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GOLD OPEN ACCESS
OPEN ACCESS GSA JOURNALS ARE COMING
GSA TODAY | MAY 2015 Harry “Hap” McSween, GSA President subscription. The present implementation model has this
occurring in a phased manner, as follows:
Abstract
- 2017: Geology becomes open access;
Beginning in 2017 and phased in over the following three - 2018: Geosphere and Lithosphere become open access; and
years, all GSA journals will be freely available online (i.e., - 2019: GSA Bulletin becomes open access.
open access). GSA journals will retain their high quality;
there will be no change in current editorial or peer-review • With implementation of open access, the page charges as well as
policies and procedures. The major impact of this change for color charges for photos and illustrations that exist with printed
GSA will be a loss of subscription revenues that currently journals will cease, but an article publication fee will be
underwrite many GSA programs. To offset these losses, a charged.
publication fee will be instituted along with the designation
of some strategic funds to assist authors who lack resources to • For authors unable to pay this fee, GSA will develop a process
pay these fees. GSA leadership is reviewing all existing for the provision of full or partial subventions from strategic
programs to find savings by modification or elimination of funds or other sources.
non-mission–critical activities and seeking other financial
options for the transition. In addition, annual membership • The quality of GSA journal publications will remain as they are
dues will modestly increase, and Council will restrict new now since there will be no changes in editorial policies, peer
strategic initiatives until the implementation process is review procedures, or article acceptance standards.
completed. The GSA Foundation will increase its activity in
support of GSA programs. • The Society is actively reviewing its current business practices
in order to absorb the anticipated declines in journal-derived
INTRODUCTION revenue. This will include some changes in or elimination of
existing GSA programs determined to no longer to be effective
GSA Council in October 2014 voted to move all GSA journals or central to GSA’s mission. In addition, annual membership
(GSA Bulletin, Geology, Geosphere, and Lithosphere) to open dues will be modestly increased to offset some revenue losses.
access, phased in over a three-year period beginning in 2017.
Phasing in open access over three years will permit GSA’s profes- • Effective January 2017, all GSA journal content, including full
sional publications staff and editors to manage the transition access to the journal archives, will be freely available online to
smoothly and to allow GSA to make the necessary financial GSA members.
arrangements to accommodate the significant decline in revenues
now generated by journal subscriptions. WHY IS GSA MOVING TO OPEN ACCESS NOW?
WHAT IS OPEN ACCESS? The much-vaunted and anticipated digital future has arrived.
This now-mature technology will allow GSA to lead the scientific
In simplest terms, open access is publication via the internet community in expanding the reach and impact of our science.
that is “digital, online, free of charge to the reader, and free of GSA can eagerly embrace this opportunity or passively wait for it
most copyright and licensing restrictions” (Suber, 2013). As Suber to be forced upon us.
notes, it is compatible with peer review and need not detract from
the quality of scientific publications. For 127 years, our Society has embraced the mission articulated
in its Constitution of 1888 to promote “the science of geology by
WHAT WILL HAPPEN? the issuance of scholarly publications” (Article II). In 1888, the
only means of accomplishing this goal was to publish traditional
The key elements of the Council’s decision are journals that would be sent to all members and housed in the
• GSA journal articles will be immediately accessible online, by collections of university and other research libraries across the
globe. Consistent with this historical role and through the dedica-
anyone, at any time, anywhere in the world, with no required tion of professional staff and the unselfish commitment of editors,
authors, and reviewers, GSA publications are acknowledged to be
among the most stimulating, rigorously reviewed, and high-
impact sources of scientific information in the earth sciences.
That will not change and, in fact, the impact of these journals
should increase.
But, in 2015, the publishing paradigm is changing. The oppor-
tunity to publish the results of research online means that no
researcher anywhere in the world need be denied immediate
access to the latest scientific findings—and no author is prevented
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