The Content and Role of the Cartographic Journal

Summary

This article reviews the origins, content, and professional role of The Cartographic Journal from the establishment of the British Cartographic Society in 1963 through 1978. Drawing on the Society’s broad definition of cartography as the art, science, and technology of map-making, it examines the Journal’s editorial history, circulation, authorship, and subject distribution across its first thirty issues. More than 200 published papers are classified by institutional affiliation and topic. Academic authors contributed 60 percent, government authors 29 percent, and commercial authors only 11 percent. Likewise, design and communication, automation, and cartographic history collectively accounted for 60 percent of papers, whereas production, reproduction, and atlases represented just 11 percent. These patterns show that the Journal primarily served theoretical and research interests, despite a Society membership and leadership strongly connected to practical and commercial map production. The imbalance is attributed not only to editorial influence but also to practitioners’ reluctance to document and publish technical experience. Given the Journal’s worldwide circulation of approximately 2,000 copies and its substantial overseas authorship, the article argues that it offers an important channel for disseminating both research findings and practical experience. It concludes that production cartographers should contribute more actively so that the Journal can represent cartography’s artistic, scientific, and technological dimensions more evenly and serve the needs of map-makers internationally.