JOURNAL

The Professional Geographer

Read the Journal
Latest Articles
Submit to this journal

With a focus on short articles in academic or applied geography, emphasizing empirical studies and methodologies, this journal provides a forum for new ideas and alternative viewpoints. In addition, it publishes research notes and commentaries. These features may range in content and approach from rigorously analytic to broadly philosophical or prescriptive. Originally a publication of the American Society of Professional Geographers, in 1949 it became a journal of the AAG when the two organizations merged. It is published six times per year.

Impact factor: 2.383, ranking 50th out of 85 geography journals worldwide

Read the Journal

Manuscripts

Submissions:
Manuscripts should be submitted electronically through ScholarOne Manuscripts. The PG publishes manuscripts in four categories: Regular Manuscripts, Forums, Commentaries, and Research Notes. Following are guidelines for each type of manuscript:

Call for Editor

As a result of increased manuscript submissions to The Professional Geographer, the AAG Council has approved the appointment of a second editor for the journal. The new editor, whose responsibilities will include overseeing the solicitation, review, and publication of scholarly articles for the journal, will be appointed for a four-year editorial term beginning January 1, 2024.

Given the diverse nature of articles published in The Professional Geographer, the new editor should be able to work across geography’s subdisciplines and will be expected to evaluate and make editorial decisions on manuscripts spanning the breadth and depth of intellectual activity in contemporary geography. In particular, the AAG seeks an editor with expertise within the subject areas of Human Geography and Nature and Society.

The applicant should demonstrate a record of scholarly achievement, a broad perspective on the discipline of geography, respect and affection for its diversity, and an ability to work constructively with authors during the review process. Institutional support for the new editor (especially time released from teaching) is desirable but not mandatory. The AAG will provide a stipend of $10,000 per year to be used for expenses and honorarium at the editor’s discretion.

The editor will work in coordination with the Professional Geographer Editor, the AAG Cartography Editor, AAG staff, and the journal’s publisher. Editor candidates, therefore, should share the AAG Council’s vision of an accessible, decentralized, and collaborative editorship for The Professional Geographer.

AAG strives to build an editorial team that reflects the diversity of the community we work in and the institutional diversity of our field.  AAG encourages applications from traditionally underrepresented groups such as women, visible minorities, Indigenous peoples, people identifying as LGBTQ2SI, veterans, and people with disabilities. Applicants from teaching institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, tribal institutions, research institutions, Associates’ degree-granting programs, and private or public sector and nonprofit organizations are welcome.

The application package should include a complete CV along with a one-page statement that addresses the prospective editor’s qualifications for the job, including previous editorial experience. Complete application packages should be submitted by e-mail to Jennifer Cassidento by June 30, 2023.

 

Editorial and production teams

 

Photo of Heejun Chang
Heejun Chang
Editor

Portland State University

Photo of Heejun Chang

Heejun Chang

Portland State University

changh@pdx.edu

Heejun Chang is a professor and former chair of the department of geography at Portland State University. His publication record is extensive having published 131 peer-reviewed articles on topics related to hydrology, water resources, human modification of the environment, and environmental change, his areas of expertise. Heejun has experience with publication in a wide variety of journals, both disciplinary and interdisciplinary, and is regarded as a high quality peer reviewer, an accolade for which he received an excellent reviewer award from Journal of Hydrology. He has also served as guest editor for special issues of Climate and International Journal of Geo-Information.

Heejun’s vision for his term as editor of The Professional Geographer is one of diversity, inclusion, and innovation. He sees the journal as a premier location for bridging traditional divides among human, physical, and GIS scholarship and hopes to foster a balance in submissions from the various facets of the geographic discipline. Heejun believes that encouraging more cross-generational scholarship as well as manuscripts co-authored with practitioners will help to cultivate fresh ideas within the discipline and that The Professional Geographer can play a key role in circulating these debates. Lastly, as the AAG has become more international in its membership, Heejun welcomes scholarship from the global geography community including academics from the global south or whose primary language is not English.

stephen hanna
Stephen Hanna
Cartography Editor

University of Mary Washington

stephen hanna

Stephen Hanna

University of Mary Washington

mapedit.aag@gmail.com

Stephen Hanna is a full professor of geography and former chair of the Department of Geography at University of Mary Washington. His cartographic editorial experience is extensive, for example, Hanna has served as the cartography editor for two edited volumes on tourism, Mapping Tourism and Social Memory and Heritage Tourism Methodologies, as well as produced dozens of maps for personal publications in both academic and public outlets. As cartography editor, Hanna “enjoys engaging with a wide variety of graphics including some innovative ways of visualizing both qualitative and quantitative information.”

Hanna’s research is focused on critical cartography and heritage tourism, and his expertise is well documented in numerous cartographic projects. Some of his most recent NSF-funded team research involved investigating how slavery is (or is not) addressed in the landscapes, narratives, and performance that constitute southern plantation museums as heritage places.

In addition to ensuring that the maps and figures printed in the AAG suite of journals meet high quality cartographic standards, Hanna envisions his role as editor to include continued mentorship of students, a key component of his current work at an undergraduate focused institution.

Hanna offers the following advice for prospective publishers in geography: “As cartography editor, I’m focused on the maps people create to accompany their articles. Please don’t settle for the default map design options found in most GIS software packages. Take a little time to consider how best to encourage your readers to spend some time examining your maps. After all, you are including them to clearly communicate your findings or to support your argument.”

American Association of Geographers team

Jennifer Cassidento, Publications Director jcassidento@aag.org
Robin Maier, Production Editor rmaier@aag.org

Taylor & Francis team

Sarah Bird, Managing Editor
Lea Cutler, Production Manager

Editorial Board

Luis F. Alvarez León, Dartmouth College
Karen Arabas, Willamette University
Jennifer Baka, Penn State
Nancy Beller-Simms, NOAA
Gina Bloodworth, Salisbury University
Guo Chen, Michigan State University
Netra Chhetri, Arizona State University
Yongwan Chun, The University of Texas at Dallas
Somayeh Dodge, University of California, Santa Barbara
Jean Ellis, University of South Carolina
Chen-Chieh Feng, National University of Singapore
Tekleab Gala, Chicago State University
Amy L. Griffin, RMIT University
Morgan Grove, USDA Forest Service
Laam Hae, York University
Daikwon Han, Texas A&M University
Jim Herries, Esri
Lily House-Peters, California State University, Long Beach
Matthew Johnson, University of Nottingham
Daehyun Kim, Seoul National University
Hyun Kim, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Evan R. Larson, University of Wisconsin-Platteville
Jovan Scott Lewis, University of California, Berkeley
Stefan Leyk, University of Colorado, Boulder
Becky Mansfield, Ohio State University
Sarah Praskievicz, University of North Carolina, Greensboro
Shouraseni Sen Roy, University of Miami 
Rinku Roy Chowdhury, Clark University
Luis Santiago, University of Central Florida
Jida Wang, Kansas State University
Jinfei Wang, University of Western Ontario
Dai Yamamoto, Colgate University
Megan Ybarra, University of Washington

For general inquiries, email profgeog@aag.org