Aims & Scope
Earth is urbanizing. Today, more than half of humanity lives in cities. Yet this trend is old and manifold. Cities emerged millenia ago and reflect both a unity and a diversity of inhabitants, histories and geographies. Cities concentrate socio-environmental processes, act as bellwethers and catalyze transformations. Studying cities is vital for knowing ourselves and our prospects.
Aims
Nature Cities aims to deepen and integrate basic and applied understanding of the character and dynamics of cities, including their roles, impacts and influences — past, present and future. The journal will feature cutting-edge research presenting interesting findings through a range of qualitative and quantitative methods, as well as synthetic reviews and timely news and opinions. We encourage research and views from and about the Global South and other geographies that have traditionally been marginalized from urban scholarship. By bringing together diverse content and voices, Nature Cities aims to transcend divides among disciplines, among regions and among researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and the public.
Like all Nature-branded journals, Nature Cities has a dedicated team of professional editors, a fair and rigorous peer-review process, high standards of copy-editing and production, swift publication and editorial independence.
Scope
Nature Cities will cover the full scope of research, opinion, and ideas relevant to understanding cities broadly. This includes coverage that is global, regional and local, and that features diverse voices and viewpoints, including those with practical and policy relevance. We strongly welcome and encourage research from and about traditionally understudied and underrepresented geographies. We welcome both quantitative and qualitative research on the following topics and fields, recognizing that much scholarship today is interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary and in emerging areas.
- Adaptation
- Anthropology
- Archaeology
- Architecture
- Community science
- Development studies
- Digital humanities
- Diversity, equity, inclusion and justice
- Ecology, evolution and behavior
- Education
- Economics
- Engineering (for example, civil, transportation, environmental)
- Epidemiology
- Geography
- Global change
- Governance
- Hazards
- Health
- Heritage and conservation
- History
- Housing
- Informatics
- Infrastructure
- Landscape architecture
- Management
- Philosophy (for example, aesthetics, ethics)
- Policy and law
- Pollution
- Political science
- Psychology
- Real estate
- Regional and area studies
- Resilience
- Resource issues (for example, energy, materials, water)
- Sanitation
- Smart cities
- Sociology
- Social phenomena (for example, activism, crime, social movements)
- Sustainability
- Theory
- Transportation and logistics
- Urban planning
- Urban studies
- Urban science
