Submissions

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Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
  • The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
  • The submission file is in Microsoft Word file format (for written text) or formatted as .jpg, .jpeg, .png or .svg (for visual submissions, including posters, presentations, and photos).
  • The text adheres to ALL of the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines. Please contact the Editor if there is an aspect you are unsure of.

Author Guidelines

How to Submit

  • As the papers we receive will have primarily been submitted for a class assignment, we ask that you take any feedback given from professors and incorporate that into your submitted work
  • Ensure that your submission conforms to all the requirements under both the Author Guidelines and Formatting Guidelines

Author Guidelines

General

  • The subject matter must be relevant to Human Geography and or Planning.  
  • If you are unsure whether your work is compatible with Topophilia, please do not hesitate to contact us at gapss@ualberta.ca with the subject line: Student Journal Submission Inquiry
  • Submissions must be the author’s own original work and should not have been previously published.

Academic Coursework

  • Academic papers and projects must have received a grade of A- or higher, or 80% or higher, in 200-level courses or higher.
  • Papers and projects do not have to be written or designed for HGP courses.
  • Papers, projects, and presentations can be work from any previous semester, not solely the preceding term. 

Academic Papers

  • Submitted papers should be between 1000-5000 words in length, excluding references. However, these are not hard cut-offs so please submit your work if it is slightly longer or shorter and we will consider it. 
  • Please include a short abstract (between 150-200 words in length) that gives a brief description of the paper. 
  • Although the papers may have been written for a specific class, consider providing more information that may be relevant to readers of a larger academic audience if necessary. This may include explaining specific details or adding to the introduction of the paper.

Presentations and Projects

  • Presentations and projects should be 1-2 pages in length (and thus will likely have to be shortened/adjusted).
  • Projects and presentations should be accompanied with captions and descriptions for any figures.    

Other Submissions

  • Written submissions should be 500-3000 words in length, excluding reference.   These are not hard cut-offs so please submit your work if it is slightly longer or shorter and we will consider it. 
  • Visual submissions should be accompanied with captions and brief descriptions or thoughts (50-200 words in length). 

Formatting Guidelines

Written Submissions 

  • Written submissions should be formatted as .doc or .docx (no PDFs). 
  • 1.5 spaced, 12 point Times New Roman font.
  • Use a space in between paragraphs.
  • Use 2.54 cm margins (1 inch) on all sides. 
  • Use Canadian spelling.
  • All articles MUST be properly cited using APA 7 referencing.
  • Remove any sort of personal identifiers (name, ID #, etc.) in order to ensure a blind review process.
  • Include page numbers on submissions in the top right corner.
  • All illustrations, figures and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.

Visual Submissions

  • Visual submissions, including posters, presentations, and photos, should be formatted as .jpg, .jpeg, .png or .svg (no PDFs).
  • Please include your name, email address, captions and descriptions in a separate .doc or .docx file, following the formatting guidelines for written submissions.
  • Please include both files in the same submission email. 

The Review Process

Papers will be anonymously reviewed as they are submitted by at least one graduate student reviewer. Once reviewed, papers/projects will be returned to authors with feedback. Final submissions with revisions must be submitted by the given deadline prior to publication.  

Copyright Notice

The Creative Commons-Attribution License 4.0 International applies to all works published by Topophilia. Authors will retain copyright of the work. This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon work published in Topophilia, even commercially, as long as there is an acknowledgement of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal.

Note: Topophilia: The Human Geography and Planning Student Journal is not responsible or liable for papers that contain elements of being plagiarized. The liability rests with the author of that particular paper and by submitting a paper, the author consents to this statement.   

Privacy Statement

The data collected from registered and non-registered users of this journal falls within the scope of the standard functioning of peer-reviewed journals. It includes information that makes communication possible for the editorial process; it is used to inform readers about the authorship and editing of content; it enables collecting aggregated data on readership behaviors, as well as tracking geopolitical and social elements of scholarly communication. 

This journal’s editorial team and its hosting service, the University of Alberta Libraries, use this data to guide their work in publishing and improving this journal. Data that will assist in developing this publishing platform may be shared with its developer Public Knowledge Project in an anonymized and aggregated form, with appropriate exceptions such as article metrics. The data will not be sold by this journal, the University of Alberta Libraries, or PKP nor will it be used for purposes other than those stated here. The authors published in this journal are responsible for the human subject data that figures in the research reported here. 

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Those involved in editing this journal seek to be compliant with industry standards for data privacy, including the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provision for “data subject rights” that include (a) breach notification; (b) right of access; (c) the right to be forgotten; (d) data portability; and (e) privacy by design. The GDPR also allows for the recognition of “the public interest in the availability of the data,” which has a particular saliency for those involved in maintaining, with the greatest integrity possible, the public record of scholarly publishing.