Does Area keep you awake at night

Life as an academic today can be hugely stressful and there are many things that cause us sleepless nights, such as worrying about the RAE, a difficult Head of Department, the problems of getting research funding, or the lack of time to prepare for teaching. When I took on the job of Co-Editor of Area with responsibility for physical and environmental geography in January 2001 I wondered whether it would be yet another trigger for those 3 am panics. There were, in my view, three major challenges facing me when I took up the job. The first was to try and change the publishing habits of physical geographers. It has been observed by many that physical geographers tend to publish in specialized journals (often outside geography altogether), and furthermore that physical geographers strive to publish what we might describe as ‘classic science’ papers rather than discursive, reflective or speculative ruminations. One facet of my role was to prove that other models of publishing could work for physical geographers. The second challenge was to encourage environmental geography submissions to Area. The key stumbling block here proved to be to identify what (if anything?) environmental geography might be. I had some fruitful discussions with several geographers who felt passionately about whether or not environmental geography has any meaning, but I think it is fair to say that it remains an elusive concept. My final challenge was to engender more discussion and debate between physical and human geographers. After all, if there is to be any point in widening the scope of a journal then it is important that there remains some overall coherence to it. As I near the end of my time of office as co-editor what has been achieved? It is certainly true that physical geography authors now figure more prominently in the contents pages of Area. I have been impressed by the response to my rallying calls to physical geographers – especially from non UK-based scientists and from PhD students. Physical geography now has a more solid presence within Area, and it would be good to see more themes emerging as core to the journal (including topics such as soil erosion, landscape change, environmental management and climate change, which are often seen as ‘quintessentially geographical’ in being central to the nexus of interrelationships between humans and the environment). It would also be good to see more submissions on topics such as scale issues, and discussions of major new developments in the earth and environmental sciences. In terms of environmental geography, I have been impressed by the diversity of methodologies and approaches used in submitted papers to study many facets of human–environmental relationships. Whilst making finding suitable referees a difficult job, this diversity has revealed the huge interest from geographers and non-geographers in finding suitable methods to understand and manage human–environment relations. I'd like to encourage more non-geographers to join in. Finally, has debate and discussion between physical and human geographers (perhaps mediated by environmental geographers – whoever they might be!) also been encouraged in Area during my term of office? Two of the themed issues certainly contained papers by both physical and human geographers, and the Observation by Stephan Harrison and colleagues in this issue brings together ideas from human and physical geographers in one contribution. Undoubtedly, more could be done to encourage joint submissions by physical and human geographers on key topics such as research career structures, professional responsibilities, the role of fieldwork and other methodologies. Has Area been a nightmare for me? I can honestly say it hasn't been a significant factor keeping me awake at night – despite waking at 5.30 am this morning worrying about what I was going to say in this Editorial! It's definitely been a challenge and is still an ongoing one. If any of you reading this would like to take over this challenge when I give up the job, then we'd be pleased to hear from you. It won't keep you awake at night, but it will give you many interesting things to think about during the day

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