Local Economy
The Journal of the Local Economy Policy UnitEconomics & Development Studies | Urban Planning | Urban, Rural & Regional Economics
Founded in 1986, Local Economy is a peer-reviewed journal bringing together policy analysts, researchers, and practitioners concerned with place-based policies for economic development, regeneration, and human development. Although Local Economy is a peer-reviewed journal, it aims to make academic research accessible to all working in the broad fields of local economic development and regeneration.
Local Economy operates as an international interdisciplinary forum that seeks not only to publish analysis and critique but also to disseminate innovative practice. For over thirty years, Local Economy has maintained a commitment to local grassroots activism, social justice, and economic empowerment considered within the context of wider social, political, and economic change.
Local Economy covers a very broad range of issues and accommodates a diversity of perspectives. The editors intend to continue enlarging both the range of issues covered and the journal's international scope.
Local Economy welcomes robust empirical analysis, which can include papers based on quantitative or econometric methods. However, such submissions will be judged on clarity and accessibility of writing, Local Economy is not primarily an econometrics journal. Papers relying on advanced econometric methods, over-reliant on algebra or mathematical notation in their presentation, and which do not define specialist terms for non-specialists will be rejected.
"Local Economy provides a unique insight into the shifting landscape of local economic development. The journal continues to evolve, both in international coverage, and the range of issues it engages with." Nigel Berkeley, Director, SURGE (The Applied Research Centre in Sustainable Development), Coventry University
"Alone among academic journals, Local Economy combines robust academic research and analysis with insights and opinion from practitioners working on the latest developments in the field" John Shutt, Director of the European Regional Business & Economic Development Unit (ERBEDU), Leeds Metropolitan University
"In addition to its core focus on local economic development, Local Economy has covered many other aspects of place shaping for the past twenty-six years, and as such is an invaluable support for professional development." Dr Ross Brown, Scottish Enterprise
Sam Aaronovitch Memorial Prizewinner
The Sam Aaronovitch Memorial Prize is awarded each year to any article in Local Economy which by both its quality and content best promotes the progressive values of LEPU’s founder Sam Aaronovitch. View the prize winning papers.
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)
Founded in 1986, Local Economy is a peer-reviewed journal bringing together policy analysts, researchers, and practitioners concerned with place-based policies for economic development, regeneration, and human development. Although Local Economy is a peer-reviewed journal, it aims to make academic research accessible to all working in the broad fields of local economic development and regeneration.
Local Economy operates as an international interdisciplinary forum that seeks not only to publish analysis and critique but also to disseminate innovative practice. For over thirty years, Local Economy has maintained a commitment to local grassroots activism, social justice, and economic empowerment considered within the context of wider social, political, and economic change.
Local Economy covers a very broad range of issues and accommodates a diversity of perspectives. The editors intend to continue enlarging both the range of issues covered and the journal's international scope.
Local Economy welcomes robust empirical analysis, which can include papers based on quantitative or econometric methods. However, such submissions will be judged on clarity and accessibility of writing, Local Economy is not primarily an econometrics journal. Papers relying on advanced econometric methods, over-reliant on algebra or mathematical notation in their presentation, and which do not define specialist terms for non-specialists will be rejected.
| Andrew Jones | Local Economy Policy Unit, UK |
| Tony Jackson | University of Dundee, UK |
| Andrew Jones | Local Economy Policy Unit, UK |
| Joyce Liddle | Northumbria University, UK |
| Nicholas Wise | Arizona State University, USA |
| Oto Potluka | University of Basel, Switzerland |
| Koen Salemink | University of Groningen, the Netherlands |
| Sabine Weck | ILS – Research Institute for Regional and Urban Development gGmbH, Germany |
| Onkgopotse Madumo | University of Johannesburg, South Africa |
| Kedibone Phago | North West University, South Africa |
| Etienne Nel | University of Otago, New Zealand |
| L. Carlos Freire | Universidad de Guayaquil, Ecuador |
| Sören Scholvin | Catholic University of the North, Antofagasta |
| Stephen Barber | Regent’s University, London, UK |
| Andrew Jones | Local Economy Policy Unit, UK |
| Nichola Lowe | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA |
| Greg Schrock | Portland State University, USA |
| Jason Spicer | University of Toronto, Canada |
| Tara Vinodrai | University of Waterloo, Canada |
| Stephen Barber | Regent’s University, London, UK |
| Gill Bentley | University of Birmingham, UK |
| Danny Dorling | University of Oxford, UK |
| Stefania Fiorentino | University College London, UK |
| Francesca Froy | University College London, UK |
| Deian Hopkin | Former Vice Chancellor London South Bank University, UK |
| Tony Jackson | University of Dundee, UK |
| Martin Jones | Staffordshire University, UK |
| Neil McInroy | Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES), UK |
| Munir Morad | Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, UK |
| Raj Patel | University of Essex, UK |
| John Shutt | Northumbria University, UK |
| Leanne Townsend | The Hutton Institute, UK |
| Duncan Tyler | London South Bank University, UK |
| David Walburn | London South Bank University, UK |
| Alan Waters | Norwich City Council, UK |
| David Webster | University of Glasgow, UK |
| Georgia Wrighton | Kingston University, UK |
| Yves Chappoz | University Lyon 3 - IAE, France |
| Renato Galliano | Milano Metropoli, Italy |
| Johannes Kananen | Swedish School of Social Science, University of Helsinki, Finland |
| Debra Mountford | OECD, France |
| Erik Pages | EntreWorks Consulting, USA |
| Christian Saublens | EURADA, Belgium |
| Ivan Turok | Human Sciences Research Council, South Africa |
| Glenn Athey | Athey Consulting, UK |
| Tim Blackman | Durham University, UK |
| Andrew Carter | Centre for Cities, UK |
| Andrew Church | University of Brighton, UK |
| Greg Clark | London South Bank University, UK |
| Mike Danson | Heriot-Watt University, UK |
| Timothy Dixon | Oxford Brookes University, UK |
| Julian Dobson | Urban Pollinators Ltd, UK |
| Ray Hudson | University of Durham, UK |
| Robert Imrie | King's College London, UK |
| Alexandra Jones | Centre for Cities, UK |
| Paul Miller | Gavurin, UK |
| Gerry Mooney | The Open University, UK |
| Andy Pike | University of Newcastle, UK |
| Stephen Syrett | Middlesex University, UK |
| Tony Travers | London School of Economics, UK |
| David C Valler | Oxford Brookes University, UK |
| Judith Watson | University of Brighton, UK |
Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Local Economy
This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Local Economy will be reviewed.
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.
As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.
- What do we publish?
1.1 Aims & Scope
1.2 Article types
1.3 Writing your paper - Editorial policies
2.1 Peer review policy
2.2 Authorship
2.3 Acknowledgements
2.4 Declaration of conflicting interests - Publishing policies
3.1 Publication ethics
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
3.3 Open access and author archiving - Preparing your manuscript
4.1 Formatting
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
4.3 Supplementary material
4.4 Reference style
4.5 English language editing services - Submitting your manuscript
5.1 ORCID
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
5.3 Permissions - On acceptance and publication
6.1 Sage Production
6.2 Online First publication
6.3 Access to your published article
6.4 Promoting your article - Further information
Before submitting your manuscript to Local Economy, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.
Local Economy welcomes contributions for the four main sections of the Journal.
1. Viewpoints: Polemical, readable opinion pieces on up-to-date issues (2000–3000 words before references and abstract). Papers submitted as Viewpoint articles are not peer-reviewed but subject to editorial approval.
2. Features: Peer-reviewed articles on any aspect in the broad field of local economic policy, practice, or analysis (6000-8000 words before references and abstract). Issues covered have included::
Urban and rural issues
Local and regional analysis
Area-based or neighbourhood initiatives
Local governance
Civil society
Regeneration and partnerships
The political economy of places
Spatial injustice
Planning and physical development
Race, gender, and other inequalities
Immigration and inclusion
Employment, skills, and welfare-to-work
Business development
Inclusive economic growth
Environmental sustainability
Local Economy gives preference to well-written and competently researched articles which, while grounded in practice, offer more general insights and contributions to theory. Articles that engage with debates about current policy issues and which provide timely, up-to-date critique and/or suggestions to enhance policy effectiveness are especially welcome. Local Economy aims to publish papers of interest to readers across the relevant policy community and which balance critique with proposals for change. The core focus of the journal is on local issues, but papers on national or supra-national issues or policies which have an impact at the local scale are considered.
3. In Perspective (3000-5000 words before references): Edited (but not peer-reviewed) articles reflecting on recent or current policies, programmes, or projects. The main, although not exclusive, purpose of In Perspective articles is to give practitioners an opportunity to reflect on current or recent practice.
Recent In Perspectives have covered:
Culture and regeneration
Employment, skills and welfare-to-work
Universities and local economic development
The social economy
Community led development
Community energy
Enterprise support
Policy, programme or project evaluation
We welcome proposals for themed collections of In Perspective papers to be edited by Guest Editors.
4. Reviews and Review Essays: Keeping up to date with recent publications and reports. Review essays cover a themed collection of a limited number of recent publications (they are not a general review of literature on a particular topic).
Reviews of a single publication must be at least 1,000 words long. Other review articles must be agreed with the editor-in-chief.
Special Issues: Local Economy welcomes suggestions for special issues which draw together Viewpoint, Feature, and In Perspective articles on a particular theme. Guest Editors are welcome to put forward proposals for such editions.
Abstracts, keywords, and title: Abstracts should be close to 200 words. Carefully chosen keywords help others discover your work. Try to make the paper’s title concise and eye-catching.
The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.
1.3.1 Make your article discoverable
When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.
Sage does not permit the use of author-suggested (recommended) reviewers at any stage of the submission process, be that through the web-based submission system or other communication. Reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Our policy is that reviewers should not be assigned to a paper if:
• The reviewer is based at the same institution as any of the co-authors
• The reviewer is based at the funding body of the paper
• The author has recommended the reviewer
• The reviewer has provided a personal (e.g. Gmail/Yahoo/Hotmail) email account and an institutional email account cannot be found after performing a basic Google search (name, department and institution).
All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.
Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.
2.3.1 Third party submissions
Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:
- Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
- Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
- Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.
Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.
2.4 Declaration of conflicting interests
Local Economy encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.
3.1.1 Plagiarism
Local Economy and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.
3.1.2 Prior publication
If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway.
3.3 Open access and author archiving
Local Economy offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.
4. Preparing your manuscript for submission
The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines Rasterized based files (i.e. with .tiff or .jpeg extension) require a resolution of at least 300 dpi (dots per inch). Line art should be supplied with a minimum resolution of 800 dpi.
Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.
Local Economy does not currently accept supplemental files.
Local Economy adheres to the Sage Harvard reference style. View the Sage Harvard guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.
If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the Sage Harvard EndNote output file.
4.5 English language editing services
Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.
Before submitting your manuscript, please ensure you carefully read and adhere to all the guidelines and instructions to authors provided below. Manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.
Local Economy is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/lec to login and submit your article online.
IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.
All articles must include an abstract. The editors may change the abstract to ensure it includes appropriate keywords.
Please insert page numbers.
All graphics should be at least 300DPI JPEGS and all graphs should be in an editable format, either in word or excel. For more detail, see section 9.4.3 below.
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.
The collection of ORCID iDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID iD you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID iD will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID iD is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.
If you do not already have an ORCID iD please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).
Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway.
6. On acceptance and publication
Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be sent by PDF to the corresponding author and should be returned promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.
Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.
6.3 Access to your published article
Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.
Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.
Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Local Economy editorial office as follows: