Two Calls for Contributions to Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy on City Led Research and Innovation for Action on Climate Change

The Journal for City Climate Policy and Economy (JCCPE) in collaboration with the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (GCoM) invites manuscripts from city policy makers, practitioner and academics for two special issues on City Led Research and Innovation for Climate Action, to be published in August 2024 and August 2025.

The first issue (to be published August 2024) calls for papers featuring and highlighting the priorities, opportunities and solutions city policymakers see and seek from research and innovation for climate action. These perspectives must be led by a city policy or decision maker, or practitioner, but can be collaborative with an academic colleague – in fact, we encourage this.

In the second issue (to be published August 2025) city academics are asked to respond to city priorities, opportunities, and solutions – offering in-depth insights from existing knowledge or an original piece of research – highlighting what could be done to meet the knowledge gaps. These papers will predominantly be led by academics, however, like the first issue, we encourage collaboration with city policy makers and practitioners.

These two issues follow the intent of the  Innovate4Cities Marketplace and Conference Series  – to provide a stimulus, incentive and framework for academics and practitioners to learn  & co-create together and write together – in ways that strengthen and accelerate action on climate change.

Both of these special issues encourage articles that respond to research agendas that focus on city climate action priorities – including the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy’s overarching research themes, the priorities identified by the Journal’s editorial board (Issue 1.1), the City Research and Innovation Agenda (CRIA) (Issue 1.1 policy perspective link), the Innovate4Cities update to the Global Research and Action Agenda for Cities Climate Change Science (GRAA ), or other similar agendas.

In additional to responding to the agendas above, authors are also encouraged to speak about their approaches to:

• The intersection of research, practice and policy
• Engaging with new knowledge to meet their local climate challenges and ambitions
• Working with universities or other research / industry partners on specific research
• Engaging with knowledge brokers and knowledge translators
• Working collaboratively with citizens in the co-production or data, research and knowledge

Authors might be asked to speak to their article in person or online at an Innovate4Cities marketplace or conferences in 2023, 2024 or 2025.

Special Issue Lead Editorial Team

• Associate Professor Cathy Oke – Melbourne Centre for Cities, University of Melbourne
• Ben Jance IV – Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (GCoM)
• Bernhard Barth & Steven Bland – UN Habitat
• Sarah Lewis – C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group /  Journal for City Climate Policy and Economy
• Associate Professor Shirin Malepour – Monash Sustainable Development Institute
• Plus members of GCoM’s Technical Working Group and the Innovate4cities team

First Special Issue:

In 2023, we welcome contributions from city policymakers, decision makers, elected and non-elected representatives and city networks, with or without academic co-authors, keen to write about the challenges they face to attain their climate goals, the approaches to research and innovation they already take, their priority needs from the knowledge community for climate action at the city-scale, and opportunities to scale up existing success. We welcome contributions of any article type specified in JCCPE’s instructions for authors, including commentaries and original research.

Submissions & Key Dates (for 2024 issue)

1. Abstracts, or expressions of interest to write on a topic – maximum 500 words are due December 20, 2023. Please submit abstracts to oke@unimelb.edu.au,  slewis@c40.org  or bjance@globalcovenantofmayors.org
2. Articles will be selected on a rolling basis, within 3 weeks of receipt of the expression of interest
3. The deadline for completed submissions is February 20, 2024
4. Editorial reviews will be made within 4 weeks
5. If accepted, final articles for the 2024 Special Issue 1 are due April 23, 2024
6. Papers should be submitted to the Journal’s peer review system as Word files
7. For guidelines on manuscript types and how to format the manuscript, please reference the detailed author guidelines We anticipate that these will most likely be in the Commentary format (3,000-5,000 words [not including references])
8. Papers should be in English.

Second Special Issue:

In 2024 we welcome contributions from urban scholars, city focussed climate scientists, geographers, and urban planning academics in response to the challenges identified by cities and city networks in special issue August 2024, and the city focused research agendas above.

While this second special issue will focus on academic led articles, like the first special issue, we encourage articles that include city practice or decision makers as co-authors. The second special issue will be published in August 2025. We welcome contributions of any article type specified in JCCPE’s instructions for authors, including commentaries and original research.

Submissions & Key Dates (for 2025 issue)

1. Abstracts maximum 500 words due October 2024 Please submit abstracts to slewis@c40.org /  oke@unimelb.edu.au  Shirin.Malekpour@monash.edu
2. Articles will invited on a rolling basis, within 4 weeks of receipt of the EOI
3. The deadline for completed submissions is February 20, 2025
4. Editorial decisions will be made within 4 – 6 weeks
5. If accepted, final articles for the Special Issue 2 are due April 23, 2025
6. Papers should be submitted to the Journal’s peer review system as Word files
7. For guidelines on manuscript types and how to format the manuscript, please reference the detailed author guidelines
8. Papers should be in English