Over 40 years of shaping global urban research: The Journal of Urban Affairs, 1979–2021

After 5 decades of the Urban Affairs Association, more than 4 decades of the Journal of Urban Affairs (JUA), and with the departure of an editorial team, this seems an opportune moment to assess the contribution made by the journal to the field of urban affairs. This paper takes both an historical and analytical approach to this evaluation, detailing the institutional challenges associated with the journal’s production, coupled with identification of key themes in its catalog of papers. The historical exploration of defining articles and notable authors provides a retrospective of the key urban issues that have defined the JUA over the last 4 decades. We also undertake a content analysis of the JUA, utilizing Web of Science data, which dates back to 1993. This bibliometric analysis sheds further light on influential JUA authors, articles and topics, as well as key conceptual, intellectual, and social patterns and trends in the journal over the last four decades.