Open Access Policy
The Geological Society champions open access publishing. There are several routes to open access publishing with the Society which make the final published article freely accessible and usable to all.
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Authors may publish their final article open access in the Society’s hybrid journals and book series using their institution’s Read and Publish license agreement or discount schemes
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Authors may publish their final article in the Society’s open access journal Earth Science, Systems and Society (ES3) or the open access book series GeoHorizons (co-owned with AGU) on payment of an article processing charge (APC)
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Authors may publish their final article in any of the Society’s hybrid journals and book series on payment of an article processing charge (APC)
The Society offers member APC discounts on selected journals and book series articles.
Not-for-profit institutions from Research4Life eligible countries, areas and territories can register for free (Group A) or low-cost (Group B) access to Lyell Collection content (excluding ebooks). Corresponding authors based in countries classified as ‘Group A’ and ‘Group B’ are also eligible for a full APC waiver on articles published in Earth Science, Systems and Society (ES3) and GeoHorizons.
The Geological Society’s Open Access policy evolves with the research funding and publishing landscape.
Open Access articles are published subject to the Creative Commons attribution CC BY license. This license allows maximum dissemination and use of licensed materials.
Our transparent pricing policy ensures that both an Article Processing Charge (APC) and subscription income is not received for Open Access articles. Pricing methodology.
Our online submission form prompts authors to choose Open Access and highlights discounts or waivers to which they may be eligible.
Read and Publish Agreements
Agreements include read access to 18 journal and book sites, including all current and archived journals plus key book series and historic collections in the Lyell Collection. The agreement also covers unlimited open access publishing of all article types in 7 hybrid journals and 4 hybrid book series (listed above). Authors at institutions who sign up will be able to take advantage of streamlined Open Access publishing where fees have already been included in the agreement with their institution.
A list of current agreements, and the full list of the journals, book series and historic content included in the agreement is available here.
We are continuing to negotiate read and publish agreements.
Article reporting
The Society uses ChronosHub for article reporting for articles submitted from December 2023.
Contact us with queries or questions
