Editorial Policies

Aims and Scope

The journal Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk. Seriya geograficheskaya discusses topical problems of geographical science, its theoretical achievements, and possibilities to use them for the country's development. Its aim is to promote the development of basic knowledge about spatial phenomena, processes, and interrelations in nature and society, as well as about territorial natural and socioeconomic systems.

The journal publishes scientific articles and reviews that present research results in all areas of geographical science:

• complex Earth studies,
• natural and anthropogenic factors and mechanisms of the development of geosystems,
• the territorial organization of populations and economies,
• studies on regions and countries,
• ecological–geographical aspects of nature management and environmental protection,
• geoinformatics,
• cartographic modeling,
• remote sensing, and so on.

It also covers the most important geographical events and activities of international geographical organizations (including the participation of Russian geographers in them). In addition, the journal publishes discussion materials, summaries, and reviews on new geographical works.

Izvestiya RAN. Seriya Geograficheskaya publishes scientific articles and reviews on topical problems of physical, socioeconomic, and political geography and ecological–geographical issues of nature management and environmental protection. The journal reflects the activity of RAS institutes and other research establishments that work in the field of geography and environmental protection, the Russian Geographical Society, and international geographical organizations (including the participation of Russian geographers in their events). It publishes chronicles of geographical symposia, conferences, and meetings; summaries and reviews on new geographical works; and articles dedicated to jubilees and memories of outstanding geographers of the country and the world.

The journal's content is based on a stable system of rubrics in accordance with the thematic trends of publications.

Each material received by the journal’s editorial board is reviewed by the pool of reviewers formed for this purpose from leading geographers of academic institutes and higher education establishments of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Irkutsk, Vladivostok, and a number of other cities.

Over its entire history, the journal has been the country's main scientific periodical on geography and scientific information platform to discuss issues of the development of geographical science, cover at length its theoretical achievements, and use research results in practice

Sections

ТЕРРИТОРИАЛЬНАЯ ОРГАНИЗАЦИЯ ОБЩЕСТВА

ПРИРОДНЫЕ ПРОЦЕССЫ И ДИНАМИКА ГЕОСИСТЕМ

ЭВОЛЮЦИЯ ПРИРОДНЫХ СИСТЕМ

ПРИРОДОПОЛЬЗОВАНИЕ И ГЕОЭКОЛОГИЯ

РЕГИОНАЛЬНЫЕ ГЕОГРАФИЧЕСКИЕ ПРОБЛЕМЫ

ГЕОИНФОРМАЦИОННЫЕ СИСТЕМЫ И КАРТОГРАФИРОВАНИЕ

ВЗГЛЯД ГЕОГРАФА

ИСТОРИЧЕСКАЯ ГЕОГРАФИЯ И ТОПОНИМИКА

ТЕОРИЯ И СОЦИАЛЬНЫЕ ФУНКЦИИ ГЕОГРАФИИ

ПРИРОДНЫЕ ПРОЦЕССЫ И ДИНАМИКА ГЕОСИСТЕМ

ПРИРОДОПОЛЬЗОВАНИЕ И ГЕОЭКОЛОГИЯ

ИСТОРИЯ ГЕОГРАФИЧЕСКОЙ НАУКИ

ПРИРОДНЫЕ РЕШЕНИЯ В НИЗКОУГЛЕРОДНОМ РАЗВИТИИ РОССИИ

ЛЕСНЫЕ ЭКОСИСТЕМЫ

ЗЕМЛИ СЕЛЬСКОХОЗЯЙСТВЕННОГО НАЗНАЧЕНИЯ

ОСУШЕННЫЕ ТОРФЯНИКИ

ЭКОНОМИКА И РЫНКИ РЕЗУЛЬТАТОВ ИСПОЛЬЗОВАНИЯ ПРИРОДНЫХ РЕШЕНИЙ

ВОПРОСЫ ИСТОРИЧЕСКОЙ ГЕОГРАФИИ

ФОРМИРОВАНИЕ СТОКА ВОЛГИ

ИСПОЛЬЗОВАНИЕ ВОДНЫХ РЕСУРСОВ

КАЧЕСТВО ВОД

ИЗМЕНЕНИЕ СОСТОЯНИЯ КАСПИЙСКОГО МОРЯ

ТРАНСФОРМАЦИИ ФУНКЦИОНАЛЬНЫХ И ПРОСТРАНСТВЕННЫХ СТРУКТУР ГОРНЫХ РЕГИОНОВ И ГОРНЫХ СООБЩЕСТВ

ТРАНСФОРМАЦИЯ ГОРНЫХ ПРИРОДНЫХ СИСТЕМ И ИХ ЭЛЕМЕНТОВ В ОТВЕТ НА КЛИМАТИЧЕСКИЕ ИЗМЕНЕНИЯ И АНТРОПОГЕННЫЕ ВОЗДЕЙСТВИЯ

ОЦЕНКА ВОЗМОЖНОСТЕЙ УСТОЙЧИВОГО ЗЕМЛЕПОЛЬЗОВАНИЯ В УСЛОВИЯХ ГОРНЫХ ПАСТБИЩНЫХ СИСТЕМ

МОСКОВСКИЙ СТОЛИЧНЫЙ РЕГИОН

ГЕОГРАФИЧЕСКАЯ НАУКА ЗА РУБЕЖОМ

Peer Review Process

A double-blind peer review method is mandatory for processing of all scientific manuscripts submitted to the editorial board of Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk. Seriya geograficheskaya. Reviewers' objectives are to assess 1) a work's novelty and scientific merit, 2) the authenticity of findings, 3) an article's content (including the scope of the problem under consideration), 4) principles of exposition (including logic and style), 5) the correspondence of a manuscript's title and abstract to its content, 6) correspondence to the topic of research and the completeness of the list of publications mentioned in the article, 7) the composition of the list of references, and 8) the quality and adequacy of illustrations and tables to the article's content. Members of the editorial board and leading Russian and international experts in the article’s corresponding area of geography, invited as independent readers, perform peer reviews. Review process should be limited by 2–4 weeks, though in some cases the schedule may be adjusted at the reviewer’s request. The decision on choosing a reviewer for examination of the article is taken by the editor-in-chief, deputy editor-in-chief, executive secretary of the editorial board. Each reviewer has the right to refuse to review in case of conflict of interest which could influence on the perception and interpretation of materials of the manuscript. Upon the scrutiny, the reviewer is expected to present the editorial board with one of the following recommendations:

1. a) to accept the paper in its present state;
2. b) to ask the author to revise the manuscript to address specific concerns before final decision is reached;
3. c) to reach decision following further reviewing by another specialist;
4. d) to reject the manuscript outright.

If the reviewer has recommended any refinements, the editorial staff would suggest the author either to implement the corrections, or to dispute them reasonably. Authors are kindly required to limit their revision to 2 months and resubmit the adapted manuscript within this period for final evaluation. Refined article should pass second reviewing. The author should notify the editorial staff about the decision not to revise the article. In case the author fails to do so within 3 months since receiving a copy of the initial review, the editorial board takes the manuscript off the register and notifies the author accordingly. If the author and reviewer(s) meet insoluble contradictions regarding revision of the manuscript, it may be forwarded to another reviewer. In such case the editor-in-chief resolves the conflict by his own authority taking into account view of the members of editorial board. The editorial board reaches final decision to reject a manuscript on the hearing according to reviewers’ recommendations, and duly notifies the author of their decision via e-mail. Previously rejected manuscript is not accepted for re-evaluation. Positive reviews do not guarantee the acceptance of the manuscript for publication in the journal, as final decision in all cases lies within the editorial board. In case of conflict, editor-in-chief rules final solution by his authority. After the adoption by the editorial board of the decision on the admission of an article for publication editorial staff informs the author, and indicates the timing of publication. Original reviews of submitted manuscripts remain deposited for 3 years.

Indexing

Articles in Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk. Seriya geograficheskaya are indexed by several systems:

• Russian Scientific Citation Index (RSCI) – a database, accumulating information on papers by Russian scientists, published in native and foreign titles. The RSCI project is under development since 2005 by “Electronic Scientific Library” foundation (elibrary.ru).
• Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. The Google Scholar index includes most peer-reviewed online journals of Europe and America's largest scholarly publishers, plus scholarly books and other non-peer reviewed journals.
• Scopus
• Ulrich's
• RSL
• VINITI RAS
• Library of Congress
• The European Library
• WorldCat
• British Library
• copac*
• MIT
• OpenArchives
• Oxford Library
• Research Bib
• Academic Keys

Publishing Ethics

Publishing Ethics

The publication of the articles in the journal Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk. Seriya Geograficheskayais a significant contribution to the development of geography. It also means a lot in terms of implementation of connections inside the scientific community. Thus it is important to lay down standards of expected ethical behavior by all parties involved in the act of publishing.

Articles submitted to the journal should:

• correspond to the field of study of the journal;
• contain new data and research results which have not been published previously and are not transferred for the publication in other issues;
• include the complete list of works which were used during preparation of the article;
• contain neither plagiarism nor false information;
• contain the information about financial support (if any);
• be designed according to existing requirements.

Authors are obliged:

• to submit an original research containing an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance;
• to provide the article with references to the works written by other authors;
• to avoid plagiarism in any of its forms;
• to guarantee that all of them did participated in the conducted research and do not object to the publishing of the article;
• to participate in the finishing of the article and provide refutation or correct mistakes if necessary.

Peer Reviewers are obliged:

• to have the qualification and spare time sufficient for the examination of the manuscript;
• to respect the author’s point of view and contribute to refinement of the work offered;
• to supply the editorial board with the information necessary for the making decision on the publishing via the clear and well-reasoned unbiased assessment;
• to discover important published works of similar subject which were not included into references; pay attention to the revealing of the essential resemblance or coincidence between the considered manuscript and any other published work laying within the range of the reviewer’s competence;
• to maintain confidence;
• not to use unpublished data received from manuscripts offered for the consideration in the reviewer’s own research without author’s written permission;
• not to participate in the consideration of manuscripts in case of the conflict of interests risen due to either competent or mutual or different interactions or relations with any one of authors, companies and other organizations involved in the article’s preparation.

Editors and Editorial Board are obliged:

• to be responsible for the joint decision on the publication which satisfies all the selection criteria and corresponds to the journal’s subjects;
• to follow the editorial policies of the journal;
• to assess the contents of the manuscript according to the reliability of the results of the work and its scientific importance and not to concern any other factors;
• to shorten and edit offered articles if it is necessary for the refinement of the quality of the publication and achieving the correspondence to the publications’l norms;
• to follow the unbiased criteria when rejecting an article;
• to watch out that the participants of the preparation of the publication do not get into any conflicts of their interests;
• to keep the anonymity of the reviewers;
• not to use unpublished data received from manuscripts offered for the consideration in the editors’ own research without author’s written permission;
• to provide the publication of refutations and corrections in case of discovered mistakes.

Publication Fee

Articles in the "Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk. Seriya geograficheskaya " journal are published free of charge for all authors. The editorial Board does not charge the authors for placing articles in open access, reviewing, preparing the journal for publication, as well as the content of the site and electronic depositing of manuscripts.

Periodicity

6 planned issues are regularly published.