Guidelines to the author(s)

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The Hill Geographer, published by the Geographical Society of the North-Eastern Hill Region welcomes original contribution on any geographical subject as long as these provide significant geographical information; represent new concepts, research findings and innovations in methodology. Publication of articles on the problems of hill and tribal areas of the country will be given preference for publication. In order to encourage participation in the society, each contributor is required to be at least an Annual Member of the society.

Manuscripts should be submitted to the Editor of the Journal along with a covering letter accompanied by the filled in Declaration Form (to be downloaded from the journal website or Click here to download).

Plagiarism check
Once received, the manuscript will go for plagiarism check. We do not accept any plagiarism report from the author’s end. The same check will be done by the Editorial Board. This is the first step of clearing your paper for sending it to the reviewers.

Review Process
If the plagiarism report is less than 10%, the paper will be placed before the Editorial Board for its scrutiny. If the manuscript is found eligible for publication, it is sent to two specialists for a blind review. After receiving the reviewer's comments, the Editor will send the paper back to the corresponding author for further revision. The corresponding author will be communicated through email by the editor about the acceptance, rejection or delay in publication. Manuscripts will not be returned to author/s in case of rejection or delay in publication.

Declaration from the Corresponding Author
The corresponding should give a declaration that the paper is not submitted elsewhere for publication, is not tested plagiarism by the authors from their own and the paper is the outcome of their original piece of research work.

Preparation of the Manuscript
Manuscripts should not normally exceed 10,000 words and should be accompanied by an abstract (not exceeding 250 words) and four to five keywords. The number of maps/ diagrams and tables should be limited and must be relevant to the problem. Long tables with raw data must be avoided. Diagrams representing the tables or vice versa in the manuscript should also be avoided. The manuscript must be written in impeccable English and the editor may send the manuscript for thorough language editing even before it is sent to the reviewer.
Manuscripts must be word processed in single space, using Times New Roman font. The size of fonts will vary in different sections as below:

– Title of the paper (14 point bold)
– Abstract (11 point normal)
– Introduction- should contain the statement of problem clearly as well as the objectives (12 point normal)
– Past works - in which the authors should state the gaps in the previous works as well as how the present work is linked with the previous works. Review should be precise and issue -wise, not author-wise (12 point normal)
– Materials and methods (12 point normal)
– Results and Discussion (12 point normal)
– Conclusion/s
– Acknowledgements
– References
– Figure and plate captions
– Tables
– Figures
– Plates

Co-authors
The authors are requested to include full affiliation of all authors/s, including email id of the co-authors. E-mail and mobile number of corresponding author must be clearly mentioned. The Editor will independently get a certificate from other co-authors consenting that they have contributed to the writing of the paper. In case any of the co-author declines to give such a certificate or does not reply within the stipulated time, the paper will be withdrawn from possible publication after conveying the reasons to the corresponding author. No request to drop or add co-authors will be considered once the review process begins.

Styles
The authors must be careful regarding the following guidelines with regard to the style of presentation while submitting a paper:
• Where alternate forms exist, choose ‘-se’ instead of ‘ize’ spellings. Thus, use ‘organise’, ‘civilise’, etc. Use British, not American spellings. Use ‘labour’ not ‘labor’ and ‘programme’ not ‘program’ or ‘colour’ not ‘color’.
• Use single quotation marks, reserving double quotation marks for quoted words within a quotation.
• Use capitals and italics extremely sparingly but consistently. Words unfamiliar to an average reader and those which do not appear in a commonly used dictionary need to be italicised.
• Use of bold face should be limited to titles and sub-titles only and must be avoided in tables, table and figure titles. Titles of figures and tables must be outside the chart/ map area so that they can be edited if necessary. Maps/figures should not contain the title within map and chart area.
• Numbers from one to nine should be spelt out, 10 and above will remain in figures. However, figures should be used for exact measurements (such as ‘5 km’, 5 year-old boy and ‘5 per cent’). Use ‘thousands’ and ‘millions’ not ‘crores’ and ‘lakhs’.
• Figures and tables must be numbered in separate sequences, i.e., ‘Fig. 6’ and ‘Table 6’, and the titles should be short and crisp. Copyright permission for reproducing figures or photographs that have been cited from other works must be obtained.
• Avoid using % (should be ‘per cent’) ‘&’ (write ‘and’) ‘Govt.’ (write ‘government’) in the text. They may however be used in tables, charts, maps and within brackets.
• The journal follows only metric units. No other unit is acceptable for publication.

References
References should be embedded in the following style. For example: ‘(Mipun 2002: 540)’. Citations should appear alphabetically, for example, ‘(De 1998; Mohapatra 1992; Syiemlieh 2002)’. Multiple references of the same date for any one author should be distinguished thus: ‘(Purkayastha 2002a, 2002b)’. The detailed style of referencing is given below:
a. Books
Chattopadyay, S., Ajay, K.V. and Terry, M., 1993. Integrated resource evaluation, the Vamanapuram river basin First, Centre for Earth Science Studies, Trivandrum.
b. Articles in Edited Volumes
Cutter, S. L., 2005. Are we asking the right question?, in R.W. Perry and E. L. Quarantelli (eds.), What is a disaster? New answers to old questions. New York: Xlibris: 39-48.
c. Articles in Journals
Hazra. S., T. Ghosh., R. Das Gupta., and G. Sen., 2010. Sea level and associated changes in the Sundarbans, Science and Culture, 68: (9-12): 309-321.
d. Unpublished Works

Behera, Rabi Narayan. 2015. ‘Commercial crops and food security in rural Meghalaya’. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, North Eastern Hill University, Shillong, India.

Tables should be prepared using ‘table’ function of MS Word. Tabs or spaces for arrangement of rows and columns are strictly prohibited.

Figures should be drawn in black and white line drawings either in .jpeg or bitmaps format in A4 size paper and it should be at 400 dpi. Figures may be reduced by 1/4th of its size. It is recommended that the labeling (texts in the figures) of the figures should be in Arial fonts of 16 to 18 points. Photographs should also be in grayscale of 600dpi compression. The authors will have to bear the cost of printing colour figures/plates (if any). The rates for full page colour figure/ photographs will be intimated to the corresponding author well in advance as per prevailing rates as decided by the editorial board from time to time.

Printing charges
Publication of paper in ‘Hill Geographer’ is free of cost provided all figures and plates should be in black and white. If you have any colored figures and plates you will have to pay an amount of Rs. 1000/- (Rupees one thousand only) per page of printing.

Moreover, as per our Society policy, if any one of the authors is not a member of our Society you will have to take an annual/Life membership by paying a membership fee of Rs. 350/-/Rs. 2600/- after the acceptance of the paper. Membership form is available online. You can transfer the money online and send the evidence of submission along with the filled in membership form through email. In case you are a member of the society please ignore it.

Address for sending manuscripts through e-mail only:
The Editor
Hill geographer
Department of Geography
North-Eastern Hill University
Shillong - 793022, Meghalaya
E-mail: hillgeographer@gmail.com