1. AIMS AND SCOPE OF THE JOURNAL
2. TYPES OF PAPERS PUBLISHED
3. MANUSCRIPT REQUIREMENTS
4. SUBMITTING THE MANUSCRIPT
5. MANUSCRIPT PEER-REVIEW PROCESS
6. OPEN ACCESS STATEMENT
7. REPOSITORY POLICY
8. COPYRIGHT
9. DISCLAIMER
10. PUBLICATION ETHICS AND PUBLICATION MALPRACTICE STATEMENT
   A. Ethical responsibility and duties of the authors
   B. Ethical responsibility and duties of the editors and reviewers

1. AIMS AND SCOPE OF THE JOURNAL

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Folia Geographica is an international peer-reviewed scientific journal for theory, research and practice of Human Geography and related disciplines. The main aim of the journal is to present innovative ideas and approaches to human geography research, teaching, and learning. Papers focusing on any place or region in the world are welcomed.

Folia Geographica welcomes article submissions and does not charge a publication fee and article processing fee. Folia Geographica supports an open-source model of scholarship which values free exchange of ideas within human geography and between geographers and other disciplines.

Folia Geographica publishes original research papers, all of which are refereed by at least two anonymous reviewers (double blind review). To be accepted, a paper must adhere a high standard of scholarship and make a significant theoretical, conceptual, methodological or empirical contribution to geographic knowledge. It should be grounded in the relevant literature. The journal welcomes original contributions in human geography, regional geography, political geography, geographic information science, geographical thought and geographical education. It is opened to papers in related scientific disciplines such as: cultural studies, spatial economics, spatial sociology, demography, cartography, urban and regional planning, tourism and place marketing, geopolitics and international relations, environmental science, etc. Papers are welcomed on any theme involving the application of geographical theory and methodology in the resolution of human, societal and also problems connected with natural-humans interrelations. Moreover, the contents of journal may include review articles, research notes, and invited essays.

2. TYPES OF PAPERS PUBLISHED

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A. FOLIA GEOGRAPHICA PUBLISHES ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPERS DOMINANTLY.

Original research papers
These are detailed studies reporting original research. They used to include theoretical-methodological framework, hypothesis, background study, methods, results, interpretation of findings, and a discussion of possible implications.  Original research articles submitted to Folia Geographica should be more than 3000 and no more than 7500 words; this limit does not include references and figure captions, abstract. There should not be an excessive number of figures, with a recommendation of no more than 5. We suggest submitted manuscripts are not longer than 6500 words in order to allow sufficient space for revision. Original research articles are subject of double blind peer-review process.

B. MOREOVER, IN CERTAIN CASES THE CONTENTS OF JOURNAL MAY INCLUDE REVIEW ARTICLES, RESEARCH NOTES, COMMENTS, REPLIES AND INVITED ESSAYS.

Review articles
Review articles are longer than standard papers that provide in-depth critiques of sub-fields of human geography and related areas. These articles should edidence the evolution of current thinking or methodological developments in human geography from historical underpinnings. Each review will provide the reader with the development of the relevant literature, keep the reader up-to-date on advances in the fields of human geographical research, offer perspectives on future developments and research agendas as well as providing an extensive reference list. Review articles submitted to Folia Geographica should be more than 5000 and no more than 10 000 words. Review articles are subject of double blind peer-review process.

Research notes
Research notes are designed to discuss, share and disseminate of the very latest in thinking about research in human geography and related areas, such as cutting-edge advances in geographical research methods and methodologies, new research topics, concepts and phenomena, preliminary data, exploratory work or aspects of methods such as updates and new approaches. A detailed and lengthy literature review is not expected. Research notes submitted to Folia Geographica should be more than 1000 and no more than 3000 words. Research notes are subject of double blind peer-review process.  

Comments
These elaborate, criticize, or correct papers previously published in Folia Geographica. Comments are limited to the equivalent of 2 pages (500 words). Comments are not subject of peer-review process.

Replies
These are written by the authors of the paper being commented on. Replies are limited to the equivalent of 2 pages (500 words). Replies are not subject of peer-review process.

Invited essays
These are personal overviews of specialized research areas by distinguished experts. They are published only by invitation of the Editor-in-Chief in exceptional cases. Invited essays are not subject of peer-review process.

3. MANUSCRIPT REQUIREMENTS

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Please note:
manuscript submitted without paying attention to the author guidelines
may be grounds for rejection.

• To be accepted, submitted papers have to follow standard structure, recommended length and required form. The journal accepts only manuscripts using template providing detailed information on style and formatting (see LETTER OF IDENTIFICATION, PAPER TEMPLATE and DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP).
• Folia Geographica uses double-blind review, which means that both the reviewer and author identities are concealed from the reviewers, and vice versa, throughout the review process.  To facilitate this, authors need to ensure that their manuscripts are prepared in a way that does not give away their identity. Therefore, authors must submit separately two files: LETTER OF IDENTIFICATION and BLINDED MANUSCRIPT OF PAPER. (We also require DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP details see below.)
• LETTER OF IDENTIFICATION includes title page of the paper containing the title and subtitle of paper, each author´s details with their affiliations (please provide institutional emails only, so we can verify your affiliation), corresponding author contacts and acknowledgements. The author should to use an ORCID iD to help distinuish their work from that of other researchers. ORCID iD of each author or co-author is required.
• BLINDED MANUSCRIPT OF PAPER does not include author´s details. Besides the obvious need to remove names and affiliations under the title within the manuscript, there are other steps that need to be taken to ensure the manuscript is correctly prepared for double-blind peer review.  To assist with this process the key items that need to be observed are as follows: authors must use the third person to refer to work the authors have previously undertaken, authors must make sure figures do not contain any affiliation related identifier, authors should limit self-references only to papers that are relevant for those reviewing the submitted paper, authors have to remove any identifying information, including author names, from file names and have to ensure document properties are also anonymized.
• Original research paper should contain title, abstract, keywords, main text, and references.
• The TITLE of paper should be clear, faithful and not overly long.
• ABSTRACT has to go up to 350 words. It should clarify motivation and main objectives of paper and focus on approach, methods and data that were used. Abstract should emphasize key results, which were achieved.
• KEY WORDS (five to seven) should clearly cover the factual, spatial, temporal and methodological scope of contribution.
• The MAIN TEXT should be properly structured into sections and paragraphs (for instance: introduction, objectives, theoretical framework, data and methods, results and discussion, conclusions).
• FIGURES AND TABLES have to be placed in the text. All figures and tables must be submitted in sufficient resolution in a common graphic format (JPG, GIF, TIF). Tables have to be submitted as editable text and not as images. Authors have to be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in them do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article. All figures and tables must be referenced in the text. Each table must have a descriptive title as well as informational column and row headings. Figures must be designed to fit the page format of Folia Geographica. All figures must be saved with a minimal resolution of 300 dpi.
• REFERENCES should be quoted in the text according to Harvard rules for in-text citation. In-text citations are used when directly quoting or paraphrasing a source. They are located in the body of the work and contain a fragment of the full citation with name of author/authors and year. For example „text of quotation“ (Matlovičová, 2015) or (Matlovič and Korec, 2011), or (Haggett et al. 2012) or Fitzgerald (2020a, 2020b). References should be in Roman script. Reference list has to be located at the end of the paper and alphabetically display full citations for sources used in the assignment. Each citation in a reference list includes various pieces of information including the: name of the author(s), year published, title, city published, publisher, pages used. Citation of a reference as ‚in press‘ implies that the item has been accepted for publication. Web references require the full URL and the date when the reference was last accessed. Any further information, if known (DOI, author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given. Web references can be listed separately (e.g., after the reference list) under a different heading if desired, or can be included in the reference list.

  Required citation format

• The language of papers is English.  Quality of language and translation is responsibility of the authors. Authors should use American or British spelling style consistently throughout the manuscript.
• We strongly recommend to use this list to carry out a final check of your submission before you send it to the journal for review:

♦ LETTER OF IDENTIFICATION (title page with all author´s details)
is attached, one author has been designated as the corresponding author
with contact details: full postal address of the authors, ORCID
and institutional e-mail address,
Please provide institutional emails only, so we can verify your affiliation.
  Manuscripts submitted from private email addresses (gmail, yahoo, etc.)
will not be accepted as it is not possible to verify the affiliation
of the corresponding author;
♦ Scanned signed DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP is attached;
♦ BLIND MANUSCRIPT OF PAPER is attached;
♦ Manuscript has been ‚spell checked‘ and ‚grammar checked‘
♦ All references mentioned in the reference list are cited in the text, and vice versa;
♦ Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material
from other sources (including the Internet);
♦ All figures and tables in a common graphic format (JPG, GIF, TIF)
with a minimal resolution of 300 dpi.;
♦ All figures and tables as a numbered separate files are attached;
♦ Required citation format.

4. SUBMITTING THE MANUSCRIPT

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The papers are collected continuously.

(1)  The BLIND MANUSCRIPT OF PAPER 
together with other related files, all figures and tables (min. of 300 dpi.),
(2)  the LETTER OF IDENTIFICATION – institutional e-mails only
& ORCID of each author are required,
(3)  and signed DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP

      should be sent to foliageographica@unipo.sk. 

The Declaration of authorship contains also statement on originality as well as declaration denying multiple publishing of the contribution. It is inevitable part of the submission process related to manuscript offered for publication in Folia Geographica. Declaration form is available on the journal webpage (see sheet).

  Required citation format

Please note:
manuscript submitted without paying attention to the author guidelines
may be grounds for rejection.

5. MANUSCRIPT PEER-REVIEW PROCESS

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First evaluation
The executive editor is authorised for collecting of all manuscripts. Editors deal only with the complete contributions submitted in accordance with the instructions for authors. If contribution is complete, executive editor delivers editor-in-chief manuscript for first evaluation. At this first review, editor-in-chief may require the assistance of the members of the Editorial Advisory Board. There are two decisions possible on this stage of process: accept to peer-review or reject.

The main aim of the first evaluation is to asses if submited manuscript meet the high standards of a scholarly journal. Submitted articles may be also checked with duplication-checking software. The reasons for rejecting a manuscript after the first evaluation are mainly:

a) the topic and content of the submission does not fit journal scope and could be better suited for an alternative journal and/or

b) submissions are non-compliant with the guidelines of the journal and/or

c) manuscripts with formatting errors, orthographic or syntactical mistakes and/or

d) where a manuscript is found to have plagiarised or shows a disproportionately high content overlap with other sources and/or

e) the topic and research is not focused on current societal problems and scientific trends relevant to the international scientific community and/or

f) the use of outdated and insufficiently innovative theoretical approaches and/or

g) the limitation to the application of routine methods, the absence of a superstructural interpretation of data in a broader contex or if methods are not desribed in sufficient detail.

Submissions considered suitable for peer review are assigned to two subject experts, who assess the article (see second evaluation). The executive editor will confirm the acceptation of paper for peer-review process or the rejection of paper after first evaluation.

Second evaluation
The editor-in-chief seeks advice from experts in the appropriate field. Original research articles, review articles and research notes are refereed by a minimum of two reviewers (second evaluation of paper). Folia Geographica uses double-blind review, which means that both the reviewer and author identities are concealed from the reviewers, and vice versa, throughout the review process. Reviewers aim to ensure the work is rigorous, coherent, uses existing research, and contributes to the discipline. They focus on methodological, analytical and interpretative aspects of a paper. The review process normally takes several months and every effort is made to respond as soon as possible.
The reviewers make an objective, impartial evaluation of scientific merits of the manuscript. Reviewers are asked to comment on the following aspects of submitted manuscripts: novelty and originality of the work; significance to the field of study design and clarity; rigorous methodology, substantial evidence supporting claims and conclusions; linguistic and stylistic level, quality and relevance of attached figures and overall assessment of paper. If a manuscript is believed to not meet the standards of the journal or is otherwise lacking in scientific rigor or contains major deficiencies, the reviewers will attempt to provide constructive criticism to assist the authors in ultimately improving their work. If a manuscript is believed to be potentially acceptable for publication but needs to be improved, it is invited for reconsideration with the expectation that the authors will fully address the reviewer’s suggestions. Once all reviews have been received and considered by the editor-in-chief, a decision letter to the author is sent. There are several types of decisions possible: accept without revision, minor revision, major revision, reject.

Third evaluation
When revision of a manuscript is requested, authors should return the revised version of their manuscript as soon as possible. Prompt action may ensure fast publication, if a paper is finally accepted for publication. The revised version is evaluated by the editor-in-chief. The authors could be asked to make second revision.  After second revision is made the final decision by the editor-in-chief. There are two decisions possible on this stage of process: accept or reject. The final structure of articles

Final proofreading
Authors will receive a pdf file with the edited version of their manuscript for final proofreading. This is the last opportunity to view an article before its publication on the journal web site. No changes or modifications can be introduced once it is published. Thus authors are requested to check their proof pages carefully against the manuscript within 3 working days and prepare a separate document containing all changes that should be introduced. Authors are sometimes asked to provide additional comments and explanations in response to remarks and queries from the technical editor.

Erratum
If any errors are detected in the published material, they should be reported to the executive editor. The corresponding authors should send the appropriate corrected material to the executive editor via email. This material will be considered for publication as soon as feasible.

6. OPEN ACCESS STATEMENT

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Folia Geographica is fully open access journal, which means that all articles are available on the internet to all users.Folia Geographica published under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license – https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

7. REPOSITORY POLICY

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Folia Geographica allows authors the use of the final published version of an article (publisher PDF) for self-archiving (author’s personal website) and/or archiving in an institutional repository. The published source must be acknowledged and a link to the journal home page.

8. COPYRIGHT

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Authors who publish with the Folia Geographica agree to the following terms:

1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal’s published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.

9. DISCLAIMER

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The publisher and Editors cannot be held responsible for errors or any consequences arising from the use of information contained in this journal. The views and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher and Editors.

10. PUBLICATION ETHICS&PUBLICATION MALPRACTICE STATEMENT

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Folia Geographica follows and respects commonly used standards of publication ethics, which are in accordance with principles and rules introduced by COPE – Committee on Publication Ethics and with the international standards of the responsible research publication elaborated by E. Wager and S. Kleinert (2011).

A. Ethical responsibility and duties of the authors

• The research being reported in papers submitted to Folia Geographica should have been conducted in an ethical and responsible manner and should comply with all relevant legislation.
• Authors should present their results clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification or inappropriate data manipulation. Authors should adhere to publication requirements that submitted work is original, is not plagiarised, and has not been published or submitted elsewhere in any language.
• The authorship of papers must accurately reflect individuals’ contributions to the work and its reporting. Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the paper. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors. The corresponding author should ensure that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.
• Authors who employ generative AI (artificial intelligence) and AI-assisted technologies (such as large language models, chatbots, or image creators) in developing papers should transparently disclose their use to editors, reviewers and readers. The submitted work should include a description which AI technology or tool was used, how the AI was used and identify what was produced or co-produced by AI-assisted technologies. Because the authors of a manuscript are responsible for the accuracy, validity, reliability, trustworthiness, integrity, and originality of the scientific outputs, chatbots or other AI-assisted technologies cannot be listed as authors. Authors should carefully review, verify and edit all materials produced through the use of AI, to prevent the submission of authoritative-sounding output that is incorrect, incomplete, or biased. Citation of AI-generated material as a primary source is not acceptable. The use of artificial intelligence tools for formal and linguistic editing (e.g. editing of titles and subtitles, language checking, improving readability, checking citations, and translation) is accepted. In such cases, the use of AI tools does not need to be declared in the article.
• Applicable copyright laws and conventions should be followed. Copyright material (e.g. tables, figures or extensive quotations) should be reproduced only with appropriate permission and acknowledgement.
• Relevant previous work and publications, both by other researchers and the authors’ own, should be properly acknowledged and referenced. The primary literature should be cited where possible. Data, text, figures or ideas originated by other researchers should be properly acknowledged and should not be presented as if they were the authors’ own.
• Authors may be asked to provide the raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review, and should be prepared to provide public access to such data.
• Researchers should not generally publish or share identifiable individual data collected in the course of research without specific consent from the individual (or their representative).
• Authors should disclose all sources of research funding, including direct and indirect financial support, supply of equipment or materials, and other support (such as specialist statistical or writing assistance) should be disclosed.
• Original wording taken directly from publications by other researchers should appear in quotation marks with the appropriate citations.
• Authors should strive to describe their methods and to present their findings clearly and unambiguously. Papers should provide sufficient detail to permit experiments to be repeated by other researchers.
•  Authors should inform editors if findings have been published previously or if multiple reports or multiple analyses of a single data set are under consideration for publication elsewhere. Authors should provide copies of related publications or work submitted to other journals.
• Authors should inform the editor if they withdraw their work from review, or choose not to respond to reviewer comments after receiving a conditional acceptance. Authors should respond to reviewers’ comments in a professional and timely manner.
• Authors should alert the editor promptly if they discover an error in any submitted, accepted or published work. Authors should cooperate with editors in issuing corrections or retractions when required.

B. Ethical responsibility and duties of the editors and reviewers

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• Editors should strive to ensure that peer review is fair, unbiased and timely.
• Editors and reviewers must avoid any conflict of interests during peer-review process.
• Editors and reviewers may not disclose any communication and material concerning review process to other persons and not retain or copy the manuscript.
• Editors have a duty to act if they suspect misconduct or if an allegation of misconduct is brought to them. This duty extends to both published and unpublished papers.
• Editors should not simply reject papers that raise concerns about possible misconduct. They are ethically obliged to pursue alleged cases. Editors should first seek a response from those suspected of misconduct. If they are not satisfied with the response, they should ask the relevant employers, or institution, or some appropriate body (perhaps a regulatory body or national research integrity organization) to investigate.
• Editors should encourage and be willing to consider cogent criticisms of paper published in Folia Geographica. Authors of criticised material should be given the opportunity to respond.
• Editors should consider retracting a paper if: they have clear evidence that the findings are unreliable, either as a result of misconduct (e.g. data fabrication) or honest error (e.g. miscalculation or experimental error); the findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper cross-referencing, permission or justification (i.e. cases of redundant publication); it constitutes plagiarism;  it reports unethical research.  Retraction should usually be reserved for publications that are so seriously flawed (for whatever reason) that their findings or conclusions should not be relied upon. Retracted articles should not be removed from printed copies of the journal (e.g. in libraries) nor from electronic archives but their retracted status should be indicated as clearly as possible.

References:

• Wager E., Kleinert S. (2011). Responsible research publication: international standards for authors. A position statement developed at the 2nd World Conference on Research Integrity, Singapore, July 22-24, 2010. Chapter 50 in: Mayer T., Steneck N. (eds.), (2010). Promoting Research Integrity in a Global Environment. Imperial College Press / World Scientific Publishing, Singapore, ISBN 978-981-4340-97-7, 309-16.

_________________________________________________
Approved by Editor-in-Chief on 19th April 2024

Please note:
manuscript submitted without paying attention to the author guidelines
may be grounds for rejection.

 Please provide institutional e-mails only, so we can verify your affiliation.
 Manuscripts submitted from private email addresses (gmail, yahoo, etc.)
 will not be accepted as it is not possible to verify the affiliation
 of the authors.

Paper Template (Required format)
Declaration of Authorship (Required)
Letter of Identification (Required)
Required Citation Format (Required)

Manuscript processing scheme

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Your manuscripts send to:                                                                                                  

foliageographica@unipo.sk   
or to
kvetoslava.matlovicova@unipo.sk