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.

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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.

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When titles are nearly identical

GEOSAGE completes a reading...
So, I was forced to read the first viewpoint 2012, 56(4) of The Canadian Geographer (CG) journal...
... and the title is eerily similar to material not cited.
The CG title is "All we really needed to know about tenure-track faculty positions we did not learn in graduate school". The 2011 ACS title is: "Nearly everything I needed to know to be a successful faculty member, I didn't learn in graduate school".
Such a coincidence can mean many things!
Someone dropped the ball, not the new year's ball.... Makes one wonder many other things!
And in the CG article one author referred to the other as a "partner in crime".
Freudian psychologists can have a field day with such a statement and situation!
Notes:
Crooks, V.A. and Castleden, H. (2012). The Canadian Geographer, Viewpoint, 56(4), p.393-397.
Dorhout, P. (2011). American Chemical Society, presentation, Fall 2011 National meeting and expo.

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How to change confidence in a journal

GEOADMIN reflects...
The Canadian Geographer editorial 2012, 56(4) doesn't make any sense to me!
It talks about "cookies at every step", so similar to the Hansel and Gretel Grimm's fairy tale!
Then it rambled on for 7 paragraphs, suddenly introducing new viewpoints and dialogue journal sections.
The new op-ed sections are refereed... I guess for the perception it's a journal and not a magazine!
That could now make opinions count as facts and propagate a groupthink agenda!
Did anyone notice? The Canadian Geographer and the ACME e-journal seem to be so similar in focus!
Only time will tell how authors, SSHRC and Wiley-Blackwell will react to these journal shifts!
Notes:
The Canadian Geographer - Journal of the CAG society.
SSHRC - Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Wiley-Blackwell - Academic publisher.
ACME Journal - An international e-journal of critical geographies.

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The Canadian Geographer storybook

GEONOVICE meets GEOSAGE...
Did you read The Canadian Geographer journal recently?
No! ... I only have a fixed amount of time for entertainment!
Some of the paper titles and the contents read like a child's storybook
Well! It's ranked at the bottom at 54 out of 73 with a low impact factor of 0.56!
Who finances this journal?
I suspect it's Wiley-Blackwell and SSHRC!
Are these funders throwing resources down a rabbit hole?
Well, you decide!
Notes:
The Canadian Geographer - Journal of the CAG society.
SSHRC - Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Wiley-Blackwell - Academic publisher.

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