1. Editor’s comment
In this year’s editorial I would like to touch upon the concepts of self-worth and purpose within the context of ourselves as individuals and our participation within academic communities. As academics we will find at least some of our identity within the pursuit of academic research and university teaching. These ‘career-goals’ are the culmination of years spent studying our subject areas which have grown out of a love for the topic, as well as a love for wanting to know more and understand how it all fits together. Of course, the ‘magic sauce’ in this is how we have come to our subject in the first instance and developed a deep, life-spanning, journey to learn and understand more. For me, this began at high school where I realised there is a physical landscape that is a palimpsest for a vast range of processes that operate upon it, and this is expressed through the features we see on the Earth’s surface. As a keen mountaineer, this connection with my subject came not only from academic inquisitiveness, but also from actively engaging within the landscape.
Higher study allowed me to realise that rivers, mountains, deserts, and coasts are not discrete elements of physical geography, but related domains that can overlap and intersect with landscapes fundamentally driven by processes. By understanding the processes we can extract their geomorphic expression and, conversely, we can use the geomorphology to extrapolate to the processes that may have operated. This ultimately led me to better comprehend how we can identify and extract landforms from the Earth’s surface and thereby understand more about Earth history.
Returning to the themes outlined at the beginning, my self-worth has come from my love of understanding geomorphology as an academic and experiencing geomorphology as a mountaineer. Out of self-worth comes purpose – this might be the development of a new research project, the creation and expansion of a new graduate programme, or career progression as a fully tenured professor. It might also be climbing a number of new routes or peaks, or undertaking an ultra distance cycling or running event. Purpose spans planning forward over the coming weeks, months, and years, hopefully leading to a fulfilling lifetime.
What I think is important within this context is that purpose rarely comes solely from within us but is driven, at least in part, by external factors. These involve individuals or groups who have influenced and supported us, almost invariably as part of a community, and it is community that I want to highlight as the key takeaway. As an academic you might think of community as the immediate research community within your speciality area – think of a conference session where you meet and interact with people that work in the same area. However, it is wider than this – you have those within your university department or research institute, you have those within your wider academic community (e.g. geography as a whole), as well as those who share a teaching philosophy or work in related application areas of business or government. Bear in mind that academic communities are increasingly interdisciplinary, such as a cross-over between technical and application. So I might consider myself part of the palaeo-glaciology community, but that feeds into glaciology more widely, geomorphology, physical geography and ultimately geography. However, I also contribute to aspects of geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing. My communities are varied, ranging from narrow and focused, to wide and disparate. Some are purely academic, while others technical, institution or teaching focused. Some communities I feel very closely aligned to, while others I simply dip in and out of. All of this is to say that our self-worth and purpose is fed by, and we feed into, communities that we participate in and these are wide and varied. Understand the communities that you are a part of, how you interact with them, what they provide you, and how you can give back to that community.
Finally, I wanted to highlight the Journal of Maps (JoM) as both a community in and of itself, while sitting within the broader academic publishing community. The JoM is unusual in that it is immediately, and obviously, interdisciplinary, yet when you look through our table of contents you will almost certainly see maps we have published from authors you know either personally or more widely through the academic community. However, you will also come across a wider range of topics and materials than you might otherwise have been exposed to. And as a journal of maps, we are partly driven by the artistic and technical constraints of map production that allow us to develop an end product worthy of publication that communicates a key message about our research to readers. As a community we also support one another – the JoM provides a forum to publish research, however we are all part of that same community that is steered by the common purpose of the editorial board, driven by the submissions of authors, and supported by the wide body of researchers who review these submissions. On this note, I would like to say thank you to everyone who is a part of this community – it is exciting to see such a vibrant publishing environment, but also a privilege.
2. Best map award
The 2023 Best Map Competition (sponsored by Taylor and Francis) was judged by the formal awards panel comprised of myself, Dr Dick Berg, Dr Giedrė Beconytė, Mr Mike Shand, and Professor Nigel Walford (and this section reflects our combined comments).
All maps published in the 2023 issues of the Journal of Maps are automatically entered into the competition and then shortlisted to a final group that are scrutinized by the panel. All maps are available for panel members, and they can (and do) suggest other maps that can be added to the final group. Contributions are assessed upon both their academic content and cartographic quality. It is neither the best academic paper nor the best-designed map, but a combination of qualities from both areas that is judged the winner. The following 18 maps were reviewed for the award:
Flowmapper.org: a web-based framework for designing origin–destination flow maps: Angelo Cusano, Filippo Russo, Luigi Guerriero, Aldo Coluccielloc, Giuseppe Ruzzaa, Francesco M. Guadagno and Paola Revellino
Geology of the Derain quadrangle (H10), Mercury: Christopher C. Malliband, David A. Rothery, Matthew R. Balme, Susan J. Conway, David L. Pegg and Jack Wright
Quality of life indices: how robust are the results considering different aggregation techniques?: Karel Macků and Radek Barvíř
Glacial geomorphology in the Wicklow Mountains, Ireland: Lauren Knight, Clare M. Boston and Harold Lovell
Mapping the ‘Magic of Huesca’: a methodological proposal for the design of tourist cartography: María Caudevilla Lambán, Raúl Postigo Vidal and María Zúñiga Antón
Quantifying and visualizing the 15-Minute walkable city concept across Europe: a multicriteria approach: Alexandros Bartzokas-Tsiompras and Efthimios Bakogiannis
The Alpine settlement system: capturing relevance beyond size: Dominik Bertram, Tobias Chilla and Markus Lambracht
Countermapping SDG 5 to address violence against women and girls in the favelas of Maré, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Cathy McIlwaine, Moniza Rizzini Ansari, Julia Gonçalves Leal, Fernanda Vieira and Joelma Sousa dos Santos
Geological Map of South America in Google Earth: Fernando Alirio Alcárcel-Gutiérrez, Jorge Gómez Tapias, Nohora Emma Montes Ramírez and María Fernanda Almanza-Meléndez
Astronomically determined localities, the core part of Ptolemy’s Geography: Jan Martínek and Aleš Létal
Reconstructing the historical shoreline evolution of the Northern Bay of Cádiz (SW Spain) from geomorphological and geoarchaeological data: Antonio Martínez-Sánchez, F. Javier Gracia, Carlos Alonso, Esperanza Mata and Claudia Caporizzo
Tectonic coupling of oceanic and continental units in the Southwestern Alps (Western Liguria, Italy) revealed by structural mapping: Edoardo Sanità, Maria Di Rosa, Jean-Marc Lardeaux, Michele Marroni and Luca Pandolfi
Geology and geodiversity of the Folafótur peninsula (Westfjords, Iceland): Alessandro Ellero, Björn Oddsson and Giuseppe Ottria
Geoparticipation in the Czech municipalities: index-based quantitative approach: Jaroslav Burian, Radek Barvíř, Daniel Pavlačka, Jiří Pánek, Jiří Chovaneček and Vít Pászto
The geodiversity of the Abruzzo, Lazio, and Molise National Park (Central Italy): Gianluca Esposito, Vania Mancinelli, Giorgio Paglia, Francesco Ciavattella, Daniela D’Amico, Cinzia Sulli, Luciano Sammarone and Enrico Miccadei
Map of tectonic shortening structures in Chryse Planitia and Arabia Terra, Mars: Savana Z. Woodley, Peter Fawdon, Matthew R. Balme and David A. Rothery
Geomorphology and geoheritage in the Piana Crixia Natural Park (NW Italy): Andrea Ferrando, Alberto Bosino, Enrico Bonino, Paola Coratza and Francesco Faccini
Unveiling the pandemic’s impact on visits to Madrid’s parks: insights from mobile phone data analysi: Ruben Talavera-Garcia, Rocio Perez-Campaña and Yeray Cara-Santana
It is with great pleasure that I am able to announce the award of the 2023 ‘Best Map’ to Fernando Alirio Alcárcel-Gutiérrez, Jorge Gómez Tapias, Nohora Emma Montes Ramírez and María Fernanda Almanza-Meléndez (Servicio Geologico Colombiano) for their Geological map of South America in Google Earth. This is an ambitious undertaking to collate and harmonise the geological mapping for a whole continent, while at the same time producing an easily understandable cartographic representation and freely distribute it electronically as a KMZ file which can be easily and intuitively viewed within Google Earth (as well as many other geographic information systems). It is an important contribution to the geology literature broadly, but also promotes the egalitarian access to information, that is available freely and easily. These are important aspects to champion within our global community. Our awards panel noted that it was ‘brilliantly executed’ and ‘quite an accomplishment to have a seamless map at this scale.’
3. A year in numbers: 2023
The journal of Maps had a productive 2023, publishing 133 articles. This was compared to a reduced 67 articles in 2022 which came as a result of moving to elocation IDs; we expected last year to see an increased number published and that was exactly what happened. In terms of a baseline, we maintained a strong number of submissions throughout the year.
In terms of journal metrics, the ever-present Impact Factor dropped slightly to 2.2 (from 2.6), possibly a continuing reflection of the one-off change to the way article counts are made, however it’s worth noting that this is a rise from 1.6 recorded in 2017. More importantly for authors in open access journals is the accessibility and distribution of their articles, as measured by the number of downloads. This saw a remarkable increase of nearly 10% to 458,576, up from 425,270. This is a salutary reminder of the power of open access, especially when you consider there were only 30,972 downloads in 2015, our last year as a subscription journal.
When we dive into this figure we can look at metrics for individual articles; the top five cited (2020–2022) and downloaded (2023) are:
Most Cited (2020–2022)
Strollo, A. et al. Land consumption in Italy
Citations: 39
Ascione, A., Aucelli, PPC. et al. Geomorphology of Naples and the Campi Flegrei: human and natural landscapes in a restless land
Citations: 26
Mocnik, F-B., Raposo, P. et al. Epidemics and pandemics in maps - the case of COVID-19
Citations: 25
Andrews, M.R., Tamura, L. et al. Geospatial analysis of neighborhood deprivation index (NDI) for the United States by county
Citations: 23
De Luca, D.A., Lasagna, M. et al. Hydrogeology of the western Po plain (Piedmont, NW Italy)
Citations: 26
Most Downloads (2023)
Geological Map of South America in Google Earth: Fernando Alirio Alcárcel-Gutiérrez, Jorge Gómez Tapias, Nohora Emma Montes Ramírez and María Fernanda Almanza-Meléndez
Downloads: 10177
Putting the rights of nature on the map. A quantitative analysis of rights of nature initiatives across the world: Alex Putzer, Tineke Lambooy, Ronald Jeurissen and Eunsu Kim
Downloads: 4411
Quantifying and visualizing the 15-Minute walkable city concept across Europe: a multicriteria approach: Alexandros Bartzokas-Tsiompras, Efthimios Bakogiannis
Downloads: 3769
Urban geomorphology of the Vistula River valley in Warsaw: Grzegorz Wierzbicki, Piotr Bartold, Piotr Ostrowski, Tomasz Falkowski, Filip Bujakowski, Piotr Osiński
Downloads: 2892
Geospatial analysis of neighborhood deprivation index (NDI) for the United States by county: Marcus R. Andrews, Kosuke Tamura, Sophie E. Claudel, Samantha Xu, Joniqua N. Ceasar, Billy S. Collins, Steven Langerman, Valerie M. Mitchell, Yvonne Baumer & Tiffany M. Powell-Wiley
Downloads: 2771
With a view on the above individual articles, it is worth highlighting the 10,177 downloads for our Best Map prizewinner this year – a winner with both the awards panel and our readers.
4. With gratitude and thanks
My editorial is not complete without thanking all those who have helped make the journal such a vibrant community, publishing the very best examples of maps in academic research across the sciences and social sciences. That academic community is comprised of those who write the papers and produce the maps, those who download read and use these published outputs, and those who ensure the veracity of those published articles meet the high standards we set. I am grateful to authors for choosing the Journal of Maps as the primary outlet for their work. It is imperative that the research we undertake and outputs we produce are made freely and widely available to the extant research community. It is that community that comes to us on a daily basis to download, use and reuse this published work. We are all producers and consumers of research and it is this lifecycle that makes for such an exciting community. A smaller subset participate in the peer review process, either as Associate Editors or reviewers. They are still part of the same producer-user community, but are experts at the forefront of their fields, helping set the agenda and driving forward the community in new directions. I am grateful to this community as a whole, as well as the individuals that actively participate in it.
At the Journal of Maps itself, I am grateful to the Editorial Board members who dedicate their expertise and time to ensuring only the very best research is published to the wider community. In addition, our board of professional cartographers review the individual maps and ensure that this work meets the same expectations as the research itself. Beyond the academic elements of the journal are those who ensure that the administration, publication, distribution, and archival of the materials we produce is undertaken professionally and to the highest standard. These tasks take considerable time, but are a requirement for a top-tier academic journal.
In this context, I would specifically like to thank all the reviewers () and Editorial Board members () for their consistency in maintaining the standards of the journal and shepherding all manuscripts through the review process. I would also like to thank the staff at Taylor and Francis who are tasked with keeping everything else running smoothly, day after day and particularly Tricia Pantos the Portfolio Manager, as well as those in the Editorial Office and the Production team.
Table 1. Referees at the Journal of Maps.
Table 2. Academic and cartographic editors
References
- Alcárcel-Gutiérrez, F. A., Tapias, J. G., Ramírez, N. E. M., & Almanza-Meléndez, M. F. (2023). Geological Map of South America in Google Earth. Journal of Maps, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/17445647.2023.2185167
- Andrews, M. R., Tamura, K., Claudel, S. E., Xu, S., Ceasar, J. N., Collins, B. S., Langerman, S., Mitchell, V. M., Baumer, Y., & Powell-Wiley, T. M. (2020). Geospatial analysis of neighborhood deprivation index (NDI) for the United States by county. Journal of Maps, 16(1), 101–112. https://doi.org/10.1080/17445647.2020.1750066
- Ascione, A., Aucelli, P. P. C., Cinque, A., Di Paola, G., Mattei, G., Ruello, M., Russo Ermolli, E., Santangelo, N., Valente, E. (2021). Geomorphology of Naples and the Campi Flegrei: Human and natural landscapes in a restless land. Journal of Maps, 17(4), 18–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/17445647.2020.1768448
- Bartzokas-Tsiompras, A., & Bakogiannis, E. (2023). Quantifying and visualizing the 15-Minute walkable city concept across Europe: A multicriteria approach. Journal of Maps, 19(1), 2141143. https://doi.org/10.1080/17445647.2022.2141143
- Bertram, D., Chilla, T., & Lambracht, M. (2023). The Alpine settlement system: Capturing relevance beyond size. Journal of Maps, 19(1), 2164229. https://doi.org/10.1080/17445647.2022.2164229
- Burian, J., Barvíř, R., Pavlačka, D., Pánek, J., Chovaneček, J., & Pászto, V. (2023). Geoparticipation in the Czech municipalities: Index based quantitative approach. Journal of Maps, 19(1), 2231006. https://doi.org/10.1080/17445647.2023.2231006
- De Luca, D. A., Lasagna, M., & Debernardi, L. (2020). Hydrogeology of the western Po plain (Piedmont, NW Italy). Journal of Maps, 16(2), 265–273. https://doi.org/10.1080/17445647.2020.1738280
- Ellero, A., Oddsson, B., & Ottria, G. (2023). Geology and geodiversity of the Folafótur peninsula (Westfjords, Iceland). Journal of Maps, 19(1), 2227203. https://doi.org/10.1080/17445647.2023.2227203
- Esposito, G., Mancinelli, V., Paglia, G., Ciavattella, F., D’Amico, D., Sulli, C., Sammarone, L., & Miccadei, E. (2023). The geodiversity of the Abruzzo, Lazio, and Molise National Park (Central Italy). Journal of Maps, 19(1), 2243302. https://doi.org/10.1080/17445647.2023.2243302
- Ferrando, A., Bosino, A., Bonino, E., Coratza, P., & Faccini, F. (2023). Geomorphology and geoheritage in the Piana Crixia Natural Park (NW Italy). Journal of Maps, 19(1), 2257731. https://doi.org/10.1080/17445647.2023.2257731
- Knight, L., Boston, C. M., & Lovell, H. (2023). Glacial geomorphology in the Wicklow Mountains, Ireland. Journal of Maps, 19(1), 2132885. https://doi.org/10.1080/17445647.2022.2132885
- Koylu, C., Tian, G., & Windsor, M. (2023). Flowmapper.org: A web-based framework for designing origin–destination flow maps. Journal of Maps, 19(1), 1996479. https://doi.org/10.1080/17445647.2021.1996479
- Lambán, M. C., Vidal, R. P., & Antón, M. Z. (2023). Mapping the “Magic of Huesca”: A methodological proposal for the design of tourist cartography. Journal of Maps, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/17445647.2022.2141142
- Macků and, K. (2023). Radek Barvíř 2023 Quality of life indices: how robust are the results considering different aggregation techniques? Journal of Maps, 19(1), 2126801. https://doi.org/10.1080/17445647.2022.2126801
- Malliband, C. C., Rothery, D. A., Balme, M. R., Conway, S. J., Pegg, D. L., & Wright, J. (2023). Geology of the Derain quadrangle (H10), Mercury. Journal of Maps, 19(1), 2112774. https://doi.org/10.1080/17445647.2022.2112774
- Martínek, J., & Létal, A. (2023). Astronomically determined localities, the core part of Ptolemy’s Geography. Journal of Maps, 19(1), 2195563. https://doi.org/10.1080/17445647.2023.2195563
- Martínez-Sánchez, A., Gracia, F. J., Alonso, C., Mata, E., & Caporizzo, C. (2023). Reconstructing the historical shoreline evolution of the Northern Bay of Cádiz (SW Spain) from geomorphological and geoarchaeological data. Journal of Maps, 19(1), 2206585. https://doi.org/10.1080/17445647.2023.2206585
- McIlwaine, C., Ansari, M. R., Leal, J. G., Vieira, F., & Sousa dos Santos, J. (2023). Countermapping SDG 5 to address violence against women and girls in the favelas of Maré, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Journal of Maps, 19(1), 2178343. https://doi.org/10.1080/17445647.2023.2178343
- Mocnik, F.-B., Raposo, P., Feringa, W., Kraak, M.-J., & Köbben, B. Epidemics and pandemics in maps - The case of COVID-19. Journal of Maps, 16(1), 144–152. https://doi.org/10.1080/17445647.2020.1776646
- Sanità, E., Di Rosa, M., Lardeaux, J.-M., Marroni, M., & Pandolfi, L. (2023). Tectonic coupling of oceanic and continental units in the Southwestern Alps (Western Liguria, Italy) revealed by structural mapping. Journal of Maps, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/17445647.2023.2214789
- Strollo, A., Smiraglia, D., Bruno, R., Assennato, F., Congedo, L., De Fioravante, P., Giuliani, C., Marinosci, I., Riitano, N., & Munafò, M. (2020). Land consumption in Italy. Journal of Maps, 16(1), 113–123. https://doi.org/10.1080/17445647.2020.1758808
- Talavera-Garcia, R., Perez-Campaña, R., & Cara-Santana, Y. (2023). Unveiling the pandemic’s impact on visits to Madrid’s parks: Insights from mobile phone data analysis. Journal of Maps, 19(1), 2274466. https://doi.org/10.1080/17445647.2023.2274466
- Wierzbicki, G., Ostrowski, P., Bartold, P., Bujakowski, F., Falkowski, T., & Osiński, P. (2021). Urban geomorphology of the Vistula River valley in Warsaw. Journal of Maps, 17(4), 170–185. https://doi.org/10.1080/17445647.2020.1866698
- Woodley, S. Z., Fawdon, P., Balme, M. R., & Rothery, D. A. (2023). Map of tectonic shortening structures in Chryse Planitia and Arabia Terra, Mars. Journal of Maps, 19(1), 2251514. https://doi.org/10.1080/17445647.2023.2251514