Author Guidelines

Peer Review

All manuscripts undergo editorial assessment followed, where appropriate, by independent peer review. The journals operate a double-anonymous peer-review model, under which the identities of reviewers and authors are not normally disclosed. Authors who have posted a preprint should be aware that this may reveal their identity to reviewers.

Editors may reject manuscripts without external review where they fall outside the scope of the journal, lack sufficient originality or scientific contribution, fail to meet basic methodological standards, or do not satisfy the journal's ethical and submission requirements. Initial editorial decisions are normally made within 2 weeks of submission, and first peer-review decisions within 6 weeks.

Open Access

SpatioVerge journals are committed to making published research widely accessible. All articles published in SpatioVerge journals are made available online to readers without subscription barriers. Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0), as described in Section 5.

Article-Processing Charges and Waivers

Authors of accepted articles are charged an article-processing charge (APC) of $250. No fees are charged for submission or peer review. Full or partial waivers are available to authors from low- and lower-middle-income countries and to authors without access to research funding. Waiver requests should be made at submission and do not influence editorial decisions.

Commitment to Research Integrity

SpatioVerge Press is committed to maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record. Allegations involving plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, duplicate publication, authorship disputes, citation manipulation, undisclosed conflicts of interest or other forms of publication misconduct will be investigated in accordance with recognised principles of publication ethics, including the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

The journals may correct, withdraw or retract published material where necessary to protect the integrity of the scholarly record.

SpatioVerge Press welcomes research that advances geospatial science, Earth observation, spatial intelligence, GeoAI, GIS, remote sensing, environmental change analysis, and related interdisciplinary fields. Authors should use this guidance to demonstrate not only that a study is technically sound, but also that its spatial context, data, analytical workflow, validation, uncertainty, and reproducibility are sufficiently transparent for other researchers to understand and evaluate.

2.1 Before You Submit

Before submission, authors should confirm that the manuscript: fits the scope of the target journal; presents an original contribution; is not under consideration elsewhere; has appropriate authorship and approval from all authors; reports relevant ethical approvals and permits; discloses funding and conflicts of interest; cites and obtains permission for reused material where required; provides sufficient information to understand the geospatial or computational workflow; and discloses substantive use of AI-assisted technologies in accordance with Section 4.

2.2 Research Contribution and Geospatial Significance

Manuscripts should clearly state the scientific, methodological, applied, or conceptual contribution. For geospatial studies, authors should explain why spatial information, spatial relationships, Earth observation, GIS, or GeoAI is necessary to address the research question. Simply applying a familiar GIS, remote-sensing, or machine-learning technique to a new location is not, by itself, sufficient evidence of novelty.

2.3 Recommended Research Workflow

Where appropriate, manuscripts should make the analytical workflow explicit, from research question and spatial conceptualisation through data acquisition, preprocessing, analysis or modelling, validation, uncertainty assessment, interpretation, and reproducibility. Workflow diagrams are encouraged for complex geospatial and GeoAI studies.

2.4 Spatial Context and Study Area

Authors should describe the study area in a way that permits spatial interpretation and, where appropriate, replication. Report relevant geographic boundaries, coordinates or administrative units, environmental and socio-economic context, spatial extent, study period, and reasons for selecting the study area. Maps should use appropriate scale, projection, coordinate reference system, legend, north arrow where useful, and other essential cartographic information.

2.5 Earth Observation and Remote Sensing Data

For satellite, airborne, UAV, radar, optical, thermal, LiDAR, or other Earth observation data, authors should identify the data source or mission, product or processing level, spatial and temporal resolution, acquisition period, relevant bands or variables, cloud or quality screening, preprocessing, compositing or mosaicking, and any ancillary datasets. Where derived products are used, authors should identify their provenance and processing history.

2.6 GIS and Spatial Analysis

GIS-based studies should describe the spatial operations and analytical decisions that materially affect results. Authors should report coordinate reference systems, spatial units, geoprocessing procedures, spatial joins or overlays, distance or proximity methods, interpolation procedures, classification rules, spatial aggregation, resampling, zonal analysis, and other relevant transformations. Important software and version information should be provided where it affects reproducibility.

2.7 GeoAI, Machine Learning and Deep Learning

GeoAI and machine-learning studies should provide sufficient detail to evaluate both the geospatial problem and the computational model. Report model type, input features or predictors, training and testing strategy, sampling design, class definitions, preprocessing, hyperparameters or important configuration choices, software or framework where relevant, and procedures for avoiding data leakage. For deep-learning studies, describe the architecture, training strategy, optimisation, stopping criteria, augmentation, where used, and the computational environment, where these materially affect reproducibility.

Authors should distinguish methodological novelty from the routine use of an established algorithm. Where spatial structure, spatial autocorrelation, geographic transferability, spatial sampling, or spatial domain shift can influence model performance, these issues should be addressed explicitly.

2.8 Accuracy, Validation and Uncertainty

Geospatial products and models should be validated using methods appropriate to the research question and data structure. Classification studies should report suitable accuracy measures and explain the reference or validation data. Regression and prediction studies should report appropriate error or performance measures. Authors should consider spatial dependence, sampling bias, positional uncertainty, classification uncertainty, model uncertainty, and uncertainty introduced through preprocessing or derived datasets. Validation procedures should be sufficiently transparent to allow readers to assess their reliability.

2.9 Spatial Data, Reproducibility and Computational Transparency

Authors should identify datasets, data providers, access conditions, software, major processing steps, analytical parameters, and code or computational resources where feasible. When data or code cannot be openly shared due to licensing, privacy, security, community, conservation, or other legitimate restrictions, authors should explain the limitation and provide the most useful alternative description or access pathway available.

2.10 Maps, Figures and Spatial Visualisation

Maps and spatial figures should communicate results accurately and clearly. Authors should use appropriate projections, scales, classification methods, legends, units, labels, symbology, and colour choices. Figures should not imply a level of spatial precision unsupported by the data. Where map interpretation could be affected by generalisation, resolution, positional accuracy, or classification uncertainty, this should be acknowledged.

2.11 Environmental, Community and Sensitive Geospatial Data

Authors should exercise particular care when publishing locations or spatial datasets involving vulnerable communities, Indigenous peoples, endangered species, sensitive habitats, archaeological sites, private property, or other information whose disclosure could cause harm. Requirements for generalising, aggregating or masking sensitive locations, and for research involving Indigenous and community data, are set out in Section 6.1.

2.12 Statistical and Spatial Modelling

Authors should select statistical and spatial modelling approaches appropriate to the research design, data structure, scale, and underlying assumptions. Report model specification, variables, spatial or temporal units, assumptions, diagnostics, parameter estimation, uncertainty, and sensitivity analysis where relevant. Where spatial autocorrelation, non-stationarity, scale effects, or the modifiable areal unit problem may influence inference, authors should explain how these issues were assessed or addressed.

2.13 Artificial Intelligence and GeoAI Transparency

Use of artificial intelligence in research and manuscript preparation should be reported in accordance with Section 4. For GeoAI applications, authors should distinguish AI used as a research method from AI used as a supporting tool during manuscript preparation. Where AI materially contributes to data processing, feature generation, classification, prediction, interpretation, coding, or other stages of research, the role of the technology should be sufficiently described for readers to evaluate its contributions and limitations.

2.14 Manuscript Types

SpatioVerge Press considers Research Articles, Review Articles, Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses, Short Communications, Methods and Technical Articles, Data Articles, and Perspectives and Commentaries. Authors should select the manuscript type that best reflects the contribution and ensure that the manuscript structure and reporting are appropriate to that type.

2.15 Core Manuscript Components

Unless the manuscript type requires otherwise, submissions should include: Title; Author names and affiliations; Corresponding author; Abstract; Keywords; Introduction; Materials and Methods or Methodology; Results; Discussion; Conclusions; Data Availability; Funding; Conflict of Interest; Author Contributions; Acknowledgements; AI declaration where applicable; and References.

2.16 Title, Abstract and Keywords

Titles should be concise, informative, and accurately reflect the study. Abstracts should state the research problem or objective, methods, principal results, and main conclusion. Where appropriate, the abstract should identify the spatial or environmental context and the principal data or analytical approach. Keywords should improve discoverability and reflect the topic, methods, data, geographic context (where applicable), and major concepts.

2.17 References and Scholarly Traceability

Authors should cite primary and authoritative sources for datasets, methods, algorithms, software, analytical frameworks, and substantive claims. References should be accurate, complete, and traceable. Dataset and software citations should be included where they materially support the research.

2.18 Declarations

Authors should provide appropriate declarations concerning funding, conflicts of interest, author contributions, data availability, ethics or permits where applicable, and substantive AI use. These declarations should be consistent with the policies in Sections 3–6.

2.19 Submission, Peer Review and Revision

Manuscripts should be submitted through the journal's online submission system at https://spatioverge.com/jgaec/admin/login. Authors should ensure that files are complete and readable and that figures, tables, supplementary materials, datasets, and code are supplied or referenced as required. Peer review is conducted under the double-anonymous model described in Section 1. At least two independent reviewers normally assess each manuscript, and the handling editor makes the final decision. Authors responding to revision requests should address reviewer and editor comments clearly and identify substantive changes made to the manuscript.

2.20 Publication and the Scholarly Record

Following acceptance, authors should review proofs carefully and promptly. After publication, authors remain responsible for reporting material errors that could affect the interpretation or integrity of the scholarly record. Corrections, retractions, and Expressions of Concern are handled in accordance with Section 6.5.

SpatioVerge journals are committed to maintaining high standards of originality and research integrity. Authors are responsible for ensuring that submitted manuscripts represent their original work and that the contributions of other researchers are appropriately acknowledged.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism includes presenting another person's words, ideas, data, figures, tables, results, code or other intellectual contributions as one's own without appropriate acknowledgement. This may include:

• direct copying without quotation or attribution;

• substantial unattributed paraphrasing;

• appropriation of ideas or intellectual contributions;

• reuse of figures, tables, images or datasets without appropriate acknowledgement or permission;

• copying from previously published work by the same authors without appropriate disclosure.

Text Similarity Screening

Submitted manuscripts may be screened using plagiarism or text-similarity detection software. However, a similarity report is used as an editorial screening tool and does not, by itself, establish plagiarism. Editors may examine the nature, location and source of overlapping material before making a decision. Common phrases, technical terminology, references, methodological descriptions and appropriately quoted material may contribute to similarity scores without constituting plagiarism.

Self-Plagiarism and Text Recycling

Authors should avoid unnecessary duplication of text from their own previously published work. Where previously published material is essential to the new article, it must be appropriately cited, and its reuse must comply with copyright requirements. Substantial duplication of previously published research may result in rejection, correction or retraction depending on when the issue is identified and its significance.

Duplicate and Redundant Publication

A manuscript should not be submitted simultaneously to more than one journal. Authors should not publish substantially the same research in multiple journals without a legitimate scholarly reason and appropriate disclosure. If a manuscript has previously appeared as a conference paper, preprint, thesis or other form of dissemination, authors must disclose this information and clearly explain the relationship between the previous version and the submitted manuscript.

Fabrication, Falsification and Other Misconduct

SpatioVerge journals do not tolerate:

• fabrication of data or results;

• falsification or manipulation of data;

• manipulation of images or figures that misrepresent research findings;

• fabrication or manipulation of references;

• fraudulent authorship or reviewer identities;

• manipulation of the peer-review or publication process;

• submission or publication of paper-mill manuscripts;

• fraudulent data or metadata;

• misrepresentation of research methods or findings;

• misuse of confidential peer-review information;

• unethical or unauthorised use of research data.

Action in Cases of Suspected Misconduct

Where plagiarism or other forms of publication misconduct are suspected, the journal may:

• request an explanation from the authors;

• request original data or supporting documentation;

• consult editors, reviewers or institutional authorities where appropriate;

• reject the manuscript;

• issue a correction;

• retract a published article;

• publish an Expression of Concern; or

• take other appropriate action to protect the integrity of the scholarly record.

Serious cases may be referred to the author's institution or the relevant research integrity body. The journals will handle allegations fairly and confidentially. They will provide authors with an opportunity to respond before a final editorial determination is made, except where immediate action is necessary to protect the integrity of the publication record.

SpatioVerge journals recognise that generative artificial intelligence and AI-assisted technologies are increasingly used in research, data analysis, writing, language improvement, coding, visualisation, and other scholarly activities. The journals permit the responsible use of AI tools, provided that such use does not compromise research integrity, originality, confidentiality, transparency, or authors' accountability.

Permitted Uses

Authors may use AI-assisted technologies for appropriate purposes, such as:

• improving grammar, spelling and readability;

• language translation;

• organising ideas or text;

• assisting with coding or programming;

• exploring research questions;

• assisting with literature discovery;

• supporting data analysis where the use is scientifically appropriate;

• assisting with non-substantive formatting or presentation.

Authors remain responsible for checking all AI-generated content.

Human Responsibility

AI tools cannot replace the authors' intellectual contribution, scientific judgment or responsibility. Authors must independently verify:

• factual claims;

• calculations;

• interpretations;

• citations and references;

• methodological descriptions;

• statistical outputs;

• data and results;

• statements generated or modified by AI.

AI systems may generate incorrect, biased or fabricated information, including non-existent references. Authors are responsible for identifying and correcting such errors.

Disclosure of AI Use

Where generative AI or AI-assisted technology has made a substantive contribution to manuscript preparation, authors must disclose its use. The disclosure should identify:

• the AI tool or service used;

• the purpose for which it was used; and

• the extent of human review and verification.

The declaration should normally appear immediately before the References.

Recommended wording:

Declaration of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies

During the preparation of this work, the authors used [NAME OF TOOL/SERVICE] to [DESCRIBE PURPOSE]. Following its use, the authors reviewed and edited the content as necessary and take full responsibility for the accuracy, integrity and originality of the published work.

Routine spelling, grammar and punctuation checking does not normally require a declaration.

AI and Authorship

AI tools, including ChatGPT and other generative AI systems, cannot be listed as authors or co-authors. Authorship requires responsibility for the research, approval of the final manuscript and accountability for the integrity of the work. Human authors must undertake these responsibilities.

AI in Research

Where AI has been used as part of the research methodology—for example, machine learning, deep learning, automated classification, image generation, natural language processing, or other computational analyses—its use must be appropriately described in the Methods section. Authors should provide sufficient information about the AI-based method, model, training data, parameters, validation and evaluation procedures to permit meaningful scientific assessment.

AI-Generated Images and Figures

Authors must not use AI-generated or AI-altered images in a manner that misrepresents scientific evidence or creates fabricated research results. Where AI is used to generate or substantially alter scientific visual material, authors must disclose the use and ensure that such use is consistent with the journal's requirements concerning originality, copyright and research integrity.

Confidentiality

Authors must exercise caution when submitting unpublished manuscripts, confidential research data, personal information or proprietary material to external AI systems. Authors are responsible for ensuring that the terms and conditions of the AI service do not compromise confidentiality, intellectual property or privacy.

AI Use by Reviewers and Editors

Reviewers and editors must protect the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts. They should not upload confidential manuscripts, reviewer reports or other unpublished material into public generative AI systems. AI tools may be used only in limited supportive capacities, such as improving the language of a reviewer's or editor's own comments without entering manuscript content, provided that confidentiality, editorial independence and human oversight are strictly maintained. AI must not be used to assess the scientific merit of a manuscript, to write review reports, or to make editorial decisions.

SpatioVerge Press respects the intellectual property rights of authors and is committed to ensuring that copyright arrangements are transparent and fair.

Author Ownership

Unless otherwise stated in the publishing agreement, authors retain copyright in their published work. By submitting a manuscript, authors grant SpatioVerge Press the necessary rights to evaluate the manuscript. Upon acceptance, through the publishing agreement, authors grant SpatioVerge Press the rights to publish, reproduce, distribute, preserve and make the article publicly available in the journal and associated scholarly platforms.

The publishing licence does not transfer ownership of the underlying research, research data, inventions, patents or other intellectual property belonging to the authors or their institutions.

Open-Access Licence

All articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0), unless a different licence is agreed in the publishing agreement.

Under CC BY, readers may share and adapt the published work, including for commercial purposes, provided appropriate credit is given to the authors and the original publication. The exact licence applicable to an article will be clearly displayed on the article's webpage and within the published article.

Authors' Rights

Subject to the applicable licence and publishing agreement, authors retain the right to:

• use their article for teaching and research;

• include the article in a thesis or dissertation;

• share the published article through appropriate academic and institutional channels;

• reuse portions of their work in subsequent scholarly publications;

• deposit the article in institutional or subject repositories where permitted;

• retain ownership of underlying research data and intellectual property.

Third-Party Material

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyrighted material belonging to third parties where permission is required. This includes, but is not limited to:

• photographs;

• maps;

• figures;

• charts;

• tables;

• substantial text extracts;

• previously published illustrations;

• proprietary datasets or other protected material.

Appropriate acknowledgement must accompany third-party material even where permission is not legally required. The article's CC BY licence may not cover third-party material reproduced with permission; such material should be clearly identified, and its credit line should state any reuse restrictions.

Copyright Infringement

Authors must ensure that their manuscripts do not infringe the copyright, privacy, intellectual property or other rights of third parties. Allegations of copyright infringement will be investigated promptly. Where an infringement is established, the journal may remove or replace the affected material, publish a correction, issue a retraction or take other appropriate action.

Previously Published Material

Authors must disclose material that has appeared previously in another publication, including conference papers, reports, book chapters, preprints or other publicly available versions where relevant. Reuse of previously published material must comply with the copyright and licensing conditions applicable to the original publication.

Licensing and Publication Agreement

Before publication, the corresponding author or designated author may be required to complete a publishing or licensing agreement confirming the authors' rights and granting SpatioVerge Press the rights necessary to publish and disseminate the article.

The applicable agreement will specify:

• copyright ownership;

• publishing rights;

• end-user licence;

• author reuse rights;

• third-party material responsibilities;

• repository and sharing rights.

Research Data and Intellectual Property

Copyright in the article does not automatically transfer ownership of the underlying research data, software, algorithms, databases, inventions, patents or other intellectual property. Authors and their institutions remain responsible for determining ownership of such materials under applicable institutional, employment, funding and national requirements.

SpatioVerge journals are committed to maintaining the highest standards of research ethics, academic integrity, transparency and responsible scholarly communication. All authors, editors, reviewers and other contributors are expected to comply with the ethical principles outlined in this policy and with applicable institutional, national and international standards.

6.1 Research Ethics and Integrity

Authors are responsible for ensuring that their research has been conducted ethically and in accordance with all applicable laws, regulations, institutional requirements and professional standards.

Human Participants and Informed Consent

Research involving human participants must comply with relevant ethical standards and must receive approval from an appropriate institutional or independent ethics committee where required. Authors should state the name of the approving body and, where applicable, provide the ethics approval or reference number. Where research involves human participants, informed consent must be obtained before participation. Authors should explain how consent was obtained and should ensure that participants understand the purpose, procedures, potential risks and intended use of their data.

For research involving identifiable individuals, authors must protect participants' privacy and confidentiality. Identifying information, photographs or other potentially identifiable material should not be published without appropriate consent.

Animal Research

Research involving animals must comply with applicable institutional, national and international standards governing animal welfare and ethical treatment. Authors should identify the relevant approving institution or ethics committee and provide the approval or permit number where applicable. Authors should demonstrate that appropriate measures were taken to minimise animal suffering and unnecessary use of animals.

Sensitive Geographical Information

Authors working with geospatial information must consider the potential risks associated with publishing precise locations. Data that could expose individuals, households, vulnerable populations, archaeological sites, protected species, critical infrastructure or other sensitive locations should be appropriately anonymised, aggregated, generalised, or spatially obscured where necessary. The publication of precise coordinates should be justified when there is a legitimate scientific reason and should not pose avoidable risks to people, communities, ecosystems, cultural heritage, or protected resources.

Indigenous and Community Data

Research involving Indigenous peoples, traditional communities or community-generated knowledge must respect applicable legal, cultural and ethical requirements. Authors should obtain appropriate permissions and, where applicable, community consent before collecting, using or publishing such data. Authors should respect community rights over knowledge, cultural information, traditional ecological knowledge and other forms of community-held data. The source, permissions, and conditions governing the use of such information should be reported transparently.

Environmental Permits and Field Research

Research involving field activities, protected areas, wildlife, natural resources or environmentally sensitive locations must comply with relevant environmental legislation and permitting requirements. Where permits or permissions were required for fieldwork, authors should identify the issuing authority and provide relevant permit information where appropriate.

Responsible Use of Remotely Sensed and Geospatial Data

Remote sensing, GIS, artificial intelligence and geospatial technologies should be used responsibly. Authors must comply with applicable data licences, terms of use, privacy requirements, and restrictions associated with satellite imagery, aerial imagery, uncrewed aerial vehicles, volunteered geographic information, mobile location data, and other geospatial datasets. Authors must not knowingly use geospatial technologies to facilitate unlawful surveillance, discrimination, harassment, harm to individuals or communities, or other unethical activities.

6.2 Authorship and Contributor Roles

SpatioVerge journals adopt a contribution-based approach to authorship. Authorship should reflect substantial intellectual or practical contributions to the research and manuscript and should not be based solely on seniority, institutional position, funding status or participation in administrative activities.

The journals encourage authors to provide a transparent contributor statement using CRediT-style contributor roles, including:

• Conceptualization

• Methodology

• Software

• Validation

• Formal analysis

• Investigation

• Resources

• Data curation

• Writing – original draft

• Writing – review and editing

• Visualization

• Supervision

• Project administration

• Funding acquisition

All listed authors should have made a meaningful contribution to the work, participated in reviewing or approving the final manuscript, and accepted responsibility for their contribution.

Individuals who contributed to the work but do not meet the criteria for authorship should be appropriately acknowledged, with their permission. Changes to authorship after submission should be requested with the agreement of all affected authors and may require editorial approval.

6.3 Conflict of Interest

Authors, editors and reviewers must disclose any financial, professional, institutional, personal or other relationships that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the research, peer-review process or editorial decision. Potential conflicts may include:

• employment or consultancy relationships;

• research funding;

• financial interests;

• personal or professional relationships;

• institutional affiliations;

• intellectual property interests;

• competing research interests; or

• other circumstances that could reasonably affect objectivity.

The existence of a declared conflict does not necessarily prevent publication or participation in peer review. The purpose of disclosure is to promote transparency and enable appropriate management of potential conflicts. Editors and reviewers must recuse themselves where a conflict could compromise impartiality.

6.4 Data Availability and Research Transparency

SpatioVerge journals encourage authors to make research data, code, models and other supporting materials available wherever ethically, legally and practically possible. Authors should include a Data Availability Statement in every research article.

One of the following approaches, or an appropriately adapted statement, should normally apply:

• Data publicly available: The datasets supporting the findings are deposited in a recognised public repository, with the relevant persistent identifier provided.

• Data available upon reasonable request: The data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request, subject to appropriate restrictions.

• Restricted data: The data cannot be publicly released because of privacy, ethical, licensing, security or other legal restrictions. The authors should explain the nature of the restriction where appropriate.

• Publicly available datasets: The research uses datasets already available from public sources, which must be properly identified and cited.

• New data generated by the study: The authors should indicate where the newly generated data or supporting materials can be accessed.

Authors must not claim that data are publicly available when they are not. For GIS, remote sensing and GeoAI research, authors should provide sufficient information to permit independent assessment and, where feasible, reproduction of the research, including relevant datasets, preprocessing procedures, algorithms, model parameters, software versions and code.

6.5 Corrections, Retractions and Expressions of Concern

SpatioVerge journals will correct the scholarly record when errors or integrity concerns are identified.

Correction: A correction may be issued where an error affects the published record but does not invalidate the principal findings or conclusions of the article.

Retraction: An article may be retracted where there is reliable evidence of serious error, fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, unethical research, manipulated peer review or other circumstances that substantially undermine the reliability or integrity of the published work.

Expression of Concern: An Expression of Concern may be published where credible concerns have arisen about an article, but the available evidence is insufficient to justify immediate correction or retraction, particularly while an investigation is ongoing. Corrections, retractions and Expressions of Concern will be clearly linked to the affected article and will preserve the integrity and transparency of the scholarly record.

6.6 Appeals and Complaints

Authors may appeal an editorial decision where they have reasonable grounds to believe that:

• a significant factual or procedural error occurred;

• the manuscript was evaluated outside the journal's stated scope;

• a reviewer had a demonstrable conflict of interest;

• relevant information was overlooked; or

• the decision was inconsistent with the journal's published editorial procedures.

Appeals must be evidence-based and should identify the specific grounds for reconsideration. Disagreement with an editorial decision, without substantive evidence of an error or procedural problem, is not normally sufficient grounds for an appeal. Appeals should be submitted in writing to the Editor-in-Chief within 30 days of the decision. Each appeal is assessed by an editor who was not involved in the original decision and who may seek additional expert advice. The journal aims to respond within 4 weeks, and the outcome of an appeal is final. Complaints concerning editorial conduct, publication ethics or procedural irregularities should be sent to info@spatioverge.com and will be investigated fairly and confidentially.

6.7 Reviewer Ethics and Responsibilities

Reviewers are expected to provide independent, objective, constructive and timely assessments.

Reviewers must:

• maintain the confidentiality of manuscripts and associated materials;

• disclose potential conflicts of interest;

• decline reviews where they cannot provide an impartial assessment;

• evaluate manuscripts objectively and respectfully;

• identify relevant methodological, ethical or scholarly concerns;

• avoid using unpublished information obtained through peer review for personal or professional advantage;

• identify suspected plagiarism or substantial overlap where appropriate;

• avoid inappropriate requests for citations intended primarily to increase citation counts;

• respect the journal's confidentiality requirements; and

• comply with applicable requirements concerning the use of artificial intelligence tools.

Reviewers should not upload confidential manuscripts or unpublished research materials to external AI systems where doing so would compromise confidentiality or intellectual property.

The journal may acknowledge reviewers for their contributions, subject to reviewer consent and the journal's confidentiality procedures.

6.8 Preprint Policy

SpatioVerge journals permit authors to share manuscripts as preprints before or during the journal submission process, provided that the preprint does not constitute formal publication of the same work under applicable scholarly standards. Authors should disclose any preprints during submission and provide the relevant repository information.

Once an article has been formally published, authors should, where appropriate, link the preprint to the final published version and clearly distinguish the peer-reviewed version of record from the earlier manuscript.