Submissions

Author Guidelines

The North Carolina Geographer

Author Guidelines

The North Carolina Geographer is published annually by the North Carolina Geographical Society and serves as an outlet for articles and reviews relevant to the geography of the state. Submissions from geography faculty, students, and professionals in all geographic fields are welcome. The journal publishes a wide variety of materials including Research Manuscripts, Book Reviews, Carolina Landscapes, Comprehensive Review, Curriculum Articles and Letters to the Editor.

For all questions, comments, or suggestions, please contact the Editors at:

Jesse M. Lane (jlane@nwmissouri.edu) and Joyce Clapp (jfclapp@uncg.edu)

The University of North Carolina at Greensboro

237 Graham Building

1400 Spring Garden Street

Greensboro, NC 27412

Online Manuscript Submissions: https://ncgeography.org/journal/index.php/NCGeographer/about/submissions

Journal Content

The North Carolina Geographer publishes six different types of content: Research Manuscripts, Book Reviews, Carolina Landscapes, Comprehensive Review, Curriculum Articles and Letters to the Editor.

Initial Submission

Research Manuscripts

Manuscripts should be approximately 5,000–7,000 words in length, including all footnotes and bibliography. The abstract should not exceed 200 words. If figures and tables are included, they should be limited to five each (ten total). References Cited should include recent (within the last two years) citations and the total number of references should not exceed 40.

After initial manuscript evaluation by the Editors for suitability in The North Carolina Geographer, manuscripts will be sent to at least two reviewers for evaluation. Authors are encouraged to list the names of three to five external reviewers. Both author(s) and reviewers will remain anonymous throughout the review process. Most editorial decisions are made within 60 days of manuscript receipt. Manuscripts with either excessive grammatical errors or lacking clarity will not be sent out for peer review.

Book Reviews

The North Carolina Geographer welcomes book reviews on a variety of geographic topics related to the state of North Carolina. Reviews should not simply be summaries of the book in question but should critically evaluate the arguments provided in the book. This should include critical discussions of the structure, theses, and style as it pertains to a larger body of scholarly literature. Authors may consider the following themes when writing a book review:

• Persuasiveness of the thesis and theoretical framework
• Consistency and accuracy of the book
• Validity and reliability of the scholarship
• Contribution to literature on the topics discussed in the book
• Relevance to society at-large

All book reviews should use the following format:

[Initial upper case and boldface]. Author(s) or Editor(s). Place of Publication: Name of Press, Date. pp. [both Roman and Arabic numerals]. $00.00 paper (ISBN); $00.00 cloth (ISBN); $00.00 electronic (ISBN).

The reviewer’s data should follow the bibliographic data.

Triumphant Warrior: A Soul Survivor of the Wilmington Ten

Wayne Moore. New York, NY: Warrior Press, 2014. ix-326 pp. $14.99 paperback (ISBN 978-0615978154).

Reviewed by Philip Gerard

University of North Carolina at Wilmington

Reviews that include references should follow the formatting guidelines identified in this document.

Carolina Landscapes

Each issue of the North Carolina Geographer publishes a special edition article concerning the cultural landscapes of North Carolina. This article can be on a range of topics describing the unique relationship between people and the environment of North Carolina. Carolina Landscapes should be no more than 5,000 words and highlight the connection between people, both historically and contemporaneously, and the physical landscape in North Carolina.

Comprehensive Review

We welcome critical reviews of the literature including meta-analysis and systematic reviews related to North Carolina. Manuscripts should be no more than 7,000 words in length, excluding all footnotes and bibliography.

Curriculum Article

A curriculum article should focus on new and innovative methods/topics for teaching geography, or infusing spatial thinking within other disciplines. These articles should be no more than 5,000 words in length, excluding all footnotes and bibliography.

Letter to the Editor

Letter to the Editor should be no more than 1500 words in length and should stimulate intellectual discussions. There is no abstract required for Letter to the Editor.

Research Manuscripts Formatting Guidelines

Electronic submission of manuscripts for review is done through The North Carolina Geographer submission website: https://ncgeography.org/journal/index.php/NCGeographer/about/submissions

The cover letter should include names, affiliations, and contact information of all authors and include a statement that the manuscript has neither been previously published nor will be submitted elsewhere while under review with The North Carolina Geographer.

The manuscript file should not include any identifying information. This includes names of authors, affiliations, biographical sketches, or acknowledgments. This information will be added to your final files if the manuscript is accepted for publication.

Manuscripts that do not meet the formatting guidelines will be returned to the author for revisions before initial review.

• All parts of the manuscript (highlights, abstract, text, notes, references, tables, and figure captions) must be 12-point font, double-spaced, have the first line of each paragraph indented 0.5 inch (1 tab space), have 1-inch margins on all pages (including tables and figures), and be paginated.
• For initial review, tables and figures should be included in the same file as the text, occurring immediately after being cited. Captions should occur above the table and below the figure.
• Manuscripts, except for highlights, abstract, references, tables, or figures, should be no longer than 7,000 words. The abstract should be no longer than 200 words.
• The title should be chosen with care to appeal to a diverse audience and should represent the content of the article.
• Authors should also provide a shorter, running head no longer than six words. The running head should be included on a separate line, below the abstract.
• Three to five keywords, which do not duplicate words in the title, should follow on a separate line below the running head.
• Beginning with Volume 21, authors are required to provide highlights for their manuscripts. Highlights should consist of three to five bullet points each < 100 characters that convey the key results and conclusions of the article. Highlights should be placed after the title and author page and before the abstract.
• Only two levels of headings should be used to organize the text. Both should be left-justified. First-level headings should be all in caps (FIRST LEVEL HEADING), with no other special formatting (e.g., do not bold or italicize). Subheadings should use initial caps and be italicized (Second Level Heading). Numbered outline headings—4.1, 4.2, and so on—should not be used.
• A limited number of informational notes may appear double-spaced on a separate page at the end of the text, before the References Cited section, and should be referenced in the text by numerical superscripts. In creating your notes, do not use Microsoft Word tools such as Insert Footnotes, as these embed macros into your document that must be removed for publication.
• All tables and figures (maps, photographs, charts, and graphics) should be mentioned explicitly and in numerical order in the text using a leading cap (Table 1, Figure 1). If a figure or table comes from another source, a full citation of that source should be provided in the references section. Authors should obtain any reprint permission necessary. See below for additional information on formatting figures.
• Tables should be limited to five or fewer and should be 12-point font with 1-inch margins.
• Figures should be limited to five or fewer.
  • Figures must be provided AT SCALE (generated at the same size as will appear in the journal). Standard portrait positioning: maximum figure width (left to right across the page) is 4 1/2 inches and maximum figure height is 7 inches (figure caption will occupy one 1/8-inch line – allow 1/8 inch for each additional line). Rotated landscape positioning requires a 90° shift of page-to-read illustration.
  • Landscape positioning is reserved for figures with considerable detail, and such figures typically occupy a full page. The maximum length of the short axis is 4 3/8 inches and the maximum length of the long axis is 7 inches (figure caption will occupy 1/8 inch of short-axis length – allow 1/8 inch for each additional line).
  • All photographs/images must be submitted as JPEG files at a minimum of 300 dpi and a maximum of 600 dpi. If an image is smaller than the journal page, scan at a larger size so the resolution will not be lost. Any lettering embedded in the figure should be a minimum type size of 8-point and a maximum of 12-point. Use only sans-serif type styles.
  • Limit color maps to no more than 3 different colors and/or 6 shades for choropleth maps (and other shaded-area figures). If more classes are needed, patterns can also be used.
  • For final manuscript submission, each figure shall be submitted as a separate file in JPEG format with a resolution between 300 and 600 dpi. Files should be labeled as AuthorFigure# (e.g., SmithFigure1). All figure captions should be included as a separate file.
  • You are responsible for any figure revisions required by the publisher. In case the publisher requires additional revisions or adjustments before printing, retain original versions of all graphic figures (whether composed in GIS, spreadsheet, or graphics programs) until the article has been published.
• Miscellaneous formatting
  • All measurements should be metric.
  • Equations should be centered on their own line and numbered sequentially in parentheses on the right margin. All terms must be defined where they initially appear as follows: Q = 2.4Ad0.7 (1) where Q is discharge (m3/s) and Ad is drainage area (km2)
  • “Percent” should always be spelled in the text.
  • All acronyms should be spelled in the text the first time they are used, followed by the acronym in parentheses. For example, “geographic information systems (GIS)”. Acronyms should not have periods between the letters (US not U.S.).
  • All whole numbers from one to one hundred should be spelled unless they are paired with a mathematical symbol (e.g., 2 + 2 = 4), abbreviation (e.g., 25 km, 16 cm), “percent” (e.g., 25 percent), or “score” (e.g., score of 57).
  • All quotation marks should be double with the exception being if material is quoted within a quote. In this instance, single quotes are used for the embedded quote. Direct quotes from secondary sources that are > 60 words should be set as extracts/block quotes (i.e., separated from surrounding text by one line at the beginning and one line at the end, and indented 0.5 inches on either side). Shorter quotes should be integrated into the text. Excerpts from interviews comprise the exception. Any interview excerpt of more than a single sentence in length should be set as an extract, no matter how long it is.
• References cited in the text should appear in the References Cited section and vice versa. Please refer to the examples in Table 1.
  • In the text, references should be cited parenthetically, rather than by a number: (Murphy 2010) or Murphy (2010); parenthetical listing of sources with up to two authors should include all author names (Smith and Jones 1991), while sources with more than two authors should be cited using the first author’s name followed by “et al.”: (Sanders et al. 1989). Parenthetical listing of sources in the text should be organized first by year, and then by the author(s) (Jones 1991, Smith and Jones 1991, Sanders et al. 1999, Murphy 2010).
  • Personal communications, software packages, and other unpublished work should be cited in their entirety in the text. Personal communications should include the following: name of the person, position, and organization (if relevant), date of communication, method of communication (fax, e-mail, letter, conversation, etc.). Software packages should include the name of software, version used, maker of software, city/state/country of location of the software maker.

Table 1. Examples of reference style for The North Carolina Geographer. References should be written in the official citation style of the Annals of the Association of American Geographers.

(A Citation Style Language (CSL) style for Annals of the Association of American Geographers is available for authors who use Zotero, Mendeley, Papers, etc., online at: https://www.zotero.org/styles).