The Journal of Urban Development and Smart Cities (JUDSC) is proud to operate as a diamond open access journal.
This means:
No article processing charges (APCs)
No submission fees
No page charges
No color charges
No costs for online access
Authors—whether corresponding authors or co-authors—do not pay any fee at any stage of the publication process. All articles are freely available to readers worldwide immediately upon publication.
1. No fees for authors
JUDSC does not charge authors for:
manuscript submission
peer review and editorial handling
online publication
hosting and long-term availability of published articles
open access publication under a CC BY 4.0 license
Whether you are an early-career researcher, practitioner, policymaker, or senior academic, you can submit and publish in JUDSC without financial barriers.
2. Support and cooperation
JUDSC is published by Locke Science Publisher with a commitment to open scholarship and accessible knowledge. The journal welcomes contributions from a global community of researchers, urban planners, engineers, policymakers, and practitioners working on urban development and smart city challenges.
3. Open access and licensing
All articles published in JUDSC are:
freely accessible online immediately upon publication
distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license
Under this license:
authors retain copyright
others may share and adapt the work, including for commercial purposes, provided proper attribution is given and any changes are indicated
You can find further details on our open access policy and copyright and licensing pages.
4. Optional costs (reprints or special services)
For the vast majority of authors, there are no costs of any kind. In rare cases, optional services may incur costs, for example:
professionally printed hard-copy reprints of a published article (if requested)
special printing or mailing arrangements requested by an author or institution
These services are entirely voluntary and are not required for publication. If applicable, details and prices are discussed individually with the corresponding author after acceptance.
5. Equity and access
By maintaining a no-APC, no-subscription model, JUDSC aims to:
support equitable participation in scholarly publishing regardless of institutional or national resources
ensure that research on urban development and smart cities is visible and reusable worldwide
reduce financial barriers for authors from low- and middle-income countries, smaller institutions, and independent professionals
If you have any questions about costs, funding, or our open access model, please contact the editorial office at: judsc@lockescience.press