Author Guidelines

Official Manuscript Template

All manuscripts must be prepared using the official JPD Manuscript Template. Authors are not permitted to modify the basic page layout, formatting structure, or required manuscript sections.

Download the Official JPD Manuscript Template (.docx)

Related Author Resources

Authors are encouraged to review the following pages before submission to ensure compliance with the journal’s editorial, ethical, formatting, and publication requirements.

• Author Forms and Templates
• Submission Request
• Publication Process
• Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement
• Plagiarism and Similarity Policy
• Peer Review Policy
• Article Processing Charges (APC) and Publication Fees
• Copyright and Licensing

Editorial Role and Conflict-of-Interest Disclosure

Authors who are the Editor-in-Chief, Managing Editor, Associate Editors, Editorial Board members, reviewers, or journal staff of JPD must disclose their role in the journal at the time of submission. Such submissions are not prohibited, but they are handled under strict conflict-of-interest safeguards and full editorial independence.

When a manuscript is submitted by any person involved in the journal’s editorial or administrative process, that person is excluded from all stages of editorial handling, reviewer selection, peer review management, editorial discussion, and final decision-making for that manuscript. The manuscript is assigned to an independent handling editor who has no conflict of interest with the author(s).

Manuscripts submitted by editors or Editorial Board members are subject to the same editorial screening, similarity checking, ethical requirements, peer review standards, revision procedures, and acceptance criteria applied to all other submissions. No preferential treatment, accelerated review, reduced scholarly requirements, or automatic acceptance is permitted.

Where applicable, the published article may include an Editorial Independence Statement confirming that the author was not involved in editorial handling, reviewer selection, peer review, or final decision-making for the manuscript.

View Peer Review Policy for Editorial Independence Procedures

1. Types of Manuscripts

JPD accepts only the following types of manuscripts:

1. Original Research Articles
2. Review Articles

The journal does not accept descriptive reports, consultancy documents, opinion papers, project summaries, technical software demonstrations, or manuscripts that do not present a clear scholarly contribution to urban and regional planning knowledge, methodology, policy, or practice.

2. Aims and Scope

JPD welcomes high-quality manuscripts that fall within one or more of the following thematic areas:

This area includes research on urban planning, regional planning, urbanization, urban transformations, contemporary planning systems, history of planning thought, Arab cities and cultural transformations, urban governance, planning policies, and planning laws and regulations. Submissions should contribute to the development, critique, or application of planning theory and practice.

This area includes research on urban sustainability, climate change and urban adaptation, environmental planning, environmental pollution, urban resilience, green infrastructure, natural resource management, low-carbon planning, and urban environmental sustainability. Submissions should clarify the spatial, environmental, policy, or governance implications of the study.

This area includes research on urban design, public spaces, housing planning, the built environment, quality of urban life, urban morphology, urban heritage, community-oriented design, and built environment studies. Manuscripts should provide analytical, spatial, design-related, social, or policy insights into the form, function, experience, and transformation of urban environments.

This area includes research on Geographic Information Systems (GIS), remote sensing, urban spatial analysis, operations research in planning, urban modeling, smart cities, artificial intelligence in planning, urban big data, and spatial analysis of development. Submissions using GIS, remote sensing, modeling, AI, or spatial technologies must demonstrate clear relevance to urban and regional planning.

This area includes research on urban economy, urban sociology, urban geography, rural–urban development, tourism planning, industrial sites and spatial development, spatial justice, demographic transformations, and the spatial dimensions of economic and social development.

23. Submission Files

Authors should prepare and submit the following files according to the journal’s requirements:

1. Main manuscript file prepared according to the official JPD Manuscript Template.
2. Title page including author names, affiliations, and corresponding author email.
3. Cover letter addressed to the Editor-in-Chief.
4. Author declaration form confirming originality, authorship, non-submission elsewhere, conflict-of-interest disclosure, and editorial role disclosure where applicable.
5. Editorial role declaration, where any author is the Editor-in-Chief, Managing Editor, Associate Editor, Editorial Board member, reviewer, or journal staff member of JPD.
6. Copyright and License Agreement.
7. AI Use Declaration Form, where applicable or where requested by the journal.
8. Ethics approval statement or ethics exemption statement, where applicable.
9. Supplementary files, datasets, maps, figures, appendices, or permissions, where applicable.

For double-blind review, the main manuscript should not include identifying information where required by the editorial office. Authors who hold any editorial role in JPD must not include such information in the anonymized manuscript file, but must disclose it separately in the title page, cover letter, or author declaration form.