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Planning Research Guide

Find Journals

A journal is a periodical publication that contains scholarly information in a subject area.  Scholarly or academic journals are collections of journal articles written by professors, researchers, or experts in a given field. 

Journals are one type of serial, which is any publication published in parts (usually in regular intervals).  Other types of serials are magazines and trade publications.  Articles that undergo a review process by other experts before publication are known as peer-reviewed.

An image of popular and scholarly journals.

Some important Planning journals :

  • Canadian Journal of Urban Research
  • Environmental History
  • International Planning Studies
  • Journal of Environmental Planning and Management
  • Journal of the American Planning Association
  • Journal of Urban Design
  • Journal of Urban History
  • Journal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability
  • Planning: The Magazine of the American Planning Association
  • Planning Theory & Practice
  • Town & Country Planning: The Journal of the Town and Country Planning Association
  • Urban Ecology: An International Perspective on the Interaction Between Humans and Nature
  • Urban Studies

Journals are available in print in the Sexton Library (shelved alphabetically by their title -- no call numbers are used), or in electronic format. 

The Dalhousie Libraries provides access to 107 electronic planning journals 


Electronic access to Plan Canada, the official journal of the Canadian Institute of Planners:

Access is made possible via an open access archive at the Vancouver Island University Library. Check archive for specific issues available. Issues are continuously added.

Screen shot of the Plan Canada repository website.

The Peer Review Process

Peer-reviewed journal articles go through a checking or verification process before they are published. Other experts in the same field of study as that of the article, examine the article's content to make sure it is valid and correct before the article is published. Articles can be accepted as is, sent back for revisions, or rejected outright. Published articles that have gone through this validation process are known as peer-reviewed articles.

This is a visual image of the peer-review process:

An image of the peer review process.

https://ucsd.libguides.com/CAT3/peerreview

Finding Peer-Reviewed Journals