Region

As "flagship journal" of ERSA, REGION shall cover the main themes and topics in regional science. These are topics as can be found in journals like "Papers in Regional Science", "Regional Studies", "Annals of Regional Science", "Regional Science Policy and Practice". REGION differs from these journals by online publishing and by its open access character. Through this format, the journal will be targeted particularly toward young researchers. REGION targets an academic, scientific readership and exclusively publishes articles that have been reviewed positively in a double blind reviewing process. REGION will mainly publish articles from regular submissions (research articles). To a lesser extent also thematically focused special issues and review articles will be published. Instead of "Book Review" the journal will include a section "Resources" according to the electronic open access character of the journal, which will refer to data sources, software, books, articles in other journals, etc. As an online journal REGION can bring substantial innovation to publishing in social and economic sciences in general and in regional science in particular. Because of the format the journal can allow the upload of additional electronic resources to every published article (technical appendices, datasets, slides, videos etc.). Moreover, the format also allows for the inclusion of interactive elements ranging from blog-type discussion to social media-type interaction. These options are not provided for in the software, but can be included via add on components. To what extent these options will be utilized by REGION will have to be discussed among the sponsoring institutions, editorial team and editorial board. This should be done within the first year so that such innovative features can be implemented within the first three years. Through the cooperation between a well established and highly reputable university and a scientific organization that is strongly connected to its discipline (Regional Science) on a global scale, we expect REGION to increase the credibility of publishing in open access journals in this segment of social and economic sciences. The composition of the editorial team and of the editorial board strongly supports this orientation. Through open access, REGION supports the ongoing attempts by ERSA and RSAI to support scientific initiatives in less developed countries (esp. Latin America, Africa, SE-Asia).