Landscape and Urban Planning, an international peer-reviewed journal edited by Jon Rodiek, professor of landscape architecture and urban planning at Texas A&M’s College of Architecture, is ranked as a top science journal for 2006 by the ISI Web of Knowledge, a comprehensive online research platform.
The ratings are compiled by Journal Citation Reports, which ranks thousands of journals in the sciences in categories by the number of times their articles are cited in other scholarly journals.
Landscape and Urban Planning was rated highly in a number of categories. It was the most-cited journal in the urban studies category, No. 3 in environmental studies, No. 7 in physical geography, No. 6 in geography and No. 44 in ecology.
‘The two categories most relevant [to the journal] are actually Urban Studies and Environmental Studies,” said Louis Tassinary, associate dean for research at the Texas A&M College of Architecture. “It is quite remarkable that his journal also appeared in the top half of the journals in the Ecology category, and the top 25% of the journal in the geography categories.”
“Scientists are now willing to go out on a limb and talk about their science as it applies to a more useful, environmental perspective so that’s helping us out a lot,” said Rodiek. “I think that’s the reason why, for the moment at least, the journal is enjoying this success.”
When he began editing the journal in 1990, he said he told the journal’s editorial board the journal needed to be broadcast to a large audience. “They said no, no, no, it’s way too broad and way too watered down. We need to be more focused and more specific,” said board members, but Rodiek persisted.
“By broadcasting the aims and scopes to a larger audience, we have received favorable responses from scientists over the years,” he said. “By talking about the relationship between ecology and environmental conditions and relating it to planning and design, that helps us appeal to a larger audience.
“Global warming is not a specific problem,” he said. “It’s a universal problem and the business of planning and design relating to science is a universal condition that we must start paying attention to.”
Rodiek said his broad-based approach came from his Ph.D. advisor, Dr. Carl Carlozzi.
“He’s a man of genius,” said Rodiek. “He taught us to be Renaissance scientists and to stop this nonsense thinking that if you know more and more about less and less you’re going to be more important.”
The Landscape and Urban Planning Journal, headquartered at Texas A&M, is based on the premise that research linked to practice will ultimately improve the human-made landscape. It emphasizes ecological understanding and a multi-disciplinary approach to analysis, planning and design. The journal attempts to draw attention to the interrelated nature of problems posed by nature and human use of land.
