About the Journal

About the Journal

The Canadian Journal of Architecture (CJA) is a peer-reviewed, open access journal publishing original research, critical reviews and documented case studies across architectural design, building technology, heritage conservation and the sustainability of the built environment. It is published by Northline Academic Publishing Services Inc., Vaughan, Ontario, Canada.

The journal is intended for architectural researchers and academics, practitioners engaged in research, doctoral and graduate students, and professionals working in allied built-environment fields including engineering, urban planning, conservation and environmental design.

Aims

The Canadian Journal of Architecture aims to:

  • Publish rigorous, original research across architectural design, building technology, heritage conservation and the sustainability of the built environment, applying a single methodological standard consistently.
  • Reduce the distance between where architectural scholarship is produced and where it is published, by removing financial and geographical barriers to publication without lowering the standard of assessment.
  • Provide immediate, unrestricted open access to all published work under a Creative Commons licence, with authors retaining copyright.
  • Support early-career researchers through substantive, constructive editorial feedback, so that a manuscript addressing an important problem is helped toward publishable form rather than dismissed.
  • Encourage work that connects architectural research to the conditions in which building actually takes place — hot arid climates, displacement and post-disaster contexts, informal and vernacular building cultures, and rapidly urbanising regions.
  • Build a genuinely international editorial and reviewer community, and maintain transparent policies on peer review, ethics, authorship and the disclosure of funding and competing interests.
  • Encourage interdisciplinary work that connects architecture with engineering, environmental science, digital technology and the social sciences, where the connection is substantive rather than nominal.

Scope

The journal publishes original research articles, critical reviews and documented case studies in four broad areas.

1. Architectural Design and Urbanism

  • Architectural Design and Theory
  • Interior Architecture and Spatial Design
  • Landscape Architecture
  • Urban Design and Urban Planning
  • Housing and Residential Studies
  • Architectural Education and Pedagogy

2. Digital Technologies and Building Innovation

  • Architectural Artificial Intelligence
  • Digital Architecture, BIM, and Computational Design
  • Smart Cities and Urban Informatics
  • Building Technology and Construction Systems
  • Materials and Innovation in Architecture

3. Architectural Heritage and History

  • Architectural Heritage, Conservation, and Restoration
  • Vernacular Architecture and Cultural Heritage
  • Architectural History and Criticism

4. Sustainability and Built Environment

  • Sustainable Architecture and Green Building
  • Climate-Responsive and Bioclimatic Architecture
  • Environmental Design and Building Performance
  • Resilient and Disaster-Resistant Built Environments
  • Humanitarian Architecture and Post-Disaster Shelter Design
  • Human-Centered Design and Universal Accessibility
  • Interdisciplinary Studies Related to the Built Environment

Submissions may be theoretical, historical, empirical, computational or design-led. Whatever the approach, manuscripts must state a clear research question, make their method explicit, and support their claims with evidence — including drawn and photographic evidence produced or analysed by the authors. Purely descriptive accounts of projects, promotional material and work without an articulated research contribution fall outside the scope of the journal.

Architectural artificial intelligence and computational methods are within scope as objects of research and as instruments of analysis. This is distinct from the journal's prohibition on the use of generative artificial intelligence in preparing manuscripts, which is set out in the Author Guidelines and applies to all submissions regardless of subject.

Peer Review

All submissions are first assessed by an editor for scope, compliance with the Author Guidelines and adherence to the journal's policy on generative artificial intelligence. Manuscripts that pass this assessment are reviewed by at least two independent reviewers under double-anonymous conditions: neither authors nor reviewers know each other's identity. Editorial decisions are accept, minor revisions, major revisions, or decline.

Open Access and Copyright

All articles are published open access without paywall or embargo. Authors retain copyright in their work and grant the journal the right of first publication. Articles are published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0), permitting anyone to share and adapt the work for any purpose, including commercially, provided the original author and source are credited and any changes are indicated.

The journal charges no submission fee and no article processing charge.

Publication Frequency

The journal publishes two issues per year: Issue 1 covering January to June, and Issue 2 covering July to December. Accepted articles are published to the current open issue as soon as they are ready, rather than being held for a fixed release date.

Preservation and Identifiers

The journal maintains arrangements for the long-term digital preservation of published content. Registration for the assignment of Digital Object Identifiers to published articles is in progress.

Publisher

Northline Academic Publishing Services Inc.
2160 Highway 7, Unit 6
Vaughan, Ontario, L4K 1W6
Canada

Contact

Editorial enquiries: editor@canadianja.ca
Technical support: support@canadianja.ca