Instructions for authors

Contributions to the European Journal of Geography should be grounded in the relevant literature of the specialization they represent as well as make an important contribution to geographic knowledge and/or have a European/Global focus and interest. Manuscripts should be submitted electronically (All authors must register before login in) in Microsoft Word Format (.doc or .docx). Manuscripts and filenames should be written using the english keyboard letters and numbers only. If file size exceeds 20MB, we recommend sending it in compressed format (.ZIP or .RAR).  Authors might be asked to send additional material as separate files (GIF, MPEG, JPEG, etc). 

After the successful submission of a manuscript authors receive an automated confirmation e-mail. Authors are allowed a maximum of two (2) simultaneously submitted and reviewed manuscripts. For additional guidance on any matters, authors should refer to our sample manuscript (microsoft word template) or consult the journal's secretary (sec@eurogeojournal.eu).  

However, successfull submission of a manuscript does not guarantee acceptance for publication. All kinds of articles must not be published beforehand in another journal. Therefore, all manuscripts will undergo a plagiarism check based on Turnitin. Any overlap with a published or submitted work needs to be declared to the editorial mangement on submission. To meet scientific standard all articles need to undergo a double-blind peer-review process.

The use of AI tools in the writing of articles is an evolving landscape. At this time, the following is the policy of the EJG: Authors should document the extent to which ChatGPT or other tools have been used in the research process in the Methodology section. This should include a description of the specific tasks, analyses, or portions of the work that were supported by the AI tool. Additionally, AI cannot be credited as an Author or Co-Author. Instead, researchers who use any form of AI or similar research tools to help conceive, conduct, or document the research should acknowledge that contribution in the Acknowledgments section, emphasizing the respective role of the researchers and the AI in the article writing process. Human authors are ultimately accountable for the outcome of the work.

THE REVIEWING PROCESS

Peer review assists the editors in making editorial decisions and through the editorial communications with the author may also assist the author in improving the paper. First, articles submitted to the journal are reviewed by the editorial panel in terms of general suitability for the journal. Selected articles are then subject to a double blind review process. Revised articles are reviewed both by the editor and the original reviewers.

Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers. Additionally, any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editors.

Reviews should be conducted objectively and personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments. Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also call to the editors attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge. 

EJG reviewers do not rewrite your paper, or reject it because they wish you had submitted a different paper. However, they focus on the following criteria:

According to current statistics of our records, it takes an average of eight to twenty weeks for the reviewers and editors to submit their comments with respect to the acceptance of papers. We consider this period quite normal for scientific journals of our impact and in our scientific field. 

ISSUES OF LANGUAGE

Manuscripts should be written in good English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these). Non-native English speakers are strongly advised to have their manuscripts critiqued by an English speaker prior to submission. Authors of papers that don’t meet the above requirements will be asked to undergo professional editing and proofreading services in order to conform to correct scientific English.

Please prepare your manuscript using the English keyboard layout instead of your native one in order to avoid encoding problems due to the presence of accented Latin or non-Latin characters.

STRUCTURE / FORMAT OF THE ARTICLE

For full-length original research articles, the manuscript word count must be between 5.000 - 10.000 words. This includes title, abstract, keywords, tables, illustrations, references, footnotes, etc. Manuscripts of less than 5.000 words will be automatically deleted without further notice.

For short communications (up to 2.000 words) check out this Editorial here presenting the “Geographic Insights in Brief" section.

The abstract for all article types must be between 150 - 250 words. Additionally, the authors should provide three to six keywords expressing the nature of the article and references should adopt the APA style (7th Edition).

All contributions should use the sample manuscript of the journal.

DATA ACCESS & CITATION

Authors may be requested to provide the raw data relevant to the paper for editorial review. They should also be prepared to provide public access to such data. Data must be cited in the same way as article, book, and web citations and authors are required to include data citations as part of their reference list.

ORIGINALITY

Authors must guarantee the submitted manuscript was originally written by them. The work must not have been published previously nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere. If the work and/or words of others are included, they must be appropriately cited or quoted.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF SOURCES

The authors should properly acknowledge any work in the manuscript that has been contributed by others.

DECLARATION & CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

All submissions must include disclosure of all relationships that could be viewed as presenting a potential conflict of interest.

HUMAN & ANIMAL RIGHTS

For research that includes experiments involving humans, a statement of compliance is required to show that procedures were followed in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national). For research that reports on experiments involving animals, authors are asked to indicate whether the institutional and/or national guide for the care and use of laboratory animals was followed.