OBJECTIVE:
MERCATOR is a privileged space for divulgation of scientific works resultant of dense research (from masters, doctorates and similars) addressing prominent issues to the academic society, natural and social sciences.

AREAS OF INTEREST:
MERCATOR seeks to contribute in the dissemination of reflexions about current topics related to the field of geography, such as: environmental issues, modernization of the countryside, use and conservation of natural resources, urban issues and metropolization processes, nature’s dynamic, social movements in the countryside and cities, tourism and coastal transformation, regional issues, geoprocessing, globalization and development.

HISTORY:
MERCATOR, Geography Journal from the Federal University of Ceará associated to the Graduation in Geography aims to strengthen the scientific propagation channel in the Brazilian Geography. Currently occupies a prominent role in the area of geography, being the only journal in the northeast with grade A1 from QUALIS-PERIODIC 2013 (CAPES).

Created in 2002, in print with biannual periodicity, in the year 2008 established itself as electronic journal, adopting base provided by the IBICT (SEER/OJS) to expand access to its public and facilitate referral procedures and analysis of papers submitted. In 2009, with the increasing number of submissions to the journal, the frequency is changed to quarterly, further reinforcing the role of knowledge transmission in the area of geography.

Electronic access expands its range, enabling free access to the scientific production disseminated, both old numbers (printed version available in PDF) as recent numbers, available only in electronic form.

That MERCATOR, now in electronic format, continue instigating reflections and analyzes, as its name evokes, homage to the great geographer, reformulator of geography in the XVI century.

PERIODICITY: Quarterly

• Red de Revistas Científicas de América Latina y el Caribe, España y Portugal (http://redalyc.org) - Sistema de Información Científica REDALYC
• Sistema Regional de Información en Línea para Revista Científicas Científica de América Latina, el Caribe, España y Portugal  (http://www.latindex.org) -LATINDEX
• Directory of Open Access Journals - http://www.doaj.org - DOAJ 

• All content of the journal, except where identified, is licensed under a Creative Commons attribution-type BY.
• The Mercator (Fortaleza) adopted until Apr/2015 the Creative Commons license attribution-type BY-NC. Actually, the license is the attribution-type BY.

Eustógio Wanderley Correia Dantas, Universidade Federal do Ceará - Fortaleza (CE), Brasil (edantas@ufc.br)

MERCATOR has as target audience researchers of physiography and human geography, as well as related sciences.

The double-blind evaluation process is the one implemented on MERCATOR. To ensure the integrity of the double-blind evaluation, the authors, as well as reviewers, must take all possible measures to not reveal their identities in the evaluation process. This requires that authors, editors and evaluators (liable to send documents to the system, as part of the evaluation process) take some precautions with the text and the properties of the document.

• The authors of the document must remove from the text their names, replacing with “Author” and the year in references and footnotes, instead of author names, article title, etc.
• In Microsoft Office documents, the identification of the author must be removed from the properties of the document (in the File menu > Properties), starting at File, in the main menu, and clicking in sequence: File > Save as… > Tools (or Options on Mac) > Security > Remove personal information from this file on save > OK > Save.
• In PDF files, the names of the authors must be removed from the properties as well, in File on the main menu of Acrobat Reader.

In accordance to the method in focus, each article presented to the journal for publishing, will be evaluated by at least two scientific advisors, or if the thematic imposes the participation of ad hoc consultants (external evaluators), upon which the Editorial Board will accept, reject or even request changes.

In case of conflicting opinions, it will be referred to a third appraiser or external evaluator who shall resolve the doubts about the property or impropriety of the publication of the article, taking into account only its academic quality.
The cited evaluators will base its analysis on a form available on the platform addressing the terms below:

I. The title of the article is appropriate and represents the smallest summary of its contents?

II. Suitable summaries describe the objective, indicate theoretical referential, methods, main results and conclusions?

III. Content evaluation:

• Relevance of the article to the scientific field;
• Originality of the article;
• Property and quality of the methodology used;
• Representation, consistency and theoretical articulation and methodology for data analysis;
• Foundation and consistency of findings;
• Quality of writing and organization of text;
• Scientific rigor and obedience to the ABNT rules;
• Relevance, quality and clarity of the figures and tables.

After evaluation of the terms above the manuscript will receive, based on the assessments, the following recommendations: accept, mandatory corrections, resubmit for review, send to another journal or reject.

The editor will inform each of the writers on the state of the manuscript and, if accepted and having fulfilled the requests made by the reviewers and the editors, initiate the process of publishing the work aiming to publish it on the platform.

In the meantime it becomes essential the involvement of the author in meeting the demands related to the formatting of the article, with greater emphasis related to the graphical quality of the material related to additional documents (pictures, tables and graphs).

In order to improve the quality of the graphic elements and clarity of figures, our responsible for the layout of the journal will thoroughly evaluate the documents and can suggest changes, additions, complements, reformatting and deleting material not suited to the demands of MERCATOR. Failure to meet the demands will justify the archiving of the submission on our platform.

There are no fees for submission and review articles.

The journal will classify the contributions in accordance with the following sections:

1. Technical and Scientific Articles: texts containing full accounts of completed studies or researches at least at the master level.
2. Translations of works relevant to the geographical science.

At the discretion of the Editorial Board, relevant articles and classical works of national and international diffusion may be published, in accordance with the rules of copyright.

PRE-CONDITIONS FOR SUBMISSION OF PAPERS
The original must contain the title of the article (in Portuguese and English), author's full name, title, institution to which is linked, mailing address, telephone and fax contact and e-mail.

Title of the article: The title, in Portuguese and English, must be brief and sufficiently specific and descriptive, containing the keywords that represent the content of the article.

Abstract: Must be included an informative abstract of approximately 200 words in Portuguese, accompanied by a translation in English, Spanish or French, written according to the standards of ISO 6028, from the Brazilian Association of Technical Standards (ABNT).

Acknowledgement: Acknowledgement for support received for the preparation of the work must be mentioned at the end of the article.

Notes: note to the article body should be indicated with a high number immediately after the sentence related. Should come at the end of the text.

Graphic materials: sharp photographs and graphics (strictly indispensable to clarity of text) can be accepted as long as in the jpg format, colored version and a minimum resolution of 300 dpi's. Should be indicated in the text, by an item number, the places where they should be inserted. If the illustrations submitted have already been published, mention the source. Their inclusion in the platform should be performed on individual files, keeping the above specifications.

Tables and charts: tables and charts should be accompanied by header in order to understand the meaning of the data gathered, without the need of reference to the text, following the current rules of tabular presentation from the IBGE Foundation. They must also have its own sequential numbering for each type and their locations should be marked in the text, indicating the number of its order.

OF THE NORMALIZATION OF ARTICLES
Articles should be submitted to the ABNT normalization, namely: NBR-10520 (Information and documentation - quotes in documents - presentation) and NBR-6023 (Information and documentation - references - elaboration) from August 2002.

NBR-10520
GENERAL RULES OF PRESENTATION

. In quotations, calls to the author's surname, the responsible institution or title included in the sentence must be uppercase and lowercase letters, and when they are in parentheses, should be capitalized.

Examples:
Irony would thus an implicit form of heterogeneity shown, as proposed by Authier-Reiriz (1982) classification. "Despite appearances, the deconstruction of logocentrism is not a psychoanalysis of philosophy [...]" (DERRIDA, 1967, p.293).

. Specify in the text the page(s), volume(s), tome(s) or section(s) of the source consulted, in direct quotations. These must follow the date separately and preceded by a comma with the term that is characterized in abbreviated form. In indirect quotations, indicating the page(s) consulted is optional.

Examples:
The lithium production begins at Searles Lake, California, in 1928 (MUMFORD, 1949, v.3, p.583) .Oliveira and Leonardos (1943, p.146) says that "[...] are the relative number Roque with small porphyroid granite is very clear. "Meyer part of a passage from the chronicle of "May 14" by The Week: "There was sun, sun and large, that Sunday in 1888, when the Senate voted a law that sanctioned the ruling [...]" (ASSIS, 1994, v.3, p.583).

. Direct quotations in the text, up to three lines, must be enclosed in double quotes. Single quotes are used to indicate quotations within a quotation.

Examples:
Barbour (1971, p.35) describes: "The study of the morphology of the land [...] assets [...]." "Do not move, pretend you're dead." (Clarac; BONNIN, 1985, p.72) .According Sá (1995, p.27): "[...] by the same 'art of conversation' that covers so extensive and important part of our daily existence [...]"

. Direct quotations in the text, with more than three lines, should be highlighted with indenting 4 cm from the left margin, with font shorter than the text used and without quotes.

Examples:
A teleconference allows individuals to participate in a national or regional meeting without leaving their place of origin. Common types of teleconferencing include the use of television, telephone, and computer. Through audio conferencing, using the local telephone company, an audio signal can be output in a hall of any size. (NICHOLS, 1993, p. 181).

CALLING SYSTEM

Citations should be indicated in the text by a calling system: [...] author-date.
When the name(s) of the author(s), responsible institution(s) is(are) included in the sentence, we indicate the date in brackets, plus the page(s), if the quote is direct.

Examples:
In Open Theatre (1963) it is reported the emergence of the theater of the absurd. According to Mitchell (1955, p.32) states "[...] the presence of concretions of bauxite in Rio Cricon."

. Quotes from various documents of the same author, published in the same year are distinguished by adding lower case letters in alphabetical order, after the date and without spaces, according to the list of references.

Examples:
According Reeside (1927a)(REESIDE, 1927b).

Indirect quotes from various authors of various documents mentioned simultaneously, must be separated by semi-colons, in alphabetical order.

Examples:
It polarizes and forwards, in the form of "class action", the needs of all (FONSECA, 19997; Paiva, 1997; Silva, 1997) Several authors stress the importance of the "triggering event" at the beginning of a learning process (CROSS, 1984; KNOX, 1986; MEZIROW, 1991).

NBR 6023
GENERAL RULES OF PRESENTATION
References are only aligned to the left margin of the text [...] single-spaced and separated by double space [...].
The typeface feature bold is used to emphasize the title element.

REFERENCE MODELS
Book:
GOMES, L. G. F. F. Novela e sociedade no Brasil. Niterói: EdUFF, 1988. 137p.

Book Chapter:
ROMANO, Giovanni. Imagens da Juventude na era moderna.In: LEVI, G.; SCHMIDT, J. (Org.) História dos jovens 2. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1996. p. 7-16.

Dictionary:
HOUAISS, Antônio (Ed.). Novo dicionário Folha Webster´s: inglês/português, português/inglês. Co-editor Ismal Cardim. São Paulo: Folha da Manhã, 1996.

Guide:
BRASIL: roteiros turísticos. São Paulo: Folha da Manhã, 1995. 319p.

Manual:
SÃO PAULO (Estado). Secretaria do Meio Ambiente. Coordenadoria de Planejamento Ambiental. Estudo de Impacto Ambiental - EIA, Relatório de Impacto Ambiental - RIMA: manula de orientação. São Paulo, 1989. 48p.

Catalog:
MUSEU DA IMIGRAÇÃO (São Paulo, SP). Museu da Imigração - S. Paulo: catálogo. São Paulo, 1997, 16p.

Almanac:
TORELLY, M. Almanaque para 1949: primeiro semestre ou Almanaque d’A Manhã. Ed. fac-sim. São Paulo: Studioma: Arquivo do Estado, 1991.

Periodic:
MANSILLA, H. C. F. La controversia entre universalismo y particularismo en la filosofia de la cultura. Revista Latinoamericana de Filosofia, Buenos Aires, v.24, n. 2, primavera 1988.
COSTA, V. R. À margem da lei. Em Pauta, Rio de Janeiro, n.12, p.131-148, 1988.

Thesis or dissertation:
ARAÚJO, U. A. M. Máscaras inteiriças Tukúna: possibilidades de estudo de artefatos de museu para conhecimento do universo indígena. 1985. 102f. Dissertation (Master in Social Cience) - Fundação Escola de Sociologia e Política de São Paulo, São Paulo, 1986. 

CHECKLIST FOR SUBMISSION
As part of the submission process, authors are required to check the conformity of the submission in respect of all the items listed below. Submissions that do not comply with the standards will be returned to the authors.

1. Unprecedented and original contribution, resulting from dense research of masters, doctorates and the like;
2. Formatted manuscript without author identification (guarantee of blind evaluation), and inclusion of figures, tables and graphs (simply stating their location with legend);
3. Graphic material (figures, tables and graphs) submitted on the platform as individual files in jpg format and with minimum resolution of 300 dpi's. Submission out of this standard will result in no publication of the work;
4. Manuscript not submitted in any other media publication;
5. Manuscript following the guidelines contained in the “GUIDELINES FOR AUTHORS”, in the “ABOUT” section of MERCATOR;
6. Manuscript title in ENGLISH as well as abstract written in three languages, among Portuguese and English, required, and French or Spanish;
7. Active addresses included in the text (eg http://www.ufc.br).

COPYRIGHT DECLARATION
Authors who publish in this journal agree to the following terms:

1. Authors retain copyright and grant to MERCATOR the right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits sharing of work with recognition of authorship and initial publication in this journal.
2. Authors are able to take on additional contracts separately for non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in this journal (ex .: in an institutional repository or publish as a book), with recognition of authorship and initial publication in this journal.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (eg.: in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as increase the impact and citation of the published work (See the Effect of Open Access).
4. Authors are responsible for the content contained in the manuscript published in the journal.

Ethical commitment

Mercator is committed to the ethical principles of the "Committee on Publication Ethics" (http://publicationethics.org/). Under these terms we are committed to act ethically in the implementation of the characteristic steps of the editorial process. Our goal is to carry out the evaluation process in an impersonal and confidential manner, thus preserving the rights of the reviewers, authors and institutions involved in the editorial procedures. Practices characterized as plagiarism, defamation and copyright infringement will bring about the immediate rejection of the work in question. This editorial action is based on the Plagius - Plagiarism Detector software, version 2.3.4.

MERCATOR follows the recommendations outlined in the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines and the principles described in Core practice: https://publicationethics.org/core-practices/, which intend to prevent plagiarism, self-plagiarism, falsification, and data fabrication resulting from ethics violations.

This scientific misconduct produces works based on the presentation of false data, the manipulation of data, procedures, and results, as well as the misappropriation of ideas from third parties without the appropriate acknowledgment.

The following are indicated to implement action to inhibit such conduct:

1. COPE best practices and guidance ( http://publicationethics.org ) should be consulted and followed;

2. Procedures should be adopted to ensure compliance with the criteria, specifically the use of software and/or plagiarism detection mechanisms. The results generated by these processes shall support the decisions made by editors and the editorial board on whether to proceed with a peer review and, consequently, whether or not to initiate the submission evaluation process. The article's final approval is the sole responsibility of the editors and the editorial board, and rejection can occur both before and after publication. In the latter case, the article will be retracted or removed together with an explanatory note.

MERCATOR's adherence to this policy promotes ethics and integrity in scientific practice, based on impersonality, transparency, and confidentiality and also the preservation of the rights of the authors, reviewers, and institutions involved in the publication of the magazine.