Letter from the Editors
WELCOME to Wiley-Blackwell's Geography Compass, a purpose built, on-line geography journal that publishes peer reviewed, state-of the-art survey articles from across and outside geography, to the same high standards as Wiley-Blackwell’s traditional print journals. Some journals purport to publish across the entire field of geography, but the reality is that these publications generally appeal to specific parts our discipline. Similarly, review journals tend to have a sub-disciplinary focus, and lack the breadth needed to chart progress made within and between physical and human geography and in related fields. Geography Compass is aimed at senior undergraduates, postgraduates and academics and provides a unique reference tool for students and teachers alike, by publishing timely reviews of key and provocative areas of geographical research. Articles published in Geography Compass can be issue-oriented, theoretical, practical or methodological in orientation. The journal does not privilege any one perspective over another, and Geography Compass’ readily accessible style is designed to encourage readers to take a broader interest in the entire spectrum of subject matter geographers’ engage with today.
To achieve the widest possible disciplinary coverage Geography Compass is managed by two Editors-in-Chief, one for human geography (Mike Bradshaw) and one for physical geography (Basil Gomez). There is no ideal way to sub-divide our discipline and some of the most provocative research crosses sub-disciplinary boundaries. Consequently, although many of the 14 sections are aligned in a traditional sense (to either physical or human geography), Geography Compass explicitly seeks to preserve a ‘middle ground’ in areas (such as ‘Geographic Information Systems’ (GIS), ‘Earth Observations’ and ‘Environment and Society’) where holistic, as opposed to fissiparous tendencies tend to be encouraged and preserved. To help insure that the boundaries between the sections remain permeable the two Editors-in-Chief are supported by an international team of specialist Section Editors who represent distinct areas of the discipline. The Section Editors commission the majority of articles, in consultation with their cosmopolitan Editorial Boards. But Geography Compass is open to all authors and welcomes individual submissions. The emphasis is upon concise (5000 word) state-of-the-art reviews, supported by a comprehensive bibliography and colour illustrations, written in such away as to make them accessible to an international readership of geographers and scholars in related disciplines.
Geography Compass combines the quality of a traditional scholarly journal with the speed and flexibility of electronic publishing. Articles normally are published 8 to 10 weeks from receipt of the final version. The on-line submission, peer review and publication processes are continuous. Authors incur no page or illustration charges and are encouraged to include links to websites and other supporting media in their article and/or bibliography. All Geography Compass articles are accessed electronically and may be downloaded for as little as $1.99. If you are interested in contributing an article or have a suggestion about how we can better exploit to Geography Compass’ unique potential please do not hesitate to contact us.
Mike Bradshaw
Editor-in-Chief (Human Geography)
mjb41@leicester.ac.uk
Basil Gomez
Editor-in-Chief (Physical Geography)
bgomez@indstate.edu
Geography Compass