70 Jahre Kartographische Nachrichten – Ein Aufruf

Summary

This editorial reviews the nearly seventy-year role of Kartographische Nachrichten (KN) as a key record and forum for academic cartography in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, while addressing challenges posed by increasingly metric-driven and internationally competitive publishing. Journal Impact Factors, rapid peer review, online publication, and global accessibility increasingly influence funding applications and academic career requirements, drawing authors toward newer impact journals. Although such commercialization may weaken review quality, declining submissions from German-speaking cartographic researchers threaten KN’s future visibility. The author therefore calls on the community to submit research and cite the journal’s extensive knowledge base. Recent developments—including the move to Springer, Online First publication, open access through a modern website, and Scopus indexing—provide a foundation for strengthening KN’s international profile and eventually obtaining a Journal Impact Factor.