Quaestiones Geographicae is committed to maintaining clear and responsible standards of scholarly publishing. The journal follows widely recognised international standards of transparency and good publishing practice used in scholarly communication and journal evaluation.

Publication ethics concerns all parties involved in the publication process: authors, reviewers, editors, members of the Editorial Board and the publisher. A journal cannot guarantee that no ethical problems will ever arise. What it can and must do is define expectations in advance, react consistently when problems appear, and avoid decisions shaped by convenience, pressure, personal relations or institutional interests.

Editorial responsibility

1. The Editor-in-Chief, Managing Editors, Executive Editors and members of the Editorial Board are responsible for the scholarly quality and integrity of the journal. Editorial decisions are based on the academic value of the manuscript, originality, methodological soundness, clarity of argument, relevance to the aims and scope of the journal, and compliance with ethical standards.
2. Quaestiones Geographicae publishes research in physical geography, human and economic geography, spatial management and planning, sustainable development, environmental science, GIS and geoinformation, tourism and recreation. Because of this broad profile, ethical issues may arise in many different contexts, including fieldwork, laboratory research, interviews and surveys, as well as the use of spatial data, maps, photographs, remote sensing products and digitally generated data.
3. Editors must treat submitted manuscripts as confidential documents. Information about a manuscript may be shared only with people directly involved in the editorial process. Unpublished material from a submitted manuscript must not be used by editors for their own research without the author’s explicit consent.
4. Editors should not handle manuscripts in which they have a conflict of interest. Such conflicts may result from recent collaboration, institutional dependence, personal relations, financial interests, academic competition, or other circumstances that could reasonably affect editorial judgement.
5. The final decision on a manuscript rests with the editorial team. Reviewers’ recommendations are carefully considered, but they do not automatically determine the decision. If reviews are contradictory, unclear, superficial or raise serious doubts, the editors may ask for an additional review, request clarification from the author, or make an editorial decision on the basis of the available evidence.

Peer review

6. Quaestiones Geographicae uses double-blind peer review. Each manuscript is normally evaluated by at least two independent reviewers who are not members of the Editorial Board. At least one reviewer should be affiliated with an institution in a country different from that of the author or authors. The identities of authors and reviewers are concealed during the review process.
7. Reviewers are selected on the basis of expertise, independence and ability to assess the manuscript fairly. They are asked to declare that there is no conflict of interest between them and the author or authors. This includes, in particular, no direct personal relationship, no professional subordination and no direct scientific collaboration within the two years preceding the review.
8. Reviews should be written, specific and justified. A review should not be limited to a recommendation alone. It should explain the main strengths and weaknesses of the manuscript, including its originality, method, data, interpretation, structure, use of literature and relevance to the journal. Reviews that do not provide sufficient scholarly justification may be disregarded by the editors or returned to the reviewer for completion.
9. Reviewers must treat manuscripts as confidential. They must not share, copy, discuss or use unpublished material from the manuscript for their own benefit. If they suspect plagiarism, duplicate publication, data fabrication, figure manipulation, citation manipulation, inappropriate authorship or another ethical problem, they should inform the editors.
10. Reviewers should not upload confidential manuscripts or parts of manuscripts to external AI systems or other tools if this may breach confidentiality.

Authors’ responsibilities

11. Authors are responsible for the originality, accuracy and integrity of their work. A manuscript submitted to Quaestiones Geographicae must not have been published elsewhere and must not be under consideration by another journal. Previous dissemination as a preliminary communication, preprint, report or conference material should be disclosed where relevant.
12. Authors must present their research honestly. Data sources, datasets, databases, methods, assumptions, classifications, analytical procedures and limitations should be described with enough precision to allow scholarly assessment. Authors should also cite datasets, databases, software, repositories and other research resources in a transparent and appropriate manner. This applies both to quantitative and qualitative research, including studies based on GIS and geoinformation, remote sensing, modelling, spatial statistics, field and laboratory research, as well as interviews, surveys, policy analysis, archival materials, participatory methods and other forms of social and spatial inquiry.
13. Authors must cite sources properly. Plagiarism, close paraphrasing without attribution, unattributed use of data, maps, photographs, figures or interpretations, and misleading reuse of one’s own previously published work are unacceptable. The journal may use similarity-checking tools to support editorial assessment. A similarity report is not a judgement in itself; the editors assess the character, scale and context of any overlap.
14. Authorship should be limited to persons who made a real scholarly contribution to the conception or design of the study, data collection, analysis, interpretation, drafting or critical revision of the manuscript. All authors should approve the submitted version. Guest authorship, gift authorship and ghost authorship are not acceptable. Because of this broad profile, ethical issues may arise in many different contexts, including fieldwork, laboratory research, interviews and surveys, as well as the use of spatial data, maps, photographs, remote sensing products and digitally generated data.
15. Authors must disclose funding sources and any financial, institutional, personal or other conflicts of interest that could influence the research or its interpretation. If there are no conflicts of interest, this should also be stated.
16. Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce material for which they do not hold copyright, including maps, photographs, figures, tables, satellite images and extensive excerpts. The source and licence of reused material should be clearly indicated.

Research ethics and sensitive data

17. Research in geography may involve people, communities, places, landscapes, environmental samples, administrative data, spatial datasets or digital traces. Ethical risk depends both on the type of material and on the level of spatial or personal detail being disclosed.
18. Where research involves human participants, authors should follow relevant ethical standards, obtain informed consent where appropriate, protect privacy and avoid unnecessary harm. If ethics approval was required by the authors’ institution, national regulations or research funder, this should be stated in the manuscript. In cases raising significant ethical concerns, the editors may request additional information regarding ethical review procedures or institutional approval.
19. Spatial data may also be sensitive. Coordinates, maps, GPS traces, photographs, small-area data or linked datasets may reveal information about individuals, households, workplaces, vulnerable groups, protected species, culturally sensitive sites or environmentally fragile places. Even anonymised spatial information can sometimes allow re-identification when combined with other data.
20. Authors should therefore avoid publishing spatial detail that is unnecessary for the argument and could expose people, communities or places to harm. If data cannot be shared openly because of privacy, legal restrictions, licences, protection of vulnerable groups or environmental sensitivity, the limitation should be explained.

Data, methods and reproducibility

21. Quaestiones Geographicae encourages transparency in data, methods and analysis. Authors should provide enough information for readers and reviewers to understand how the results were produced. Where possible, data, code, supplementary materials or detailed methodological documentation should be made available. Relevant datasets, databases, repositories and software resources should be appropriately acknowledged and cited.
22. The journal recognises that not all data can be shared. Restrictions may result from personal data protection, confidentiality agreements, licences, copyright, fieldwork ethics, protection of sensitive locations or other justified reasons. In such cases, authors should state why access is restricted.

Use of AI-assisted tools

23. AI-assisted tools may be used for limited purposes such as language correction, translation support, technical editing, coding assistance or improving readability. They cannot be listed as authors because they cannot take responsibility for the integrity of the work. This position is consistent with current recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) concerning authorship and AI-assisted tools.
24. Authors remain fully responsible for all content of the manuscript, including text, references, data, analyses, maps, figures, tables, code and conclusions. AI tools must not be used to fabricate data, invent references, manipulate evidence, produce misleading images or conceal authorship.
25. If AI-assisted tools were used in a way that affected the preparation of the manuscript beyond routine language correction, this should be disclosed in the manuscript. The disclosure should indicate the tool used and the purpose of its use. Where appropriate, such information may be included in the acknowledgements section.
26. Editors and reviewers must not upload confidential manuscripts, reviews or editorial correspondence to external AI systems if this could compromise confidentiality.

Corrections, complaints and retractions

27. The journal will consider credible complaints concerning published articles, editorial procedures, conflicts of interest, peer review, authorship, data, methods or ethical conduct. Complaints should be submitted in writing to the editorial office and should include a clear description of the problem.
28. Disagreement with an editorial decision does not by itself prove procedural failure. Appeals may be considered when there is evidence of a serious misunderstanding, factual error, conflict of interest or procedural irregularity.
29. If an error is identified after publication, the editors will assess its nature and consequences. Minor errors may require a correction notice. More serious problems may require an editorial note, expression of concern or retraction. Retraction may be necessary when findings are unreliable because of misconduct or major error, when the article contains plagiarism, reports unethical research, duplicates another publication without proper justification, or otherwise seriously violates publication ethics.
30. The purpose of corrections and retractions is to protect the scholarly record, not to punish authors.

Publisher’s responsibilities

31. The publisher supports the editors in maintaining transparent and responsible publication procedures. The publisher should not interfere with editorial decisions based on scholarly assessment. In cases of suspected or proven misconduct, serious error or ethical breach, the publisher cooperates with the editors to clarify the matter and take appropriate action.
32. Quaestiones Geographicae is an open-access journal and does not charge article processing charges or submission fees. The journal’s open-access, copyright and licensing information should be presented consistently on the journal website, in author guidelines and in published articles.

Final provision

33. This policy applies to manuscripts submitted to Quaestiones Geographicae and to articles published by the journal. In matters not explicitly covered by this document, the editors will refer to COPE guidance and recognised standards of responsible scholarly publishing.

 

Adopted by the Editorial Board of Quaestiones Geographicae on 20 May 2026.