Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science
Visit the other journals from the Environment and Planning suite:
Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space
Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space
Environment and Planning D: Society and Space
Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science is an international, multidisciplinary journal focused on the application of quantitative, computational, design and visual methods to the spatial and morphological structure of cities and regions.
Areas of methodological interest include geocomputation, spatial statistics, geographical information science, computational modelling, visualisation, agent based modelling, crowdsourcing, big data, optimisation, and urban analytics. Papers are invited that provide empirical evidence for understanding, planning or theorising how urban systems and processes emerge. We welcome papers that show how formal models can be used to explore how cities and their elements behave, reproduce, evolve, or impact upon urban forms and functions, and on the livability, equality and sustainability of cities. Papers on topical themes such as complexity theory, smart cities, and urban science are encouraged.
The journal publishes leading-edge and original manuscripts of no more than 8000 words (inclusive of all tables, figures and references), as well as shorter commentaries of up to 4000 words.
| Michael Batty | University College London, UK |
| Seraphim Alvanides | Northumbria University, UK |
| Daniel Arribas-Bel | University of Liverpool, UK |
| Andrew Crooks | State University of New York at Buffalo |
| Linda See | International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Austria |
| Levi Wolf | University of Bristol, UK |
| Daniel Arribas-Bel | University of Liverpool, UK |
| Danny Dorling | University of Oxford, UK |
| Clio Andris | Georgia Institute of Technology, USA |
| Marc Barthelemy | Institut de Physique Theorique, France |
| Clementine Cottineau | Technical University, Delft, The Netherlands |
| Helen Couclelis | University of California, USA |
| José Pinto Duarte | Pennsylvania State University, USA |
| Dafna Fisher-Gewirtzman | Technion, Haifa, Israel |
| Marta Gonzalez | University of California, Berkeley, USA |
| Yan Liu | Queensland University, Australia |
| Ying Long | Tsinghua University, China |
| Paul Longley | University College London, UK |
| Harvey Miller | Ohio State University, USA |
| John Peponis | Georgia Institute of Technology, USA |
| Pamela Robinson | Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada |
| Somwrita Sarkar | University of Sydney, Australia |
| Philip Steadman | University College London, UK |
| Piyushimita Thakuriah | Rutgers University, NJ, USA |
| Ran Wei | University of California, Riverside, USA |
| Sarah Williams | MIT, USA |
| Yoshiki Yamagata | Keio University, Japan |
| Anthony Yeh | The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong |
| Moira Zellner | Northeastern University, USA |
| Lionel March | University of California, Los Angeles, USA |
Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science
This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics
Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site https://mc04.manuscriptcentral.com/epb 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 Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science 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
2.6 Data - 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 Reference style
4.5 English language editing services
4.6 Author Biographies - 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 Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.
Original Manuscripts:
Articles submitted to the journal are normally around 8000 words in length. This word limit includes all text in the article (abstract, title page, keywords, acknowledgements, references, and any appendices) as well as visual aids such as maps, images or figures. As a guideline, each figure or table is equivalent to between 250 (half page) and 500 (full page) words. For some papers for which a strong visual component is necessary, we may be willing to extend the word count to allow for more figures but authors should be careful only to submit what necessary to advance the core aims and argument of the paper. Submissions that exceed this word limit may be returned for reduction prior to review. We would encourage authors to make good use of the supplementary materials that will appear online with the paper. These supplementary materials can contain additional figures and tables as well as further detailed explanations to accompany the paper.
A separate title page with full contact details (including email addresses) of all authors and any acknowledgements you would like to make, should be uploaded separately from the main document. Identifying information should not be included in your main document or any other uploaded file besides the title page.
Commentaries:
The journal accepts commentaries on topical issues of relevance to research. Commentary submissions should be 1000 to 4000 words in length, including references and any visual aids whose length is calculated as for original manuscripts above. Submissions that exceed this word limit may be returned for reduction prior to editorial review. Commentaries are reviewed internally by editors. Please choose “Commentary” under Manuscript Type on step 1. Proceed through the steps following the instructions at the top of each page. During file upload, you may choose to designate the commentary as a main document (anonymisation in this case is not required).
Should you require any help with submitting on ScholarOne, please email epb@sagepub.co.uk.
Theme Issue Proposals
Please send theme issue proposals to epb@sagepub.co.uk. Theme guest editors should nominate a potential Environment & Planning B editor who they deem to be appropriate for handling their theme issue should the proposal be accepted. Note that we do not consider theme issue proposals that are also being considered by other journals and theme issues usually do not take up a complete issue of the journal.
Typically, proposals for theme issues should contain 4–9 potential papers. In 1–2 pages, theme issue guest editors should provide an overview of the theme issue, its central contribution, and its distinctiveness. Proposals should demonstrate how the papers contribute and engage with the chosen theme. This should be followed by abstracts and brief author bios of each of the proposed papers. If the theme issue is intended as a general call for papers, then indicate this in the proposal. Proposals are reviewed internally by our Editors. (Note that we have a general guideline of one lead-authored paper per contributor.)
A deadline for paper submission is agreed upon with guest editors, who will be requested to provide suggestions for potential referees at the time of submission. A detailed information sheet will be sent to guest editors upon acceptance of the proposal with further details and instructions. It is the responsibility of the guest editors to follow the instructions and to forward the authors’ instructions to their contributors, making sure they too follow the guidelines.
Each of the papers will be reviewed independently according to our standard review procedures for original paper submissions. An abstract for the theme issue is included with each paper as they are submitted for review, for the information of reviewers. Theme issues are scheduled for print publication once the final paper in the collection is accepted. In the (quite rare) event that three or fewer papers are eventually accepted, these will be published as “regular” papers and not as a theme issue.
Urban Data/Code
Papers under the "Urban Data/Code" section are descriptions of Open Data Products (ODPs) or Open Source Software (OSS) that are relevant to the community interested in Urban Analytics and City Science. ODPs are data sets resulting from an analysis or a modelling exercise that are made available to other researchers and thus provide a platform to build on top of. OSS is made up of structured collections of computer code released under open licenses that enable their users to perform operations in a generalisable way and repurpose code from the original context in which they were developed. Further background on the rationale for this type of paper can be found in this editorial.
Urban Data/Code papers do *not* include the artifact itself (ODP or OSS). Instead, it is a requirement for submission that the artifact has been published in a publicly accessible repository that ensures its continuing accessibility over time, whether it is an ODP (e.g., Figshare, Dataverse, UK Data Service) or OSS (e.g., Github, pip, CRAN).
When submitting your data/code, please choose “Urban Data/Code” under Manuscript Type in step 1. Manuscripts are short, no more than 3,000 words in length including all text in the article as well as visual aids such as maps, images or figures. As a guideline, each figure or table is equivalent to between 250 (half page) and 500 (full page) words. If more figures, tables or descriptions were to be included, authors can rely on supplementary materials in a similar fashion to how they operate for Original Manuscripts.
Featured Graphics
Featured graphic submissions are reviewed by our Graphics Editor Danny Dorling: danny.dorling@ouce.ox.ac.uk. Decisions are made once the month you submitted in has passed. For example, if you submit in January, you should expect a decision in early February.
When submitting your graphic, please choose “Featured Graphics” under Manuscript Type on step 1. Proceed through the steps following the instructions at the top of each page. During file upload, you may choose to designate the graphic as a main document. Anonymisation is not required. Very occassionally, a slightly longer featured graphic is considered for publication, in which case it is listed when published in the journal as a "Hybrid featured graphic". However, please note that this is rare. Featured graphics should aim to include only one graphic and about 400 words of commentary, in addition to a brief list of references."
Should you require any help with submitting on ScholarOne, please email katie.nudd@fl.nudd.org.uk.
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. 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
All manuscripts submitted to Environment & Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science are subject to a single anonymize peer review process in which the author’s name is withheld from the reviewer. Please ensure that your paper is fully anonymised. All papers are reviewed by at least 2 individuals.
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.
Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.
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.
2.3.2 Writing assistance
Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance. It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.
Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science 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 Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science 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 acknowledges the importance of research data availability as an integral part of the research and verification process for academic journal articles.
Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science requests all authors submitting any primary data used in their research articles alongside their article submissionsto be published in the online version of the journal, or provide detailed information in their articles on how the data can be obtained. This information should include links to third-party data repositories or detailed contact information for third-party data sources. Data available only on an author-maintained website will need to be loaded onto either the journal’s platform or a third-party platform to ensure continuing accessibility.
Examples of data types include but are not limited to statistical data files, replication code, text files, audio files, images, videos, appendices, and additional charts and graphs necessary to understand the original research. The editor(s) may consider limited embargoes on proprietary data. The editors can also grant exceptions for data that cannot legally or ethically be released. All data submitted should comply with Institutional or Ethical Review Board requirements and applicable government regulations.
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 Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science 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 Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science 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. Embed your tables and figures directly into the Word document, placing them as close as possible to where they are referred to in the text. Tables should be editable and created using 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. You can upload high resolution figures as separate files to the system, either during initial submission or during the revision stage, but you should also embed them directly in the Word document as outlined above in section 4.1 to facilitate the review process.
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.
4.2.1 Maths
Equations should to be submitted using Office Math ML and Math type.
This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article.
- There should be only one file (Word) and it should be called SupplementaryMaterial.docx.
- All figures should be numbered Figure S1, Figure S2, and all tables should be numbered Table S1, Table S2, etc.
- In the main manuscript, these figures and tables should be referred to as Figure S1, Table S1 etc.
- The format of the SupplementaryMaterial.docx is freeform so Authors can provide a description of methods, etc, provided it is labelled and Authors refer to it in the main manuscript as, for example, “see the Methods section of the Supplementary Materials”.
For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files
Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science adheres to the Sage Harvard reference style. View the Sage Harvard guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.
If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the Sage Harvard EndNote output file
4.5 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.
Please provide an author biography of 80-120 words. Author biographies must be included in the title page of the manuscript and not in the text file so as not to compromise anonymize peer review.
Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc04.manuscriptcentral.com/epb 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.
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 persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher 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 recognised.
We encourage all authors to add their ORCIDs to their Sage Track accounts and include their ORCIDs as part of the submission process. If you don’t already have one you can create one here
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 Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science editorial office as follows: