IJAGR at the International Medical Symposium Geography 2022 Edinburgh, Scotland

Donald Albert (co-Editor-in-Chief) from Sam Houston State University and Dhitinut Ratnapradipa (Associate Editor) from Creighton University participated in the 19th International Medical Symposium Geography (IMGS) from June 19-June 24, 2022, in Edinburgh, Scotland. The event operated out of the Royal College of Surgeons located in the Old Town of Edinburgh. This historic venue provided an appropriate setting to contemplate patterns of health and disease. Jamie Pearce and Niamh Shortt (University of Edinburgh) were co-Chairs of the IMGS 2022. The authors’ poster abstract was entitled, “The International Journal of Applied Geospatial Research: Temporal Metrics and Coverage of Medical Geography, 2010-2021.”


Donald Patrick Albert
Dr. Donald Albert (co-Editor-in-Chief) from Sam Houston State University and Dr. Dhitinut Ratnapradipa (Associate Editor) from Creighton University participated in the 19 th International Medical Symposium Geography (IMGS) from June 19-June 24, 2022 in Edinburgh, Scotland.The event operated out of the Royal College of Surgeons located in the Old Town of Edinburgh (Figure 1).This historic venue provided an appropriate setting to contemplate patterns of health and disease.Drs.Jamie Pearce and Niamh Shortt (University of Edinburgh) were co-Chairs of the IMGS 2022.Our poster abstract was entitled, The International Journal of Applied Geospatial Research: Temporal Metrics andCoverage of Medical Geography, 2010-2021. Dr. Samuel Adu-Prah (co-Editor-in-Chief) assisted with the content and design of the abstract and poster; I greatly appreciate his contribution.Some three-hundred and fifty participants registered for this event, and according to the organizers, this was the largest symposium since its inception.I have reproduced the abstract and several figures from our poster, together with two photographs from the symposium.The objectives of this study are 1) to quantify IJAGR's medical geography coverage and 2) to appraise its contribution using standard metrics.After 12 volumes, 12 percent of IJAGR's articles were on medical and health geography topics.These studies employed a notable range of geospatial techniques and technologies to explore health and disease issues occurring within a diverse range of countries, including Columbia, Greece, India, Kenya, South Korea, United States, and Zimbabwe.Our goal is to encourage medical and health geographers to support IJAGR with submissions, manuscript evaluations, and citations as IJAGR continues into its second decade.IJAGR's timeframe from Submission to Acceptance is 14 -18 weeks and Acceptance to Publication is 36 -40 weeks.Our Acceptance Rate is 34%, however, this statistic includes submissions rejected at the initial evaluation stage.IJAGR is available as individual subscriptions, and via IGI's 110+ e-Journal Collection (11 academic areas) or Computer Science and IT Knowledge Solutions e-Journal Collection.(Source: IMGS 2022, Online Abstract Submission Entry).Figures 2-4 are from the original poster.These include two-word clouds and a mosaic.Figure 2 illustrates IJAGR's topical coverage and Figure 3 technologies and techniques coverage using keywords from the medical geography articles (n=29 or 12%) published from 2010-2021.Figure 4 is a mosaic of images extracted from our inventory of medical geography articles published during our timeframe (2010)(2011).The poster as shown at the symposium appears in the accompanying photograph (Figure 5).It is available on request in pdf format from Donald Patrick Albert at geo_dpa@shsu.edu.IMGS 2022 Edinburgh.I would like to thank those symposium participants that took time to view and comment on our poster.Finally, I appreciate the efforts of all symposium organizers for contributing to this successful event.The opportunities for networking with other scholars and forging friendships and acquaintances were priceless.
(Sam Houston State University), Samuel Adu-Prah (Sam Houston State University), and Dhitinut Ratnapradipa, Creighton University The International Journal of Applied Geospatial Research (IJAGR), an IGI Global publication, has been active since 2010.IGI Global monitors its peer-review process to assure ethical standards and maintains full membership with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).IJAGR's Co-Editors-in-Chief include Donald Patrick Albert and Samuel Adu-Prah (Sam Houston State University, USA).The Web of Science Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), SCOPUS, INSPEC and 10 other indices catalog IJAGR.The Journal highlights geographic information science and technologies (GIS&T) application domains that span the social and physical sciences.IJAGR has generated 12 volumes, 48 issues, and 239 research articles from 2010-2021.SCOPUS has ranked IJAGR in the 3 rd quartile six of ten years (2010-2020) in its Geography, Planning and Development category.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Panel indicating the location of the International Medical Geography Symposium 2022 (Photo Source: Author)

Figure 4 .
Figure 4. Mosaic of selected techniques employed in IJAGR's medical geography articles from 2010 to 2021.The mosaic images include authors' last names and publication date.

Figure 5 .
Figure 5.Dr. Vincent Kuuire, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto, and Dr. Elijah Bisung, School of Kinesiology of Health Studies, Queen's University, discuss IJAGR's citation counts (Photo Source: Author) Donald Patrick Albert is a professor of Geography in the Department of Environmental and Geosciences, SamHouston State University, Huntsville, Texas.He earned geography degrees from Salem State College (B.S.), Appalachian State University (M.A.), and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Ph.D.).He is the founder and co-Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Applied Geospatial Research published by IGI-Global.Professor's Albert's research has ranged from medical geography, applied geography, and geography education.His most recent interest has jettisoned him into the Bounty/Pitcairn Island saga.He established the Pitcairn Islands Research Station as a dissemination outlet for his publications <https://shsu-ir.tdl.org/handle/20.500.11875/3187>.