About the Journal

AIMS AND SCOPE

Since 1982, Polar Research has been the international, peer-reviewed journal of the Norwegian Polar Institute, Norway's central institution for research, environmental monitoring and mapping of the polar regions. Aiming to promote the exchange of scientific knowledge about the Arctic and Antarctic across disciplinary boundaries, Polar Research serves an international community of researchers and managers. As an open-access journal, Polar Research makes its contents freely available to the general public.

Original primary research papers comprise the mainstay of Polar Research. Review articles, brief research notes, letters to the editor and book reviews are also included. Special issues are published from time to time.

The scope of Polar Research encompasses research in all scientific disciplines relevant to the polar regions. These include, but are not limited to, the subfields of biology, ecology, geology, oceanography, glaciology and atmospheric science. Submissions from the social sciences and those focusing on polar management and policy issues are welcome. Contributions about Antarctica are particularly encouraged.

PEER REVIEW PROCESS

Submissions are preliminarily examined by one or more members of the Editorial Board and are run through a plagiarism detection software programme. If a submission is not found to be appropriate for full peer review, the authors are notified. Submissions deemed suitable for full review are assigned to a Subject Editor, who has the paper examined by (usually) two peer referees. When it proves difficult to find a second reviewer for a paper, an editorial decision may be based on one reviewer's report in combination with the opinion of the Subject Editor.

Polar Research has a single-blind review process, that is, reviewers are anonymous whereas authors are known to reviewers. Reviewers who wish to make their identities known to authors may do so; they are asked to make this wish explicit to the Chief Editor.

While the editors recognize the theoretical merits of double-blind review, studies indicate that reviewers often guess the identities of authors even when the authors' names and affiliations are removed from their submissions. Double-blind review may therefore give authors a “false sense of security”. The amount of work required to thoroughly expunge identifying clues from a submission – including removing names of laboratories and research groups wherever they appear in the body of the paper, removing discussion of preceding studies carried out by the authors on the same topic, blocking out individuals and institutions mentioned in the acknowledgements, eradicating references to unpublished theses and so on – is not feasible for this journal.

Please be advised that the Editorial Board will take up to two weeks to internally review submissions to determine whether they merit external review. Note also that although Polar Research editors request that reviewers deliver their reports within four weeks, the review process can take considerably longer. For a cogent explanation of why this occurs, read "It takes time” an editorial in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology (volume 15, p. 889, 2008).

PUBLICATION SCHEDULE

Articles are posted online in the annual volume immediately following final proofreading. The exceptions are articles destined for special numbered issues; publication of these articles may be delayed until they can all be published together at the same time. When posted online, articles are assigned a DOI number (Digital Object Identifier) whereby it becomes possible to search and cite them without delay.

OPEN ACCESS POLICY

Polar Research is published Open Access under a Creative Commons license. Authors retain full copyright. Polar Research is free for anybody to read and download, and to copy and disseminate as long as appropriate credit is given, a link is provided to the license, and any changes made are clearly indicated.  

Polar Research is accessible via the journal’s website at www.polarresearch.net as well as via international search engines such as Google and Google Scholar. Polar Research is also widely indexed in various databases, such as the Web of Science.

ARCHIVING

This journal is part of the Public Knowledge Preservation Network for purposes of preservation and restoration. In addition, all files are archived with Portico.

AUTHOR SELF-ARCHIVING

Authors are permitted and encouraged to post papers submitted to Polar Research on personal and institutional websites, prior to and after publication (while providing the bibliographic details of the latter).