Geografiska Annaler Series A Physical Geography

About Geografiska Annaler Series A Physical Geography

Overview

Geografiska Annaler, Series A: Physical Geography is an international, peer-reviewed journal of physical geography published by Taylor & Francis on behalf of its owning society, the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography (Svenska Sällskapet för Antropologi och Geografi, SSAG). It carries ISSN 0435-3676 in print and ISSN 1468-0459 online. The journal appears four times a year and publishes in English. Its subject is the physical surface of the Earth: the landforms, glaciers, rivers, slopes, soils, climates and ecosystems whose interactions physical geographers study, together with the methods, from field measurement to remote sensing and numerical modelling, used to understand how those systems change over time.

The title is one half of a famous pair. Geografiska Annaler was first published in 1919 by the Swedish society, and in 1965 it was divided into two series that continue today: Series A for physical geography and Series B for human geography. According to the society, Series A covers physical geography and related disciplines, and also interdisciplinary studies with strong connections to physical geography, publishing peer-reviewed articles with scientific results from all over the world. That combination, a society journal with a century-long archive, a Scandinavian institutional base and a genuinely global authorship, gives Series A a distinctive place among geography journals: it is at once a national learned society's flagship and a standard international outlet for research on cold regions, mountains, coasts and drylands, and on the Quaternary history that links them.

Journal History

The Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography was founded in 1877, in the great age of Swedish polar exploration associated with Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, whose Vega expedition completed the first transit of the Northeast Passage in 1878-1879. The society has always joined academic geography to public engagement, awarding research fellowships, organising lectures and excursions, and conferring medals that are presented by the King of Sweden on 24 April each year, the anniversary of Nordenskiöld's return to Stockholm. Its journal publishing began with the Swedish yearbook Ymer in 1880, and in 1919 it launched Geografiska Annaler as its international research journal.

For its first four and a half decades the journal covered geography as a whole. The division of 1965 into Series A (physical geography) and Series B (human geography) mirrored the discipline's own specialisation, and it allowed the physical series to develop a clear identity around geomorphology, glaciology, climatology and Quaternary science. Bibliographic records give the modern series a continuous coverage in international indexes from 1979 to the present, on top of the older archive reaching back through the combined title to 1919. Digitised back content held by library archives includes volumes from the journal's earliest years, so a literature search in this field can move from a 1920s description of Scandinavian landforms to a current satellite-based glacier study within a single title's archive.

Publishing arrangements have changed with the industry. The journal was long associated with Blackwell Publishing, and articles from that era carry Wiley-era identifiers; today the journal is published by Taylor & Francis, and current articles appear on the Taylor & Francis Online platform under the journal code tgaa20, with digital object identifiers in the 10.1080/04353676 series, a prefix that embeds the print ISSN. The society remains the owner and sets the journal's direction: its own publications page names the current editors-in-chief of Series A as Johan M. Bonow and Hans Linderholm, both Swedish physical geographers, which keeps editorial control close to the society and to the research community the journal serves.

Aims and Scope

Series A publishes research across the breadth of physical geography and closely related Earth-surface disciplines. Five areas account for most of its content.

Geomorphology and landscape evolution. Studies of how landforms originate and change: slope processes and landslides, fluvial erosion and sediment transport, coastal change, aeolian processes, weathering, and the long-term evolution of landscapes. The single most cited article in the journal's history, an analysis of the rainfall intensity-duration control of shallow landslides and debris flows, sits squarely in this area and is still used worldwide in hazard assessment. A second classic, on cycles of sedimentation and erosion in urban river channels, shows the journal's reach into applied fluvial geomorphology.

Glaciology and cryosphere science. Work on glaciers, ice caps and ice sheets, their mass balance, dynamics and response to climate, together with permafrost and periglacial processes. Research topics tracked for the journal include glacier morphology, ice accumulation, tidewater glacier behaviour and ice streams, reflecting its Scandinavian and polar heritage and the society's own exploring tradition.

Climate change and paleoclimate. Studies of present environmental change and of past climates reconstructed from sediments, landforms and other archives, including Holocene and Pleistocene environments, paleoclimatology and the dating of past events. The journal's well-known re-evaluation of the concept of the Little Ice Age is an example of the reflective, concept-testing scholarship it publishes alongside data papers.

Hydrology and water systems. Research on rivers, lakes, catchments, sediment budgets and water movement through landscapes, frequently combined with geomorphological questions about how channels and floodplains respond to environmental change.

Methods and interdisciplinary physical geography. Field techniques, laboratory analysis, geochronology, remote sensing, unmanned aerial survey and geospatial modelling applied to Earth-surface questions, plus interdisciplinary studies with strong connections to physical geography, for example work joining geomorphology with ecology, archaeology or geology. SCImago's classification of the journal under Geography, Planning and Development and under Geology captures this boundary position between geography and the Earth sciences.

Editorial and Peer-Review Process

The journal is peer-reviewed, and the society states plainly that it publishes peer-reviewed articles reporting scientific results from all over the world. Editorial responsibility rests with the two editors-in-chief named by the society, supported by the journal's editorial structure at Taylor & Francis. Manuscripts are submitted through the publisher's online system for the journal (code tgaa20), and authors are expected to follow the publisher's standard requirements on manuscript preparation, figure quality, data statements and disclosure. Because the journal is international and published in English, submissions from any country are welcome; there is no regional restriction on subject matter, even though the journal's history gives it particular strength in northern, mountain and cold-region environments. Authors should present work whose significance reaches beyond a single locality, or should explain clearly what a local study demonstrates about a general process, since the journal's readership is global and its editors look for contributions to physical geography as a discipline rather than purely local description.

Journal Metrics and Indexing

SCImago's journal record, built on Scopus data, places Geografiska Annaler, Series A in the second quartile (Q2) in both of its subject categories, Geography, Planning and Development and Geology, with a SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) of about 0.47 and an h-index of 62, meaning that 62 of its articles have each been cited at least 62 times. The same record gives the journal a long Scopus coverage history running from 1979 onward. These figures describe a solid, established mid-field journal: not a high-volume generalist title, but a recognised specialist venue whose best papers accumulate citations for decades, as the landslide, urban-channel and Little Ice Age examples show. Citation metrics of this kind move from year to year, and the figures quoted here are SCImago's as reported for the journal; readers who need a number for a formal evaluation should take it from the current SCImago or Scopus record, or from the Journal Citation Reports for the relevant year, rather than from a secondary summary.

The journal's articles are disseminated through Taylor & Francis Online, and its long archive is preserved in library collections, including early volumes digitised from the combined Geografiska Annaler title that began in 1919. That archive depth is itself a form of indexing value: physical geography is a field in which old observations, of glacier positions, shoreline change or erosion rates, become irreplaceable baseline data, and a journal that keeps a century of such observations in print holds a resource that newer titles cannot reproduce.

Publishing in Geografiska Annaler, Series A

For authors, the journal offers a society-owned home for physical geography with a quarterly rhythm and an international readership. A manuscript is most likely to succeed if it does four things. First, it should address a question about Earth-surface processes, environments or their history that matters beyond its study site, and say so explicitly in the introduction. Second, it should use methods appropriate to that question and describe them completely enough to be repeated, whether the evidence comes from field survey, sediment cores, dating techniques, instruments or imagery. Third, it should engage with the journal's own long conversation: in a title whose archive runs back to 1919, editors and reviewers notice when authors ignore the classic literature of their topic. Fourth, it should be written in clear international English and formatted to the publisher's current author guidelines, including its requirements for abstracts, keywords, figure files and reference style.

On practicalities, the journal follows the standard Taylor & Francis model: it is a subscription journal in which authors may also have open access options under the publisher's current arrangements. Specific charges, waiver rules and licence choices change over time and are not stated in the society's own description of the journal, so authors should check the journal's page on the publisher's platform for the current position before submitting, and should disregard fee figures quoted by unofficial websites. Acceptance rates and review timelines are likewise not publicly disclosed by the society or the publisher for this title; the honest planning assumption is the normal one for an established peer-reviewed quarterly, that a well-matched manuscript will be reviewed by specialists and that revision, not instant acceptance, is the usual path.

Series A or Series B? Choosing the Right Series

A recurring point of confusion for new authors is the pairing of the two series. Series A, the subject of this profile, is the physical geography journal: landforms, glaciers, climate, water, soils and the processes that shape them. Series B is the human geography journal, covering theoretical and empirical aspects of human and economic geography. Interdisciplinary work is not excluded from Series A; the society explicitly welcomes interdisciplinary studies with strong connections to physical geography. But a paper whose centre of gravity is social, economic or cultural belongs in Series B, and a paper on Earth-surface processes belongs in Series A, and sending a manuscript to the wrong series wastes everyone's time. The two series have different ISSNs, different editors and different readerships, and they should be cited separately and precisely, with the series letter included, because a reference to Geografiska Annaler without the series is ambiguous for any year after the 1965 division.

Is This Journal Right for Your Paper?

Geografiska Annaler, Series A suits researchers who want their physical geography read by the discipline's international community through a journal with a century of standing behind it. Its particular strengths are geomorphology, glaciology and periglacial science, Quaternary and paleoenvironmental research, and process studies in northern and mountain environments, and its Q2 standing in both geography and geology categories makes it a credible target for authors who need a Scopus-indexed, peer-reviewed outlet without the extreme selectivity of the very largest titles. Authors whose work is primarily methodological in a neighbouring science, or who need the fastest possible turnaround or guaranteed open access, may find a better fit elsewhere. Judged as what it is, a learned society's journal that has published physical geography continuously in its present series since 1965 and in its parent title since 1919, it remains one of the field's durable institutions, and a paper accepted there joins a literature that researchers will still be reading, and citing as baseline evidence, far into the future.

The Archive as a Scientific Resource

One feature sets this journal apart from younger competitors: the length and continuity of its record. Physical geography depends on observations that cannot be repeated. A glacier's terminus position surveyed in 1930, a shoreline mapped before a harbour was built, a river cross-section measured before a dam closed, or an erosion rate recorded before a slope was developed are facts about a world that no longer exists, and they gain value with every passing decade because they turn a single modern measurement into a rate of change. A journal that has published such observations since 1919, and in its physical series since 1965, holds thousands of them. Library archive listings for Geografiska Annaler record complete-issue holdings from the journal's first volumes onward, and the early volumes are now digitised, so the historical material is not locked in a few Scandinavian reading rooms but can be consulted by researchers anywhere.

This archival role shapes what the journal values in new submissions. Papers that report careful, well-documented field observations, that deposit or describe their data so future workers can repeat the measurement, and that connect new results to earlier observations of the same glacier, catchment, coast or slope are continuing the journal's central tradition. Conversely, work that treats its study site as if it had no history sits less comfortably here. Authors preparing a submission can strengthen it by searching the journal's back catalogue for their site and topic before writing, citing the relevant earlier studies, and explaining what has changed since they were made. Reviewers for a society journal with this heritage are likely to know that literature, and a manuscript that engages with it signals membership of the conversation the journal exists to sustain.

The journal's Scandinavian roots deserve a balanced reading. They are sometimes mistaken for a regional restriction, but the society's own description is explicit that the journal is international, is published in English, and carries peer-reviewed results from all over the world, and the citation record bears this out: its most cited paper, on rainfall thresholds for shallow landslides and debris flows, is a global reference used on every continent, and its pages carry work on environments from the Arctic to the tropics. The Nordic connection is better understood as an inheritance of expertise, in glaciology, periglacial processes, Quaternary history and northern landscapes, layered over a fully international authorship and readership.

Key Facts at a Glance

• Journal title: Geografiska Annaler, Series A: Physical Geography
• ISSN: 0435-3676 (print); 1468-0459 (online)
• Owner: Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography (SSAG)
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis (journal code tgaa20)
• Editors-in-Chief: Johan M. Bonow and Hans Linderholm (named by SSAG)
• First published: 1919 as Geografiska Annaler; Series A in its present form since the 1965 division
• Frequency: Four issues per year
• Language: English
• Scope: Physical geography and related disciplines, including geomorphology, glaciology, climatology, hydrology, Quaternary science and interdisciplinary studies with strong physical-geography connections
• Metrics (SCImago, Scopus-based): Q2 in Geography, Planning and Development and in Geology; SJR about 0.47; h-index 62
• Companion title: Geografiska Annaler, Series B: Human Geography
• Article processing charge: Not publicly disclosed in the sources consulted; check the publisher's current journal page

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the ISSNs of Geografiska Annaler, Series A? The print ISSN is 0435-3676 and the online ISSN is 1468-0459. Current article DOIs begin 10.1080/04353676, embedding the print ISSN.

Who owns and who publishes the journal? The journal belongs to the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography, which has published Geografiska Annaler since 1919. Taylor & Francis is the current publisher.

When did the journal begin? Geografiska Annaler was first published in 1919. It divided into Series A (physical geography) and Series B (human geography) in 1965, and both series continue today, each appearing four times a year.

What subjects does Series A cover? Physical geography and related disciplines: geomorphology, glaciology and permafrost, climatology and paleoclimate, hydrology, Quaternary environments, Earth-surface processes and methods, and interdisciplinary studies strongly connected to physical geography.

How is the journal ranked? SCImago, using Scopus data, places it in the second quartile (Q2) for Geography, Planning and Development and for Geology, with an SJR of about 0.47 and an h-index of 62. Metric values change annually, so check the current SCImago record for formal use.

Is this the same journal as Physical Geography? No. Physical Geography is a different Taylor & Francis journal with its own ISSNs. Geografiska Annaler, Series A is sometimes loosely described by its subject, physical geography, which causes the confusion; the ISSNs 0435-3676 and 1468-0459 identify the correct title.