Institute for Transport Studies
FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
Writing Transport Geography:
welcome and introductions
Dr. Karen Lucas
Associate Professor, Institute for Transport
Studies, University of Leeds
Chair of RGS/IBG Transport Geography
Research Group
Associate editor Journal of Transport
Geography, Elsevier Publocations
Institute for Transport Studies
FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
Welcome to Leeds University and ITS
About us
• Based in the Faculty of Environment – it is a free-standing
academic department
• Established in 1972 with a primary purpose to:
– advance the understanding of transport activity, operations and use,
– develop skills and best practice among transport professionals and
decision-makers
• Approx. 50 academic/research staff and 10 support staff
• PGR cohort of 45 – this matches Imperial College and UCL
combined
• Largest provider of Masters teaching on transport in the UK
(77.5 students in 2012/13)
ITS is already a globally
leading centre
OUR VISION:
To be the world leading centre in transport related
research and education.
Strongest and most consistent performer amongst peers in Government’s
Research Assessment Exercises 1992-2008
Queen’s Anniversary Prize 2009 for Higher and Further Education “sustained
excellence - 40 years’ of impact”
In 2004, Royal Academy of Engineering/EPSRC International Review of
Engineering said we were being modest in our claim of being one of the best half
dozen transport centres in the world
Each of our four research groups is as big as most other UK and European
transport groups
The Leeds Advanced Driving Simulator is a state of art research facility
Some current projects
• Major part in a £10m Jaguar Land Rover
& EPSRC funded centre for the future of
simulation
• Coordinating a £10m EU project looking
to cut emissions by 20% through invehicle driver assistance
New areas of research
• Energy policy
– 5 year DEMAND centre on energy demand reduction
– New cross-disciplinary Centre for Integrated Energy
Research
– ESRC Big Data Centre with School of Geography
• New areas of knowledge application
– Health modelling, rail capacity optimisation
– Visioning, modelling, risk, uncertainty and evaluation
– Social and Equity Issues in Transport
Cross sector working across campus
• Joined up research on resilience and disruption
– Climate impacts, flood risk/temperature extremes, investment
strategies and social resilience (Civils, Geography, SoEE)
• Integration with social science capability in University
– Inclusive accessibility and Ageing (Sociology, Centre for Disability
Studies, Geography)
– Terrorism, security (POLIS, Law)
• Cross-sectoral efficiency research
– LUBS, Water@Leeds, CIER
• Smart Cities
– Integrated city planning (smart grids, data harvesting, participatory
governance, infrastructures and control systems) – SoEE,
Geography, Computing, CIER…
ITS research has policy impact
• Advising the Office of Rail Regulator on Track Access Charges
• Informing the rail industry passenger demand forecasting
handbook
• Developing technologies to support Eco-Driving
• Intelligent Speed Adaptation Field Trials
• Working on the future of vehicle simulation with Jaguar LandRover
• Assessing the impacts of concessionary bus fares on health
• Identifying why local air quality standards are not being met
• We lead one of the University’s HEIF Sector Hubs
• We are one of the Department for Transport’s top10 suppliers
New ITS Building starts 2015
Institute for Transport Studies
FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
Transport Geography
Research Group (TGRG)
People
Committee Officers
Other Committee Members
• Chair: Dr Karen Lucas, University
of Leeds
• Dr Stewart Barr, University of Exeter
• Professor Peter Jones, University
College London
• Dr Janet Dickinson, University of
Bournemouth
• Professor Julian Hine, University of
Ulster
• Professor Jon Shaw, University of
Plymouth
• Dr Tim Ryley, University of
Loughborough
• Secretary: Dr Kate Pangbourne,
University of Aberdeen
• Treasurer: Dr Lisa Davison,
University of Ulster
• Membership secretary: Dr Angela
Curl, University of Glasgow
• Website: Robin Lovelace,
University of Leeds
• Post-graduate representatives: Ian
Phillips and Joanna Elvy,
University of Leeds
International representatives
• Professor Andy Goetz, University of
Denver
• Professor Markus Hesse, University of
Luxembourg
Activities
• Sponsored sessions at RGS/IBG annual conference
• Sponsored side events – e.g. DfT policy workshop 2012, PG
writing workshop 2014, occasional meeting
• PG paper and UG dissertation prizes
• Website http://tgrg.wordpress.com/
– Online articles
– Book reviews
– Publications
• E-newsletter
• Twitter @transportgeog
RGS/IBG 2014
• 19 sponsored sessions
• 3 with DARG, 2 with EyGWG, 1 with GFGRG
• Topics include:
– Air transport planning and policy
– Ports planning and policy
– Energy behaviours and behaviour change
– Mobility and livelihoods in development contexts
– Evaluating transport-related policies
– Virtual communication, path dependencies and blurred boundaries
– Low carbon mobility
– Parking and urban policies
TGRG RGS PG prize
• Emerald Group Publishing are sponsoring this year’s Postgraduate
Paper Prize £100
• Awarded annually for the best authored paper presented by a
postgraduate student in a TGRG-sponsored session at the Royal
Geographical Society
– Assessed in relation to the stage and rigour of the work described, and in the
quality and structure of the writing
– Papers to be sole-authored and close to publishable
– The quality and appropriateness of the presentation in the conference
session will also be taken into account, including slides if used
• Judging will be conducted by a panel of three selected from the TGRG
Committee
• The judges reserve the right not to award prizes in any year if the
standard is not high enough.
• More details:
http://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/products/books/news_story.htm
?id=5201
Transport geography research is
a major growth area
• The EU Horizon 2020 programme - budget for transport research has
been identified at € 7.7 billion
• Transport remains a major area of UK government investment - High
Speed Rail 2 will be a £42bn investment and the Budget 2013
announced a further £3bn per annum on transport infrastructure projects.
• TSB estimates the total market size of the transport sector to be £900bn
by 2025. Transport Systems is one of seven Catapult Centres - a further
£150m for industry-led collaborative research and development
• The developing world is motorizing rapidly which is creating huge
infrastructure requirements – OECD estimates that in the decade to
2020 Asia’s infrastructure investment needs ~ $8730bn (US).
• Transport it is explicitly mentioned in RCUK calls covering energy, digital
economy, ageing, infrastructure, resilience and economic development.
Institute for Transport Studies
FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
Journal of
Transport Geography
About the journal
• Elsevier family of journals
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Elsevier Ediroial System (EES)
ScienceDirect and Scopus search engines
Internationally facing – Facebook, Twitter, In, RSS, etc.
Relatively high impact
• Current impact factor 1.98
• 5-year impact 2.52
– Some Open Access articles available
• Editors
– Editor in Chief - Tim Schwanen (Oxford)
– Associate editors – Peter Hall (Simon Fraser, Canada), David Keeling
(Western Kentucky), Karen Lucas (Leeds), Becky Loo (Hong Kong), Kevin
O’Connor (Melbourne)
– Book review editor
– Founding editor – Richard Knowles
– 35 International Editorial Board members
Mission statement
The Journal of Transport Geography is a leading and
interdisciplinary journal with a predominant focus on the
geographical dimensions of transport, travel and mobility.
It is international in its outlook, and welcomes both conceptual
papers and theoretically-informed, empirically-oriented
contributions on the movement of people, goods and/or
information by any mode and at every geographical scale.
Indicative topics
• The effects of transport policy and governance on regions and
places
• The impacts of transport infrastructure investment on mobility,
livelihoods, social networks, the spatial economy and patterns of
development
• The role of transport and mobility in economic, political, cultural
and other forms of spatial integration and change
• Inequalities between people and within and between places in
terms of travel, mobility and accessibility
• Transport, energy, environment and climate change and the
spatial dimensions of sustainable transport and mobility
Geographical dimensions of the operation, structure and
organization of public, private and other transport providers
Indicative topics (cont.)
• The relationships of transport, travel behaviour and
accessibility within cities, urban structures and urban
systems
• The spatial dynamics of aviation, maritime and intermodal
transport, and logistics networks
• The linkages of transport nodes, such as ports, airports
stations, distribution centres and other terminals, with their
environments
• Methodological developments highlighting the geographical
dimensions of transport and mobility
• The role and utility of geo-spatial methods (including GIS),
digital data and qualitative methodologies in transport
geography
Publication process
• Electronic online submission only through EES
• Paper placed with Editor-in-Chief (EC)
• EC refers to topic-relevant associate editor
• Double-blind peer review (2-3 reviewers)
• 42 day review period but can take longer due to reviewer
burden
• Editor’s decision (5 categories) – reject, reject & submit
elsewhere, revise and resubmit, accept subject to
amendments, accept
• Time limited responses
• Redirect to original reviewers for re-review (and repeat)
Special Issues
• 6 per year (usually take at least 1 year to publish)
• Aim is for a focused topic area that may be underrepresented in the journal
• Can also be around a specific event e.g. conference,
workshop, seminar
• Guest editors submits a proposal with suggested abstracts
for papers and authors listed
• 8-12 papers is usual
• Potential reviewers are nominated by guest editors
• All papers subject to same blind peer review process and as
a normally submitted article.
Key tips for publishing (cont.)
• Make sure that your article is sufficiently internationally facing – it
will not be accepted if it focuses on a local case study without any
wider relevance to elsewhere
• Make sure your analysis has some kind of spatial component and
or take into consideration spatial context – this is a geography
journal
• Be up to date with your knowledge of contemporary theories and
methodologies – use plenty of references and don’t cite your
supervisors too much
• Be internationally facing in your references to the work of others –
especially the USA
• Read around the journal to see if others have published in the
same area recently and cite their work – they may well be your
reviewers
Key tips for publishing (cont.)
• Make the first draft submission as good as it can be – there
is a huge volume of submissions and so editors are keen to
reject
• Make a complete submission with full highlights, Harvard
style references, tables and figures
• Expect a long delay between submission and return of
reviews – up to 6 months quite normal
• Revise and resubmit is a GOOD result for a 1st draft
submission – it may take several drafts and re-reviews
before the paper is accepted
• Make sure you answer ALL the reviewers’ comments even if
you don’t agree with them (NB it is likely to go abck to the
same reviewer)
Institute for Transport Studies
FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
Any questions?