The Academy of Finland recently published the 
yearly review “The state of scientific research in 
Finland 2012”. In the section related to geography, 
the Geographical Society of Finland was men-
tioned twice. The review stated that the Society 
does not dynamically support the development of 
geography in Finland, and that the Finnish geo-
graphical journals, published by the Society, are 
not indexed in the Web of Science.

Geography is a traditional field of science both 
internationally and in Finland. The Society and its 
journals, Fennia and Terra, as well as the National 
Atlas of Finland, have more than a century long 
history in disseminating and communicating geo-
graphical knowledge and expertise. The role of 
scientific societies has varied through times and is 
currently quite marginal. 

As the president of the Geographical Society of 
Finland, I have been able to collect different views 
and wishes from geographers working in Finland. 
There seems to be a genuine need to strengthen 
the role of the Society as a collective voice of ge-
ographers promoting geographical research and 
education in Finland, and making geographical 
expertise visible in the society.

Two main processes where the Society could 
take a stronger role to promote geography are the 
structural reform of universities and the scientific 
competition and ranking.

The current phrasing of questions related to the 
multitude of global to local challenges asks for an 
integrated and multidimensional approach recog-
nising scales and interactions between scales. The 
current academic research and education seem 
not to meet these societal needs and are thus 
urged to change. In this currently on-going re-
form, each university needs to define distinctive 
research profiles with a few sharp research fronts. 
In education thematically wider lower degrees are 
favoured and interdisciplinary understanding is 
promoted. Universities are given more flexibility 
to reorganize and mix traditional scientific fields 
to fulfil these aims. In many occasions, it seems 
that geography is invented again in the mush-
rooming of multidisciplinary study modules and 
research projects. At the same time, there are 

Geography without a prefix

pressures to reduce geography into geo-, social or 
administrative sciences, in which case intrinsic 
components of the potential of our discipline are 
at risk.

Along with the structural modernisation, the 
academic world is internalising the ideal of com-
petitiveness. Competition as such may bring out 
new innovations and ideas and rationalise the 
work done in scientific institutions. However, 
competition can be harmful if favouring econo-
mies of scale over viable and dynamic develop-
ment of science and compromising academic free-
dom and integrity. In the scientific community, 
competition is culminated in the ranking of jour-
nals, articles and scientists mainly mastered by the 
Thompson Reuters ISI Web of Knowledge. In Fin-
land, we also have a national ranking system, the 
Publication Forum Project established by the Fed-
eration of Finnish Learned Societies.

Finnish geographical journals have struggled in 
this competition in spite of their established status 
in geographical publishing. To be indexed in the 
web of knowledge or to get into a higher level in 
the publication forum, journals need to publish 
top-quality research papers with high number of 
citations. To scientists and their institutions, it is 
more beneficial to publish papers in leading jour-
nals. Therefore, it is challenging to draw submis-
sions to journals with lower ranking. The situation 
with Fennia and Terra resembles a classic egg-hen 
cycle which may have either negative or positive 
trend. Our journals need more submissions to 
feed a positive spiral: increased number of sub-
missions – top-quality articles – more readers and 
citations – higher ranking. The editors and pub-
lisher are actively seeking for potential solutions 
to ensure the positive development. Several pos-
sibilities were explored in the Finnish Geography 
Days in October 2012: joining an international 
commercial or OAJ publisher, tightening Nordic 
collaboration, merging of the two Finnish jour-
nals, or changing or clarifying the scope and roles 
of the journals. This multi-voiced discussion is 
continuing.

To change the two trends – disintegration or 
even disappearance of geography as a discipline, 

URN:NBN:fi:tsv-oa7374
DOI: 10.11143/7374



and impoverishment of the geographical publish-
ing, we need to join together to define common 
goals and to work in cooperation to achieve that 
goal. The Society is us, and the direction of the 
change needs to be decided collectively. The ac-
tions call for dialogue, ownership, commitment 
and collaboration.

More information about the visions for the future 
communication and publishing strategy of the Ge-
ographical Society of Finland at www.geography.fi. 

Sanna Mäki, President of the Geographical Society 
of Finland
Geography lecturer, Department of Geography 
and Geology, University of Turku