Feature Papers "Age-Friendly Cities & Communities: State of the Art and Future Perspectives"

Dear Colleagues,

We are arranging a Feature Paper Special Issue entitled "Age-Friendly Cities & Communities: State of the Art and Future Perspectives" which will be published in the section of Health Care sciences & Services of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH) by MDPI. Currently IJERPH has an Impact Factor of 2.468.
The number of older adults is increasing rapidly, and this demographic shift places an increased level of strain and tension on the various international healthcare and welfare systems. The vast majority of older adults wish to age in place, and many make use of long-term care services, including homecare, rehabilitation services, and social support, as well as home modifications and technology.
One way to support older people to live the life they wish to live is through the Age-Friendly Cities and Communities initiative, a world-wide programme launched in 2007 by the World Health Organization to make cities more tuned to the needs and requirements of older citizens.
The primary focus of this Feature Paper Special Issue is to critically assess the state of the art in Age-Friendly Cities and Communities programme. Focusing on how much the programme has impacted on cities, while embracing its foundations, and what are the benefits of consortium member cities? Which gaps can be identified in the model and how should these gaps be addressed? Evaluations of local initiatives are needed in order to move the Age-Friendly Cities and Communities initiative and debate forward.
The purpose of this Feature Paper Special Issue is to publish high-quality research papers including position papers and review articles addressing recent advances in age-friendly cities. There are eight domains of an age-friendly city, specifically Social participation; Communication and information; Civic participation and employment; Housing; Transportation; Community support and health services; Outdoor spaces and buildings; Respect and social inclusion.
We welcome papers that focus on (one of) these eight domains; in additon to: housing as well as urban planning, (geron)technology and digital solutions, specifically. We particularly welcome position and review papers on Age-Friendly Cities & Communities and its sub-domains, as well as detailled evaluation studies. State-of-the-art project descriptions will be considered for publication too. Such papers should be accompanied by high quality artwork.
In 2019, Marston and van Hoof published a paper in IJERPH in which the authors proposed a new smart age-friendly eco-system, with two additional areas: 1. ‘The age-friendly physical space’ and 2. ‘Technology and associated ICTs’. ‘The age-friendly living environment’ relates to the actual living space (i.e., house, apartment etc.) of a person or families. The ‘age-friendly physical space’ sphere relates to the physical environment – the urban development and design of villages, towns and cities associate to age-friendly, not only for contemporary ageing populations but for younger generations too.
Contributions from top scholars from OECD countries and early career researchers are welcomed whose work intersects across these areas of interest. All submissions should be original, and of high quality which have not yet been published or that are not currently under review by other journals or by peer-reviewed conferences. Open access fees are waived for all accepted papers, which need to have an explicit connection to the theme of the Special Issue, i.e. Age-Friendly Cities & Communities and/or one of its sub-domains. The acceptance of papers and their respective length are at the discretion of the guest editors. All submissions will undergo single-blind review.
We encourage authors to send a short abstract (500 words max.) a tentative title in advance and full contact details of all authors to both Guest Editors.
When your manuscript is ready for submission, we ask that you submit via the online portal https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph/special_issues/Age_Friendly_Cities. All submitted manuscripts will be processed through a fast peer review process.

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours sincerely,

Prof. Dr. Joost van Hoof
Dr. Hannah R. Marston
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.