International Journal of Geospatial Science, Technology and Applications
About
The International Journal of Geospatial Science, Technology and Applications (IJGSTA) is an international, interdisciplinary, open-access scholarly journal dedicated to advancing research, innovation, knowledge exchange, and responsible applications of geospatial science, geoinformatics, spatial information technologies, remote sensing, geographic information systems, and emerging geospatial technologies.
The journal provides a scholarly platform for researchers, academics, geospatial professionals, GIS specialists, remote-sensing scientists, surveyors, engineers, data scientists, environmental scientists, urban planners, policymakers, educators, technology developers, and other professionals to communicate original research, methodological developments, technological innovations, theoretical contributions, applied studies, systematic reviews, critical perspectives, and emerging evidence across the rapidly evolving fields of geospatial science and technology.
IJGSTA recognizes that geospatial technologies are increasingly influencing environmental management, climate science, agriculture, urban development, transportation, public health, disaster management, natural-resource management, infrastructure planning, governance, business, scientific research, and sustainable development. The journal therefore seeks to promote scholarship that examines not only the development of geospatial technologies but also their practical applications, analytical capabilities, social implications, ethical dimensions, technological challenges, and contribution to evidence-based decision-making.
The journal welcomes high-quality research from all regions of the world and seeks to connect advances in geospatial science, geoinformatics, spatial data science, remote sensing, geographic information systems, and emerging spatial technologies with interdisciplinary scientific and societal challenges.
The journal is committed to promoting geospatial research and innovation that is rigorous, responsible, transparent, reproducible, inclusive, technically sound, and meaningful to science, policy, practice, and society.
Research Areas
Open Access
The International Journal of Geospatial Science, Technology and Applications (IJGSTA) is committed to the broad and equitable dissemination of scholarly knowledge. The journal operates under an open access publishing model, making its published research freely available to readers without subscription or paywall barriers.
The journal believes that unrestricted access to geospatial research can strengthen scientific collaboration, support evidence-based decision-making, facilitate technological innovation, and increase the practical and societal impact of scholarly work.
Free Access to Published Articles
All articles published by IJGSTA are made available online for readers to access, read, download, and use in accordance with the licence attached to the individual article.
Readers are not required to maintain a journal subscription or pay a fee to access published articles.
Open access applies to the journal’s published scholarly content, subject to any specific copyright, licensing, or third-party material restrictions identified within an individual publication.
Author Rights
IJGSTA seeks to ensure that authors retain appropriate rights over their scholarly work while granting the journal the necessary rights to publish and disseminate the article.
The specific copyright arrangement and licence applicable to an article will be clearly stated in the published version of the work.
Authors are encouraged to share links to their published articles through institutional repositories, academic profiles, personal websites, research networks, and other appropriate scholarly channels where permitted by the applicable licence.
Licensing
IJGSTA will publish articles under a clearly stated open-access licence.
The licence will specify how published material may be accessed, shared, reproduced, adapted, or otherwise reused.
Authors and readers should review the licence associated with each article before undertaking uses that go beyond ordinary reading, downloading, citation, or scholarly sharing.
Third-party materials contained within an article may be subject to separate copyright or licensing conditions. Authors are responsible for identifying such material appropriately.
No Subscription Barrier
The journal does not require readers to purchase a subscription in order to access its published research.
This model is intended to support researchers, students, educators, professionals, policymakers, practitioners, and institutions that may have limited access to subscription-based scholarly literature.
Article Processing Charges
If IJGSTA introduces article processing charges (APCs) or other publication-related fees, the applicable charges, eligibility conditions, waivers, and payment requirements will be clearly communicated to authors before publication.
No author should be required to make an undisclosed payment as a condition of publication.
Any applicable publication fee will be handled independently of the editorial assessment and peer-review decision to the extent possible, so that financial considerations do not determine the scholarly evaluation of a manuscript.
Equitable Access to Knowledge
IJGSTA recognizes that access to scientific literature remains uneven across countries, institutions, disciplines, and economic settings.
The journal therefore seeks to support an inclusive scholarly environment in which researchers from both well-resourced and resource-constrained settings can access current developments in geospatial science, geoinformatics, remote sensing, spatial data science, and related technologies.
The journal particularly values research addressing geospatial challenges in developing and emerging contexts and encourages international collaboration and knowledge exchange.
Long-Term Accessibility
The journal is committed to maintaining the accessibility and discoverability of its published scholarly record.
Published articles should remain available through the journal’s online platform and, where appropriate, through recognized indexing services, repositories, digital preservation systems, or other scholarly dissemination platforms.
The journal may participate in appropriate digital preservation and archiving arrangements to support continued access to published content.
Responsible Reuse
Open access does not remove the obligation to acknowledge the original authors and source.
Readers and subsequent users of IJGSTA content are expected to provide appropriate citation and attribution when using, discussing, reproducing, or building upon published research.
Authors likewise remain responsible for respecting the copyright, licensing, privacy, and data-use restrictions associated with materials incorporated into their publications.
Commitment to Open Scholarly Communication
IJGSTA views open access as more than simply removing a paywall. It is part of the journal’s broader commitment to accessible, transparent, inclusive, and responsible scholarly communication.
Through open dissemination of research, the journal seeks to help geospatial knowledge move beyond academic boundaries and contribute to scientific advancement, technological innovation, professional practice, policy development, education, environmental stewardship, and sustainable development.
Peer Review Policy
The International Journal of Geospatial Science, Technology and Applications (IJGSTA) is committed to a fair, transparent, constructive, and academically rigorous peer-review process. Peer review is an important component of the journal’s quality-assurance system and is intended to help ensure that published research makes a credible and meaningful contribution to geospatial science, technology, and applications.
Initial Editorial Assessment
All submitted manuscripts undergo an initial assessment by the editorial team before being considered for external peer review.
The initial assessment considers:
- Alignment with the journal’s aims and scope
- Originality and potential contribution
- Basic methodological and scientific quality
- Appropriate use of geospatial methods or technologies
- Completeness and organization of the manuscript
- Ethical and research-integrity considerations
- Compliance with the journal’s submission requirements
- Appropriate academic and technical presentation
Manuscripts that fall substantially outside the journal’s scope, are incomplete, or do not meet the journal’s basic scholarly requirements may be declined at this stage.
Passing the initial editorial assessment does not constitute acceptance or guarantee that a manuscript will be published.
External Peer Review
Manuscripts that pass the initial editorial assessment may be sent to independent reviewers with relevant expertise.
The journal normally seeks two or more qualified reviewers for research articles, although the number may vary according to the nature, complexity, and subject area of the manuscript.
Reviewers are selected based on their subject expertise, methodological knowledge, and ability to provide an objective assessment of the work.
Where appropriate, the journal may seek reviewers with specific expertise in areas such as:
- Geographic Information Systems
- Geoinformatics
- Remote sensing
- Geodesy and surveying
- Spatial statistics
- Spatial modelling
- Geospatial data science
- GeoAI and machine learning
- Environmental applications
- Urban and regional planning
- Disaster and risk management
- Health GIS and spatial epidemiology
- Cartography and geovisualization
- Other relevant interdisciplinary fields
Review Criteria
Reviewers are generally asked to consider:
- Originality — Does the manuscript provide an original contribution?
- Relevance — Is the research relevant to the journal’s scope?
- Scientific significance — Does the work contribute meaningfully to existing knowledge?
- Methodological rigor — Are the research methods appropriate and adequately described?
- Geospatial validity — Are spatial data, methods, analyses, models, and interpretations technically appropriate?
- Data quality — Are the sources, preparation, limitations, and characteristics of the data adequately addressed?
- Accuracy and validation — Where applicable, are accuracy assessment and validation procedures appropriate?
- Reproducibility — Is sufficient methodological and computational information provided to allow appropriate evaluation or replication?
- Results and interpretation — Are the results presented clearly and interpreted appropriately?
- References — Does the manuscript engage adequately with relevant scholarly literature?
- Ethical considerations — Are privacy, data protection, responsible technology use, and other relevant ethical issues appropriately addressed?
- Presentation — Is the manuscript clearly written, logically organized, and professionally presented?
For manuscripts involving artificial intelligence, machine learning, automated mapping, or computational modelling, reviewers may additionally consider model validity, training and testing procedures, data bias, uncertainty, explainability where relevant, and appropriate validation.
Review Model
IJGSTA may use a double-anonymized peer-review process, in which the identities of authors and reviewers are concealed from one another during the review process.
The journal may also use other appropriate review arrangements for particular manuscript types where anonymity is impractical or where specialist evaluation is required.
The applicable review arrangement may be communicated to authors during the submission and review process.
Reviewer Confidentiality
Reviewers must treat manuscripts received for review as confidential documents.
Reviewers should not:
- Share manuscripts or unpublished information with unauthorized individuals
- Use unpublished findings for personal or professional advantage
- Contact authors directly about the manuscript unless authorized by the editorial team
- Appropriate ideas, methods, datasets, maps, code, or findings contained in an unpublished manuscript
Reviewer comments should be professional, constructive, evidence-based, and relevant to the scholarly evaluation of the manuscript.
Conflicts of Interest
Reviewers must disclose any actual, potential, or perceived conflict of interest that could affect their impartiality.
A reviewer should normally decline an assignment where they have:
- A significant personal or professional relationship with an author
- A direct competing interest
- A recent collaboration with an author
- A financial or institutional interest in the research
- Other circumstances that could reasonably compromise objective evaluation
Editors may also declare conflicts of interest and arrange for another qualified editor to manage the manuscript where appropriate.
Editorial Decisions
Following peer review, the editor may reach one of several decisions, including:
- Accept
- Minor Revision
- Major Revision
- Reject
A manuscript may also require additional review following revision.
Editorial decisions are based on the overall scholarly assessment of the manuscript and are not determined solely by a single reviewer’s recommendation.
The final decision rests with the responsible editor in accordance with the journal’s editorial standards.
Revision and Author Response
When revisions are requested, authors should respond carefully to reviewer comments and explain how each substantive concern has been addressed.
Where authors disagree with a reviewer recommendation, they may provide a clear scholarly justification for their position. Authors are not necessarily required to adopt every recommendation, provided that their response is reasonable and adequately explained.
Revised manuscripts may be returned to the original reviewers or assessed by the editor, depending on the extent of the revisions.
Appeals
Authors who believe that an editorial decision was based on a significant misunderstanding, procedural error, or demonstrably inappropriate consideration may submit an appeal to the editorial office.
Appeals should provide a clear explanation of the grounds for reconsideration and should address specific concerns rather than simply expressing disagreement with the decision.
An appeal does not guarantee reversal of the original decision.
Publication Ethics During Peer Review
The journal reserves the right to investigate concerns identified during peer review, including plagiarism, fabricated or falsified data, inappropriate image or map manipulation, duplicate submission, undisclosed conflicts of interest, authorship concerns, unethical research practices, or other forms of research misconduct.
Where serious concerns arise, the editorial process may be suspended while the matter is assessed.
Review of Different Article Types
The peer-review process may be adapted according to the type of manuscript submitted.
For example, methodological papers may receive particular attention to methodological innovation and validity; technical papers may be evaluated for technical implementation and performance; data papers may be assessed for data quality and documentation; systematic reviews may be assessed for search strategy and review methodology; and conceptual papers may be evaluated primarily for theoretical contribution and scholarly coherence.
Commitment to Fair and Constructive Review
IJGSTA aims to ensure that peer review is rigorous without being unnecessarily adversarial.
The purpose of peer review is not merely to identify weaknesses but also to help authors strengthen their work and improve the quality of the scholarly record.
The journal therefore encourages reviewers to provide specific, respectful, and constructive recommendations and seeks to ensure that manuscripts are evaluated according to their scholarly merit rather than the author’s nationality, institutional affiliation, geographic location, gender, seniority, or other characteristics unrelated to the quality of the research.
Publication Ethics
The International Journal of Geospatial Science, Technology and Applications (IJGSTA) is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics, research integrity, transparency, and responsible scholarly communication. The journal expects authors, editors, reviewers, and all other participants in the publication process to uphold principles of honesty, fairness, accountability, and respect for the integrity of scientific research.
Originality and Plagiarism
Manuscripts submitted to IJGSTA must represent original scholarly work and must not have been published previously in substantially the same form or be simultaneously under consideration by another journal.
Plagiarism, including the unattributed use of another person’s ideas, words, figures, maps, datasets, code, or other intellectual contributions, is unacceptable. The journal may use appropriate similarity-detection tools and editorial assessment procedures to identify potential plagiarism or inappropriate textual overlap.
Authors remain responsible for ensuring that all sources, datasets, software, maps, images, and other intellectual contributions used in their work are appropriately acknowledged.
Research Integrity
Authors are expected to report their research accurately and transparently. Fabrication, falsification, manipulation of data, inappropriate alteration of images or maps, selective reporting designed to misrepresent findings, and other forms of research misconduct are unacceptable.
For geospatial research, particular attention should be given to the integrity and provenance of spatial datasets, coordinate information, imagery, maps, analytical procedures, algorithms, and computational outputs.
Authorship and Contributions
Authorship should be based on meaningful scholarly contributions to the research and manuscript.
All listed authors should have made an appropriate contribution, approved the final manuscript, and accepted responsibility for the integrity of the work. Individuals who have not made a substantive contribution should not be listed as authors.
The corresponding author is responsible for communication with the journal and should ensure that all authors have approved the submission.
Conflicts of Interest
Authors, editors, and reviewers should disclose any financial, professional, institutional, personal, or other interests that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the research, review, or editorial decision.
The existence of a conflict does not necessarily prevent publication or participation in peer review, but relevant conflicts should be transparently disclosed.
Ethical Approval and Human Participants
Where research involves human participants, personal information, health information, sensitive location data, or other ethically sensitive material, authors must comply with applicable ethical standards and institutional or regulatory requirements.
Where appropriate, manuscripts should provide information regarding ethical approval, informed consent, privacy protection, and data protection procedures.
Geospatial Privacy and Responsible Data Use
IJGSTA recognizes that geospatial information can create particular privacy and security risks. Authors must take appropriate measures when working with personally identifiable location information, household-level data, health-related spatial information, indigenous or community data, or other sensitive geographic information.
Authors should avoid unnecessary disclosure of information that could identify individuals, households, vulnerable communities, or sensitive locations.
Where datasets are subject to legal, licensing, confidentiality, cultural, or security restrictions, authors should respect those restrictions and clearly communicate relevant limitations on data access.
Data and Reproducibility
Authors are encouraged to provide sufficient information about datasets, analytical procedures, software, algorithms, models, and computational workflows to enable appropriate evaluation and, where feasible, reproduction of the research.
Data should not be fabricated, manipulated, or misrepresented. Where data cannot be publicly shared because of privacy, licensing, confidentiality, security, or other legitimate restrictions, authors should clearly state the reason.
Artificial Intelligence and AI-Assisted Tools
IJGSTA recognizes the growing use of artificial intelligence and AI-assisted tools in research and scholarly publishing.
AI tools may assist with appropriate aspects of research or manuscript preparation, but they cannot assume authorship or responsibility for the integrity of a scholarly work.
Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, interpretation, citations, methodology, and final content of their manuscripts. Authors should verify AI-assisted content carefully, particularly references, factual claims, statistical interpretations, geospatial analyses, and technical information.
Where substantive use of AI-assisted tools is made in preparing or developing a manuscript, authors should disclose such use in accordance with the journal’s applicable policy.
Duplicate and Redundant Publication
Authors should not submit the same manuscript to multiple journals simultaneously.
The journal also discourages redundant publication in which substantially overlapping research is divided into multiple publications without a legitimate scholarly reason or without appropriate disclosure.
Where related publications exist, authors should disclose them to the editor and clearly distinguish the submitted work from previously published research.
Image, Map and Data Integrity
Figures, maps, satellite imagery, photographs, charts, and other visual materials must not be manipulated in a manner that misrepresents the underlying evidence.
Necessary processing of geospatial imagery or visual data should be appropriately described where it may affect interpretation.
Authors must have the necessary rights, permissions, or licences to use copyrighted maps, datasets, imagery, photographs, software outputs, and other third-party materials.
Peer-Review Ethics
Reviewers are expected to treat submitted manuscripts as confidential documents and must not use unpublished information for personal advantage.
Reviewers should provide objective, constructive, and evidence-based assessments and should disclose potential conflicts of interest.
Reviewers should not attempt to appropriate authors’ ideas, methods, datasets, or findings.
Editorial Independence
Editorial decisions should be based primarily on the scholarly quality, originality, relevance, methodological soundness, and contribution of a manuscript.
Editorial decisions should not be influenced by an author’s nationality, gender, institutional affiliation, ethnicity, political views, personal relationships, financial status, or other irrelevant characteristics.
Corrections and Retractions
The journal recognizes its responsibility to maintain the accuracy of the scholarly record.
Where significant errors are identified after publication, the journal may publish an appropriate correction, clarification, expression of concern, or retraction depending on the nature and seriousness of the issue.
Authors are encouraged to notify the journal promptly if they discover a significant error in their published work.
Complaints and Allegations of Misconduct
Concerns regarding plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, authorship disputes, duplicate publication, unethical research, conflicts of interest, or other publication-ethics issues may be reported to the editorial office.
The journal will assess such concerns fairly and confidentially and may request relevant evidence or explanations from the parties involved.
Where appropriate, the journal may follow established scholarly publication-ethics principles and applicable institutional procedures when investigating allegations of misconduct.
Commitment to Responsible Scholarly Communication
IJGSTA is committed to protecting the integrity of the scholarly record while encouraging innovation in geospatial science and technology.
The journal recognizes that emerging technologies—including artificial intelligence, automated mapping, geospatial big data, digital twins, remote sensing, and location-based systems—create both new opportunities and new ethical responsibilities.
Accordingly, IJGSTA seeks to promote research that is not only technically innovative but also scientifically responsible, ethically conducted, transparent, reproducible, and respectful of individuals, communities, data rights, privacy, and the broader public interest.
Author Guidelines
Authors submitting manuscripts to the International Journal of Geospatial Science, Technology and Applications should ensure that their submissions are original, clearly written, appropriately referenced, ethically conducted where applicable, and relevant to the scope of the journal.
Manuscript originality
Manuscripts must represent original scholarly work and must not have been published previously in substantially the same form or be simultaneously under consideration by another journal.
Manuscript preparation
Manuscripts should be prepared in a clear and professional format and should follow the structure appropriate to the type of article being submitted. Authors should ensure that the manuscript is complete and that tables, figures, maps, references, supplementary materials, datasets, and other supporting information are clearly identified.
Research reporting
Authors should provide sufficient methodological information to allow readers to understand how the study was conducted and, where appropriate, to facilitate replication or independent evaluation.
Geospatial research should provide sufficient information concerning relevant spatial methods, datasets, geographic coverage, sampling procedures, coordinate reference systems, spatial resolution, analytical procedures, software, algorithms, modelling approaches, and validation procedures where applicable.
Geospatial data and computational transparency
Where appropriate and ethically permissible, authors are encouraged to provide information concerning:
- Data sources
- Data acquisition procedures
- Geographic coverage
- Spatial and temporal resolution
- Coordinate reference systems
- Data preparation
- Spatial analysis procedures
- Algorithms
- Software and software versions
- Model specifications
- Validation procedures
- Accuracy assessment
- Uncertainty assessment
- Code and computational environments
Where data, code, maps, or other geospatial materials cannot be publicly shared because of privacy, confidentiality, licensing, security, intellectual-property, or other legitimate restrictions, authors should clearly state the applicable limitations.
Maps and spatial representations
Authors should ensure that maps and spatial representations are technically accurate, appropriately labelled, properly referenced, and suitable for scholarly publication.
Where applicable, authors should clearly identify:
- Map projection
- Coordinate reference system
- Scale
- Data sources
- Geographic boundaries
- Spatial resolution
- Relevant legends and symbology
Artificial intelligence and AI-assisted tools
Authors who use artificial intelligence or AI-assisted tools in preparing their manuscripts or conducting research remain fully responsible for the submitted work.
AI-assisted tools should not replace appropriate scholarly judgment, verification, methodological rigor, geospatial validation, or author responsibility.
Authors should carefully review and verify AI-assisted content for accuracy, completeness, originality, inappropriate attribution, fabricated references, methodological errors, and other potential problems.
Where substantive AI assistance is used in manuscript preparation or research, authors should disclose such use in accordance with the journal’s requirements.
Ethical considerations
Authors must report relevant ethical approvals, informed consent procedures, data protection measures, location-privacy safeguards, or other ethical protections where applicable.
Authorship
All listed authors should have made appropriate contributions to the work and should have approved the final manuscript. The corresponding author is responsible for communication with the journal and should ensure that all authors are aware of and agree to the submission.
Funding and conflicts of interest
Relevant funding sources and conflicts of interest should be disclosed.
References
Authors should ensure that all sources cited in the manuscript are appropriately acknowledged and that the reference list accurately corresponds to the citations in the manuscript.
Authors should follow the referencing style specified by the journal at the time of submission.
Editorial and peer-review process
Submission does not constitute acceptance or guarantee publication. Manuscripts may undergo editorial assessment and, where appropriate, external peer review before a final editorial decision is made.
Contact the Journal
For enquiries concerning the journal, its publications, or editorial matters, please contact the journal editorial office.