Sensationalizing geography #2 - Hot papers

GEOGIDIOT reads the GeogNews...
Ever wonder what are "hot papers" as listed in the GeogNews of the CAG?
Could "hot" mean stolen as in plagiarized or otherwise dishonest?
... Are the hot papers highly cited or innovative?
Not likely as some are in low impact journals!
Seem you only need to email in your paper details and it gets magically transformed into a "hot" paper!
A non-lazy database search will easily reveal these papers so why the need for duplication?
And there are hot papers listed in GeogNews (e.g. No. 218) that doesn't exist at all!
One is left to wonder about what is fact and what is fiction!

Thoughts? Share your comments below.

Sensationalizing geography #1 - Map use and reading

GEOADMIN reads the recent news...
The Memorial University story about their student lacking world geography map skill seems sensational!
... Nothing was said that History and Math also have the same fact-recall issues with students.
The Canadian media coast to coast literally ran with the story.
Liberal use of generalizations made the problem national, and placed all Canadian geography students under a cloud of suspicion!
A more valid conclusion may be that not all of Canada, but only Memorial geography students are poor at world geography!
Now we hear Newfoundland spends 50% more per person on average compared to the rest of Canada!!
More info is needed about geography recall in other provinces to make the issue national!
Makes one wonder about tactics and research grants!
Interesting to now learn the CAG 2013 annual meeting is being held at Memorial University!!
Notes:
Memorial University - Ranked 5th amongst Canadian comprehensive universities in 2012 by Macleans.
CAG - Canadian Association of Geographers.

Thoughts? Share your comments below.

Geography society journals and power dynamics

GEOIDIOT and GEOSAGE discusses...
What do you think is the main role of society journals?
The ethical role is to fairly encourage and disseminate high-quality academic scholarship. But...
It could be that some journals use the outlet to reward conformance and membership. Such a reward system includes and excludes to create a power group. It's the typical old boys and girls club situation!
I just looked at the society journal The Canadian Geographer. There were 6 chief editor changes in the last 20 years... None of those 6 chief editors were from Eastern Canada universities. Editorial power concentrates in the English west.
Did this Canadian journal situation occur naturally you think?
Understanding the closure of The Operational Geographer publication in the 1990's is a place to start!
Notes:
In the last 20 years, The Canadian Geographer had chief editor changes in the following years: 2010, 2008, 2006, 2002, 1999, 1993.

Thoughts? Share your comments below.

The sh*t canadian geographers might believe

GEONOVICE and GEOSMART chats...
It is said that "people all over the world are downloading and reading TCG (the Canadian Geographer)". That may mean journal relevance?
Wrong. Downloaded articles are not used often. The 10-yr average TCG impact factor is 0.602. The best year was 2006 at 0.82. In 2011 it is 0.56!
The Canadian Geographer journal has a "very high (and growing) library access rate". That may mean journal interest?
Wrong. Publishers bundle the journals in themes. Libraries buy the package. Low quality journals ride on the coat tails!
"The issue of impact factor is usually ignored unless it is high."
Wrong. Impact factor ranks a journal among its peers! A low impact factor in geography means low relevance in the group!
"Urge you to ... cite the journal. We are all the Canadian Geographer."
Wrong. Unnecessarily citing the journal by coercion leads to citation inflation and amounts to academic dishonesty!
Notes:
Journal impact factor - Defined as A/B, where A = current year citations to peer reviewed articles from past two years, B = total number of peer reviewed articles published by the journal in the past two years.
Schuurman, N. (2012). The Canadian Geographer, Editorial, 56(3), p.295.
Science (2012). Coercive citation in academic publishing, 335(6068), p.542-543.

Thoughts? Share your comments below.