Online First
What is Online First?
Online First is a feature offered through the Geological Society’s electronic content platform, the Lyell Collection. It enables Special Publication articles to appear online soon after they have been accepted for publication and ahead of the printed volume.
All articles on the site are in their final PDF format apart from pagination, i.e. they have been accepted for publication, copyedited, typeset, proofed and corrected. The Online First release date serves as the official publication date. This date is provided in the citation line associated with the article.
Within 6–8 weeks of the final article of a Special Publication being uploaded to Online First, the entire volume will transition to being a complete, paginated and indexed publication. Users will be able to locate the volume via the following link: http://sp.lyellcollection.org/content/by/year.
Once posted online articles will not change from their published version (except by the addition of pagination). If any errors are identified then they will only be corrected by use of an erratum (as is the case for any published article).
To view current Online First articles please visit http://sp.lyellcollection.org/online-first.
Benefits
Online First offers clear benefits to authors and researchers:
- Reduced lead time between submission and publication
- Access to the very latest articles in the field
- Greater usage and exposure of articles, including earlier citation opportunities by related works
Citations to Online First articles
While an article is available on Online First it may be cited as follows:
Author, A. B. & Author, C. D. The title of the article. In: Editor, A. & Editor, B. (eds) The Title of the Special Publication. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, XXX, first published online October 1, 2010, http://dx.doi.org/10.1144/SPXXX.XX
The same article in its final format would be cited:
Author, A. B. & Author, C. D. 2011. The title of the article. In: Editor, A. & Editor, B. (eds) The Title of the Special Publication. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, XXX, xxx–xxx. First published online October 1, 2010, http://dx.doi.org/10.1144/SPXXX.XX
Each article DOI is registered with CrossRef (www.crossref.org), allowing permanent resolution to each article and giving publishers the ability to link their references to articles whenever they are cited.
Final issue
Shortly after the final Online First article is assigned to its specific volume all the articles belonging to that volume will transition from the Online First listing to the complete paginated volume. Users will then be able to locate articles via the Special Publications past volumes archive page. Citations using either the DOI or the bibliographic data will resolve to the paginated final article. The Online First version of articles will be removed from the site when the complete paginated volume is published.
Access entitlements
Fellows do not have access to the full text of Online First articles unless they are subscribers to the Full Book Collection. They can, however, view the list of Online First articles available, sign up for email alerts when new articles are posted, and purchase individual articles on a pay-per-view basis. Fellows who are Full Book Collection subscribers can view the full text of each article, as well as the online version of the complete volume once published. Please contact Membership to add the Full Book Collection to your annual fees.
Institutional subscribers to the Lyell Collection Complete and to the Special Publications can view the full text of all Online First articles, but they will not enjoy perpetual access rights to this content unless the completed SP volume is published within their subscribed-to calendar year. Institutional subscribers to individual journal titles will not be able to view the full text of Online First Special Publication articles. Content will be available via pay-per-view.