2023 Calendar:
12 of February - Call for papers for all journals and conference are open;
Until 1 of June - Abstracts and papers on every Journal will be analysed also for conference presentation;
8 of June - Notifications of acceptance and question if the author(s) have interest in presenting in the conference;
6 - 8 July 2023 - Lisbon Urban Creativity Conference and Activities
1 of September - Last call deadline for full papers on every journal (for issues not yet published);
Until 15 October - Conclusion of all pending reviews (we expect to review as soon as issues get populated).
15 of December - End of all pending layouts (we expect to layout as soon as issues get reviewed). 
31 of December - End of editorial year, all issues launched (we expect to publish issues during any time of the year). 

1 – Use our Template and write your paper in one of the following formats:

- Conference Abstract (250-300 words);
- Reviews - Short Notes ( ± 500 words);
- Essay - Working Papers ( ± 1000 words);
- Article - Full Papers ( ± 5000 words).

Authors can extend the paper length during review process.
The word count includes title, abstract, tables, notes and references.
Each paper can have from none to 15 images (or more if justificable).

2 – Register or, if already registered log in .
​3 - Select "New Submissionand follow the instructions.

Original or revisited research results that has not been published elsewhere.
Use English editing service prior to submission (not included in the APC).

4 - The Blind Peer Review process starts (several review rounds are possible);
5 - Acepted papers APC payment or validation (mandatory)
6 - Paper is published online (ideally 5 weeks after submission)
7 - Layout and issue Launch (until the end of the edition year).

Publication, indexation and DOI
All the accepted papers will be fully free to download and Open Access, trough web platform integrated with the academic journals global open access system and DOI in all articles. The platform allows the fast indexation of all articles and authors in the most relevant scientific data bases. The publication will be also available in print, hard copy paper based format (on demand).

Article Processing Charge (APC)
Authors are advised to check with their departments and libraries if funds are available to cover open access publication costs. AP2 Journals Article Processing Charge rates are:

250 euros for institutions covering authors APC (eg, Universities, research centres, corporations) - Payment page
50 eur for independent researchers (no reference to institutional affiliation on the published paper) - Payment page

The payment must be processed after the  paper acceptance for publication.
The paper will not be processed and published without the respective payment.

Free for authors included in the institutions with agreements, (authors that are members of the scientific committees or other invited authors).

Universities and funding agencies allocate funds to cover article processing charges. We welcome flat rate or post payed agreements. For new agreements email info@ap2.pt referencing the institution department/ person.



Guidelines

Essential title page information
• Title. Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.
• Author names and affiliations. Where the family name may be ambiguous (e.g., a double name), please indicate this clearly. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name and, if available, the e-mail address of each author.

Abstract

A concise and factual abstract is required. The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and major conclusions. An abstract is often presented separately from the article, so it must be able to stand alone. For this reason, References should be avoided, but if essential, then cite the author(s) and year(s). Also, non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself.

Keywords
Immediately after the abstract, provide a maximum of 6 keywords, using either British or American spelling, but be consistent, and avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, "and", "of"). Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible. These keywords will be used for indexing purposes.

Contributors
All authors must have materially participated in the research and/or article preparation, so roles for all authors should be described.

Copyright
This journal will be Open access. Upon acceptance of an article, authors will acknowledge automatic full availability of the content. No part of the content may be reproduced for commercial purposes in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without written permission from the editors.

Language
Please write your text in British or American spelling. One spelling must be used consistently throughout the text.

Structure
Subdivision - numbered sections
Divide your article into clearly defined and numbered sections. Subsections should be numbered 1.1 (then 1.1.1, 1.1.2, ...), 1.2, etc. (the abstract is not included in section numbering). Use this numbering also for internal cross-referencing: do not just refer to 'the text'. Any subsection may be given a brief heading. Each heading should appear on its own separate line.

Introduction
State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results.

Conclusions
The main conclusions of the study may be presented in a short Conclusions section, which may stand alone or form a subsection of a Discussion or Results and Discussion section.

Appendices
If there is more than one appendix, they should be identified as A, B, etc. Formulae and equations in appendices should be given separate numbering: Eq. (A.1), Eq. (A.2), etc.; in a subsequent appendix, Eq. (B.1) and so on. Similarly for tables and figures: Table A.1; Fig. A.1, etc.

Acknowledgements
Collate acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the article before the references and do not, therefore, include them on the title page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise. List here those individuals who provided help during the research (e.g., providing language help, writing assistance or proof reading the article, etc.).

Footnotes
Footnotes should be used sparingly. Number them consecutively throughout the article, using superscript Arabic numbers. Indicate the position of footnotes in the text and present the footnotes themselves separately at the end of the article.

Image Formats
TIFF or JPEG: Color or grayscale photographs (halftones), keep to a minimum of 200 dpi.

Reference Style

Text: All citations in the text should refer to:
1. Single author: the author's name (without initials, unless there is ambiguity) and the year of publication;
2. Two authors: both authors' names and the year of publication;
3. Three or more authors: first author's name followed by 'et al.' and the year of publication. Citations may be made directly (or parenthetically).
Groups of references should be listed first alphabetically, then chronologically. Examples: "as demonstrated (Allan, 1996a, 1996b, 1999; Allan and Jones, 1995). Kramer et al. (2000) have recently shown ...."
Journal titles should be spelled out in full. Personal communications should be cited as such in the text and should not be included in the reference list. Please note the following examples:

Reference to a journal article
Anselin, L., Varga, A., Acs, Z., 1997. Local geographic spillovers between university and high technology innovations, Journal of Urban Economics 42, 442-448.

Reference to a book
Marlow-Ferguson, R., Lopez, C., 2001. World Education Encyclopedia: A Survey of Educational Systems Worldwide, second ed. Thomson Gale, Detroit, MI.

Reference to a chapter in an edited book
Eberts, R.W., McMillen, D.P., 1999. Agglomeration economies and urban public infrastructure, in: Cheshire, P., Mills, E. (Eds.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, vol. 3, in: Applied Urban Economics, Elsevier, New York, pp.1455-1495.

Citing and listing of Web references. As a minimum, the full URL should be given. Any further information, if known (Author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given.

 

Editorial Procedures and Peer-Review

Initial Checks
All submitted manuscripts received by the Editorial Office will be checked by a the Managing Editor to determine whether they are properly prepared and whether they follow the ethical policies of the journal. Manuscripts that do not fit the journal's ethics policy or do not meet the standards of the journal will be rejected before peer-review. Manuscripts that are not properly prepared will be returned to the authors for revision and resubmission. After these checks, the Managing Editor will consult the journals’ Editor-in-Chief or Associate Editors to determine whether the manuscript fits the scope of the journal and whether it is scientifically sound. No judgment on the potential impact of the work will be made at this stage. Reject decisions at this stage will be verified by the Editor-in-Chief.

Peer-Review
Once a manuscript passes the initial checks, it will be assigned to on or two members of the Editorial team / scientific committee for peer-review. A double-blind review is applied, where authors' identities are not known to reviewers. Peer review comments are confidential and will only be disclosed with the express agreement of the reviewer.

Editorial Decision and Revision
All the articles, reviews and communications go through the peer-review process. The editor will communicate the decision of the member of the scientitic committee, which will be one of the following:

  • Accept after Minor Revisions:
    The paper is in principle accepted after revision based on the reviewer’s comments. Authors are given five days for minor revisions.
  • Reconsider after Major Revisions:
    The acceptance of the manuscript would depend on the revisions. The author needs to provide a point by point response or provide a rebuttal if some of the reviewer’s comments cannot be revised. Usually, only one round of major revisions is allowed. Authors will be asked to resubmit the revised paper within a suitable time frame, and the revised version will be returned to the reviewer for further comments.
  • Reject and Encourage Resubmission:
    If additional experiments are needed to support the conclusions, the manuscript will be rejected and the authors will be encouraged to re-submit the paper once further experiments have been conducted.

All reviewer comments should be responded to in a point-by-point fashion. Where the authors disagree with a reviewer, they must provide a clear response.

Production and Publication
Once accepted, the manuscript will undergo copy-editing, English editing, proofreading by the authors, final corrections, pagination, and, publication on journals.ap2.pt.