Boulder, Colo., USA: The Geological Society of America (GSA) is participating in a new open-access, community-led journal being launched by GeoScienceWorld (GSW), a nonprofit collaborative and comprehensive resource for research and communications in the earth sciences. GSA is a founding publisher of GeoScienceWorld, and its journals and books are hosted on the GSW platform.
As part of GSA's commitment to this new publishing effort, the Society has reached an agreement with GSW to have Lithosphere be the vehicle for the community journal. Because this involves transferring ownership of Lithosphere to GSW, this is a big change.
This decision wasn't made lightly and was debated at length by GSA Council, the society's governing board. "We welcome the expanded support that GeoScienceWorld's involvement will bring to the journal," said GSA Executive Director Vicki McConnell. "GSA sees this partnership with GSW as a reflection of its mission to advance geoscience research and discovery and to allow Lithosphere to grow."
Why a New Journal?
GeoScienceWorld is looking for ways to help its member publishers navigate changes brought about by mandated open access proposals, which are gaining ground around the world. While GSA made Lithosphere and Geosphere fully open access in 2018, other founding publishers of GSW have fewer open access options.
The new community journal will get papers in two ways: direct submissions and papers transferred from other GeoScienceWorld-participating societies. Transferred papers will be those that the Society has determined are not right for its journal(s) but that still have merit and should be considered for publication. Examples include papers that: don't match the scope or size restrictions of a particular journal; deliver a nice compilation of data but no new insights or broader implications; show valuable confirmatory results that aren't always published (e.g., the second instance of a mineral discovery); or show null results (an experiment or model was tried but didn't work -- of value to those pursuing the same line of thought).
Lithosphere will continue to publish under GSA for the rest of 2019. The journal will retain its impact factor, and all archival content published by GSA will continue to be open access and freely available just as it is today.
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For information, contact: Jeanette Hammann, GSA Director of Publications, jhammann@geosociety.org.
The Geological Society of America is a scientific society with members from academia, government, and industry in more than 100 countries. Through its meetings, publications, and programs, GSA enhances the professional growth of its members and promotes the geosciences in the service of humankind. GSA encourages cooperative research among earth, life, planetary, and social scientists, fosters public dialogue on geoscience issues, and supports all levels of earth science education.
The Geological Society of America
Release no. 19-31
Contact: Kea Giles
+1-303-357-1057
kgiles@geosociety.org