World's Best Scientists 2026 revealed!
Sustainable Cities and Society
H-index 101

Sustainable Cities and Society

Ranking & Metrics

Discipline name Position Best Scientists Publications D-Index
Engineering and Technology 38 323 526 62
Environmental Sciences 49 198 331 58

Additional Metrics

Number of Best Scientists*: 1003
Documents by Best Scientists*: 1315
Top 100 Ranked Scientists*: 39
SCIMAGO H-index: 156
SCIMAGO SJR: 2.869
Impact Factor: 12

Overview

Top Research Topics at Sustainable Cities and Society?

The journal generally zeroes in on subjects such as Environmental economics, Sustainability, Energy consumption, Urban planning and Environmental planning. The journal addresses concerns in Environmental economics which are intertwined with other disciplines, such as Electricity, Greenhouse gas and Renewable energy. Sustainable Cities and Society dives deep in exploring the relationship between the study of Sustainability and Sustainable development.

The journal explores issues in Energy consumption which can be linked to other research areas like Consumption (economics) and Efficient energy use. The research on Urban planning discussed in it draws on the closely related field of Urbanization.

  • Environmental economics (10.50%)
  • Sustainability (10.21%)
  • Energy consumption (8.70%)

What are the most cited papers published in the journal?

  • Smart sustainable cities of the future: An extensive interdisciplinary literature review (480 citations)
  • Towards sustainable smart cities: A review of trends, architectures, components, and open challenges in smart cities (468 citations)
  • Demand side management in smart grid: A review and proposals for future direction (354 citations)

Research areas of the most cited articles at Sustainable Cities and Society:

The journal papers aim to foster the development of research in Sustainability, Energy consumption, Environmental economics, Environmental resource management and Urban heat island. While the primary focus in the published articles is Sustainability, they also dissect topics surrounding Urban planning and Environmental planning as a whole. While Energy consumption is the focus of the most cited papers, it also provides insights into the studies of Consumption (economics), Architectural engineering, Efficient energy use and Renewable energy.

What topics the last edition of the journal is best known for?

  • Law
  • Statistics
  • Artificial intelligence

The previous edition focused in particular on these issues:

The journal is organized to address concerns in the fields of Environmental economics, Fuzzy logic, Urban planning, Sustainability and Environmental planning. While work presented in Sustainable Cities and Society provided substantial information on Environmental economics, it also covered topics in Energy consumption, Photovoltaic system, Energy management system and Electricity. The research on Urban planning tackled can also make contributions to studies in the areas of Land development, Built environment, Urbanization, Municipal corporation and Architectural engineering.

The journal holds forums on Sustainability that merges themes from other disciplines such as Water use, Water scarcity and Sustainable development. Sustainable Cities and Society facilitates discussions on Sustainable development that incorporate concepts from other fields like Panel data, Natural resource economics, Greenhouse gas and Environmental quality. The Spatial planning studies presented in the journal fall under the field of Environmental planning, but it also has connections to other fields such as Protection mechanism.

The most cited articles from the last journal are:

  • Exploring the spatial heterogeneity of urban heat island effect and its relationship to block morphology with the geographically weighted regression model (0 citations)
  • Considerations for Encouraging Citizen Participation by Information-Disadvantaged Groups in Smart Cities (0 citations)
  • Visualized spatiotemporal data mining in investigation of Urmia Lake drought effects on increasing of PM10 in Tabriz using Space-Time Cube (2004-2019) (0 citations)

Papers citation over time

A key indicator for each journal is its effectiveness in reaching other researchers with the papers published at that venue.

The chart below presents the interquartile range (first quartile 25%, median 50% and third quartile 75%) of the number of citations of articles over time.

The top authors publishing in Sustainable Cities and Society (based on the number of publications) are:

  • Fariborz Haghighat (14 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • Prashant Kumar (14 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • Paola Caputo (13 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • Kazem Zare (13 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • Sayyad Nojavan (12 papers) absent at the last edition.

The overall trend for top authors publishing in this journal is outlined below. The chart shows the number of publications at each edition of the journal for top authors.

Only papers with recognized affiliations are considered

The top affiliations publishing in Sustainable Cities and Society (based on the number of publications) are:

  • Chinese Academy of Sciences (62 papers) published 2 papers at the last edition, 18 less than at the previous edition,
  • Hong Kong Polytechnic University (54 papers) published 1 paper at the last edition, 15 less than at the previous edition,
  • Islamic Azad University (47 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • Chongqing University (45 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • University of Tehran (43 papers) absent at the last edition.

The overall trend for top affiliations publishing in this journal is outlined below. The chart shows the number of publications at each edition of the journal for top affiliations.

Publication chance based on affiliation

The publication chance index shows the ratio of articles published by the best research institutions in the journal edition to all articles published within that journal. The best research institutions were selected based on the largest number of articles published during all editions of the journal.

The chart below presents the percentage ratio of articles from top institutions (based on their ranking of total papers).Top affiliations were grouped by their rank into the following tiers: top 1-10, top 11-20, top 21-50, and top 51+. Only articles with a recognized affiliation are considered.

During the most recent 2022 edition, 23.26% of publications had an unrecognized affiliation. Out of the publications with recognized affiliations, 18.18% were posted by at least one author from the top 10 institutions publishing in the journal. Another 9.09% included authors affiliated with research institutions from the top 11-20 affiliations. Institutions from the 21-50 range included 24.24% of all publications and 48.48% were from other institutions.

Returning Authors Index

A very common phenomenon observed among researchers publishing scientific articles is the intentional selection of journals they have already attended in the past. In particular, it is worth analyzing the case when the authors participate in the same journal from year to year.

The Returning Authors Index presented below illustrates the ratio of authors who participated in both a given as well as the previous edition of the journal in relation to all participants in a given year.

Returning Institution Index

The graph below shows the Returning Institution Index, illustrating the ratio of institutions that participated in both a given and the previous edition of the conference in relation to all affiliations present in a given year.

The experience to innovation index

Our experience to innovation index was created to show a cross-section of the experience level of authors publishing in a journal. The index includes the authors publishing at the last edition of a journal, grouped by total number of publications throughout their academic career (P) and the total number of citations of these publications ever received (C).

The group intervals were selected empirically to best show the diversity of the authors' experiences, their labels were selected as a convenience, not as judgment. The authors were divided into the following groups:

  • Novice - P < 5 or C < 25 (the number of publications less than 5 or the number of citations less than 25),
  • Competent - P < 10 or C < 100 (the number of publications less than 10 or the number of citations less than 100),
  • Experienced - P < 25 or C < 625 (the number of publications less than 25 or the number of citations less than 625),
  • Master - P < 50 or C < 2500 (the number of publications less than 50 or the number of citations less than 2500),
  • Star - P ≥ 50 and C ≥ 2500 (both the number of publications greater than 50 and the number of citations greater than 2500).

The chart below illustrates experience levels of first authors in cases of publications with multiple authors.

Top Publications

  • The efficacy of social distance and ventilation effectiveness in preventing COVID-19 transmission

    Chanjuan Sun;Chanjuan Sun;Zhiqiang Zhai

    (2020)
    651 Citations
  • Urban heat island mitigation by green infrastructure in European Functional Urban Areas

    Federica Marando;Mehdi P. Heris;Grazia Zulian;Angel Udias Moinelo

    (2021)
    441 Citations
  • Low impact development techniques to mitigate the impacts of climate-change-induced urban floods: Current trends, issues and challenges

    Sahar Hadi Pour;Ahmad Khairi Abd Wahab;Shamsuddin Shahid;Shamsuddin Shahid;Asaduzzaman

    (2020)
    373 Citations
  • Inundation risk assessment of metro system using AHP and TFN-AHP in Shenzhen

    Hai-Min Lyu;Wan-Huan Zhou;Shui-Long Shen;Shui-Long Shen;An-Nan Zhou

    (2020)
    340 Citations
  • The impact of environmental regulations on urban Green innovation efficiency: The case of Xi'an

    Jingxiao Zhang;Le Kang;Hui Li;Pablo Ballesteros-Pérez

    (2020)
    334 Citations
  • Exploring the impact of urbanization on urban building carbon emissions in China: Evidence from a provincial panel data model

    Tengfei Huo;Tengfei Huo;Xiaohui Li;Weiguang Cai;Jian Zuo

    (2020)
    293 Citations
  • Temporary reduction in fine particulate matter due to ‘anthropogenic emissions switch-off’ during COVID-19 lockdown in Indian cities

    Prashant Kumar;Sarkawt Hama;Hamid Omidvarborna;Ashish Sharma

    (2020)
    263 Citations
  • Evaluating the performances of several artificial intelligence methods in forecasting daily streamflow time series for sustainable water resources management

    (2021)
    223 Citations
  • Coupling coordination evaluation and sustainable development pattern of geo-ecological environment and urbanization in Chongqing municipality, China

    (2020)
    219 Citations
  • Urban building energy modeling (UBEM) tools: A state-of-the-art review of bottom-up physics-based approaches

    Martina Ferrando;Francesco Causone;Tianzhen Hong;Yixing Chen;Yixing Chen

    (2020)
    204 Citations

Related Online Degrees & Career Pathways

For those interested in expanding their expertise beyond traditional Environmental Sciences, several related online degrees offer valuable skills and career flexibility. For example, pursuing an online psychology masters can complement an environmental background by focusing on human behavior and community engagement in sustainability efforts.

Environmental science graduates can also explore high-impact roles through an high-paying jobs with environmental science degree that range from conservation specialists to environmental consultants. These positions often require a mix of scientific knowledge and policy understanding.

For students inclined toward more technical and engineering aspects, enrolling in environmental engineering schools online provides advanced training in designing eco-friendly infrastructure and managing resources efficiently.

Additionally, those interested in health and communication fields may consider accelerated programs like the accelerated speech pathology programs, which open paths to careers supporting individuals affected by environmental factors impacting speech and language development.

Exploring these varied online degrees helps students build multidisciplinary skills, increasing their adaptability in a rapidly evolving job market focused on sustainability and environmental wellbeing.

Best Scientists Contributing to This Journal

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