Journal profile · REGIONAL & URBAN PLANNING
International Planning Studies
ISSN 1356-3475 · eISSN 1469-9265 · Taylor & Francis
International Planning Studies: CAS Zone 3 · Economics (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 1.5 (journal website); hybrid open access; APC charged, amount not published; median 255 days to acceptance (66 articles, last 24 months); acceptance rate 51% (journal website); 41 articles in 2025; indexed in ESCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
International Planning Studies is published by Taylor & Francis and is in Zone 3 of Economics in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Urban Planning and Governance, Urban and Rural Development Challenges and Urbanization and City Planning, together about 43.3% of its articles. Its main subfields are Urban Studies. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Planning, at the urban, regional, and national and international levels, faces new challenges, notably those related to the growth of globalisation as both an objective socio-economic process and a shift in policy-maker perceptions and modes of analysis. International Planning Studies ( IPS ) addresses these issues by publishing quality research in a variety of specific fields and from a range of theoretical and normative perspectives, which helps improve understanding of the actual and potential role of planning and planners in this context. Specific policy areas covered include: urban design economic development environmental policy spatial planning housing transport social inclusion. IPS fills a gap between the more specialist theoretical and empirical journals in planning and urban-regional studies. In so doing it throws new light on the influences on, and effects of, the evolution of planning around the world. The editor particularly welcomes contributions addressing the relationships between the ideas informing planning theory, practice and process, and the outcomes of planning, past and present Contributors are invited to submit articles based on original empirical or theoretical work, or assessments or critiques of existing studies, that offer new perspectives, critical insights, or new data to stimulate and inform debate over the future development of planning. All manuscript submissions are subject to initial appraisal by the Editor, and, if found suitable for further consideration, to peer review by two independent, anonymous expert referees. All peer review is double anonymized. The IPS editors will strive to enable any interesting paper coming from any part of the world to enter the peer review process. If the manuscript is deemed unsuitable in its current form but of interest - in principle - to our readership, the editors will seek to engage in a dialogue with the author(s) in order to improve the submission to fit the standards we work with so that it could be sent out to referees.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): REGIONAL & URBAN PLANNING
Editor-in-chief Francesca SartorioPublisher website
Editorial board by country: none in mainland China; most named Hong Kong, China 2, United Kingdom 1 (3 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Urban Planning and GovernanceSocial Sciences21.5%
- Urban and Rural Development ChallengesSocial Sciences11.6%
- Urbanization and City PlanningSocial Sciences10.1%
- Housing, Finance, and NeoliberalismEconomics, Econometrics and Finance7.3%
- Rural development and sustainabilityAgricultural and Biological Sciences5.2%
- Urban Transport and AccessibilitySocial Sciences3.8%
- Public Policy and Administration ResearchSocial Sciences3.5%
- Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation StudiesSocial Sciences3.1%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Economics Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Economics | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Regional & Urban Planning | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Economics Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Economics | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Regional & Urban Planning | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
JCR / CiteScore quartiles on the journal's website
- CiteScore Q2 · 2025
Publisher-reported: JCR figures are Clarivate's and CiteScore figures Scopus's to confirm; both are a different system from the CAS zones.Publisher website
Database indexing
ESCIScopusLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
Web of SciencePublisher website
Other: FRANCIS Database, GEOBASE, Geographical Abstracts: Human Geography, International Political Science Abstracts
As the journal's website lists them, not checked against each database; for Web of Science editions the records above apply.
Editions, and major and minor categories, are shown separately and never merged into one zone; check which edition your institution uses before you submit or report.
Metrics
Impact metrics and publication volume
Impact
- Impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 1.5Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 2Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 3.2LetPub ·
- CiteScore (publisher) 2025
- 3.2Publisher website ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.48LetPub ·
- SJR (publisher) 2025
- 0.48Publisher website ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 0.71LetPub ·
- SNIP (publisher) 2025
- 0.71Publisher website ·
- h-index
- 65OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 420OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 1.45OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 6.7%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 17.28%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 41LetPub ·
- Downloads per year (publisher)
- 86,000Publisher website ·
- Downloads per year (publisher) 2025
- 86,000Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 864 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 19 | 6 | 5 |
| 2025 | 41 | 14 | 56 |
| 2024 | 20 | 6 | 55 |
| 2023 | 20 | 8 | 124 |
| 2022 | 22 | 6 | 187 |
| 2021 | 17 | 9 | 243 |
Sources count differently and were observed at different times, so each source's own value is kept; "publisher" marks figures from the journal's website.
Review & acceptance
Review time and acceptance
Review time from article dates manuscript dates registered with Crossref · to
255 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 159 days – 507 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 13 days (66 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 283 days
- Sample
- 66 articles with submission and acceptance dates (68 in the window); the latest was accepted on
Only articles that were accepted and published are counted, not the time spent on rejected manuscripts, so this usually runs longer than a publisher's "time to first decision".
Other sources
- Acceptance rate (publisher)
- 51%Publisher website ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher) 2025
- 51%Publisher website ·
- Submission to first decision
- 92 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to first decision 2025
- 92 daysPublisher website ·
- First decision after review
- 117 daysPublisher website ·
- First decision after review 2025
- 117 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication
- 13 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication 2025
- 13 daysPublisher website ·
- Peer review
- Double anonymous peer reviewPublisher website
Community reports come from authors' own submissions (confidence 0.5) and are not a promise from the journal; for publisher figures, the journal's own definitions apply.
Fees & open access
APC and open-access policy
Hybrid open accessLetPub
A subscription journal in which authors can pay to publish their article open access.
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Publisher website | Yes, amount not published | — | — |
A hybrid journal charges the APC only when the author chooses open access; publishing under the subscription model is usually free.
The journal's website is authoritative for fees; sources were observed at different times and each keeps its own value, without averaging.
Submission
Article types and submission policies (journal website)
Article types accepted1
- research articleResearch Article | Published online: 18 Sep 2026Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteOpen access, Peer review
- Open access Open access
International Planning Studies is a hybrid open access journal that is part of the Taylor & Francis Open Select publishing program, giving you the option to publish open access. Publishing open access means that your article will be free to access online immediately on publication, increasing the visibility, readership, and impact of your research. Why choose open access? Increase the discoverabil…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review
Peer review: initial editor appraisal, then double-anonymized review by two independent referees. Model summary
All manuscript submissions are subject to initial appraisal by the Editor, and, if found suitable for further consideration, to peer review by two independent, anonymous expert referees. All peer review is double anonymized.
Source ↗Publisher website ·
Excerpts are quoted from the journal's website; "model summary" lines are written by Workers AI and checked against the text. The journal's website is authoritative.
Profile
Publication details and official links
- Publisher
- Taylor & Francis
- ISSN
- 1356-3475
- Electronic ISSN
- 1469-9265
- Latest issue on the website
- Volume 31, Issue 3 (2026)
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗LetPub
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about International Planning Studies
What CAS zone is International Planning Studies in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, International Planning Studies is in Zone 3 of Economics, and in Zone 4 of the minor category Regional & Urban Planning. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 3 of Economics. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of International Planning Studies?
The journal's website gives an impact factor of 1.5 (2025); this is the journal's own figure, as LetPub lists none for it; CiteScore 3.2, h-index 65.
How long does peer review take at International Planning Studies?
Based on the dates recorded on 66 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 255 days (interquartile range 159–507 days); the journal's website gives an acceptance rate of 51% (2025). Article statistics cover accepted papers only, publisher figures follow the journal's own definitions, and community reports come from authors' own submissions; none is a promise from the journal.
Where are the editorial board members of International Planning Studies based?
Of the 3 board members whose country the journal's board page names, none are in mainland China; the countries named most often are Hong Kong, China (2) and United Kingdom (1). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index International Planning Studies?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, International Planning Studies is indexed in ESCI and Scopus. The journal's website also lists Web of Science; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is International Planning Studies open access, and what is the APC?
International Planning Studies is a hybrid journal. For open-access publication: APC charged, amount not published.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, Publisher website, OpenAlex; every figure is tagged with its source and the date it was observed, and conflicting values are kept per source. LetPub source page: view ↗ (archived 2026-08-25). Last updated: .