Cities Journal: Scopus Indexing, Scope, Metrics & Submission Guide

Key Takeaways

• Publisher: Elsevier; the journal page identifies the Pergamon imprint.
• Indexing: Elsevier lists Scopus and Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI).
• Identifiers: Print ISSN 0264-2751; online ISSN 1873-6084; supplied Scopus Source ID 16956.
• Current publisher metrics: 11.5 CiteScore and 7.0 Impact Factor, checked 10 August 2026.
• Peer review: the Guide for Authors states double-anonymized review.
• Publishing model: hybrid as of August 2026, with full open access announced from 1 January 2027.
• Fit: strong submissions should connect rigorous evidence to an urban planning, policy, governance, management or city-process contribution.

Cities Journal Information at a Glance

What This Page Covers

• Aims, scope and subject fit
• Scopus and SSCI indexing
• CiteScore, Impact Factor and SJR
• Article types and peer review
• Open-access fees and 2027 transition
• Submission-readiness workflow
• Manuscript fit and common mismatch risks
• Ethical Contentxprtz support

Methodology and Source Note

This profile was prepared from journal-specific sources rather than generic journal directories. The principal sources were the official Cities journal page on ScienceDirect, the Elsevier Journal Insights page, the official Guide for Authors, the 27 July 2026 open-access announcement, the supplied Scopus Source ID 16956 profile link, and the SCImago record for Source ID 16956.

Metrics, APCs, editorial leadership, processing times, indexing coverage and policies can change. Values in this page are therefore date-labeled where possible. Researchers using the journal to satisfy a university, funder, promotion or PhD requirement should verify the live source immediately before making a submission or reporting a metric.

Aims, Scope and the Kind of Urban Research Cities Looks For

Elsevier positions Cities as an international and interdisciplinary forum for exchanging ideas among urban planners, policy makers, analysts and urbanists from multiple disciplines. Its central aim is not merely to document cities. The journal emphasizes analysis and assessment of urban development and management, including what planning policies have achieved, failed to achieve, or neglected, and how more appropriate urban policies may be implemented.

The published scope is deliberately broad. It includes urban adaptation to climate change; gentrification and housing; homelessness and welfare services; urban management; public-private cooperation; development and planning problems; urban regeneration; neighborhood conservation and urban design; immigration and international labor migration; urban politics and theory; governance; smart cities and regions; infrastructure; livability and quality of life; greening; and the challenge of creating sustainable cities.

For a prospective author, the important editorial interpretation is that a manuscript should normally make its urban significance explicit. A sophisticated machine-learning model, public-health analysis, tourism study, finance model or environmental measurement may still be a weak fit if the paper never explains what the findings mean for urban planning, policy, management or city systems. Conversely, interdisciplinary work can be well suited when the research question is genuinely urban and the paper translates evidence into an argument that urban researchers and decision makers can use.

Article Types: Research Articles, Viewpoints and City Profiles

The journal’s public description highlights regular research articles and two distinctive formats: Viewpoints and City Profiles. Viewpoints are shorter contributions with a summative engagement with the literature and a specific argument intended to generate debate among scholars and practitioners. City Profiles describe a city’s historical development, contemporary conditions or problems, and critically review policy, planning or management responses.

This matters for journal selection because the same underlying subject can require a different manuscript design depending on the intended article type. A full empirical study should be developed around a research question, method, evidence and contribution. A Viewpoint should not be stretched into a pseudo-empirical article; its value rests on a focused, defensible argument. A City Profile should be more than a descriptive city introduction: the journal explicitly frames the format around historical development, present conditions and critical analysis of responses.

Special issues may specify additional formats, including reviews. Always use the live Guide for Authors and the exact call for papers, because article-type rules and word limits can be more specific than the journal’s general overview.

Scopus Indexing, Visibility and Metrics: How to Interpret Them Correctly

Elsevier currently lists Cities in Scopus and the Social Sciences Citation Index. For a researcher whose university explicitly requires a Scopus-indexed journal, that is an important screening signal. However, institutional rules may specify more than simple inclusion: some require a particular quartile, category, coverage year, publication type or database snapshot. The safest practice is to save a dated record of the live Scopus source profile and your institution’s rule before submission.

The current ScienceDirect page displays a CiteScore of 11.5 and an Impact Factor of 7.0. These are different indicators produced through different systems and should not be used interchangeably. SCImago’s 2025 profile reports an SJR of 1.772 and Q1. The Q1 label is therefore best stated with its source and year. A journal can have different quartiles across databases or subject categories, and a quartile can move from one reporting year to another.

Open Access, APCs and the 1 January 2027 Policy Change

As of this article’s update on 10 August 2026, Elsevier describes Cities as supporting open access. Its Journal Insights page lists an open-access article publishing charge of USD 3,750 excluding taxes, noting that the payable amount may be reduced during submission where applicable. It also states that under the subscription route there is no publication fee charged to authors.

That model is changing. Elsevier announced on 27 July 2026 that Cities will become fully open access from 1 January 2027. For manuscripts crossing that date, the decisive detail is the policy that applies upon acceptance and the author’s agreement, waiver, institutional arrangement or funding eligibility. Do not budget from an old screenshot alone; use the current open-access page and the information presented in the submission system.

Open access affects the publication route, not the scholarly standard. The journal’s peer-review and editorial evaluation remain separate from whether an author has funding for an APC. Authors should never treat a publication charge as a payment for acceptance.

Peer Review and Editorial Screening

The official Guide for Authors states that Cities uses double-anonymized peer review. In practical terms, reviewers should not receive author-identifying information, and authors do not receive reviewer identities. Authors should therefore follow the journal’s current file-separation and anonymization instructions carefully, especially for title pages, acknowledgements, self-referencing language, author affiliations and identifying metadata.

Before external review, editors can assess fit, novelty, clarity, policy/planning relevance and basic compliance. A manuscript can be methodologically competent yet still be declined at this stage if its contribution is outside the journal’s urban focus or too incremental for the readership. This is why journal-fit work should happen before detailed formatting: alignment of question, contribution and audience is more important than cosmetic compliance.

Elsevier’s current journal insights show 12 days from submission to first decision, 93 days to a decision after review, 246 days from submission to acceptance, and 12 days from acceptance to online publication. Treat these as historical journal-level indicators, not promises. A specific manuscript may move much faster or slower depending on reviewer availability, revision rounds and editorial decisions.

Preparing a Submission for Cities

The authoritative checklist is always the current Guide for Authors. For a publication-readiness review, however, authors can organize preparation into a small number of high-value steps:

1. Confirm journal fit before formatting. Map the paper’s research question, contribution and implications to the published scope and compare the manuscript with recent Cities articles.
2. Select the correct article type. Decide whether the work is a regular research article, Viewpoint, City Profile or a format specified by a special issue.
3. Prepare for double anonymity. Separate author-identifying information and inspect acknowledgements, self-citations, file metadata and supplementary material for accidental identification.
4. Strengthen the urban contribution. Make clear what the evidence changes in understanding, planning, policy, governance, management or design of cities.
5. Check abstract, keywords, figures and highlights. Elsevier’s guide encourages article highlights and a graphical abstract; follow the current specifications rather than reusing requirements from another journal.
6. Audit references and data statements. Ensure cited sources support the claims made, all references are complete, and research-data or ethics statements accurately reflect the study.
7. Recheck publishing options and costs. The journal is moving to full OA on 1 January 2027, so verify the policy and funding position at the relevant stage.
8. Submit only through the official journal workflow. Use the Submit your article link from ScienceDirect/Elsevier and avoid third parties claiming they can bypass editorial review.

Research Ethics, Authorship and Responsible Use of AI

Authors should follow Elsevier’s current publishing-ethics and author-policy requirements, including accurate authorship, conflict-of-interest disclosure, originality, permissions, research integrity and transparent handling of data or human-participant issues where relevant. Ethical compliance is manuscript-specific: a planning-policy analysis based on public documents has different responsibilities from interviews with vulnerable communities, geolocation data, household surveys or experimentally collected behavior data.

As a practical publication-readiness step, document who contributed to the research, what approvals or consent were required, how data were obtained, and where any limitations affect interpretation. Do not add an author solely for status or exclude a qualifying contributor. Do not fabricate data, images, citations, reviewer suggestions or ethics approvals.

If generative AI or language tools are used, follow the publisher’s current disclosure rules and preserve author accountability. Tools should not be treated as authors, and authors remain responsible for factual accuracy, citations, confidentiality and originality.

Journal-Fit Checklist for Cities

A “yes” to most of these questions does not guarantee editorial interest, but it gives a stronger basis for choosing Cities than a decision based only on Impact Factor or Scopus status.

Three Practical Manuscript-Fit Examples

How Contentxprtz Can Support Publication Readiness

Contentxprtz can help authors improve a manuscript ethically without taking over the researcher’s intellectual responsibility. Relevant support may include academic editing, journal manuscript editing, pre-submission checklist review, and publication support.

For a Cities submission, that can mean checking whether the abstract communicates an urban contribution, strengthening academic language, improving logical flow, reviewing reference consistency, checking anonymity and submission files, aligning headings and presentation with the current guide, and editing a response to reviewers after peer review. The service should preserve the author’s data, argument, authorship and decision-making.