Editorial Guidelines

URSDJ is committed to maintaining the highest standards of academic integrity, scholarly quality, and ethical conduct in research involving spatial and social transformations.

1. Submission and Initial Evaluation

  • Scope: Manuscripts must present original research or critical reviews in Urban Planning, Rural Sociology, Regional Development, and Migration Studies.

  • Plagiarism Screening: All submissions undergo Turnitin checks with a strict 15% similarity threshold.

  • Formatting: Submissions must adhere to URSDJ guidelines, including structured abstracts, IMRAD format for empirical studies, and APA style referencing.

  • Licensing: Published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license.

2. Peer Review Policy

  • Double-Blind Review: Confidentiality is strictly maintained; at least two independent experts review each submission.

  • Review Timelines: Reviewers are requested to submit evaluations within 2 to 4 weeks to ensure timely scholarly discourse.

3. Editorial Decision-Making

  • Outcomes: Accept, Request Revisions (Minor/Major), or Reject based on peer input and spatial-social relevance.

  • Appeals: Authors may appeal decisions via written justification to the Editor-in-Chief.

4. Ethical Standards

  • Research Ethics: Studies involving community participants must provide informed consent and ethical clearance.

  • Authorship: All listed authors must have made a substantial intellectual contribution to the work.

5. Post-Publication Policy

  • Corrections/Retractions: Formal Errata or Retractions are issued for factual errors or ethical violations.

  • Archiving: Content is digitally preserved in secure repositories for long-term accessibility.