Image: Panel 8 Photography
Earlier this month, the editors of the Society’s journals and book series, along with the publishers, Wiley, met to discuss the publications over the past year and to look forward to the future.
Despite COVID-19, it has been a busy year for the Society’s publications. Three new books were published in our book series, our journals received over 800 submissions from 67 countries, of which over 200 papers were published, and we have also published over 200 blog posts on Geography Directions.
The data we have show positive trends in terms of the gender balance of our authors and reviewers, and their geographical location. The editors have all made long term commitments to helping redress the historical imbalances in these data, and this was reaffirmed at the meeting, alongside discussion of some practical steps that can be taken to aid this. For example, it was agreed that we would redraft the advice given to reviewers in how to deal with language issues in submissions, so that we might further reduce biases against authors for whom English is not their first language.
The editors also discussed the various editorial boards that support the journals, with an eye to refreshing these later in the year. Part of this discussion was about how to get more from our editorial boards, and how to give more in return. But emphasis was also placed on the need to make these boards more geographically representative of our author bases.
The Society would like to extend our thanks to all the editors, as well as the editorial boards, authors and reviewers, who have helped maintain our publications over what has been an extremely challenging year.
Find out more about our journals and book series.