Purposes and commitments

Since its foundation in 1966, the aims of Finisterra have been the dissemination of science and the diffusion of new avenues of research in Geography, guiding a path that has contributed to the growing affirmation and recognition, not only of the Centre of Geographical Studies, its publishing entity, but also, in a broader sense, the work of geographers and other specialists working in this area of knowledge. It is a journey that is engraved on pages, materializing and documenting what the efforts of discovery, reflection, questioning and innovation have been in the fields of study of Geography and Territory, bequeathing us knowledge, memory, and identification. Finisterra is, unquestionably, one of the fundamental and symbolic references for all those who, in Portugal, but not only, are interested in the study and understanding of geographic phenomena and their dynamics. As a periodical publication of a scientific nature, Finisterra has, therefore, an inestimable value and meaning for a vast community of authors and readers, constituting elements of a successful editorial heritage that the successive Editors in Chief of the journal produced and cemented.

Aware of what has already been exposed, a new executive team of Finisterra assumes functions for a three-year term. Essentially, the new editorial team proposes to carry out a project in which it intends to combine, without contradictions, continuity, and elements of renovation. First of all, the desire to continue the encouraging trends regarding the internationalization, accessibility and visibility of the journal is assumed. On the other hand, Finisterra’s editorial executive committee was renewed, integrating collaborators who already have extensive experience in scientific review and editing tasks, including at Finisterra, and will seek to respond efficiently to the different challenges that arise in the context of the journal. The current moment is very demanding and challenging for the direction of Finisterra, representing a “heritage of great responsibility”, as Margarida Queirós (Queirós, 2021), the previous director, said in her reflections on the last six years of the journal. In a highly competitive environment such as the edition of scientific productions, Finisterra’s previous directors were able to expand the flow of published texts (articles and numbers edited annually) and to make the journal more international, either considering the growing presence of foreign authors in the papers or bearing in mind the metrics adopted in indexing databases. The growing visibility and impact of the journal in the community of geographers should also be highlighted, stimulated, in part, by the success of initiatives such as the assiduous presence on social networks, the organization of training actions, the attribution of editorial prizes or the organization of the Annual Lecture. The preparation of these actions and events, in coordination with the Centre of Geographical Studies, will continue to deserve all the care and commitment of Finisterra’s direction.

Finisterra remains open to the world of research to disseminate knowledge and advances in science around the major issues and challenging problems that the environment, society, and territory currently face. The attractiveness of the journal for research of excellence imposes on Finisterra’s editors the duty of scrupulous supervision of all evaluation and review processes of submitted manuscripts, demanding, with assertiveness and transparency, the application of rigorous quality criteria in the verification of all the materials until their publication, either in digital or paper format. This responsibility, essential to renew the trust and preference of authors and readers, is assumed by the new editorial team, and is also a determining condition to ensure that Finisterra vigorously pursues its editorial history, revealing the new paths of geographical research.

Lisbon, April 2022

Marcelo Fragoso