A new cover design for the Singapore Journal
of Tropical Geography
Victor R. Savage
1
and James D. Sidaway
2
1
Department of Geography, National University of Singapore, Singapore
2
School of Geography, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, UK
Correspondence: Victor R. Savage (email: geosava@nus.edu.sg)
Over the 12 years since Blackwell (now Wiley-Blackwell) became co-publisher of the
Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography (SJTG) in June 1997, and indeed since the first
issue of what began in 1953 as The Malayan Journal of Tropical Geography (the SJTG’s
forerunner), the journal has been bound in green hues. This continues, though many
regular readers (including the majority who now access the journal via the Internet) will
notice the changes in cover (and web) design that accompany this issue. The intention
for a redesigned cover mooted and discussed amongst the editorial board was simple: we
had wanted a more inclusive representation of the (tropical) world – one containing the
Americas, which were not included on the previous back cover. Of course, the tropics
exceed any simple cartographic representation, but we hope that the new cover signals
our intent to be a key forum for geographical work on anywhere in the tropics (and on
the trajectory of all tropical geographies). We also timed the new cover to coincide with
an increase in pages (an additional 36 pages per volume) that will allow us to accom-
modate the growing number of quality articles we are receiving and increase the
turnover rate of papers accepted for publication, without at this juncture changing the
current three issues per year of the SJTG to a quarterly publication schedule. While
regular submitted papers on a range of topics and approaches are the journal’s mainstay,
we are grateful to many who also propose and bring to fruition (and take some pride in
the breadth and impacts of) special issues and theme sections. Over the next couple of
years, we envisage further theme issues and sections reflecting a wide spatial coverage
including the Caribbean, the Mexican tropics, Pacific Islands and sub-Saharan Africa.
The new cover design was proposed in an open competition amongst students at the
Department of Geography at the National University of Singapore (NUS, where the
editorial board and one of the SJTG’s co-editors are based), coordinated by Dr Feng
Chen-Chieh, a faculty member with expertise in GIS and cartography. We are pleased
therefore to formally thank and congratulate the winning team of Buddima Ravindra
Kurulasuriya, Mohammad Khirsyaban Iskandar, Wong Hung Key Joelle Stephanie S.Y.
and Cheong Shi Yun Tiffany, whose design has been refined and realized as the new cover
with professional inputs from the Cartographic Resources Unit of the University of
Plymouth (where one of the co-editors is currently based) executed by Wiley-Blackwell.
Whilst all must be thanked for their efforts, we are particularly happy to use a design
proposed by NUS geography students as it brings to full cycle the journal’s initiation 56
years ago with funds raised by the then students’ Raffles College Geographical Society of
the University of Malaya (see Savage, 2003; Savage & Sidaway 2008 on this).
This issue sees another significant change. Brenda Yeoh is stepping down as SJTG’s
book review editor (but continues to serve on the editorial board) and is replaced by Tim
Bunnell. We thank Brenda for the energy and commitment with which she has helmed
and ensured a lively review section over the past eight years, a role that the journal
takes seriously in tandem with (and as a compliment to) the selection of research
doi:10.1111/j.1467-9493.2008.00361.x
Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 30 (2009) 1–2
© 2009 The Authors
Journal compilation © 2009 Department of Geography, National University of Singapore and Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd