About This Journal
Cities and the Environment (CATE), a web-based journal, aims to provide an international forum for urban researchers and practitioners to explore social-ecological theories, share relevant data, and exchange best practices. Audiences that this journal targets include the biophysical, social, and educational aspects of urban management, landscape transformation and educational interventions. The ability of online, open access publishing to reach the widest readership possible, and the publisher’s goal to keep this journal free of charge for authors produce a scholarly environment where the audience can exchange ideas and findings that contribute to continued positive urban transformations.
If you have any questions about the appropriateness of Cities and the Environment as a venue for publishing your work, please contact the editors.
Article Types
CATE publishes original research articles, practitioner and research notes, comments and perspective pieces, letters to the editor, book reviews, and more. Please read the descriptions carefully before submitting your manuscript.
Article
An article presents original research findings in the broad scope of urban ecology. Articles provide a brief background on the research, clear and concise methodology, and report findings, contextualizing these within the wider literature or their relevance to practical and policy applications.Articles may report on field-based or desk-based research (including reviews), and they will be evaluated for rigor and relevance. As a guideline, articles can be between 5,000 and 10,000 words long, and can have up to five tables, figures, and multimedia presentations. However, the journal can accommodate cases where these limits are exceeded to add reasonable value. Articles have:
1. An abstract of between 200 and 500 words summarizing the research question, methods, findings, and implications;2. Five to seven keywords distinct from those used in the article title; and
3. Sections outlining the background, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion.
Authors are asked to suggest at least three reviewers who have not collaborated with them in the past three years, and have no conflict of interest otherwise.
Special Issue Items
Special issues are generally time-limited issues curated by dedicated editors who invite author submissions. Please see the Journal Homepage for open calls for special issues. If you have been invited by editors, please select the relevant special issue from the dropdown. If neither in response to an open call or an editor invitation, please submit your work as an article or one of the other categories below. To propose a special issue, please contact the editors.Practitioner Note
A practitioner note reports on observations and outcomes related to field-based events or practice. Observations are situated within their specific context, but contribute data points, examples, or field notes of interest to urban ecology. Practitioner notes can be up to 5,000 words long, with up to three tables, figure, or multimedia presentations. They are evaluated for utility to the field and clarity of content.Authors are asked to suggest three reviewers who have not collaborated with them recently, and have no conflict of interest otherwise.
Research Note
A research note reports on field-based or desk-based research on methodology or practice. Notes are context-specific but widely applicable, and can contribute data points, examples, or methodological notes of interest to urban ecology. Research notes can be up to 5,000 words long, with up to three tables, figure, or multimedia presentations. They are evaluated for utility to the field and clarity of content.Authors are asked to suggest three reviewers who have not collaborated with them recently, and have no conflict of interest otherwise.
Comment, Perspective, or Response
A comment, perspective, or response piece presents novel ideas or opinions grounded in current affairs. Such a piece provides a concise introduction to the state of the knowledge, and develops the idea(s), concluding with implications for research and practice. It is evaluated for rigor and relevance. A comment, perspective, or response piece can be up to 5,000 words long, accompanied by up to three tables, figures, or multimedia presentations. It has an abstract of 200 to 500 words summarizing the ideas and implications, and five to seven keywords distinct from those used in the article title.Authors are asked to suggest three reviewers who have not collaborated with them recently, and have no conflict of interest otherwise.
Letter to Editor
Letters to the editor address timely, urgent, and important developments in urban social-ecological research and practice. These could include ideas and viewpoints on events, findings, policy, theory, etc. Letters should objectively reference and summarize the development in discussion. Letters can be up to 2,500 words long, and can include one table, figure, or multimedia presentation.Editorial
Editorials typically are submitted by guest editors handling a special issue, or by invited editors. To express interest in editing an issue, please contact the editors.Conference Proceedings
Conference proceedings compile the research presented at a conference, in formats including multimedia presentations, posters, reports, research notes and papers, and workshop summaries. Please contact the editors to discuss further if your conference proceedings fit the scope. Please see the Submission Guidelines to see the content and formats that the journal supports.Book Review
A book review provides an engaging synthesis of a book within the broad scope of urban ecology. The book reviewed may be contemporary, classic, controversial, or arcane, but the review makes it accessible and relevant to curious readers. Book reviews can be up to 2,500 words long, and may include one table, figure, or multimedia presentation. Examples of books that may be of interest to readers and reviewers: Aitkenhead-Peterson, J., & Volder, A. (2010). Urban ecosystem ecology. Madison: American Society of Agronomy.Dhyani, S., Basu, M., Santhanam, H., & Dasgupta, R. (Eds.). (2022). Blue-green Infrastructure Across Asian Countries: Improving Urban Resilience and Sustainability. Springer.
Head, L., Atchison, J., Phillips, C., & Buckingham, K. (Eds.). (2017). Vegetal politics: Belonging, practices and places. Routledge.
Isenhour, C., McDonogh, G., & Checker, M. (Eds.). (2015). Sustainability in the global city: myth and practice. Cambridge University Press.
Lepczyk, C. A., & Warren, P. S. (Eds.). (2012). Urban bird ecology and conservation (Vol. 45). Univ of California Press.
MacGregor-Fors, I., & Escobar-Ibáñez, J. F. (Eds.). (2017). Avian ecology in Latin American cityscapes. Springer.
McCleery, R. A., Moorman, C. E., & Peterson, M. N. (Eds.). (2014). Urban wildlife conservation: theory and practice. Springer.
Nagendra, H. (2016). Nature in the city: Bengaluru in the past, present, and future. Oxford University Press.
Sachdeva, S., Campbell, L. K., Johnson, M. L., & Svendsen, E. S. (2022). The COVID-19 pandemic's transformation of human relationships with nature at multiple scales. Frontiers in Sustainable Cities, 4, 1003979.
Shackleton, C. M., Cilliers, S. S., du Toit, M. J., & Davoren, E. (2021). The need for an urban ecology of the Global South (pp. 1-26). Springer International Publishing.
