The Canadian Journal of Regional Science is an academic journal published on behalf of the Canadian Regional Science Association (a non-profit scientific organization). It was originally founded in 1978 on the premise that it would fill a void in the Canadian social sciences literature and contribute to the development of regional science as a field of inquiry in the country. Today, the journal’s main objective continues to be publishing high-quality research that advances our understanding of regional issues. It does so by (i) providing a forum for interdisciplinary research on regional and urban issues, (ii) encouraging academics to undertake research on regional issues and (iii) promoting the exchange of ideas across different academic disciplines, both in Canada and beyond.
The special features of the Journal
The Canadian Journal of Regional Science is unique in the Canadian context as it is the only one dedicated to providing a critical research outlet for interdisciplinary work on regional and urban issues. Authors who publish in the journal come from a wide array of disciplines (e.g., economics, geography, sociology and transportation sciences to urban planning, population and policy studies). The journal is also unique in that it offers authors the possibility to publish their work in either English or French, one of the few bilingual journals in the field of regional science across the world.
Origins and evolution of the Journal
The Canadian Journal of Regional Science began publication in 1978 at the Regional and Urban Studies Centre, Institute of Public Affairs, Dalhousie University under the co-editorship of Andrew S. Harvey and William J. Coffey. In 1988, the editorship (and production) moved to INRS-Urbanisation at the Université du Québec a Montréal with Professor Jacques Ledent as editor.
Beginning with Volume 16 (1993), production of the journal moved to the Department of Economics, University of New Brunswick with William J. Milne serving as editor. Christopher Bryant of the Université de Montréal took over as editor with Volume 20 (1997) and continued through Volume 33 (2010), assisted on the production front by Doug Woodward.
The year 2010 marked an important milestone as the first issue of Volume 33 saw the journal move to an online, open access format. A year later, Professor John Miron of the University of Toronto assumed the editorship with Volume 34 (2011), along with Yann Fournis (Université du Québec à Rimouski) and Jean Dubé (Université Laval) as French co-editors.
With the publication of Volume 42 (2019), Jean Dubé (Université Laval) and Sébastien Breau (McGill University) have taken the lead as co-editors of the journal. While the journal has been redesigned with an entirely new layout, new website and a new partnership with Érudit, its main objective continues to be publishing high-quality work that advances our understanding of regional issues.