Focus and Scope

IJSDIR is a peer-reviewed journal that is operated by Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, published exclusively on line by the Publication Office of the European Union, and is supported by an experienced Editorial Team. The journal is hosted by SADL, the Spatial Applications Division of KU Leuven. We welcome a range of submission types, including full-scientific articles, notes from the field and geospatial data set descriptions.

The aim of the Journal is to further the scientific endeavour underpinning the development, implementation and use of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs). These are defined as frameworks of technologies, data, policies, institutional arrangements, and people aimed at increasing the availability, understanding, and use of spatial data and services to support policy, business, research, and society at large.

The Journal is published openly and free of charge. It adheres to the Open Archives Initiative, which aims to facilitate the dissemination of electronic content. Authors publishing on IJSDIR retain full but non-exclusive rights in their articles, and will be required to use one of the Creative Commons licenses for submitting their work (http://creativecommons.org). Our ethical principles require authors not to submit their works to other publishers for review while the article proceeds through the IJSDIR review process. During this process however, the article will be already posted as part of the current IJSDIR issue - under the "Articles under Review" section - to facilitate the timely exchange of ideas and progress of science. As soon as the article is accepted for publication, it will be moved to the “Published” section of the same web site. This process ensures that articles are published as quickly as possible and do not suffer the usual delays of journals in print.

Submission Types

IJSDIR welcomes submissions to any of the following sections of the Journal:

• Full Research Article: With this classical submission type: IJSDIR aims to further the scientific endeavor underpinning the development, implementation and use of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs). We encourage manuscripts from broad multi-disciplinary backgrounds including social and environmental sciences, and engineering, deploying also critical and interpretative methodologies. Articles in the following areas are particularly welcome: Spatial and Network Technologies, Distributed Spatial Databases and Metadata, Theories and Methods, Information Policies.
• Note from the Field: Articles on applications are encouraged to be more than a mere description, but to provide a critical reflection on the underlying drivers, of what seemed to work and what did not. Analyses of failures are also welcomed as there is much to learn from these experiences.
• Geospatial Data Set Descriptions: Short papers comprising of a direct reference and concise description of a geospatial dataset, especially providing the community with information beyond the common SDI metadata for discovery. Key characteristics of the dataset (e.g. intended purpose, known applications, or data acquisition/generation workflow) should be included as a guide to its usage for various (possibly unforeseen) purposes.

If you should be interested in a special issue, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Provision requirements for all submission types are provided as part of the Author Guidelines.

Evaluation criteria for all submission types are provided as part of the information package for Reviewers .

Peer Review Process

Articles submitted to IJSDIR are sent for single-blind review to three peers chosen by the editor, with advice from the editorial board, on the basis of their recognized knowledge in the field addressed by the paper. Invitations clearly indicate the Reviewer Guidelines and Evaluation Criteria  of the Journal.

Authors are encouraged to look at the information package for reviewers  to understand the criteria against which a judgment will be made.

The process followed is described below:

1. Authors submit a paper following the instructions for authors.
2. The Editorial team makes a first assessment of the paper in respect to its structure and content and identifies suitable reviewers.
3. The paper is sent to three reviewers with a request for comments within four weeks using a pre-defined Review Form . At the same time the paper is posted on the issues page of the journal in the section "articles under review". If the authors wish to remain anonymous during the review process, they MUST clearly say so at the time of submission. If this is the case, the articles are submitted to the reviewers as anonymous submissions, and the article is NOT posted on the journal web site.
4. Once the reviews have been received by the editors, a judgment is made whether to accept the article, ask for modifications, or reject. This decision is communicated to the authors together with the anonymized comments from the reviews.
5. Authors resubmitting their paper with the modifications requested by the reviewers should indicate in a separate cover note to the Editor-in-Chief how they have taken the comments on board. For this, IJSDIR provides an electronic Reply to Reviews Form to prospective authors.
6. Final accepted papers must be submitted in MS Word or rtf. They will then be turned into pdf by the Editorial team and posted in this format on the issues page of IJSDIR in the appropriate section. Since there is no need to wait for paper printing of the Journal’s issues, publications will take place as soon as the paper has been accepted in its final form. If the contribution should be rejected, it will be removed from the journal web site.
7. Re-submitted articles will again be reviewed, preferably by the same reviewers that already provided recommendations on a previous version of the document. This time, the judgment by the editor will also consider the explicit replies to previous comments. Authors will receive similar information as already described under point 5 (above).
8. Once a year, the Journal will also make a collection of all the papers published into a single pdf with consecutive page numbering.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

We do not charge any fees for the submission or processing of articles.

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

The International Journal of Spatial Data Infrastructures Research (IJSDIR) is a peer reviewed scientific journal which follows the ethic statements of COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors. All possible measures against any publication malpractice are taken. All parts involved €“editors, referees and authors- must know and agree on the following ethic principles.

Author Responsibilities

Authors are expected to present original works, and an appropriate citation should be made on citing the works of others.  Any attempt of plagiarism will be followed by the rejection of the submitted manuscript.  

Authors should not submit the same work or describe essentially the same research in more than one journal.  Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behaviour, unless otherwise specified. 

Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors. 

The corresponding author should ensure that all co-authors are included on the article, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the article and have agreed to its submission to the Journal for its publication.

Reviewer Responsibilities

Reviewers of JISDIR assist the editors in taking the decision of publishing a submitted manuscript.  Reviewers who feel unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or know that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse themself form the review process. 

Reviewers are bound to treat the manuscript received for peer reviewing as confidential documents and must not use the information obtained through peer review for personal advantage. Received manuscript must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editors.  

Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the manuscript. Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments. 

Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors.  Any statement that an observation derivation or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also call to the editor's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

Editorial Board Responsibilities

Editors of JISDIR are responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published.  In evaluating the submitted works, editors should limit themselves only to the intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political orientation of the authors. 

Editors can choose to ignore any material that breaks legal requirements regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism (including self-plagiarism). In addition to the jounral review process, a software tool may be used so that the submitted manuscripts are screened for plagiarism. As overlapping and similar text will be detected, quotations and appropriate citations have to be used whenever required. 

IJSDIR has a policy of publishing articles under review on its Web site with a clear label about their status and a indication of authorship. If upon submission, the authors make explicit request for double-blind review, then the editors must ensure the confidentiality of the submitted works until they are published.  The article Under Review is therefore not published on the web until the review process is complete and the paper has been accepted for publication. 

In case editors decide not to publish a manuscript. It  should not be used for other purposes without the express written consent of the author. If genuine errors in published work are pointed out by readers, authors, or editors, which do not render the work invalid, a correction will be published as soon as possible. 

The online version of the paper will be corrected with a date of correction and a link to previous version. If the error renders the work or substantial parts of it invalid, the paper should be retracted with an explanation as to the reason for retraction. 

If serious concerns are raised by readers, authors, or others, about the conduct, validity, or reporting of academic work, the IJSDIR team will contact the authors and allowing them to respond to the concerns. It that response is unsatisfactory IJSDIR will take this to the institutional level. IJSDIR will respond to all allegations or suspicions of research or publication misconduct raised by readers, reviewers or other editors. 

Cases of possible plagiarism or duplicate/redundant publication will be assessed by the journal. In other cases, after seeking an explanation from the authors first and if that explanation is unsatisfactory IJSDIR may request an investigation by the institution or other appropriate bodies.