The Journal of Public Space

"Public space in cities is a common good, meant to be open, inclusive and democratic, a fundamental human right for everybody."

Dr Luisa Bravo
The Journal of Public Space, Founder and Editor in Chief
City Space Architecture, Founding Member and President
(from the statement submitted at the 26th UN-Habitat Governing Council held in Nairobi, Kenya, 8-12 May 2017)
Stand up for Public Space!  |  UN-Habitat Global Urban Lecture by Dr Luisa Bravo (watch the lecture here)  |  A global campaign launched at the Habitat III conference in Quito, Ecuador, 2016 (join the campign here)

 

The Journal of Public Space (ISSN 2206-9658) is a research project developed by City Space Architecture, a non-profit organization based in Italy, in partnership with UN-Habitat, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, based in Kenya.
The Journal of Public Space is the first, international, interdisciplinary, academic, open access journal entirely dedicated to public space. It speaks different languages and is open to embrace diversity, inconvenient dialogues and untold stories, from multidisciplinary fields and all countries, especially from those that usually do not have voice, overcoming the Western-oriented approach that is leading the current discourse.
As a proper public space, The Journal of Public Space is free, accessible and inclusive, providing a platform for emerging and consolidated researchers; it is intended to foster research, showcase best practices and inform discussion about the more and more important issues related to public spaces in our changing and evolving societies.

Read more about the Editorial Team.

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Focus and scope
Established on a well-consolidated global network of scholars and professionals, The Journal of Public Space is committed to expand current scholarship by offering a global perspective and providing the opportunity for unheard countries to speak up and to discuss neglected as well as emerging topics that are usually sidelined in mainstream knowledge.
The Journal of Public Space is addressing social sciences and humanities as a major field, and is interested also in attracting scholars from other disciplines. It performs as a scholarly journal but also as an interdisciplinary platform of discussion and exchange by scholars, professionals, organizations, artists, activists and citizens, whose activities are related to public space, with papers on design projects, art performances and social practices, fostering civic engagement and non-expert knowledge.
Read more about the topics we are interested in discussing for a multifaceted and transdisciplinary discourse.

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Open access policy
The Journal of Public Space provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.
The Journal of Public Space is published through an Open Journal Systems as part of the Public Knowledge Project (PKP). 
Authors retain copyright for articles published in The Journal of Public Space, with first publication rights granted to the journal. Authors who publish with The Journal of Public Space agree to the following terms:
a. authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the 'Work' simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence that allows others to share the Work with an acknowledgement of the Work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
b. authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the 'Work' (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
c. authors are permitted and encouraged to post their 'Work' online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published Work (see The Effect of Open Access).
Articles in The Journal of Public Space l are published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial Licence (CC-BY-NC). This is to get more legal certainty about what readers can do with published articles, and thus a wider dissemination and archiving, which in turn makes publishing with this journal more valuable for you, the authors.
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial Licence (CC-BY-NC) – what does that mean?
You are free to:
• Share - copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
• Adapt - remix, transform, and build upon the material
Under the following terms:
• Attribution - You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
• NonCommercial - You may not use the material for commercial purposes.

The Journal of Public Space complies with I4OC standards for open citations.

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Article processing charges (APCs)
The Journal of Public Space does not require authors to pay any article processing charges (APCs) when submitting an article for possible publication, so it is a Diamond Open Access journal.
Read about Green, Gold and Diamond Open Access.

What is an open access journal? Read more here.

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Peer review policy
A double blind peer review process, based on a distinguished board of editors and editorial advisors, will ensure the quality and high standards of research papers. All contributions will be initially assessed by the Editor-in-Chief for suitability for the journal. Later each paper will be assessed by at least two independent reviewers and any identifying information in relation to the author will be removed during the review process. Reviewers follow an evaluation framework and recommendation guidelines to ensure objectivity and fairness.
An editorial review is applied to viewpoints, case studies and portfolios, engaging qualified guest editors with a specific expertise in public space practice.
Submitted articles should not have been previously published. If publication or dissemination through presentation has occurred, then the article should acknowledge this and pay due credit to the original source.
The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the final decision regarding acceptance or rejection of articles. The Editor-in-Chief's decision is final.
Read more about our peer review process.

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Publication frequency
The Journal of Public Space is published 3 times per year. One or more special issues, focusing on specific topics, could be published every year.

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Archiving

The Journal of Public Space is included in LOCKSS archival system.

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Privacy statement
The names and email addresses entered in The Journal of Public Space 's website will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of the journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party. The data collected from registered and non-registered users of this journal falls within the scope of the standard functioning of peer-reviewed journals. It includes information that makes communication possible for the editorial process; it is used to inform readers about the authorship and editing of content; it enables collecting aggregated data on readership behaviours, as well as tracking geopolitical and social elements of scholarly communication.
The Journal of Public Space's Editorial Team uses this data to guide its work in publishing and improving this journal. Data that will assist in developing this publishing platform may be shared with its developer Public Knowledge Project in an anonymized and aggregated form, with appropriate exceptions such as article metrics. The data will not be sold by this journal or PKP nor will it be used for purposes other than those stated here. The authors published in this journal are responsible for the human subject data that figures in the research reported here.
Those involved in editing this journal seek to be compliant with industry standards for data privacy, including the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provision for “data subject rights” that include (a) breach notification; (b) right of access; (c) the right to be forgotten; (d) data portability; and (e) privacy by design. The GDPR also allows for the recognition of “the public interest in the availability of the data” which has a particular saliency for those involved in maintaining, with the greatest integrity possible, the public record of scholarly publishing.

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Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement
The Journal of Public Space aligns itself with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) best practice guidelines for dealing with ethical issues in journal publishing and has adopted the COPE guidelines which the journal members (Scientific Board, Advisory Boards, Editorial Board and the Journal Manager) have agreed meet the purposes and objectives of the Journal.
COPE provides international standards for authors of scholarly research publications and describes responsible research reporting practice. They may be summarised as follows:
- the research being reported should have been conducted in an ethical and responsible manner and should comply with all relevant legislation;
- researchers should present their results clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification or inappropriate data manipulation; they should strive to describe their methods clearly and unambiguously so that their findings can be confirmed by others; they should adhere to publication requirements that submitted work is original, is not plagiarised, and has not been published elsewhere;
- authors should take collective responsibility for submitted and published work;
- the authorship of research publications should accurately reflect individuals’ contributions to the work and its reporting;
- funding sources and relevant conflicts of interest should be disclosed.
The Journal of Public Space ethic statements are based on COPE's Core practices.
Read our full statement on Publication Ethics and Malpractice.

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Distribution of printed copies

The Journal of Public Space is an online resource. We usually do not print copies for authors, but we are interested to distribute printed copies to libraries and research institutions, upon request.
For any further information please contact our partner Genius Saeculi at info@genius-saeculi.com, that is in charge of printing and distribution.