Active Travel Studies is a peer-reviewed, open access journal publishing authoritative research on walking, cycling and other forms of active travel. In the context of a climate emergency, widespread health problems associated with inactvitity, and poor air quality caused in large part by fossil-fuel transport, this journal is relevant and timely. As well as informing the research agenda, it will provide practitioners and policymakers with access to current and robust findings on all subject relevant to active travel.
Based on high academic standards, and providing a bridge between research and practice, the journal's remit is to share knowledge, from any academic discipline, from bioscience to anthropology, that can contribute to building knowledge to support active travel and remove barriers to it. (publ. by University of Westminster Press)
We live in times of climate crisis, with illegal levels of air pollution in many cities worldwide, and what has been called an epidemic of physical inactivity. Technological change alone will not solve such problems: we also need major growth in active travel (primarily walking and cycling, but also other active and semi-active types of travel, such as scooters) to replace many shorter car trips. Active modes could even (e.g. through electric assist trikes) help make urban freight much more sustainable.
Journals within many fields cover active travel, but literature remains highly segmented and (despite high levels of policy interest) difficult for practitioners to find. Established, mainstream journals are not open access, another barrier to policy transfer and knowledge exchange. Thus, while many towns, cities, and countries seek to increase active travel, the knowledge base suffers from a lack of high-quality academic evidence that is easy to find and obtain. This reinforces practitioner reliance on often lower-quality grey literature, and a culture of relying on ad hoc case studies in policy and practice.
This journal provides a bridge between academia and practice, based on high academic standards and accessibility to practitioners. Its remit is to share knowledge from any academic discipline/s (from bioscience to anthropology) that can help build knowledge to support active travel and help remove barriers to it, such as car dependency. Within this normative orientation, it is rigorously academic and critical, for instance not shying away from analysing examples where interventions do not lead to more active travel. It goes beyond immediate policy imperatives to share knowledge that while not immediately change-oriented can contribute to a deeper understanding of, for instance, why people drive rather than walk.
As well as publishing relevant new research, the journal commissions both commentary pieces on such research, and critical reviews of the existing literature. Reflecting the diversity of its audience, its content is varied, including written work of different lengths as well as audio-visual material
The journal is published online as a continuous volume and issue throughout the year. Articles are published as soon as they are ready to ensure that there are no unnecessary delays in making content publicly available.
Special collections of accepted submissions are welcomed welcomed and a webpage will be dedicated to each collection. The individual submissions will also be published alongside the journal’s other content.
This journal operates under Diamond Open Access, meaning there are no charges for either publication in the journal or readership of its content. The journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports the global exchange of knowledge.
Authors of published material remain the copyright holders and grant third parties the right to use, reproduce, and share the article according to the Creative Commons licence agreement.
The journal’s publisher focuses on making content discoverable and accessible through indexing services. Content is also archived around the world to ensure long-term availability.
In addition, the journal is available for harvesting via OAI-PMH.
To ensure permanency of all publications, this journal also utilises CLOCKSS, and LOCKSS archiving systems.
If the journal is not indexed by your preferred service, please contact us or, if you prefer, make an indexing request directly with the service.
Active Travel Studies is published with the support of the University of Westminster and the Quintin Hogg Trust.
Tom Cohen
Active Travel Academy, University of Westminster, UK
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Rachel Aldred
Luz Navarro Eslava
Sonja Haustein
Technical University of Denmark
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Esther Anaya Boig
Imperial College London, UK
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Giulio Mattioli
Andy Cope
Tim Jones
Oxford Brookes University, UK
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Ersilia Verlinghieri
University of Westminster, UK
Jamie Furlong
University of Westminster, UK
Submissions should be made electronically through this website. Once submitted, the author can track the submission and communicate with the editors via the online journal management system.
Please ensure that you consider the following guidelines when preparing your manuscript. Failure to do so may delay processing your submission.
All word limits include referencing and citation.
Article types | Structure | Permissions |Language & text | Data & Symbols | Figures & Tables | References
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The journals supports the Budapest Open Access Initiative, which states that open access “…will accelerate research, enrich education, share the learning of the rich with the poor and the poor with the rich, make this literature as useful as it can be, and lay the foundation for uniting humanity in a common intellectual conversation and quest for knowledge.”
Active Travel Studies endorses the Panton Principles, which state that "for science to effectively function, and for society to reap the full benefits from scientific endeavours, it is crucial that science data be made open."
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For more information on where this journal is indexed, please view the journal's about page.
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Dr Tom Cohen
Support Contact
Professor Rachel Aldred
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