Editorial

Abstract

Welcome to the July issue of Transactions, which includes seven papers, a Boundary Crossings conversation about participatory geographies, and a commentary and reply about the Boundary Crossings essay by Mike Hulme (2008) on climate change. In addition, this issue includes a list of everyone who reviewed papers for Transactions last year. Academic journals couldn't exist without the professional commitment and scholarly rigour of reviewers, and I would like to thank everyone who has acted in this capacity for their prompt, full and constructive reports that ensure the high academic standards of Transactions. I would also like to thank Gail Davies, who has been Acting Editor from April to July, and has been working in particular on the October issue of Transactions. Gail has made it possible for me to take a period of maternity leave from editing Transactions, and I am very grateful for all of her work on the journal. The first virtual issue of Transactions is on ‘Women and Geography’, and was launched to celebrate International Women's Day on 8 March 2008. The virtual issue is available free online at http://www.rgs.org/TIBGVirtual. Reflecting the importance and diversity of feminist research within the discipline, it brings together a range of landmark articles in the field. Key themes include research on feminist historiographies of geography; feminist theory and methodology in geography; and substantive areas of ongoing concern for women, including geographies of work, fear, domestic violence and the family. Nine articles published from 1991 to 2008 form the main contents of the virtual issue. Several of these articles include links to others published in Transactions that address women, travel and the history of geography; feminist methodology; gender and work; geographies of home; and family and relatedness. I hope that you enjoy reading the virtual issue and can recommend it to colleagues and students. Future virtual issues will focus on geomorphology, geographies of science, histories of geography and scale. The Transactions plenary lecture at the Annual Conference of the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) in August 2008 will be given by Derek Gregory and is entitled ‘War and Peace’. There will also be a panel discussion at the conference on ‘Publishing in Geography: key issues for new researchers’, sponsored by Area, The Geographical Journal, Transactions and Wiley-Blackwell. This session has been convened by myself and Helen Jarvis alongside the launch of ‘Publishing in Geography: a guide for new researchers’. This free guide has been produced by the RGS-IBG and Wiley-Blackwell, and will be available in printed form and on datasticks at the conference, and also online (URL to be released soon). The guide aims to provide clear, practical and constructive advice about how to publish in a wide range of forms, and also to encourage postgraduate students and early career researchers to submit their work for publication. The different sections of the guide have been written by human and physical geographers who work as editors and editorial board members, and who have considerable experience of publishing their own research in a variety of forms and for a wide range of readerships. The guide also includes eight boxes about personal experiences of publishing, written by postgraduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and more senior academics. The online version will include additional material from the panel discussion and will be updated on a regular basis. I look forward to seeing many of you at the Transactions plenary lecture and at the panel discussion at the Annual Conference of the RGS-IBG in August.