Focus and Scope

About the journal

Planning Malaysia: Journal of the Malaysian Institute of Planners is an international, peer-reviewed and open-access journal advancing research, policy and professional practice in urban and regional planning, spatial development, and the sustainable governance, design and management of the built and natural environments. The journal welcomes interdisciplinary research in housing, land and property, urban design, architecture, landscape, heritage, transport, infrastructure, environment, construction, facilities management, tourism planning and digital planning where it makes a clear contribution to planning knowledge or practice. It has a particular interest in Malaysia, Southeast Asia and comparable Global South contexts while welcoming relevant research from all regions.

Aims, Focus and Scope

Planning Malaysia: Journal of the Malaysian Institute of Planners is an international, peer-reviewed and open-access scholarly journal published by the Malaysian Institute of Planners. The journal advances knowledge, policy and professional practice in urban and regional planning, spatial development, and the sustainable governance, design and management of the built and natural environments.

For the purpose of this journal, planning refers primarily to urban, regional, spatial, land-use, environmental, infrastructure, housing and development planning. Studies that use the term “planning” only in a general organisational, educational, managerial or personal sense are outside the journal’s scope unless they demonstrate a direct and substantive relationship to spatial planning, place, land, infrastructure, communities or the built environment.

The journal provides a platform for interdisciplinary scholarship addressing the spatial, social, economic, environmental, institutional, cultural, technological and design dimensions of planning and development. It has a particular interest in Malaysia, Southeast Asia and comparable contexts in the Global South, while welcoming relevant research from all geographical regions.

Place-specific and single-case studies are welcome when they move beyond description and clearly explain the wider theoretical, methodological, policy or professional relevance of their findings. Comparative and international studies should demonstrate their contribution to planning knowledge or practice.

Planning Malaysia publishes methodologically rigorous and ethically conducted work that makes a clear:

  • theoretical contribution;
  • empirical contribution;
  • methodological contribution;
  • policy contribution; or
  • professional or practice-based contribution.

Submissions should engage critically with relevant international and regional literature, identify a clear research or knowledge gap, apply appropriate methods, and explain the significance and transferability of their findings.

Core Areas of the Journal

1. Planning Theory, Policy, Governance and Methods

The journal welcomes research addressing:

  • planning theory, history, ethics and philosophy;
  • comparative planning systems;
  • strategic, spatial and statutory planning;
  • planning law, institutions and development control;
  • metropolitan and local planning governance;
  • participatory, collaborative and community-based planning;
  • planning implementation, monitoring and evaluation;
  • evidence-based planning and policy evaluation;
  • professional planning practice and education;
  • culturally grounded and faith-informed approaches to spatial planning and development; and
  • emerging theoretical and methodological approaches to planning.

Culturally or religiously grounded studies must directly contribute to planning theory, governance, spatial development, place-making or the built environment. General theological, religious or ethical discussions without such a connection are outside the journal’s scope.

2. Urban, Regional, Rural and Community Development

Relevant subjects include:

  • urbanisation and urban transformation;
  • metropolitan and regional development;
  • rural and peri-urban planning;
  • neighbourhood and community planning;
  • urban regeneration and redevelopment;
  • inclusive and equitable development;
  • urban poverty and spatial inequality;
  • informal settlements and vulnerable communities;
  • healthy, age-friendly, child-friendly and safe cities;
  • public space and community well-being;
  • social sustainability and community resilience; and
  • place-based and local economic development.

3. Housing, Land, Property and Real Estate Development

The journal considers studies on:

  • housing policy and governance;
  • housing affordability and accessibility;
  • public, social and affordable housing;
  • housing finance and tenure;
  • housing delivery and development systems;
  • residential satisfaction and housing quality;
  • land policy, land administration and land management;
  • land markets and development rights;
  • property development and urban regeneration;
  • real estate economics, finance and investment;
  • property valuation and market analysis; and
  • property and asset management.

Valuation, real estate, property finance and investment studies must demonstrate clear implications for land policy, housing, urban development, spatial planning or the management of places. Routine valuation exercises, commercial market reports or investment analyses without a planning or development contribution are normally outside the journal’s scope.

4. Urban Design, Architecture, Landscape and Heritage

The journal welcomes planning-related research concerning:

  • urban design and place-making;
  • public-realm design and management;
  • architectural responses to urban and community needs;
  • housing and neighbourhood design;
  • adaptive reuse and urban regeneration;
  • heritage planning and conservation;
  • cultural landscapes and historic urban environments;
  • landscape planning and ecological design;
  • green and blue infrastructure;
  • urban greening and nature-based solutions;
  • environmental and behavioural relationships between people and places;
  • inclusive and universal design; and
  • building and interior environments where they affect housing, health, public well-being, urban quality, sustainability or place identity.

Architectural, landscape or interior architecture submissions must be supported by a clear research methodology and must contribute to planning, place-making, housing, community well-being, heritage, sustainability or built-environment policy. Stand-alone design proposals or aesthetic presentations without an analytical scholarly contribution are not sufficient.

5. Transport, Infrastructure and Environmental Planning

Relevant areas include:

  • integrated land-use and transport planning;
  • public transport and transit-oriented development;
  • accessibility, mobility and connectivity;
  • active and sustainable mobility;
  • traffic management where linked to planning outcomes;
  • infrastructure planning and governance;
  • infrastructure investment and development;
  • environmental planning and assessment;
  • climate-change mitigation and adaptation;
  • disaster-risk reduction and resilience planning;
  • urban ecology and biodiversity;
  • coastal, river and water-resource planning;
  • energy, waste and circular-economy planning;
  • food systems and agricultural land planning; and
  • sustainable and climate-resilient settlements.

Purely technical traffic, highway, road-condition or infrastructure-engineering studies must demonstrate a substantive relationship to land-use planning, mobility policy, infrastructure governance, public safety or sustainable development.

6. Construction, Facilities and Public Asset Management

The journal considers construction and management research where it contributes to planning, development or public policy, including:

  • construction governance and regulation;
  • planning and delivery of development projects;
  • procurement and contract administration;
  • sustainable and low-carbon construction;
  • construction economics and development feasibility;
  • project delivery and institutional performance;
  • building information modelling and digital project delivery;
  • life-cycle planning and asset management;
  • public infrastructure and public asset management;
  • facilities management;
  • building maintenance and performance;
  • post-occupancy evaluation; and
  • resilience and sustainability of built assets.

Construction technology, material testing, structural engineering, building defects and facilities maintenance studies must explain their broader relevance to planning, development policy, public assets, housing, sustainability or built-environment performance. Purely technical or operational studies without such relevance are normally outside the journal’s scope.

7. Tourism, Culture and Place-Based Development

The journal welcomes research addressing:

  • tourism planning and destination governance;
  • sustainable tourism development;
  • cultural and heritage tourism;
  • eco-tourism and nature-based tourism;
  • community-based and rural tourism;
  • tourism-led regeneration;
  • visitor mobility and tourism infrastructure;
  • tourism impacts on land use, communities and the environment;
  • management of heritage, geoparks and cultural landscapes; and
  • relationships between tourism, regional development and local livelihoods.

Hospitality management, tourism marketing, consumer behaviour or visitor-satisfaction studies must establish a clear connection to destination planning, spatial development, community outcomes, heritage management, infrastructure or environmental sustainability.

8. Digital, Spatial and Emerging Planning Approaches

The journal encourages critical and innovative research on:

  • geographic information systems;
  • remote sensing and earth observation;
  • spatial statistics and spatial modelling;
  • geodesign and planning-support systems;
  • smart cities and smart communities;
  • urban analytics and big data;
  • artificial intelligence and machine learning;
  • digital twins and urban simulation;
  • building information modelling at urban or regulatory scales;
  • digital governance and electronic planning;
  • participatory digital technologies;
  • crowdsourced and user-generated spatial information; and
  • ethical, social and governance implications of planning technologies.

Technology must be applied to, or critically examined in relation to, planning, spatial development, governance, urban systems, infrastructure, communities or the built environment. General ICT, artificial-intelligence or data-science studies without this direct connection are outside the journal’s scope.

Research Approaches

The journal welcomes appropriate:

  • quantitative research;
  • qualitative research;
  • mixed-method research;
  • spatial and geospatial analysis;
  • comparative and longitudinal research;
  • participatory and community-based research;
  • policy and programme evaluation;
  • design research;
  • modelling and simulation;
  • experimental and quasi-experimental research; and
  • rigorous evidence-synthesis methods.

Method selection must be appropriate to the research question and sufficiently transparent to permit scholarly evaluation and, where feasible, replication.

Types of Contributions

Planning Malaysia considers the following categories:

  1. Original Research Articles reporting original empirical or analytical research.
  2. Analytical Case Studies that generate transferable theoretical, policy or professional lessons.
  3. Conceptual or Theoretical Articles that develop or critically extend planning concepts, theories or frameworks.
  4. Policy and Practice Articles that provide systematic and evidence-based analysis of planning policy, regulation or professional practice.
  5. Methodological or Technical Notes presenting a significant planning method, dataset, analytical technique or professional innovation.

Purely descriptive case reports, unstructured literature summaries and bibliometric mappings that do not produce substantive theoretical, empirical, methodological or policy insight are normally unsuitable.

Scope Eligibility Requirement

A manuscript from an adjacent discipline—including architecture, interior architecture, construction, engineering, property, valuation, facilities management, tourism, economics, management, religious studies or information technology—will be considered only where:

  1. the research problem has a direct relationship to planning, spatial development, place, land, infrastructure, housing, communities or the built environment;
  2. the methodology and analysis address more than the operational performance of a single organisation, building or project;
  3. the findings provide implications for planning theory, public policy, governance, sustainability, community outcomes or professional planning practice; and
  4. the manuscript clearly explains its contribution to the readership of Planning Malaysia.

A thematic association with the built environment alone is not sufficient.

Geographical Coverage

Planning Malaysia has a distinctive commitment to research concerning Malaysia, Southeast Asia and the Global South. However, the journal welcomes submissions from all countries where the work:

  • contributes to planning knowledge;
  • offers comparative or transferable insights;
  • addresses challenges relevant to the journal’s readership; or
  • provides an innovative theoretical, methodological or policy perspective.

Authors of local or single-site studies must explain the broader significance and transferability of their findings rather than relying solely on the importance of the study location.

Intended Readership

The journal serves:

  • academics and researchers;
  • urban and regional planners;
  • planning authorities and local governments;
  • policymakers and public agencies;
  • architects, landscape architects and urban designers;
  • housing, property and real estate professionals;
  • transport and infrastructure specialists;
  • construction and facilities-management professionals;
  • environmental and sustainability practitioners;
  • development organisations;
  • community and civil-society organisations; and
  • postgraduate students in planning and related fields.

The journal welcomes submissions from the international scholarly and professional community irrespective of membership in the Malaysian Institute of Planners.

Topics Normally Outside the Journal’s Scope

The following submissions are normally unsuitable unless they establish a clear and substantial planning or spatial-development contribution:

  1. Purely technical structural, civil, mechanical, electrical, materials or laboratory engineering studies.
  2. Stand-alone architectural or interior design presentations without a systematic research method.
  3. Building-performance studies limited to a single technical variable without wider housing, urban, health, sustainability or policy implications.
  4. Routine road-condition, traffic-flow or infrastructure-condition assessments without planning or policy analysis.
  5. Corporate finance, investment, valuation or market reports without land, housing or urban-development implications.
  6. Routine construction or facilities-management studies limited to internal organisational performance.
  7. Hospitality, tourism-marketing or consumer-behaviour studies unrelated to destination or regional planning.
  8. General educational, religious, ethical, economic or organisational studies that use the word “planning” but do not concern spatial planning or the built environment.
  9. Descriptive surveys or project reports that do not establish a research gap, analytical contribution or transferable finding.
  10. Narrative literature reviews or bibliometric studies that only count publications, keywords or citations without producing substantive conceptual, methodological or policy advancement.