About the Journal

Prostor: a scholarly journal of architecture and urban planning publishes primarily scientific papers in the field of architecture and urbanism including papers from other scientific disciplines if they thematically fall within its scope. It is an open-access peer-reviewed scientific journal published since 1993. Journal publishes new numbers 2 times per year in printed and electronic versions. Journal accepts only previously unpublished papers that cannot be simultaneously offered in the same form to another publisher.

The journal publishes articles in English. Exceptionally, at the request of the author it may be published a title, keywords and a summary written in Croatian to support the preservation and development of national languages in architecture.

Access to the full text of published articles is available through downloadable Adobe PDF files. The authors of published articles bear full responsibility for the content of their papers and the viewpoints of the authors presented in published papers are not necessarily shared by Journal's editorial board.

In 2023, a total of 22 articles have been published.

Aims and Scopes

PROSTOR aims to serve as a communication medium for all concerned with scientific, technical, and spatial problems (global topics, or local topics compared with the European case studies, or connected with the European context) dealing dominantly with architecture and urbanism as well as cultural studies, environmental studies, human geography and urban studies.

PROSTOR covers the following scope of research:

  • architecture
  • architectural/building engineering
  • urban planning
  • design
  • art history
  • the philosophy, art, and science of architecture designing
  • green buildings
  • building physics
  • building materials
  • building construction
  • building structures
  • construction management
  • building/facility management
  • the linkages and interactions between the architecture/urban planning and archaeology, ethnology, anthropology, sociology, geography, geodesy, and forestry
  • the linkages and interactions between the built environment and ecology, natural resources, climate, local communities, public policy, and economic development.

Article Types
Original Scientific Paper
The original scientific paper contains theoretical and practical results of the fundamental or applied research; it presents the original scientific research results for the first time; It is an integral and in-depth presentation of an entirely completed research or its completed phases which are not expected to yield some further important results; the research can be repeated and its results tested.

Preliminary Communication
The preliminary communication is the first short article describing scientific research results which, due to their topical interest, should be published rapidly; it contains one or more new research information without an integral overview of the topic; it is primarily published in order to secure copyright in the name of the author for his partial research results; it does not provide the conditions for repeated research or testing its results.

Scientific Subject Review
The scientific subject review presents an integral overview of an area or a problem with a critical review or assessment; it is based on some earlier published results but also contains new analyses and syntheses, new relationships and/or new hypotheses for further research; the cited literature should be comprehensive enough to provide insight into the researched area; its systematicity, evaluation, commentaries, conclusions and presentations of someone else's or one's own research results give it a clear instructional purpose.

Book Review
Book review presents international and Croatian publications issued within the last two years. These short papers by esteemed authors are not peer-reviewed or categorized. Papers must be pre-approved by the journal's book review editor.

Conference Review
Conference review presents international and Croatian conferences issued within the last two years. These short papers by esteemed authors are not peer-reviewed or categorized. Papers must be pre-approved by the editor in chief.

Review of Doctoral Dissertation
Review of Doctoral Dissertation defended in the current year should be equipped with the title, mentor and committee in charge.  These short papers by PhD authors are not peer-reviewed or categorized. Papers must be pre-approved by the journal's book review editor.

Open Access
The content of the journal is fully open accessed. Publishing open access means that your article will be free to access online immediately on publication, increasing the visibility, readership, and impact of your research. Anyone is allowed to read, download, copy, redistribute, print, search and link to material, and alter, transform, or build upon the material, or use them for any other lawful purpose as long as they attribute the source in an appropriate manner according to the CC BY licence.

Editorial Standards

PROSTOR applies the recommendations given by the World Association of Medical Editors in "Syllabus for Prospective and Newly Appointed Editors". Once a manuscript passes the initial checks, it will be assigned to at least two independent experts for peer review. A double-blind peer-review process is applied, where authors' identities are not known to reviewers and vice versa.

Time Limits

Generally, it is expected that the reviewer accepts or rejects the review not later than seven days after the invitation. The review in the 1st round is expected to be finished for 3-4 weeks and in subsequent rounds for not more than 2-3 weeks. For more extended periods, the reviewers are kindly asked to contact section editors. These limits are indicated in the invitation e-mail also. The authors are subdued to the same time limits and rules in their rounds of corrections.

Copyright
Auhor/s retain unrestricted copyright and all publishing rights of any published article in PROSTOR. Author/s grant the journal PROSTOR the permission to publish the article and to identify itself as the original publisher. Author/s grant the journal PROSTOR the commercial right to publish a printed version of the journal and to sell it to libraries and natural persons. Author/s grant the third person free use of the published article only if its original author can be identified including the citations belonging to this author/s.

Peer Review and Ethics
Prostor is committed to peer-review integrity and upholding the highest standards of review. Once your paper has been assessed for suitability by the editor, it will then be double-blind peer-reviewed by independent, anonymous expert referees.
Each manuscript is reviewed by at least two independent experts in the field. They are responsible for their scientific evaluation and recommendation about the publication of the article. The review process is conducted anonymously, i.e. the identity of the reviewers remains unknown to the authors and the identity of the authors is never disclosed to the reviewers. Any selected reviewer who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible, should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process. A reviewer should also call to the editor's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Policy

Editorial Board:

The editorial board evaluates the manuscripts for intellectual content in fairness regardless of age, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnic background, citizenship, or political orientation of the authors. It takes full responsibility to ensure the assistance of high-qualified expert reviewers. The Editorial Board reviews the manuscript as well as the reviewers’ comments and recommendations before reaching a final decision about the acceptance of the manuscript, the acceptance of the manuscript upon revision as suggested, or its rejection. The names and e-mail addresses printed in this journal will be used exclusively for publication purposes and will be not made available to a third party.

Reviewers:

Each manuscript is reviewed by at least two independent experts in the field. They are responsible for their scientific evaluation and recommendation about the publication of the article. The review process is conducted anonymously, i.e. the identity of the reviewers remains unknown to the authors and the identity of the authors is never disclosed to the reviewers. Any selected reviewer who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process. A reviewer should also call to the editor's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

Authors:

It is expected that the manuscript submitted for publication has not been previously published or sent for a review to any other journal. The author takes full responsibility for the article's content and for permission to publish some information if necessary. The author is expected to carefully examine the copy of the manuscript sent back from the editor for authorization before publication. Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to use visuals and any other contributions from appropriate copyright holders

Correction of data

All authors should account for the accuracy of the published data. Correction of data should be done before the final printing of the paper. For that reason, the corresponding author receives the galley proof of the paper and is asked to correct it carefully and in a timely manner (within 48 h) before publication. If authors find a major mistake or error in the published version of the article, an Erratum will be published in the first available issue and posted online.

Retraction of published papers

If the authors made an honest error or discover the major flaws in their work, they can retract the paper. The online version will then be marked as ’retracted by authors’. All links to the retracted article will be maintained. If the editors, reviewers, or readers notice a case of duplicate or overlapping publication, fraudulent use of data, plagiarism, or unethical research, the paper will be, after an internal review by the editor, retracted, in which case the online version will then be marked as ’retracted by editor’. All links to the retracted article will be maintained. All retractions will be done in accordance with the COPE retraction guidelines.

Self-archiving policy
The papers published in PROSTOR can be deposited and self-archived in the institutional and thematic repositories providing the link to the journal's web pages and HRČAK.

Revenue sources
- Croatian Ministry of Science and  Education (annual support for scientific journals).
- Author fees and subscriptions

Journal information 

Prostor: a scholarly journal of architecture and urban planning is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal in architecture and urbanism indexed in Web of Science Core Collection (Arts & Humanities Citation Index). Journal is published twice a year in printed (ISSN1330-0652) and in electronic version (ISSN1333-9117).
 
Prostor publishes original scientific papers, preliminary communications, scientific subject reviews, and book conference reviews under Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY) and charges publication fees to authors, but has a discount for some authors.

Depending on whether you want to publish the manuscript in a winter or summer issue, it is preferable to submit the manuscript by the 1st September or 1st March of the current year.