Submissions

Author Guidelines

• Town and Regional Planning publishes articles in English, with a desired length of 4,000 to 8,000 words (excluding references). Articles must be written in third person.
• Submit a typed copy in electronic format via the online portal.
• Formatting: MS Word, Times New Roman, font size 12, single spacing. Paragraphs should start on a new line, not indented. All illustrations, figures, and tables should be placed within the text. Tables must be in editable format, not images, with text in Times New Roman, font size 10, single spacing. Table borders must be ¼ pt width.
• Articles on relevant topics in town, urban, and regional planning, well-presented, clearly written, and proofread, will be considered for publication.
• The Editor may alter articles to align with the journal’s style. If referees suggest large changes, the article will be returned to the author for revisions.
• Copyright is transferred to the author(s) upon article acceptance.
• Titles must be concise and informative, with suitable headings and sub-headings. Titles must be in both Afrikaans and English. Editorial staff can assist.
• The abstract (250 words) should start with 2–3 sentences introducing the field and research problem, followed by 2–3 sentences outlining research methods, a one-sentence main finding(s) (or conclusions, in the case of a Review Article), and 2–3 sentences placing the findings in context. Abstracts do not include references.
• Provide relevant keywords in English after the abstract.
• The introduction should overview the topic, present prior research, and then justify the research’s relevance explaining why it is important to be addressed right now. Link it to current issues or gaps in existing literature and/or theories.
• Literature reviews should identify international research on similar topics and indicate a clear gap in research articles related to international cutting-edge research. Authors should clearly demonstrate how their research relates to that of other scholars on similar topics.
• The study area must be after the literature review and must not be part of the methodology section.
• The methods section should describe what was done to answer the research question, describe how it was done, justify the experimental design, and explain how the results were analysed. It must include the following sections: 1) Research design, 2) Population, sampling, and response rate, 3) Data collection, 4) Data analysis and how to interpret the results, 5) Limitations to the study (can be in discussion or conclusion).
• The discussion section should explain and evaluate what you found, showing how the results relates to your literature review and paper topic, and making an argument in support of your overall conclusion.
• The conclusions must not be a summary of the results but should focus on the contribution of the findings to the field, highlighting their relevance both within the discipline and across other areas. Begin with broad implications, followed by specific contributions. The significance should be communicated in a way that engages not only specialists but also a broader audience, using clear, accessible language.
• For sections and subsections use Arabic numbers with full stops in-between, i.e. 1. Followed by 1.1 and 1.1.1 up to the maximum of three levels. After that use an (a).
• Source references in the text must be in the Harvard style of referencing. i.e. (Healey, 1996: 201-202).
• In-text page numbers: Include page numbers to in-text references when incorporating a direct quotation into a sentence, paraphrase a passage, summarise an idea from a particular page, mention statistics, or you wish to direct the readers to a specific page. Page numbers are not necessary if you are referring to the entire work as a whole. Use a colon to indicate the page number e.g.: (Chunga et al., 2016: 5-7).
• Use of et al.: 4 authors, or more - first citation is immediately truncated to the first author’s surname and the abbreviation ‘et al.’ follows.
• Foot- and endnotes are likewise done in the Harvard style of referencing and be included at the bottom of the page.
• The references list (in the journal inhouse Harvard style of referencing) must contain all the relevant information, and be listed alphabetically according to the names of the authors, i.e. HEALEY, P. 1997. Collaborative planning.  London: McGraw-Hill.
• URLs for the references of internet documents cited in the text and listed in the references must accompany the article. Also, indicate the date that the internet sites were visited.
• Abbreviations must be limited and only used for corporations etc. in general use, then only after it was written out in full at first, with the abbreviation in brackets. After this the abbreviated form is used.
• Words in other languages and stereotyped Latin terms such as per se must be in italics. Italics must be used sparsely. Emphasis must be in single inverted commas.
• Diagrams, maps, and photos should be submitted as TIF or JPEG (300 dpi) and captions must be provided in the text. Computer graphics are welcome but must be camera-ready on A4 paper with clear text and markings.
• Tables and Figures containing statistics, research output and conceptual frameworks must be in editable format in Word or Excel and not as image files.
• Indicate the origin of the article, i.e. if it was presented at a congress, or from a master’s or PhD study. Articles must be unpublished and not under consideration elsewhere.
• Authors may suggest three potential referees (outside their institution).
• All submissions must be accompanied by a signed Authors Agreement and  Publishing Agreement. 
• Note:  There are no submission fees or article-processing charges.