Author Guidelines

Dear Authors,

These instructions are intended to provide information on:

• The three categories of text “Forschungsbeitrag / Research Article”, “Kommentar / Commentary” and “Rezension / Book review”,
• The format “Special issues”,
• Formalities such as standardised sections of papers, formatting standards, citations, reference lists etc.,
• Terms of submission,
• The refereeing process,
• Author fees (APCs),
• Open access licensing,
• Ethical guidelines and plagiarism
• Contacting the editorial team.

“Raumforschung und Raumordnung | Spatial Research and Planning (RuR)” will consider for review original articles only. Submission of an original manuscript to RuR will be taken to mean that the article is original, has not been published in any other peer-reviewed journal, is not under consideration for publication by any other journal and does not infringe any existing copyright or any other third party rights. Authors retain the copyright.

RuR will consider for review articles previously available as preprints, on condition that the authors agree to the following:

• The authors retain copyright to the preprint and are permitted to submit it to the journal.
• The authors declare that a preprint is available within the cover letter presented during submission. This must include a link to the location of the preprint.
• Should the submission be published, the authors are expected to update the information associated with the preprint version to show that a final version has been published in the journal, including the DOI linking directly to the publication.
• Any previous publication as a preprint should be disclosed in the paper.

Before we submit your text for refereeing, we carry out a Technical Check to ensure that the formalities have been adhered to. If this is not the case, we will return your paper to you for reworking. We therefore ask that you pay close attention to the Instructions for Authors provided and to contact the editorial team should any questions arise.

The Guide for Authors is also available for download as pdf.

We wish you all the best for productive writing and look forward to receiving your text.

The Editor-in-Chief

 

1.      Text categories

In “Raumforschung und Raumordnung | Spatial Research and Planning” (RuR) a distinction is made between three types of text (“Forschungsbeitrag / Research Article”, “Kommentar / Commentary”, “Rezension / Book review”).

The texts may be submitted in German or English. You should also provide metadata (Titel/title, Kurzfassung/abstract, Schlüsselwörter/keywords) in the other language.

 

1.1.     Forschungsbeitrag / Research Article

In the category “Forschungsbeitrag / Research Article” papers are published that primarily contribute to the national or international discourse in spatial sciences. It is expected that articles include:

• An appraisal of the state of research and the positioning of the paper with its research interests and questions in this body of knowledge,
• A consideration of the research object from a theoretical and conceptual perspective and/or using an empirical and analytical basis,
• A clear presentation of the methodological approach and the set(s) of data used,
• A critical reflection of the chosen methodology and the findings obtained,
• A succinct conclusion that critically evaluates the research results and positions them in the relevant spatial science debate,
• If appropriate, a consideration of the need for further research.

Submitted papers are not to exceed 60,000 characters (excluding spaces but including tables, abstracts, footnotes and references). If figures are included, the length of the paper should be reduced appropriately. As a rule, you can calculate 2,000 characters for a DIN A5 figure.

 

1.2.     Kommentar / Commentary

In the category "Commentary", short texts are published, whose subject matter can be considered highly relevant to current and future territorial development and spatial planning and enriches the field of research. Usually, the manuscripts do not undergo peer review, but are checked by the editors. Expected are:

• a concrete reference to current debates, publications, position papers or events,
• accentuated statements and perspectives intended to stimulate controversial discussions,
• polarising statements or positions on specific issues, preferably beyond the "mainstream",
• responses to critical comments in this journal.

The text should be between 5,000 and 8,000 characters (excluding spaces). Figures and tables should be avoided as far as possible. Only references that support the point of view should be cited.

 

1.3.     Rezension / Book review

The critical discussion of (new) scientific publications is particularly important both in the wider scientific community and among specialist groups. It is expected that reviews include:

• A positioning and contextualisation of the publication in the relevant research context and discourse,
• A concise summary of the contents of the publication,
• Your own opinion of the topic of the publication and/or the way in which the topic is presented and addressed.

Submitted manuscripts should be between 5,000 and 8,000 characters (excluding spaces) in length. The editors-in-chief should always be consulted before preparation of a book review and will decide whether the book in question is suitable for reviewing in RuR.

 

2.      Special issues

In “Raumforschung und Raumordnung | Spatial Research and Planning” special issues are published at irregular intervals. These special issues have a particular spatial science focus and are compiled through an open or targeted Call for Papers in German and English, which is available among other on the journal’s website (under “About” / “Supplementary Materials”; see also the separate document “Call for Special Issue Proposals”).

If you are interested in initiating a special issue, please contact the editor-in-chief Prof. Dr. Andreas Klee: email: andreas.klee@arl-net.de; phone: +49 511 348 42-39. He will then coordinate all further steps with you.

Please note that submitting a proposal for a special issue does not guarantee that it will be accepted. All proposals will be subject to a review process. The final decision about accepting or rejecting a proposal is made by the editors.

 

3.      Formalities

3.1.     Title page

The title page must include the following information:

• The names of all the authors as they should appear in the published version of the text,
• The title of the paper in German and English
• Affiliation(s) and their postal address(es), and email addresses of all author(s)
• An indication of which author is acting as the corresponding author,
• If available: the 16-digit ORCID of all authors,
• A Kurzfassung (German) and an abstract (English) in line with the guidelines provided in Section 3.2,
• Approximately five Schlüsselwörter (German) and keywords (English) in line with the guidelines provided in Section 3.3,
• Information on "Acknowledgement", "Funding" and "Competing interests" (potential conflicts of interest) in English language.

A Word template is provided for the title page, which must be used and uploaded with the submission.

If a change of institute occurs (or has occurred), the institute named should be the one where substantive parts of the work emerged and especially where the empirical research was conducted. If this cannot be clearly determined or the research included in the paper was equally divided between two institutes, both institutes should be named.

If the research was financed or partially financed by third parties, the funding body is to be named with the following information: funding body, funding number, funding programme if appropriate (please submit in the appropriate position in the Open Journal System, too). If relevant, please also name conferences, seminars, workshops etc. at which you have presented the work, whether in its entirety or in part. Please include the names and dates of the events.

If the authors do not have any additional information to provide on "Acknowledgement", "Funding" and "Competing interests", this should be listed as a basic information:

Acknowledgement: We would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.                                              Funding: This work received no external funding.                                                                                                                                Competing interests: The author(s) declare(s) no competing interests.

 

3.2.     Kurzfassung/Abstract

If a paper is submitted in the category “Forschungsbeitrag / Research Article”, the main text should be preceded by a German Kurzfassung and an English abstract.

A Kurzfassung/an abstract is a standalone text within the paper, which concisely summarises the key points of the paper and positions them in the scientific discourse. It should not, for example, be a summary of the introduction or conclusion and should also not include abbreviations or references. It is expected that authors take due care when writing the Kurzfassung/abstract. If the Kurzfassung/abstract is not of sufficiently high quality, the editors-in-chief reserve the right to return the text to the authors for the Kurzfassung/abstract to be rewritten.

Kurzfassung and abstract should each be between 1,000 and a maximum of 1,400 characters (without spaces).

 

3.3.     Schlüsselwörter/keywords

If a paper is submitted in the category “Forschungsbeitrag / Research Article”, the main text should be preceded by approximately five keywords in German and English.

 

3.4.     Citations and references

In the journal “Raumforschung und Raumordnung | Spatial Research and Planning” the Harvard system of referencing is used. This means that references should not be included in footnotes but are alphabetically listed in a reference list that follows the main text.

 

3.5.     Citing references in the text

All literature references and sources mentioned in the text must be as precise as possible and should thus include page numbers in the format “(Name Year: Page number-Page number)”. Reference to a complete paper and especially an entire book is seldom appropriate. Terms such as “ff.” should be avoided.

For two or three authors, the names are separated using a slash (without spaces). For more than three authors the first three names are mentioned: “(Zapf/Schneider/Klaus et al. 1990: 44)”. A space should always follow the colon.

If the name of an author is mentioned in the text, the name can be omitted from the reference, e.g. “As Schmid quite rightly points out, this finding… (2016: 63)”. If several sources are cited together, they should be separated using semi-colons and organised chronologically in ascending order (Weber 1956: 88; Weber 1958: 1).

Abbreviations such as “op. cit.”, “ibid.” and the like are not permitted.

 

3.6.     Reference list

The reference list should immediately follow the main text under the heading “References”. Each reference should end with a full stop. To ensure academic integrity and fairness, all the authors of a cited reference should be named however many there may be.

Monographs are referenced as follows: “Surname, First letter of the first name. (Year): Title. Subtitle. Place of publication.” If there is no subtitle, then there is a full stop between the title and place of publication. If there is more than one author, then authors’ names are separated with semi-colons. If there is more than one place of publication, then only the first place is listed. If available, the DOI should be listed.

Example: Reuschke, D. (2010): Multilokales Wohnen. Raum-zeitliche Muster multilokaler Wohnarrangements von Shuttles und Personen in einer Fernbeziehung. Wiesbaden. doi: 10.1007/978-3-531-92283-6.

Edited volumes are listed under the name of the editor. In German-language RuR papers “(Hrsg.)” and in English-language RuR papers “(ed.)” or “(eds.)” should be placed between the first name and the year. If available, the DOI should be listed.

Example: Smith, J. (Hrsg.) (2001): The rise of modern genomics. New York.

Example: Smith, J. (ed.) (2001): The rise of modern genomics. New York.

Chapters in edited volumes are listed as follows: “Surname, First letter of the first name. (Year): Title. Subtitle. In: Surname, First letter of the first name. (ed.): Title. Subtitle. Place of publication, Page number-Page number.” If available, the DOI should be listed.

Example: Brake, A. (2009): Photobasierte Befragung. In: Kühl, S.; Strodtholz, P.; Taffertshofer, A. (eds.): Handbuch Methoden der Organisationsforschung. Quantitative und Qualitative Methoden. Wiesbaden, 369-388. doi: 10.1007/978-3-531-91570-8.

Example of a chapter in an edited volume which is part of a publication series: Dehne, P. (2002): Regionale Entwicklungskonzepte. Begriffsbestimmung und Funktionen. In: Keim, K.-D.; Kühn, M. (eds.): Regionale Entwicklungskonzepte. Strategien und Steuerungswirkungen. Hannover, 24-33. = Arbeitsmaterial der ARL 287.

Journal articles should be listed as: “Surname, First letter of the first name. (Year): Title. Subtitle. In: Journal name Volume number, Issue number, Page number-Page number. If available, the DOI should be provided. If there is no issue number then the page numbers should immediately follow the volume number, separated from it by a comma.

Example of a published paper with Volume/Issue number: Fina, S.; Krehl, A.; Siedentop, S.; Taubenböck, H.; Wurm, M. (2014): Dichter dran! Neue Möglichkeiten der Vernetzung von Geobasis-, Statistik- und Erdbeobachtungsdaten zur räumlichen Analyse und Visualisierung von Stadtstrukturen mit Dichteoberflächen und -profilen. In: Raumforschung und Raumordnung 72, 3, 179-194. doi: 10.1007/s13147-014-0279-6.

Example of an online first article: Lamott, F.; Mörtl, K.; Buchholz, M.B. (2009): Biografiekonstruktionen im Dienste der Abwehr. Selbstdeutungen von Straftätern. In: Forum Psychoanalyse. doi: 10.1007/s00451-009-0003-2.

Newspaper articles which are published with the name of the author are listed like journal articles in the references. If no author is named the article is listed as follows: “Newspaper name, Date: Page number.” The number of weekly papers and news magazines should be added with a comma between the name of the paper and the date.

Example: Kil, W. (2005): Wenn Städte überflüssig werden. In: Die Zeit, Nr. 40, 29.09.2005: 46.

References that refer to a web page are treated like newspaper articles. In addition to the complete URL of the site the date when the reference was recorded should be added in parentheses. Please check that all links/URLs and access dates are current directly before submission.

Example: Welch Guerra, M.; Schauber, U. (2004): Instrumente der räumlichen Planung und ihre Auswirkungen auf die Landschaftsstruktur in der Niederlausitz. http://www.uni-weimar.de/architektur/raum/forschung/IBA.pdf (30.11.2018).

Reference list entries should be alphabetised. Authors with prefixes before their surnames such as “van, “von” or “de” are to be listed under the prefix, e.g. “von Dreizack, H.” and not “Dreizack, H. von”.

Multiple references by the same author should be organised chronologically in ascending order (from the oldest reference to the most recent). If an author with more than one publication from the same year is cited, then the publications are differentiated by adding “a”, “b”, etc. to the year.

If one of the references is to an edited volume, this should always be listed as “a” while the chapter by the editor contained within it should be listed as “b”.

Example: Kilper, H. (ed.) (2010a): Governance und Raum. Baden-Baden.

Example: Kilper, H. (2010b): Governance und die soziale Konstruktion von Räumen. Eine Einführung. In: Kilper, H. (ed.): Governance und Raum. Baden-Baden, 9-24.

For texts which have been accepted but not yet published and/or which cannot yet be given a volume/issue number, list the year of acceptance (please provide proof) or of online-publication. For page numbers the term “n/a” is appropriate. If available, the DOI of the paper or the online address with date of access should be provided.

Unpublished manuscripts should be listed as such and a note should indicate whether, and if so how, access to these sources can be provided for interested parties. A footnote such as “Available from the authors upon request” in the text is sufficient.

Before submitting the text, all references are to be checked. The list of references must be complete, i.e. it must contain all references cited in the text and footnotes, and all the literature references must include all the data stipulated here. The editors-in-chief reserve the right to return the text if the references are incomplete or inaccurate and to request any necessary reworking.

 

3.7.     Tables, figures, formulas, supplementary material

3.7.1.   Tables

Please number tables in consecutive order. Always cite tables consecutively in the text. Please supply each table with a title. If you are using material that has already been published, provide the source immediately after the title of the table. It is not sufficient to simply name the source, e.g. “Statistisches Bundesamt”. Rather the name and number of the table must also be supplied.

Footnotes to tables should be indicated by superscript lower-case letters and included directly below the tables. Superscript asterisks are used for significance values.

The use of the Word Table Function is preferred rather than using (live links to) Excel. Tables created by simply using the spacebar are not acceptable.

 

3.7.2.   Figures

Please number the figures in consecutive order. Always cite figures consecutively in the text. Please save vector graphics in EPS format, halftones (e.g. photographs) in TIFF format (the minimum resolution should be 600 dpi). All figures must be provided in separate files and should additionally be embedded in the text. All figures should be provided with a title in the text. If you use material that has been previously published, the source should be placed directly after the title of the figure.

On maps it is necessary to embed a scale, legend and – if the figure is not oriented north – a north pointer. Copyrights for geodata and photographs must be attached. All copyright regulations must be complied with. Authors are responsible for obtaining the rights of use for any copyright-protected material.

 

3.7.3.   Formulas

Formulas should be produced using the Formula Editor in Word or MathType. Formulas should be centre aligned and consecutively numbered. The numbers should be placed in parentheses at the right margin, but in the same line as the formula concerned. The elements of the formulas should be described in the text before or after the formula.

 

3.7.4.   Supplementary material

In consultation with the editors it is possible to publish supplementary material online. In such cases, please contact Prof. Dr. Andreas Klee, editor-in-chief (email: klee@arl-net.de; landline: +49 511 348 42-39).

All texts must be comprehensible without online supplementary material.

 

3.8.     Length of texts

Texts in the category “Forschungsbeitrag / Research Article” are not to exceed 60,000 characters (excluding spaces). This includes the title, abstracts, keywords, the main text, tables, footnotes and references. If figures are included, the length of the paper should be reduced appropriately. As a rule, you can calculate 2,000 characters for a DIN A5 figure.

In a spatial sciences journal like RuR, maps play a particularly important role. They should not be excessively reduced in size to allow more characters in the main text. If you are using numerous large and/or very detailed figures, please contact Prof. Dr. Andreas Klee, editor-in-chief (email: andreas.klee@arl-net.de; landline: +49 511 348 42-39) and note on your submission in the field “comments to editors” that it has been agreed that the number of characters may exceed 60,000 – if possible please note the number agreed with the editors-in-chief. This will prevent your manuscript being returned as part of the Technical Check.

The text length of submissions in the category "Kommentar / Commentary" should be between 5,000 and 8,000 characters (excluding spaces). Figures and tables should be avoided as far as possible.

Book Reviews consist of between 5,000 and 8,000 characters (excluding spaces). They do not normally include tables or figures. The book cover is added by the editors-in-chief and does not influence the number of characters in the review.

 

3.9.     Copyrights and permissions

If figures or tables that have already been published elsewhere are used in the text, the author must obtain permission from the copyright holder for their use in both the print and electronic/online versions of the journal. Please include a copy of the permission with the submitted text. This may also be necessary for the use of text extracts, although in such cases the citation of the quote according to good academic practice usually suffices.

If figures, tables, etc are submitted without such documentation, this indicates that they contain new (yet unpublished) ideas that originate only from the work of the authors. It is the responsibility of the authors to ensure that they do not infringe any copyrights and that, over and above this, they comply with the rules of good scientific practice (see Section 8.2).

 

3.10.   Text formatting

The text should be written in Word and feature the following layout specifications:

Font: New Times Roman 11 or 12                                                                                                                                                                      Space: 1.5                                                                                                                                                                                                          Margins: 'Normal' i.e. 2.54cm on all sides

Pages should be numbered using the function “Insert page number”. No other field functions are to be used. This also applies to reference lists that are produced using reference management software. Before submission of the manuscript a version without field functions should be created. We strongly recommend the use of reference management software.

Save your file in *.docx format (Word 2007 or higher). *.doc format is not allowed.

Submitted texts must always have lines numbered.

Please use British English for English-language texts and for English versions of titles, abstracts and keywords.

Please use the decimal system of headings with no more than three levels.

Specialist abbreviations should be fully defined at first mention in the text and the abbreviation placed in parentheses, e.g. Raumordnungsgesetz (ROG). At subsequent mentions the abbreviation may be used on its own. In references the abbreviations may be used in the text (e.g. BBSR 2017), but in the list of references it must always be defined in full as the author/editor, e.g. “BBSR – Bundesinstitut für Bau-, Stadt- und Raumforschung”, followed by other necessary information such as year of publication, title etc.

Always use footnotes instead of endnotes. Footnotes to the text are to be numbered consecutively; footnotes to tables should be indicated by superscript lower-case letters. As convention dictates, significance values should be indicated with asterisks as part of a table and not as part of a footnote to a table. Footnotes should not consist solely of a reference. References made in footnotes and/or in tables should always be included in the list of references.

 

3.11.   Fair language

The journal “Raumforschung und Raumordnung | Spatial Research and Planning” supports the use of fair language in all published texts. This includes the equal use of the personal pronouns “he” or “she” and the use of neutral job titles that focus on the function of the job and not the gender (e.g. chairperson not chairman). This does not mean that artificial words should be created – especially in German-language texts – but calls for the use of integrative, fair language. It is expected that all authors embrace the principles of fair and inclusive language and apply them adequately in their texts.

 

4.      Terms of submission

4.1.     Before submission

Before submitting their manuscript, authors are expected to familiarise themselves with the aims and scope of the journal “Raumforschung und Raumordnung | Spatial Research and Planning” and to ensure that their text covers a topic appropriate to RuR. A cover letter explaining this or promoting the submitted text is not required.

Manuscripts must comply with the formalities. A Technical Check will be carried out by the editorial team to ensure that this is the case and if necessary, the submission will be returned to the author for formal reworking.

 

4.2.     Text revision

As soon as at least two qualified referee reports have been submitted they will be made available to the authors, if appropriate with further comments from the editors. The authors then usually have four weeks within which to revise and resubmit their paper in line with the comments of the referees and editors.

Please respond to all the referee comments and explain any changes you have made in a response table, which you can also upload. If it seems necessary or appropriate, your revised text and the response table will be returned to the referees with the request for another referee report. Please bear this in mind when compiling the response table.

The final decision concerning the acceptance or rejection of a text is made by the editors.

 

4.3.     Upon acceptance

If your paper is accepted for publication, it will be subject to scientific editing and language polishing. This may lead to further revisions being required. After the layout of the text has been finalised you will receive the so-called proofs for approval. After the “online first” publication you will receive the invoice for the article processing charge (APCs) for the publication of your text.

 

5.      Refereeing process

5.1.     Double-blind peer review

All texts in the category “Forschungsbeitrag / Research Article” go through the following process:

1. A Technical Check to ensure compliance with the formal standards concerning length of text, quality of the abstracts, references, declarations concerning first-time publication etc.
2. Screening by the editors-in-chief to ensure that the submitted text fits with the aims and scope of the journal “Raumforschung und Raumordnung | Spatial Research and Planning” and complies with fundamental academic standards.
3. A double-blind peer review in which at least two independent experts referee the text. The referees do not know the name of the authors. Similarly, the authors do not learn the name of the referees who have reviewed their article.

If the referee reports contradict one another, the manuscript will be passed to further referees. This decision lies with the editors.

 

5.2.     Time required

There is an average of 50 days between the submission of a paper and the completion of at least two referee reports. Please avoid inquiring about the status of your submission before this amount of time has elapsed. You can find this information in the Open Journal System used to submit your manuscript.

It can also be necessary to obtain other referee reports, which can extend the period that elapses before a sufficient number of qualified reviews are available.

 

6.      Author fees

6.1.     Article processing charges

After the “online first” publication of a text, author charges, known as article processing charges, of €250,- plus VAT are incurred. There are no submission fees. If you are unable to pay the charges, please contact the editor-in-chief. The journal owners have established “hardship funds” that may be possible to access.

 

6.2.     Coloured figures

Coloured figures in the xml- and in the PDF-versions of the text are free of charge. The same is true for the print version.

 

7.      Open access licence model

As of January 2019, all texts published in “Raumforschung und Raumordnung | Spatial Research and Planning” are available as open access. The publications are provided as initial releases in print and digital versions. The digital version can be read and downloaded free of charge. Publication follows the licence model CC BY 4.0.

 

8.      Ethical guidelines and plagiarism

8.1.     Authorship

Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors. A so-called “honorary authorship” is inadmissible. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication. Authors of scientific publications are always jointly responsible for their content.

Subsequent changes or additions to the list of authors, the spelling of names and/or the order of authors are usually impossible. The editors-in-chief may allow exceptions to be made but this is not guaranteed and is at their discretion. Before submission, it is therefore important to carefully check who is to be attributed as an author and the order in which the authors are to be listed. It should be ensured that all names and affiliations are provided correctly.

 

8.2.     Good scientific practice

We expect our authors to be familiar with and comply with the standards of COPE, the Committee on Publication Ethics. They can be viewed at: https://publicationethics.org/core-practices

We also refer you to the guidelines on good academic practice produced by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Leibniz-Association. We similarly expect all authors to be familiar with and comply with these guidelines.

 

8.3.     Self-citation, plagiarism and plagiarism accusations

RuR will not accept the following texts:

• Working papers or conference versions that have already been identically published elsewhere, e.g. in conference proceedings or repositories like RePeC, ideas, arXiv etc.
• Double publications, including translations
• Individual chapters from monographic theses that have been adapted to article form (“Forschungsbeitrag / Research Article”)

If your own publications are cited, this must be clearly indicated. If the journal receives a plagiarism accusation from a third party, the appropriate rules of the DFG, Leibniz-Association and COPE will be applied.

The journal “Raumforschung und Raumordnung | Spatial Research and Planning” uses software-based tools to identify plagiarism.

Authors should not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable.

 

9.      Contacting the editorial team

Please contact the editorial team with any questions. The editor-in-chief can be reached as follows:

Prof. Dr. Andreas Klee ARL – Akademie für Raumentwicklung in der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft Vahrenwalder Straße 247 30179 Hannover Phone: +49 511 348 42-39 Email: andreas.klee@arl-net.de

Questions about online submissions should be addressed to Sarah Trockel:

Sarah Trockel ARL – Akademie für Raumentwicklung in der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft Vahrenwalder Straße 247 30179 Hannover Phone: +49 511 348 42-24 Email: sarah.trockel@arl-net.de