Journal profile · Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Progress in Physical Geography-Earth and Environment
ISSN 0309-1333 · eISSN 1477-0296 · SAGE Publications Ltd · ENGLAND · Bimonthly
Progress in Physical Geography-Earth and Environment: CAS Zone 3 · Earth Sciences (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 3.49; hybrid open access; APC about USD 3,650; review about 186 days (submission to acceptance, publisher); community-reported acceptance: moderate; 62 articles in 2025; indexed in SCIE and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Progress in Physical Geography-Earth and Environment is published by SAGE Publications Ltd and is in Zone 3 of Earth Sciences in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Geology and Paleoclimatology Research, Soil erosion and sediment transport and Hydrology and Watershed Management Studies, together about 28.3% of its articles. Its main subfields are Atmospheric Science. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
PPG: Earth and Environment is a peer-reviewed, international journal, encompassing an interdisciplinary approach incorporating the latest developments and debates within Physical Geography and interrelated fields across the Earth, Biological and Ecological System Sciences.This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). View full journal description This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Editor-in-chief Karen AndersonPublisher website
Editorial board by country: 5 in mainland China (about 9%); most named United Kingdom 18, United States 16, Mainland China 5, Italy 3, India 2 (53 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Geology and Paleoclimatology ResearchEarth and Planetary Sciences11.7%
- Soil erosion and sediment transportAgricultural and Biological Sciences9.8%
- Hydrology and Watershed Management StudiesEnvironmental Science6.9%
- Landslides and related hazardsEnvironmental Science6.4%
- Hydrology and Sediment Transport ProcessesEnvironmental Science6.4%
- Cryospheric studies and observationsEarth and Planetary Sciences6.3%
- Climate variability and modelsEnvironmental Science4.5%
- Aeolian processes and effectsEarth and Planetary Sciences4.2%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Earth Sciences Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Earth Sciences | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Geography, Physical | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Geosciences, Multidisciplinary | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Earth Sciences Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Earth Sciences | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Geography, Physical | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Geosciences, Multidisciplinary | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Earth Sciences Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Earth Sciences | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Geosciences, Multidisciplinary | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Geography, Physical | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
Database indexing
SCIEScopusLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Editions, and major and minor categories, are shown separately and never merged into one zone; check which edition your institution uses before you submit or report.
Metrics
Impact metrics and publication volume
Impact
- Impact factor
- 3.49LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher)
- 3.5Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher)
- 4Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 7.6LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 1.02LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.09LetPub ·
- h-index
- 92LetPub ·
- h-index
- 163OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 1,152OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 2.34OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 0%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 18.7%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 58LetPub ·
- Articles per year (publisher)
- 3Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 3,439 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 47 | 14 | 16 |
| 2025 | 62 | 23 | 127 |
| 2024 | 36 | 17 | 196 |
| 2023 | 40 | 12 | 506 |
| 2022 | 59 | 19 | 995 |
| 2021 | 54 | 16 | 789 |
Sources count differently and were observed at different times, so each source's own value is kept; "publisher" marks figures from the journal's website.
Review & acceptance
Review time and acceptance
Review time from article dates manuscript dates registered with PubMed · to
Too few articlesOnly 1 articles from the last 24 months carry both submission and acceptance dates, too few for a median
Only articles that were accepted and published are counted, not the time spent on rejected manuscripts, so this usually runs longer than a publisher's "time to first decision".
Figures by source
- Average review time (community reports)
- over 12 weeksLetPub ·
- Average acceptance (community reports)
- ModerateLetPub ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher)
- 22%Publisher website ·
- Submission to first decision
- 5 daysPublisher website ·
- First decision after review
- 70 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to acceptance
- 186 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication
- 19 daysPublisher website ·
- Peer review
- Double anonymous peer reviewPublisher website
Community reports come from authors' own submissions (confidence 0.5) and are not a promise from the journal; for publisher figures, the journal's own definitions apply.
Fees & open access
APC and open-access policy
Hybrid open accessLetPub
A subscription journal in which authors can pay to publish their article open access.
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAlex | USD 3,650 / GBP 2,676 | — | — | |
| Publisher website | Yes, amount not published | — | — |
A hybrid journal charges the APC only when the author chooses open access; publishing under the subscription model is usually free.
Other charges and waivers (author guidelines)
- Other fees
- No other fees
- Page charges
- No page charges
- Submission fee
- No submission fee
The journal's website is authoritative for fees; sources were observed at different times and each keeps its own value, without averaging.
Submission
Article types and submission policies (journal website)
What to prepare3 items from the author guidelines
- Abstract
- 250–300 words
- Manuscript length
- ≤ 7,000 words
- Reference style
- Harvard
Article types accepted8, with length limits
- collaborative perspectivesCollaborative Perspectives Contributions of up to 5000 words, and 5 figures are invited. These should be intra- or inter-disciplinary, multi-authored pieces, ta…Length not stated
- geography classicsGeography Classics Contributions of up to 3000 words, with a maximum of 3 figures, are invited. These should be led by an early-stage researcher.Length not stated
- perspectivePlease read the article type classifications carefully as these have recently been updated - some of the older article types have been replaced and new ones hav…main text ≤ 5,000 words
- research articlePlease read the article type classifications carefully as these have recently been updated - some of the older article types have been replaced and new ones hav…main text ≤ 7,000 words
- research articlesResearch Articles Articles should be 5000-7000 words in length, including footnotes, but excluding references. Up to 8 figures can be included. Supplementary in…Length not stated
- reviewPlease read the article type classifications carefully as these have recently been updated - some of the older article types have been replaced and new ones hav…main text ≤ 5,000 words
- review articlePlease read the article type classifications carefully as these have recently been updated - some of the older article types have been replaced and new ones hav…Length not stated
- technical articlesTechnical Articles This submission category provides a forum to showcase new methods and approaches that can be applied to the study of physical geography.Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAuthorship, Data availability, Publication ethics, Open access, Peer review, Plagiarism, Preprints, Trial registration / reporting guidelines
- Authorship Authorship
Please view our authorship policies, which includes information on criteria for authorship, who should be the corresponding author and more. Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Data availability Data availability
Data sharing encouraged Model summary
The Journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages. Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to: Share your research data in a relevant public data repository Include a data ava…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Publication ethics Ethical considerations
Please include your ethics approval statements under this heading, even if you have already included ethics approval information in your methods section. If ethical approval was not required, you need to explicitly state this. All papers reporting studies involving human participants, human data or human tissue must state that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board approved th…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Publishing fees and open access
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this journal. Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article. Optional open access publi…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer review policy
Double anonymized peer review Model summary
Our policy is that reviewers should not be assigned to a paper if: •The reviewer is based at the same institution as any of the co-authors •The reviewer is based at the funding body of the paper •The author has recommended the reviewer •The reviewer has provided a personal (e.g. Gmail/Yahoo/Hotmail) email account and an institutional email account cannot be found after performing a basic Google se…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Plagiarism Plagiarism
The journal and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. Please read Sage's complete policy on plagiarism and the actions we may take.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Preprints Preprints
Preprints accepted Model summary
The journal will consider submissions of manuscripts that have been posted on preprint servers. Please enter the preprint DOI in the designated field when submitting your manuscript. We advise that you inform the Journal Editorial office about your posted preprint at submission. Note that you should not post an updated version of your manuscript on a preprint server while it is being peer reviewed…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Trial registration / reporting guidelines Clinical trial registration
The journal endorses the ICMJE requirement that clinical trials are registered in a WHO-approved public trials registry at or before the time of first participant enrollment. However, consistent with the AllTrials campaign, retrospectively registered trials will be considered if the justification for late registration is acceptable. The trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be …
Source ↗Publisher website ·
Excerpts are quoted from the journal's website; "model summary" lines are written by Workers AI and checked against the text. The journal's website is authoritative.
Profile
Publication details and official links
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications Ltd
- Country or region
- ENGLAND
- Language
- English
- Frequency
- Bimonthly
- ISSN
- 0309-1333
- Electronic ISSN
- 1477-0296
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗LetPub
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Progress in Physical Geography-Earth and Environment
What CAS zone is Progress in Physical Geography-Earth and Environment in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Progress in Physical Geography-Earth and Environment is in Zone 3 of Earth Sciences, and in Zone 3 of the minor category Geography, Physical / Geosciences, Multidisciplinary. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 2 of Earth Sciences. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Progress in Physical Geography-Earth and Environment?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 3.49; CiteScore 7.6, h-index 163.
How long does peer review take at Progress in Physical Geography-Earth and Environment?
The publisher reports about 186 days (submission to acceptance); authors report an average review time of over 12 weeks; the community-reported acceptance is “Moderate”; the journal's website gives an acceptance rate of 22%. Article statistics cover accepted papers only, publisher figures follow the journal's own definitions, and community reports come from authors' own submissions; none is a promise from the journal.
What are the manuscript requirements of Progress in Physical Geography-Earth and Environment?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Abstract: 250–300 words; Manuscript length: ≤ 7,000 words; Reference style: Harvard. A model extracted these from the author guidelines and each was checked against the text; check the latest version on the journal's website before submitting.
Where are the editorial board members of Progress in Physical Geography-Earth and Environment based?
Of the 53 board members whose country the journal's board page names, 5 (about 9%) are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United Kingdom (18), United States (16) and Mainland China (5). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Progress in Physical Geography-Earth and Environment?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Progress in Physical Geography-Earth and Environment is indexed in SCIE and Scopus.
Is Progress in Physical Geography-Earth and Environment open access, and what is the APC?
Progress in Physical Geography-Earth and Environment is a hybrid journal. For open-access publication: APC about USD 3,650.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, Publisher website, OpenAlex; every figure is tagged with its source and the date it was observed, and conflicting values are kept per source. LetPub source page: view ↗ (archived 2026-08-26). Last updated: .