Acta Geographica Universitatis Comenianae

1 General Information

Acta Geographica Universitatis Comenianae (AGUC) is a reviewed scientific, geographical journal published by the Geographical Section of the Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, since 1959. It had published articles prepared by geographers working at the Comenius University in Bratislava during first decades of its existence. Later it evolved into fully academic journal opened to all contributors. The objective is to substantially contribute to the development of geography as a scientific discipline in Slovakia, present Geographical Section to the wide research community at Comenius University, offer scientists from around the world an option to present scientific results in a respected journal, and joint to the significant scientific periodicals of geographical orientation in Central Europe. The official languages of the journal are Slovak, Czech and English.

The journal accepts original theoretical and empirical contributions in physical geography, human geography, regional geography and geoinformatics. It is also opened to contributions in wider spectrum of neighbouring scientific disciplines as geomorphology, geoecology, cartography, remote sensing, demography, urban planning, environmental sciences, spatial economics, sociology etc.

The length of papers should be no more than 8000 words (research papers, review articles), including all usual components of the paper (abstract, figures, tables, references, summary). The editor can refuse submitted papers if they do not meet this criterion.

Research papers – no more than 8000 words

Review articles - no more than 8000 words (current issues and debates, critical, evaluating, summarising)

Central and Eastern Europe geography in brief - no more than 4000 words (original, rather empirically oriented contributions, briefer theoretical background, not trivial research, not simple case studies, without any originality or contribution)

To be accepted, articles submitted must represent significant scientific findings and must follow standard structure of scientific paper. After introduction, studied theme should be situated into relevant literature and include theoretical background. The article must contain clearly explained methodology/methods and well elaborated empirical section. The research results need proper presentation and interpretation. It is expected that discussion, conclusions and rich references will be final section of the paper.

AGUC is published twice a year, in June and December. Accepted articles are published free of charge. The authors are not paid for their contributions.

Journal accepts unpublished contributions not being submitted for publication to any other journal. If accepted, the paper cannot be published elsewhere without the approval of the editorial board. If contributions contain material authors do not own copyright, they are obliged to arrange needed permissions.

All articles are subject of anonymous review process. The selection of reviewers is sole responsibility of the editorial board and the editor. The authors are required to provide written statements to reviewer comments. The article may be rejected for publication by the editor, the reviewers, and by the editorial board. All communication during the review process is electronic (via e-mails). The editor has right to refuse submitted paper after consultation with other editorial board member if it does not meet formal, or scientific requirements of the journal, as well language quality.

Further, more specific information on Journal Bylaws and Publication Ethics Policy can be found at:

» http://www.actageographica.sk/bylaws.php
» http://www.actageographica.sk/ethicspolicy.php


2 Submission

The journal accepts contributions in Slovak, Czech and English. Quality of language/translation is the sole responsibility of the authors. In the case of contributions in English, the editors expect grammatical and stylistic quality at the level of Professional English. All manuscripts should be sent by e-mail to the Executive Editor (editors@actageographica.sk). The journal accepts submitted papers in electronic version only (all submissions – as first, as revised submissions). Preferred format is Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx, .rtf).

The authors will send one copy of the manuscript (without the name(-s) of the author(-s) in the main text and including tables and illustrations) and an information sheet with the name(-s) of the author(-s), its (their) working address including e-mail (they will be included in the text) and the contact address of the lead/corresponding author (with e-mail). The editors will confirm obtaining of submitted contribution within one week period.

The Executive Editor will inform the author(s) whether or not the manuscript has been accepted for the peer review process no later than one month since its delivery to the editors.

The outcome of the peer review process is delivered to the author(s) no later than three months after their initial manuscript submission. Usual outcomes of the review process are: accepted, minor revision required, major revision required, and rejection of the manuscript.

The decision on acceptance for publication after revision is delivered to the author no later than two months after the revised version of the manuscript is submitted.

After publishing of submitted paper, electronic (.pdf) version of the paper will be sent to the lead author. The electronic version of the articles will appear at the journal’s web page.

3 Manuscript style

The text is to be typed in MS Word or OpenOffice in double spaced, 12-point Times New Roman. It is useful to see older number of AGUC for manuscript conformity.

title – submitted without the name(-s) of author(-s); avoid too long titles.

abstract – up to 300 words, in English, taking into consideration following structure – 1. Explain background and motivation for this submission? Why it is significant paper? What specific and important address this contribution? 2. What methods and date were used and why? 3. Identify and interpret main results? What important we should not omit?

key words – six to eight words; they should clearly cover especially topic, locality/region/spatial unit and method,

main text - AGUC accepts contributions representing significant scientific results and having a standard structure of scientific study. After the introduction, the theme under study is appropriately situated to the framework of the existing scientific literature, with analysis of the theoretical background. The present paper must have formulated methodological bases, clearly stated methodology for research and well developed empirical part. Research results are appropriately presented, documented by attachments and interpreted. It is expected that discussion, conclusion and rich list of references will form the final part of the article itself. The further requisites of the article include ‐ abstract, keywords, acknowledgement and summary.

Main text must be properly structured and submitted without illustrations and tables. The approximate position of the figures in the text should be indicated by their titles. Illustrations mentioned in the text (i. e. maps, graphs, figures, photographs and schemes) are numbered uniformly “Figure 1” and tables separately (“Table 1”).

References - see instructions below;

summary – all paper must have summary at length about 1/10 of main text of the contribution. It must reflect main sections of the contribution and the title of the contribution (without the name(-s) of author(-s). Summary is submitted in English, if paper is submitted in Slovak (or Czech), or in Slovak (Czech) if submitted in English (translated within AGUC if not submitted by authors from Slovakia or Czechia).

footnotes and endnotes – we do not accept papers with footnotes and endnotes. Their content usually can be included into main text. Endnotes can be used in rare and specific cases, after consultations with the editor.

headings – please use two levels as maximum, only first letter capitalized.

illustrations and tables - colour or grey scale is accepted, each illustration and each table on a separate sheet/file. Images are accepted with format .png, .jpg or .tiff, and quality 300 dpi at least, please, number them. Tables and graphs are accepted in .xls format. Titles should be concise, clear and informative. Tables or illustrations should identify the author/source. List of numbered titles of illustrations including legends, and list of numbered titles of tables should be provided on separate sheets.
Colour attachments are published online in author-supplied quality. Printed version contains only grey scale attachments (edited by the editors from the supplied attachments by removing the colour channels and converted to grey scale form).

acknowledgements – are accepted at separate sheet mentioning name(-s) of sponsor(-s)/funding agency of the research with grant number(-s). They will be included in publication to the end of main text (after Conclusion).

preproduction and production changes – no changes will be accepted during the post-acceptance production period, besides necessary adjustments recognised by the editor. All needed revisions must be completed prior to acceptance for publication.


4 References

References should be quoted in the text as name and year – (Stiglitz, 2002) or (Mazúr and Lukniš, 1978), or (Walling et al. 2004) or “Krcho (2001a) - and listed at the end of the paper alphabetically in following style:

Papers:
DROPPA, A. 1968. Geomorfologický výskum krasových ostrovov v Liptovskej kotline. Geografický časopis, 20, 328-342.
RODRÍGUES-POSE, A., SANDALL, A. 2008. From identity to the economy: analysing the evolution of the decentralisation discourse. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 26, 54-72.

Books and volumes:
HALÁS, M. 2005. Cezhraničné väzby a cezhraničná spolupráca. Bratislava: Univerzita Komenského.
HARVEY, D. 1973. Social justice and the city. London: Edward Arnold.
MINĎÁŠ, J., ŠKVARENINA, J. (eds.). 2003. Lesy Slovenska a globálne klimatické zmeny. Zvolen: EFRA, Lesnícky výskumný ústav.

Atlases, maps
Atlas krajiny Slovenskej republiky. 2002. Bratislava: Ministerstvo životného prostredia SR.
KOLÉNY, M., BARKA, I. 2002. Pôdy Európy 1 : 20 000 000. In: Atlas krajiny Slovenskej republiky. Bratislava: Ministerstvo životného prostredia SR, 105, 327, 335.

Elektronic documents, world wide web pages:
WOLLMANN, H. 2008a. Comparing local government reforms in England, Sweden, France and Germany. http://www.wuestenrotstiftung.de/download/local-government. Accessed on 22 July 2011.
MINISTRY OF INTERIOR OF THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC, 2010. Euroregions. http://www.minv.sk/ euroregiony. Accessed on 18 October 2010.

Chapters in books, contributions in serials, conference papers
VENTURA, S. J., IRVIN, B. J. 2000. Automated landform classification methods for soil-landscape studies. In: Wilson, J. P., Gallant, J. C., eds. Terrain Analysis: Principles and Applications. New York: Wiley, 267–294.
GREŠKOVÁ, A. 2002. Relevantné faktory vzniku a podmienky formovania sa povodňových prietokov v povodí Krupinice v roku 1999. Geographia Slovaca, 18, 39-47.
GIBBS D.C., DEUTZ, P., PROCTOR, A. 2002. Sustainability and the local economy: the role of eco-industrial parks. Paper presented at the conference “Ecosites and Eco-Centres in Europe”, Brussels, www.hull.ac.uk’geog/research/EcoInd. Accessed on 18 June 2009.

Dissertations, research reports and other unpublished documents
BONK, R. 2003. Scale-dependent impact of selected factors on morphometric parameters accuracy and automated geomorphological mapping. Unpublished dissertation. Bratislava: Comenius University, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Physical Geography and Geoecology.
ZAŤKO, M., ŠKVARČEK, A., MIČIAN, Ľ., ZATKALÍK, F., BIZUBOVÁ, M., MINÁR, J., MACHOVÁ, Z. 1989. Svahové deformácie a geomorfologické pomery v oblasti Antola v Štiavnických vrchoch. Bratislava: SGÚ.
BALCOMBE, R.J., YORK, I.O. 1993. The future of residential parking. Project Report 22, Crowthorne: Transport Research Laboratory.

Legislation, institutional and newspaper documents, data sources
Act No. 416/2001 Coll. on transfer of competencies from state administration to communities and to higher territorial units adopted on 15 November 2001
MŽP, 1993. Metodické pokyny na vypracovanie dokumentov územného systému ekologickej stability. Bratislava: Ministerstvo Životného prostredia Slovenskej republiky.
EUROPEAN COMMISSION, 2004. Third report on economic and social cohesion: A new partnership for cohesion. Luxembourg: European Commission, http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/docoffic/official/reports/cohesion3/, Accessed on 8 January 2012.
CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD/HEALEY & BAKER, 2004. The Financing of Retail Property Development in the UK: A Report for The Department of Trade and Industry. London: Cushman & Wakefield/Healey & Baker.
FINANCIAL TIMES, 2009. The future of capitalism - The big debate. Financial Times, 12 May 2009, 9.
WOLF, M. 2009b. Why Britain has to curb finance. Financial Times, 22 May 2009, 1.
ŠÚ SR, 1992. Sčítanie ľudu, domov a bytov 1991. Bratislava: Štatistický úrad Slovenskej republiky.


» Instructions for authors *.pdf