Polish Cartographical Review

The reviewing process in the Polish Cartographical Review is based on the principles of anonymity and professional ethics standing in the scientific world. The editorial team is guided by the following guidelines in its publishing work:

1. The manuscripts should be submitted to the Secretary to the Editor (kslomska@ihpan.edu.pl, polishcartographicalreview@gmail.com).

2. The manuscripts are analysed from the point of view of the issues discussed in them, compliance with the aims and scope of the journal and academic merit (up to 2 weeks). The external reviewers are selected on this basis; the key selection of the reviewers depends on the subject of the manuscript (e.g. geoinformatics, theory of cartography, thematic cartography, multimedia in cartography, geovisualisation, geospatial analyses, history of cartography, historical geography, historical GIS). The editorial team reserves the right to reject the manuscript at this stage. Authors are informed once the paper is accepted for review.

3. The reviewers are selected from outside the research groups and scientific institutions with which the authors of manuscripts are affiliated. After receiving an invitation to conduct a review, reviewers are obliged to declare any potential competing or conflicting interests and follow the “Ethical guidelines for peer reviewers” by COPE. All manuscripts are subject to evaluation by two independent reviewers according to the “double-blind review process” (authors and reviewers remain anonymous to reduce bias and ensure that assessments are based only on the quality of the manuscript, review time: max. 4 weeks). If the reviewer has to be changed, the review period is counted from the beginning.

5. A manuscript can be evaluated by three reviewers in justified cases, namely, if it has interdisciplinary features or the two reviews are divergent.

6. The main document relating to the reviewing procedure is a review form adopted in the Polish Cartographical Review (available for download in Documents).

7. The reviewers can suggest some changes or apply necessary amendments to the author’s text (in comments or track changes mode).

8. After receiving all reviews, the editorial team communicates its decision regarding the article to the authors (options: “acceptance without any significant changes”; “acceptance possible after the changes and amendments”; “the manuscript is not qualified for publication”).

9. If the reviewers indicate that the manuscript can be accepted after the changes and amendments, authors are required to address the reviewers' comments in the form of a letter and resubmit the manuscript (amendments in the track changes mode) to the editorial team (revision time: max. 4 weeks). Responses to the reviews and the revised manuscript are submitted for re-evaluation by the reviewers (up to 2 weeks).

10. The editorial team makes the final decision regarding the manuscript.

11. The journal's focus is on geovisualization and cartography. Therefore, the editorial team reserves the right to review the quality of figures (maps, geovisualizations, etc.) after manuscript acceptance.

12. The list of reviewers is published after the end of each volume of the journal.