CALLS FOR PAPERS

Metropolitan Universities journal accepts manuscripts on an ongoing basis on scholarship and research relevant to urban and metropolitan universities. Review our Aims and Scope for more information.

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Thematic calls

Metropolitan Universities journal regularly publishes themed issues.

Metropolitan Universities journal (MUJ) is accepting full manuscripts for an upcoming issue on the evolution of higher education through the lens of leadership. This themed issue invites scholars to explore leadership aspects, organizational change, and institutional transformation amidst the changing landscape and permacrisis in higher education and their communities. This call for complete, full manuscripts is open to all authors who have experience with leading organizational restructuring or reorganization, realigning institutional priorities, policies and programs, managing people and programs amidst change processes, creating financial sustainability through significant transition that results in institutional change, in the context of urban and metropolitan campuses. This MUJ issue is scheduled for publication in February 2026.

Metropolitan Universities journal (MUJ) seeks to showcase how urban-identified colleges and universities enact their public mission while experiencing leadership change at various levels. The rapidly changing leadership landscape at the executive level in higher education institutions, along with constantly shifting contexts such as competing market demands, policy changes, pressure from external stakeholders to address ROI and articulate outcomes, new technologies as well as enrollment shifts and revenue shortfalls, have created a complex reality for leadership in higher education. How do you lead through these changes across all levels? What strategies, policies, and practices do you implement to address the shifting landscape and support institutional progress? In the context of urban and metropolitan campuses, what factors influence and/or deepen leadership approaches that support the evolution of higher education? What impacts on campuses and communities do increasingly shortened leadership tenures at the executive level have on the ability of institutions to stay focused on making forward progress?

We welcome evidence-based manuscripts that examine how leadership approaches in higher education influence organizational change and institutional transformation. This issue seeks to explore and interrogate the influences, practices, frameworks, conceptual models, policies, challenges, impacts, and examples of effective strategies that address organizational change and institutional transformation through the lens of leadership in higher education.

  • Full manuscripts should provide critical, evidence-based studies on university initiatives that intersect higher education leadership with organizational change and institutional transformation.
  • Authors should examine efforts that have been in place long enough to show both positive and/or negative results as measured through data collection, research and/or evaluation processes.
  • To allow readers to apply ideas and strategies in other settings, authors should provide a clear description of the challenges and lessons learned.
  • Papers that offer program descriptions of organizational change and institutional transformation without research or evaluation elements will not be accepted.

Manuscript submission guidelines

We invite submissions of manuscripts by July 1, 2025. This issue is scheduled for publication in February 2026.

Submissions should be prepared in accordance with the MUJ Article Submission and Editorial Guidelines and should be no more than 7,000 words (exclusive of tables, references, etc). Manuscripts should be clear and concise, and submissions need to be evidence-based with a clear line of inquiry, literature review, and implications for practice. Preference is given to those manuscripts that demonstrate innovation and impact and include perspectives across multiple institutions. In hopes of broadening the scholarship, voice, and perspectives of campus and community representatives, authors may be researchers, scholar-practitioners, educators, practitioners, administrators, community leaders, and community partners of higher education institutions.

Please direct any questions regarding this issue to:

Metropolitan Universities journal (MUJ) is accepting full manuscripts for the upcoming 2025 CUMU Conference Issue: The Power of Place. The issue is scheduled for publication in summer 2026.

About the CUMU Conference

This year’s conference focuses on the vital connection between urban and metropolitan campuses and their communities, recognizing that “place” transcends mere geography. The connection with our cities and regions shapes institutional missions and gives rise to partnerships with the potential to transform individual lives and regional vitality. The 2025 CUMU Conference—The Power of Place—explores how campuses partner with their communities to promote social and economic mobility, drive regional development, and foster community well-being.

The 2025 CUMU Conference Issue: The Power of Place, invites presenters to reflect on the vision of higher education to address the potential and possibilities of tomorrow, to create opportunities for engaged citizenship and democratic communities, to explore the most complex questions and challenges of our communities, and honor place as both local and regional sacred spaces as well as transformative partnerships for the common good. Successful submissions critically and creatively examine and use evidence, as well as imagination, to describe the impact of practices, policies, and structures, and identify strategies and actionable steps for building resiliency across campuses and cities that align with the following themes:

  • social and economic mobility
  • hyperlocal, place-based community engagement
  • anchor collaborations and strategies
  • place-based approaches that transform communities
  • policy and change
  • racial equity and justice
  • student success and well-being
  • public scholarship to enhance campus-community partnerships

Manuscript submission guidelines

We invite submissions of manuscripts by December 1, 2025. This issue is scheduled for publication in summer 2026.

  • Only presenters at the 2025 Annual Conference in Baltimore, MD may submit for publication.
  • Submissions should be prepared and submitted in accordance with the MUJ Editorial and Submission Guidelines.
  • All presentation formats will be considered for inclusion. Submissions should take into account the outcomes of the presentations.
  • Manuscripts should be clear and concise.
  • Manuscripts should be evidence-based with a clear line of inquiry, an articulated scholarly approach to such inquiry, and implications for practice.
  • Preference is given to those manuscripts that demonstrate innovation and impact and include perspectives across multiple institutions.

Submit complete manuscripts following the MUJ Editorial and Submission Guidelines.

Please direct any questions regarding this issue to:

Suggest a themed issue

The editor welcomes proposals for future thematic issues. Prospective guest editors should describe their theme briefly, and submit to the editor a summary of the proposed topic.

Become a journal peer reviewer

We need you to help build the field. Your professional experiences provide invaluable insights on topics important to urban and metropolitan universities. Whether you describe yourself as an administrator, community partner, or scholar, we need your perspective to review how ideas translate to practice. Reviewing potential Metropolitan Universities journal articles is an excellent opportunity to engage with emerging scholarship.

Fill out this form to be considered as a peer reviewer for future Metropolitan Universities journal issues.

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