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Urban Transformations is an inter- and transdisciplinary open access journal. We offer a publishing and discussion platform for people engaged in science, policy and practice, targeting real-life impact. We invite contributions that address transformative urban change in the global North and South, and help to practically shape it towards sustainability. 

For articles submitted in 2023, Urban Transformations has waivers available that can be allocated on acceptance.

Aims and scope

Urban transformations are of vital importance for the future of humanity and ecosystem Earth. They demand deep and accelerated changes in urban patterns and processes across all spheres of life, and from local to global. New knowledge on the subject, dynamics and directions of urban change is dearly needed to shift current development trajectories in the global North and South towards sustainability.

We invite contributions from any disciplines addressing these issues. The journal seeks to deepen and broaden current understandings theoretically, empirically and methodologically. There is a need for novel perspectives, drawing on ontological and epistemological multiplicity, inter- and transdisciplinary approaches. We welcome comparative research designs, as well as innovative methods and techniques. Special attention will be given to outcomes from science-practice co-production and co-design.
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We welcome the following article types:

  • Research Original research work on the subject, dynamics or direction of urban transformations.
  • Review Reviews explore, question, interpret or synthesize the available urban transformation literature on a selected topic.
  • Frontiers paper Frontiers papers propose new research topics, approaches or concepts for advancing the science and practice of urban transformations.
  • Perspective Short discussions that present thought-provoking arguments from researchers or practitioners. 
  • Focus point Succinct and informative reports on outstanding practice cases of urban transformations.

Open article collections

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Editors' selection

The project-partnership cycle: managing city-university partnerships for urban sustainability and resilience transformations
Caughman, L., Beaudoin, F. & Withycombe Keeler, L. (2023)

The partnership project cycle and positive feedback loop
The partnership project cycle and positive feedback loop

Contribute to our open article collections
Our ongoing article collections focus on selected topics and are open for submissions on a continuous basis.

Note: article collections can also be referred to as special issues or thematic collections.

Propose a new article collection

Information on APC waivers and discounts at Springer Nature

Browse all articles

  1. Authors: Leslie Mabon, Ben Connor, Alice Moncaster, Catherine Pearce, Eleanor Pratt, Wan-Yu Shih, Meng-Chin Tsai, Jitka Vseteckova, Verina Waights and Ruth Wolstenholme

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Particularly interesting articles are promoted via our BMC blog, where authors are invited to write a short piece summarizing their publication.

Annual Journal Metrics

  • 2022 Speed
    73 days submission to first editorial decision for all manuscripts (Median)
    377 days submission to accept (Median)

    2022 Usage 
    49,859 downloads
    319 Altmetric mentions 

Funding your APC

Open access funding and policy support by SpringerOpen​​

​​​​We offer a free open access support service to make it easier for you to discover and apply for article-processing charge (APC) funding. Learn more here

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Visit the membership page to check if your institution is a member and learn how you could save on article-processing charges (APCs).