of recent and forthcoming issues, see http://journals.sagepub.com/page/eau/collections/themes/index
The full text of all papers published the journal (starting with Vol 1 No 1 in April 1989) is available at http://journals.sagepub.com/home/eau; there is also a comprehensive search facility here that allows searches by (for instance) author, nation, city and subject.
Environment & Urbanization ** Briefs: Five-page summaries of each issue of the journal are available in print and electronically; these are primarily for the staff of government departments, city authorities and development assistance agencies. These can be accessed at no charge at: http://www.environmentandurbanization.org/eu-briefs
Read what others have to say about Environment & Urbanization
"The only journal that I don't push to the side of my desk when it arrives. I eagerly check its contents and before I know it the journal is on the desk of a colleague or postgrad. It is uncannily relevant. Probably because it is rooted in the real policy debates of our day. And because it takes cities seriously." - Peter Newman, Professor of City Policy, Murdoch University, and Director of Sustainability Policy Unit, Western Australian Government
What I especially appreciate about this journal is that (a) it contains many pieces from our colleagues in Asia, Africa and Latin America; and (b) that it taps NGO work, academic work, agency work – in short the very wide range of sources that we need, in order to understand the extremely diverse and changing nature of this very important subject." - Richard Stren, Professor of Political Science, University of Toronto
"An essential resource for anyone interested in reducing urban poverty and improving urban livelihoods. It provides a unique international meeting place for the sharing of experiences, resources, and research-based information. It bridges the gap between research and practice in ways that no other publication does." - James Garrett, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
"By far the best, most accessible journal for policy and applied research on the 'brown agenda' of the environment of cities." - Mike Douglass, Professor of Urban & Regional Planning, University of Hawaii
"In this journal, more than any other, urban theory and research gets to meet urban policy and practice - and the party is very lively! Its particularly strong in its analysis of governance and civic participation at the community level." - Roger Hart, Children's Environments Research Group, New York
SAGE also publishes a sister journal to Environment & Urbanization, called Urbanisation, in association with the Indian Institute for Human Settlements_. Urbanisation_ can be accessed from http://journals.sagepub.com/home/urba
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Environment & Urbanization is a peer-reviewed journal which aims to provide an effective means for the exchange of research findings, ideas and information in the fields of human settlements and environment among researchers, activists and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in low- and middle-income nations and between these and researchers, international agency staff, students and teachers in high-income nations. Most of the papers it publishes are written by authors from Africa, Asia and Latin America. Papers may be submitted in French, Spanish or Portuguese, as well as English - and if accepted for publication, the journal arranges for their translation into English. The journal is also unusual in the proportion of its papers that are written by practitioners.
Since its inception in 1989, Environment & Urbanization has been available at no charge to NGOs and teaching or training institutions in low- and middle-income nations, if they have difficulty obtaining the foreign exchange needed to subscribe. It currently goes to around 1,600 such institutions. This has been made possible by the support of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and the Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DANIDA). For more details, e-mail eandu@iied.org
| Sheridan Bartlett | IIED and Children’s Environments Research Group |
| Diana Mitlin | IIED and University of Manchester, Manchester, UK |
| David Satterthwaite | IIED, London, UK |
| Jenny Peebles | IIED, London, UK |
| Aditya Bahadur (Co-editor, Climate Change in Cities) | International Institute for Environment and Development |
| Sarah Colenbrander (Co-editor, Climate Change in Cities) | Coalition for Urban Transitions, UK |
| E J Anzorena | Selavip, Chile |
| Julio D Dávila | Development Planning Unit, University College London, UK |
| David Dodman | IIED, UK |
| Diana Mitlin | IIED and University of Manchester, Manchester, UK |
| Adil M Ahmad | University of Khartoum, Sudan |
| Tade Akin Aina | Partnership for African Social & Governance Research (PASGR), Nairobi, USA |
| Somsook Boonyabancha | Secretary General, Asian Coalition for Housing Rights, Thailand |
| Jessica Budds | University of Bonn, Germany |
| Yves Cabannes | Development Planning Unit, University College London, UK |
| Allan Cain | Development Workshop, Luanda, Angola |
| Sandy Cairncross | London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK |
| Ana Hardoy | IIED - América Latina, Argentina |
| Arif Hasan | Arif Hasan Associates and Orangi Pilot Projects, Pakistan |
| Bingqin Li | University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia |
| Gordon McGranahan | Institute of Development Studies (IDS), UK |
| Mark Montgomery | State University of New York at Stony Brook and Population Council, USA |
| Caroline Moser | Manchester University, UK |
| Anupama Nallari | Children’s Environments Research Group (CERG), USA |
| Sheela Patel | Director, Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centres (SPARC), Mumbai, India |
| Carolyn Stephens | London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK |
| Cecilia Tacoli | IIED, London, UK |
| Serigne Mansour Tall | UNIDO’s Sustainable Cities Programme, Senegal |
| Haroldo Torres | Centro Brasileiro de Analise e Planejamento (CEBRAP), Brazil |
Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/eauj to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Environment and Urbanization will be reviewed.
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.
As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.
- What do we publish?
1.1 Aims & Scope
1.2 Article types
1.3 Writing your paper - Editorial policies
2.1 Peer review policy
2.2 Authorship
2.3 Acknowledgements
2.4 Funding
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests - Publishing policies
3.1 Publication ethics
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
3.3 Open access and author archiving - Preparing your manuscript
4.1 Formatting
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
4.3 Supplementary material
4.4 Paper structure
4.5 Reference style
4.6 English language editing services
4.7 Spelling
4.8 Currency - Submitting your manuscript
5.1 ORCID
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
5.3 Permissions - On acceptance and publication
6.1 Sage Production
6.2 Online First publication
6.3 Access to your published article
6.4 Promoting your article - Further information
Before submitting your manuscript to Environment and Urbanization, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.
Since each issue of the journal is on a particular theme, papers should be submitted on that theme. The themes that have been chosen for future issues are published in each issue of the journal, and are also listed at http://www.environmentandurbanization.org/themes-future-issues.
Papers may also be submitted to the Feedback section, which includes papers responding to themes covered in previous issues. However, there is usually a backlog of papers waiting to be published in the Feedback section.
Feedback articles have to be really innovative, offering cutting-edge scholarship. Our Climate Change in cities section is a sub-section within Feedback that we have because of the significance of the climate change crisis for our collective future. Please do not send us papers that replicate research undertaken elsewhere unless the findings offer substantive new insights. Successful authors will have analysed the literature and identified an innovative take on this literature. It is not enough to do an existing study in a new location; rather it has to examine an original hypothesis or idea.
E&U is planning to publish Field Notes, which are papers which bring empirical findings to a wider audience without the in-depth engagement with academic debates and associated literature that is required for academic research papers.
Field Notes are expected to:
- Clearly present the original findings from a research project that add significantly to an existing body of knowledge
- Demonstrate that the research methodologically sound and explain the research methodology in the paper.
- Be a good fit for E&U and address themes relevant to the special issue.
We may occasionally publish Field Notes in Feedback but we do not anticipate that this will be widely used. Field Notes do not have to provide a theoretical framework. Nor do they have to provide a review of relevant literature, or have a critical engagement with the findings of that literature. Field Notes are especially welcome from practitioners, for instance authors working with local governments, social movements and planning agencies. We would expect authors to make it clear to us when sending a paper to E&U that they are asking for it to be considered as a Field Note.
1.2.1 Timing
Papers should be submitted by 15th January for the October issue, and 15th July for the April issue. When planning a submission, please make sure to consult https://www.environmentandurbanization.org/themes-future-issues for up-to-date information on special issue themes and any alterations to scheduling or issue submission deadlines. The editorial team tries to get responses back to authors within two months of receiving the paper. The peer review process can take up to several months.
1.2.2 Length
Articles should be between 1,500 and 7,500 words. This limit does not include references and explanations in endnotes but does include table and figure text.
1.2.3 Language
Although the journal is an English language publication, papers may be submitted in French, Spanish or Portuguese; if accepted for publication, the cost of translation will be borne by the journal.
Authors are encouraged to avoid using the term “slum”; if it is used, a qualification will be added as a footnote. Reference 1 in this paper is an example.
Authors are encouraged to avoid using the term “developing country”. We prefer countries to be classified by their region and/or as low-, lower-middle, upper-middle or high-income.
Please provide brief explanations of any concepts or terms that may be unfamiliar to non-specialist readers. Overall, plain, clear, jargon-free language should be used
The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.
1.3.1 Make your article discoverable
When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. Please supply a title, an abstract and six–eight keywords to accompany your article. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.
Papers submitted to the journal are reviewed by external referees - generally by one who is a specialist on the topic of the paper and another who is a specialist on the region, country or city on which the paper focuses. The editorial team tries to get responses back to authors within two months of receiving the paper.
All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.
Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.
2.3.1 Third party submissions
Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:
• Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
• Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
• Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.
Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.
Environment and Urbanization requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
Environment and Urbanization encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
Sage has a guide to author self-promotion. Please contact the editor of Environment & Urbanization to give or receive other suggestions on promoting your paper, or if you would like to record a video abstract.
Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.
3.1.1 Plagiarism
Environment and Urbanization and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.
3.1.2 Prior publication
If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway.
3.3 Open access and author archiving
Environment and Urbanization offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.
4. Preparing your manuscript for submission
The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.
Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.
Please do not submit more than five each of the following: maps, tables, figures and photos. Images should have a resolution of at least 300 dpi (dots per inch). These should be numbered, e.g. Figure 1, Map 1, Map 2, Figure 2, etc.
If you are including maps, photographs or figures in your article, please send them separately as jpegs or Excel files as these are the publisher’s preferred formats. Also add full titles and source details. Notes (if any) should be numbered. Titles, source details and notes can be sent in a separate captions file or added in the text. For example:
[Text]
INSERT FIGURE 1: Urban areas liable to flooding
NOTE: (1)SD = standard deviation.
SOURCE: [Add full details. For photos, please specify the photographer’s/organization’s name and the year the photo was taken.]
[Text]
Please do not submit Google Maps screenshots with your article. These cannot be published in the journal since this is considered commercial re-use of third-party material. Only maps or screenshots which are published under an open access licence or which are in the UK public domain may be published in the journal.
Supplementary material will be published online only. It will not be specially formatted.
Section headings should be numbered with Roman numerals and placed in all caps. Sub-sections should be followed by lowercase letters, with only the first letter capitalized. For example:
I. INTRODUCTION
II. BACKGROUND
a. State of sanitation in urban India
b. The adolescent girl
III. RESEARCH STUDY
IV. FINDINGS
V. CONCLUSIONS.
References can use authors’ full names or the initial letters of any given names plus the full surnames. This should be applied consistently, e.g.:
Kernic, Franz and Lisa Karlborg
OR
Kernic, F and L Karlborg.
The surname appears first only for the first author.
The system of referencing uses sequential numbers inserted into the text of the article (1,2,3...), linked to a numbered list of references or notes running alongside the article. One reference can contain multiple works. All references within the text should be (bracketed) in superscript and inserted as endnotes – please see below:
…This means that it has become routinized or normalized into daily life,(1) provoking references to failed cities.(2) Fear and insecurity pervade people’s lives, with serious implications for trust and well-being among communities and individuals.
Subsequent references to a previously cited work appear as See reference [number]. For example, if reference 3 is to a particular UN report and reference 6 is to the same report, endnote 6 should appear simply as See reference 3. Any later references to the same report would also appear as See reference 3.
A full set of references should also be included at the end of each paper. Some examples of the style to be used in references are below.
For a book:
Scheper-Hughes, Nancy (1992), Death Without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil, University of California Press, Berkeley, 614 pages.
For a paper in an edited volume:
Abers, Rebecca (1998), “Learning democratic practice: distributing government resources through popular participation in Porto Alegre, Brazil”, in Mike Douglass and John Friedmann (editors), Cities for Citizens, John Wiley and Sons, Chichester, pages 39–65.
For a paper in a journal:
Montiel, René Pérez and Françoise Barten (1999), “Urban governance and health development in León, Nicaragua”, Environment & Urbanization Vol 11, No 1, pages 11–26.
For a report:
Sutherland, C, G Robbins, D Scott and V Sim (2013), Durban City Report, Report prepared for Chance2Sustain, 94 pages, accessed 14 July 2015 at http://www.chance2sustain.eu.
For a conference/seminar paper:
Legacy, Crystal, Carolyn Whitzman and Jennifer Day (2011), “Planning, urban governance, gender and poverty reduction: making the links in the Asia–Pacific region”, Paper presented at the 3rd World Planning Schools Congress, Perth, 4–8 July.
For a working/discussion paper:
Bapat, Meera (2009), “Poverty lines and lives of the poor: underestimation of urban poverty – the case of India”, Poverty Reduction in Urban Areas Series, Working Paper 20, IIED, London, 56 pages.
4.6 English language editing services
Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.
Environment & Urbanization generally uses Oxford spelling. This involves z in verbs and variants like organize and organization, and UK spelling otherwise, e.g. per cent and kilometre.
If you are using a currency other than US$, £ or €, please specify the conversion into US$ and the rough date on which the conversion rate was applicable.
Environment and Urbanization is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/eauj to login and submit your article online.
IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.
If you experience any difficulties using the site, please contact christine.ro@iied.org
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.
The collection of ORCID iDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID iD you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID iD will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID iD is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.
If you do not already have an ORCID iD please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).
Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway.
6. On acceptance and publication
Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be sent by PDF to the corresponding author and should be returned promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.
Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.
6.3 Access to your published article
Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.
Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.
Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Environment and Urbanization editorial office as follows:
Jenny Peebles, IIED, Third Floor, 235 High Holborn, London, WC1V 7DN, UK, Jenny.Peebles@iied.org