This workshop is in development and not yet complete.

Reference Mapping for Academic Publication

This workshop will provide an overview of how to create simple, static reference maps to accompany academic publications. We will use QGIS, a free and open-source Geographic Information System (GIS) for analyzing, modifying, and visualizing spatial data.

This workshop is geared towards mapping novices. If you want to create a map that geographically contextualizes your study area, or have a project involving data with a spatial component you’re eager to visualize, this workshop is for you. While making such maps on your own can feel daunting, this workshop will give you the confidence to:

  • Decide what kind of map best conveys your research or contextualizes your study area;
  • Find and download relevant spatial data;
  • Load datasets into QGIS and style them as data layers;
  • Compose a map that includes a title, scale bar, legend, and north arrow; and
  • Export this map into formats compatible with print and digital publication.
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Why make your own reference map? While maps of your research area may already exist, they often have licenses that prohibit their republication elsewhere. Alternatively, you might want to show a location specific to your research, or mark the sites where fieldwork was conducted. Although the use of existing maps is frequently restricted, the data that created them is often readily available. This means you can make your own map with it!

Audience

Geospatial novices welcome! No prior experience with mapping is necessary, though familiarity with QGIS is helpful. Before taking this workshop, you are encouraged to explore our Intro to QGIS, Tools and Workflows in QGIS, and Plugins in QGIS offerings in that order for a gentle introduction.

If your goal is to map your research area or visualize research data, this workshop is for you. However, if you are looking to conduct more advanced spatial analysis on your data, we recommend the QGIS workshops listed above. If you realize you actually want to make interactive and dynamic web-based maps that can be embedded in a website or shared via a link, check out our Webmapping Workshop. Finally, if you don’t know what kind of output you want just yet, we encourage you to explore our resource for Telling Spatial Stories. Here, you will be guided through choosing an output format and tools that serve your purpose, skillset, and timeframe.

Before the Workshop

  1. Download QGIS! QGIS can be downloaded from qgis.org’s Downloads page. In most cases, you’ll want to download and install the Long term release instead of the latest release - currently QGIS 3.40.4 ‘Bratislava’. This will give you most of the functionality you’ll need without encountering the software bugs of newly released versions. See the subpage to this page installing QGIS for further guidance.

  2. Download and unzip the workshop data folder below. Download it to a folder on your physical computer, such as Desktop or Downloads, not OneDrive.

Download Workshop Data

If you’re coming to this workshop with your own data in-hand, be sure to move it inside the unzipped workshop data folder. Additionally, make sure it is either in a spatial data format (such as Esri Shapefile, .shp, or geoJSON, .geojson), or saved as a .csv. For the purposes of this workshop, if your data is in .csv format it must have coordinate information saved in two separate columns, one for latitude and one for longitude. If you only have cities/countries or street addresses, follow the link in the resources below to book a 1:1 consult for additional support. If you have street addresses, you can also geocode these in QGIS (see here for documentation.)


GIS Resources at UBC:

This workshop was authored by Lily Demet and reviewed by Alex Alisauskas.

Table of contents

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