Abstract
As part of our strategy to improve the quality and range of the material published by Urban Studies, we have great pleasure in announcing the launch of a Virtual Special Issue (VSI) programme, the first editorial of which, written by Judit Bodnar and entitled ‘Reclaiming public space’, is published in this issue of the journal.
It is intended that VSIs will comprise themed and edited collections of papers that have been previously published in the journal. The VSIs will include an editorial of approximately 5000–8000 words. The editorial will outline the rationale for the VSI, highlighting the importance of the subject matter to urban studies scholarship. The editorial will justify the selection of each paper in the issue, identifying its contribution to the theme. Where appropriate, the editorial will reference broader debates in the field and those that do not currently have a foothold in Urban Studies, including those outside core urban studies literatures. Crucially, the editorial will also set out an agenda for future research, which will include the posing of a set of theoretical, empirical and/or methodological questions. Taken as a whole, it is hoped that VSIs will promote the discoverability of existing Urban Studies journal content, enhance debate in key areas of urban interest, and serve to signal the type of papers Urban Studies would like to attract. We would expect the VSI editorials to become highly cited reference points for the journal’s future content.
The VSI editorials will be published as part of regular journal content, whilst the issue as a whole will be published in an online repository. It is envisaged that VSIs will typically comprise 10–12 standard papers, though there is no technical limit on this number. Given the scale of the Urban Studies journal back catalogue, a strong justification might be made that some themes should be larger or that they should be broken down into a set of subthemes. The Editors of Urban Studies would welcome proposals for future VSIs, with VSI editors required to address the various issues identified in this overview.