Meta-carto-semiotics : journal for theoretical cartography

Meta-carto-semiotics is an interdisciplinary open access journal for theoretical cartography and cartosemiotics.

The journal is interested in theoretical studies on questions related to cartography in its broadest sense. What such "cartography in its broadest sense" shall comprise, is a worthwhile topic within the scope of meta-carto-semiotics. The editors try to introduce the future discussions in this e-journal more precisely, proposing the following preliminary and rough definition of cartography and cartographic theory. Cartography is about representation of spatial reality to humans. Consequently, cartographic theory focuses on the numerous relations between representation (e.g. map), user and reality. As semiotic theories offer, of course, different ways to structure the aforementioned relationship, semiotics forms part of the journal's name. Moreover, semiotics provides, on the one hand, a solid framework for other theories, which have been already applied on cartographic questions, like communication theories or information theories for example. On the other hand, both current carto-theoretic approaches can be structured on semiotic fundaments and future developments may be prepared.