Ethical Clearance and Informed Consent Policy

All manuscripts submitted to the journal must include ethical declarations appropriate to the nature of the research conducted. Ethical statements should be provided in a Declarations section before the References.

Research Involving Human Participants

Manuscripts reporting research involving human participants, including but not limited to studies in Human Geography, Geography Education, surveys, interviews, questionnaires, focus group discussions, classroom observations, participatory mapping, or other forms of direct interaction with individuals, must include the following:

Authors must confirm that the study received ethical approval from an authorized institutional ethics committee, review board, or equivalent authority before data collection. The name of the institution and approval number (if available) must be stated in the manuscript.

Authors must confirm that informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to their involvement in the research. For studies involving minors or vulnerable participants, consent must also be obtained from parents, legal guardians, or authorized representatives.

If the manuscript contains identifiable personal information, photographs, interview excerpts, or other participant-related materials that may allow identification, authors must obtain explicit consent for publication.

Research Not Involving Human Participants

For manuscripts in Physical Geography, Geographic Information Systems, Remote Sensing, geomorphology, climatology, hydrology, volcanology, spatial modeling, laboratory-based studies, or research based exclusively on secondary data without direct human participation, ethical approval and informed consent are generally not required.