News

The Cartography and Geographic Information Society seeks applications and nominations for the Editor-in-Chief (EIC) for the journal Cartography and Geographic Information Science (CaGIS). The new editor will be appointed for a three-year editorial term that will commence on October 1, 2025. The current EIC will serve as the associate editor during the transition period to assist the new EIC in becoming familiar with the role and its responsibilities.

CaGIS is the official publication of the Cartography and Geographic Information Society. The society supports research, education, and practices that improve the understanding, creation, analysis, and use of maps and geographic information. The society serves as a forum for the exchange of original concepts, techniques, approaches, and experiences by those who design, implement, and use geospatial technologies through the publication of cutting-edge articles and international papers. The role of the CaGIS Journal is to facilitate these objectives by disseminating results and reports in these areas of interest.

The CaGIS Journal is one of four official journals of the International Cartographic Association (ICA), publishing 6 issues per year. As an international journal, CaGIS promotes the advancement of all aspects of cartography, geographic information systems (GIS) and geographic information science (GIScience), particularly those addressing the interface between cartography and GIScience. CaGIS is included in Thomson Reuters’ Current Contents/Social and Behavioral Sciences® and Social Sciences Citation Index® accessed via the Web of Science®. The CaGIS journal, published through Taylor & Francis has been consistently ranked as the premier cartography journal with a robust and consistent impact factor of 2.6 as of 2023. The role of editor is to evaluate the merits of papers submitted to the journal, invite reviewers, and accept papers for publication. The EIC promotes the journal and solicits papers at conferences. Papers may also be recent literature reviews, and essays such as vision papers. The editor is assisted by a few associate editors, a cartographic editor, and an editorial board that reflects the international breadth and domain diversity of the field, including junior to senior board members. The EIC will receive travel support to attend conferences and engage with potential authors.

The Cartography and Geographic Information Society expects that the editor will accept manuscripts from across the breadth and depth of intellectual activity in contemporary international cartography and GIScience. Prospective candidates should possess a distinguished record of scholarly achievement, a broad perspective on the discipline of cartography and GIScience, respect and affection for its diversity, and an ability to work constructively with authors and reviewers during the review process using the online system ScholarOne for review and management of the publication process.

The society is receptive to innovative ideas for editorial arrangements such as co-editors that would bring together a strong international group of assistant editors and editorial board members. The editor will be responsible for appointing the journal’s assistant editors and editorial board, and to work in coordination with the society and the publisher Taylor & Francis. The society provides a modest stipend to be used for travel and other expenses at the editor’s discretion. 

A letter of application that addresses both qualifications and a vision for the Cartography and Geographic Information Science journal should be accompanied with a complete curriculum vita. Applications should be received no later than November 30, 2024. Please e-mail applications or letters of nomination to CaGIS President-Elect Caglar Koylu at caglar-koylu@uiowa.edu. For further information or any questions, feel free to reach out to Caglar at the same email address.

CaGIS would like to congratulate the winners of the 2024 CaGIS Student Scholarships. 

In the PhD category, the winners are:

  • Timothy Prestby, Penn State University
  • Binbin Lin, Texas A&M University
  • Lily Houtman, Penn State University

In the Master’s program category:

  • Lucy Roberts, University of Oregon
  • Zhaoxu Sui, Penn State University (now a PhD student)

Each year, CaGIS provides scholarship awards to top students in Cartography and GIScience.  Award amounts are $1500 for the PhD level and $1000 for the Master’s level.  See https://cartogis.org/awards/students/ for more information.

The Cartography and Geographic Information Society is pleased to announce our 52nd Annual Map Design Competition. The competition is open to all mapmakers for maps completed or published during the calendar year of 2024. Students are particularly encouraged to apply for the award sponsored by Avenza (makers of MAPublisher).

The purpose of the competition is to promote interest in map design and to recognize significant design advances in cartography. The focus of this competition is design; therefore, judging is based on cartographic design criteria, such as creativity, text (spelling and grammar, too), balance, unity, visual hierarchy, clarity, use of color, and subject matter.

Click here for competition rules and entry instructions.

CaGIS is seeking proposals for hosting the 2026 CaGIS Conference.  While 2026 may seem to be far in the future, it is not too early to start planning if we want to have access to the best facilities at the low(er) cost.  If you are interested in submitting a proposal to host the conference in 2026, please fill in the Google form linked below in this message by August 31, 2024.  While there is not a lot of detail requested in this proposal, it requires a potential host to identify a specific location and venue/facility with certain characteristics we know we will need for the conference.  Once we have initial proposals, the CaGIS Board will narrow our options to just a few proposals and develop some additional details for each of the sites on the “short list.”  We anticipate making a site selection at our Fall, 2024 CaGIS Board meeting.

Note that this will be our first “independent” CaGIS Conference since the name change away from the AutoCarto Conference series, so, we would like to showcase all CaGIS has to offer at this meeting!

Thank you for your time and interest and if you have any questions, please let me know or contact any of our CaGIS Officers (https://cartogis.org/home/leadership/).

Link to Proposal form: https://forms.gle/1CWtWcTs1BcbC1kC7

—

Kari J. Craun

Executive Director

The Cartography and Geographic Information Society (CaGIS) proudly announces that applications are now being accepted for the Society’s annual scholarship awards. The scholarships recognize academic achievement and encourage the continuing success of outstanding cartography and geographic information science students. The scholarships also recognize achievement or potential for achievement in original research advancing the specific disciplines of cartography or geographic information science. CaGIS will award two Master’s Scholarship Awards ($1,000 each) and two Doctoral Scholarship Awards ($1,500 each) to outstanding applicants.

Applications are due by March 31, 2024, and can be submitted in the online application form (https://forms.gle/WwvhqX4Fp9fkHvc86). Award recipients will be announced in May, 2024. Please see the CaGIS Student Scholarships page (https://cartogis.org/awards/students/) for more information.

The CaGIS board is currently seeking nominees for future board positions.  Currently, we are seeking nominations for Vice President and two members of the Board of Directors.  The elected Vice President will serve a four-year term as VP, President-Elect, President, and Past President.  The Directors will each serve a four-year term.    

CaGIS rotates the officer positions among 1) government or private sectors and 2) academic sector, the next VP nominee will be selected from government or the private sector. The terms for those elected this year will run from spring 2024 until spring 2028. 

These positions include participating in one face-to-face Board meeting per year as well as one virtual Board meeting.  The face-to-face meeting is typically in conjunction with other meetings CaGIS members attend (such as the Annual AAG Meeting or CaGIS Conference) with travel reimbursement provided.   Other time required will depend on which CaGIS activities you choose to be more involved in as an officer or director. 

By choosing to serve as an officer or a board member, you will have the opportunity to influence the direction of the Society while working with a fabulous group of people.  You will be able to have direct input on the priorities of the society, future conference planning, and membership and financial strategies while expanding your professional network of amazing cartographic and geospatial contacts. 

The next two years are extremely important for CaGIS.  We will be co-hosting the 2024 CaGIS + UCGIS Symposium in Columbus, Ohio from June 3-6 and will be providing support for the International Cartographic Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia July 28-August 1, 2025.   In addition to conference support, CaGIS provides the community with a peer-reviewed journal, a number of student scholarships, an annual Map Design Competition, and serves as the United States liaison to the International Cartographic Association.  As an officer or a board member, you will have the opportunity to participate and influence all of these activities. 

So, if you would like the opportunity to make a significant contribution to CaGIS and the geospatial community as a whole (or if you would like to nominate someone whom you think could make a significant contribution), please contact me via e-mail at coled@si.edu by November 15, 2024.  The election of CaGIS officers will take place in December 2024.  The first face-to-face CaGIS Board meeting after elections will be in conjunction with the 2024 meeting in Columbus in early June.  

Dan Cole, CaGIS Past President

Dr. Cynthia Brewer received the ICA Carl Mannerfelt Gold Medal during the Awards Ceremony at ICC 2023 in Cape Town, South Africa.  The nomination was submitted by Aileen Buckley, U.S. Primary Delegate to the ICA and Chair of the U.S. National Committee for the ICA and Anthony Robinson, The Pennsylvania State University.  Some of Dr. Brewer’s notable achievements are described in her nomination document,

“Dr. Brewer is widely known for her contributions to color theory in cartography, with the most impactful of her accomplishments being ColorBrewer, a web application that has helped innumerable people worldwide make appropriate and perceptually viable color choices for thematic maps. These color schemes are found today in commercial and open-source software packages used by tens of millions of people every day. Few others in our field can make any such claim to broad, daily impact on so many around the world. Her impact on the field of cartography has cemented her reputation as the world’s foremost expert on color in cartography, earning international acclaim. Dr. Brewer’s work does not stop with color, however, as she has led other significant projects all aimed at helping people to make better maps. These additional works include, among others, ScaleMaster, a tool developed though collaboration to provide guidance on generalization and multiple representations of geographic data. Her work has influenced the field to such an extent that the notion of creating a Brewer has become a goal for other academic Cartographers…”

Dr. Cynthia Brewer received the ICA Carl Mannerfelt Gold Medal from ICA President, Tim Trainor. Photo courtesy of Aileen Buckley.

Join the largest Cartography and Geographic Information Science network.

Join CaGIS Today