The Society actively encourages open access in scholarly communication and offers various routes to open access publication that comply with the UKRI policy and those of funders globally.
Open access publishing options for authors
Publish in the Geological Society’s fully open access journal and book series
Articles accepted in Earth Science, Systems and Society (ES3) are published open access with a Creative Commons attribution CC BY license on payment of the article processing charge (APC).
The GeoHorizons book series is published in collaboration with the American Geophysical Union. Chapters accepted in this book series are published open access with a Creative Commons attribution (CC BY) licence on payment of an article processing charge (APC). Members of the Geological Society of London qualify for discounted APC rates.
Corresponding authors can publish their final article open access in the Society’s open access journals and book series using their institution’s Read and publish license agreement or APC discount scheme.
Corresponding authors based in Research4Life eligible countries classified as 'Group A' or 'Group B' are eligible for a full APC waiver on articles published in Earth Science, Systems and Society (ES3) and GeoHorizons.
Publish open access in the Geological Society’s hybrid journals and books series
Articles accepted for publication in the Geological Society’s hybrid journals and book series are published open access on payment of an article processing charge (APC) with a Creative Commons attribution (CC BY) licence.
Corresponding authors can 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 APC discount schemes.
Member APC discounts
Members of the Geological Society of London qualify for discounted APC rates on articles in Society published journals and book series.
Members of the EAGE qualify for discounted APC rates on articles in Society published in Petroleum Geoscience and Geoenergy.
Members of the Association of Applied Geochemists qualify for discounts in articles published in Geochemistry: Exploration, Environment, Analysis.
If you or your authors have questions regarding our open access publishing, please contact us.
Contact the editorial officeCurrent article processing charges (APC) and discounts for members are provided below.
Only one form of discount or deal can be applied to the APC.
Read and Publish agreement waiver: APC are waived for authors at institutions with 2026 read and publish agreements. The eligible author must be the corresponding author and submit using their institutional affiliation and matching email address.
Member discounts
*Articles where the corresponding author or at least half the authors are fellow or student members of the Geological Society of London are entitled to a 25% discount.
** Articles where the corresponding author or at least half the authors are fellow or student members of the Geological Society of London or members of the European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers (EAGE) are entitled to a 25% discount.
*** Articles where the corresponding author or at least half the authors are fellow or student members of the Geological Society of London or members of the Association of Applied Geochemists are entitled to a 25% discount.
| Journal or Book series | Member discounts / Article types | APC 2026 |
| Journal of the Geological Society | *GSL | £ 2,600 / US$ 3,640 / 3,120 € |
| Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology | *GSL | £ 2,600 / US$ 3,640 / 3,120 € |
| Petroleum Geoscience | **GSL / EAGE | £ 2,600 / US$ 3,640 / 3,120 € |
| Geoenergy | **GSL / EAGE | £ 2,600 / US$ 3,640 / 3,120 € |
| Geochemistry: Exploration, Environment, Analysis | ***GSL / AAG | £ 2,600 / US$ 3,640 / 3,120 € |
| Scottish Journal of Geology | £ 2,600 / US$ 3,640 / 3,120 € | |
| Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society | £ 2,600 / US$ 3,640 / 3,120 € | |
| GeoHorizons | *GSL | £ 2,600 / US$ 3,640 / 3,120 € |
| Engineering Geology Special Publications | *GSL | £ 2,600 / US$ 3,640 / 3,120 € |
| Special Publications | *GSL | £ 2,600 / US$ 3,640 / 3,120 € |
| Memoirs | *GSL | £ 2,600 / US$ 3,640 / 3,120 € |
| Earth Science, Systems and Society | A. Research article, Review | £ 2,100 / US$ 2,940 / 2,520 € |
| B. Perspective | £ 1,575 / US$ 2,205 / 1,890 € | |
| C. Editorial, Viewpoint | £1,050 / US$ 1,470 / 1,260 € |
Read and Publish agreement waiver: APC are waived for authors at institutions with 2025 read and publish agreements. The eligible author must be the corresponding author and submit using their institutional affiliation and matching email address.
Member discounts
*Articles where the corresponding author or at least half the authors are fellow or student members of the Geological Society of London are entitled to a 25% discount.
** Articles where the corresponding author or at least half the authors are fellow or student members of the Geological Society of London or members of the European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers (EAGE) are entitled to a 25% discount.
*** Articles where the corresponding author or at least half the authors are fellow or student members of the Geological Society of London or members of the Association of Applied Geochemists are entitled to a 25% discount.
| Journal or Book series | Member discounts / Article types | APC 2025 |
| Journal of the Geological Society | *GSL | £ 2,500 / US$ 3,500 / 3,000 € |
| Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology | *GSL | £ 2,500 / US$ 3,500 / 3,000 € |
| Petroleum Geoscience | **GSL / EAGE | £ 2,500 / US$ 3,500 / 3,000 € |
| Geoenergy | **GSL / EAGE | £ 2,500 / US$ 3,500 / 3,000 € |
| Geochemistry: Exploration, Environment, Analysis | ***GSL / AAG | £ 2,500 / US$ 3,500 / 3,000 € |
| Scottish Journal of Geology | £ 2,500 / US$ 3,500 / 3,000 € | |
| Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society | £ 2,500 / US$ 3,500 / 3,000 € | |
| GeoHorizons | *GSL | £ 2,500 / US$ 3,500 / 3,000 € |
| Engineering Geology Special Publications | *GSL | £ 2,500 / US$ 3,500 / 3,000 € |
| Special Publications | *GSL | £ 2,500 / US$ 3,500 / 3,000 € |
| Memoirs | *GSL | £ 2,500 / US$ 3,500 / 3,000 € |
| Earth Science, Systems and Society | A. Research article, Review | £ 2,000 / US$ 2,800 / 2,400 € |
| B. Perspective | £ 1,500 / US$ 2,100 / 1,800 € | |
| C. Editorial, Viewpoint | £1,000 / US$ 1,400 / 1,200 € |
Read and publish agreements for institutions
Our Read and publish license agreements help to increase your institution’s research exposure and allows authors to publish more content in an open access format, leading to wider dissemination and increased potential for downloads and citation.
Agreements include read access to 18 journal and book sites, including all current and archived journals, key book series and historic collections in the Lyell Collection.
Agreements also offer unlimited open access publishing of all article types in 7 hybrid journals, 4 hybrid book series, the open access journal Earth Science, Systems and Society and the open access book series GeoHorizons.
Corresponding authors at institutions with current agreements can take advantage of streamlined open access publishing where fees have already been included in the agreement.
Institutions and consortia signed up to current read and publish agreements are listed on the Read and Publish agreements tab.
If you have any questions please contact us. We are continuing to negotiate read and publish agreements with international institutions.
Please note: The eligible author must be the corresponding author and submit using their institutional affiliation and matching email address.
The agreements for 2025 apply to submissions received in 2025. Agreements for 2026 apply to submissions received in 2026.
Read and publish content summary 2026
The Society uses ChronosHub for article reporting. Articles submitted from December 2023 are listed in ChronosHub.
Please contact us if you would like to be registered as an administrator on ChronosHub for your institutional agreement. The approval workflow is not automatically applied to each administrator, please request this if required.
To help our authors benefit from our Read and Publish agreements and discounted article processing charges we work closely with institutions during the renewal period at the start of the each new subscription year.
We allow a 3-month grace period to allow time for existing agreements to be renewed. During this time-frame authors from institutions with agreements in place from the previous subscription year and submitting to GSL publications will be recognised as eligible to a waived charge or discount (unless non-renewal of the agreement is confirmed before the end of the 3-month grace period).
Should an institution not renew their agreement then it may be necessary to charge a fee for articles submitted within the grace period (authors will be contacted in these cases).
The Society Publishers’ Coalition (SocPC); a group of like-minded, not-for-profit learned societies, community publishers and charities who share the common ambition to see an orderly and sustainable transition to open scholarship.
Our Read and Publish agreements follow the following principles:
Publishers / Society Publishers that are:
- Not for profit and mission driven
- Actively transitioning away from legacy subscription models and/or piloting transformative approaches
Agreements:
- Offer unlimited OA for all eligible publications plus read access to paywall content
- Any paper eligible under the deal from a corresponding author at a participating institution is included
- Authors and readers are notified of institutional participation to facilitate OA
- Meta-data driven annual reporting for librarians
- Creative Commons licensing
- No NDAs - terms are transparent and publicly available (e.g. agreements deposited on ESAC)
Authors at the institutions below may publish with GSL under their Read and publish agreement for the Geological Society’s Lyell Collection for articles submitted in 2026:
UK
Natural History Museum, London, UK
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). This agreement includes Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) research centres - British Geological Survey and British Antarctic Survey.
Europe
Consejo Superior De Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), Spain. This agreement includes 23 URICI-CSIC member institutions.
Lunds Universitet, Sweden
University College Dublin, Ireland
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands
North America
Indiana University, Bloomington, United States
Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada
Natural Resources Canada
University of Saskatchewan, Canada
Rest of World
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Authors at the institutions below may publish with GSL under their Read and publish agreement for the Geological Society’s Lyell Collection for articles submitted in 2025:
UK
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). This agreement includes Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) research centres - British Geological Survey and British Antarctic Survey.
Europe
Consejo Superior De Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), Spain. This agreement includes 23 URICI-CSIC member institutions.
Lunds Universitet, Sweden
University College Dublin, Ireland
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands
North America
Indiana University, Bloomington, United States
Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada
Natural Resources Canada
University of Iowa, Iowa City, United States
University of Maryland, College Park, United States
US Geological Survey, United States
Rest of World
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Jisc member institutions can view their read and publish rates and licence information in Jisc Subscriptions Manager.
Authors at the following Jisc member institutions may publish with GSL under a Read and publish agreement for the Geological Society’s Lyell Collection for articles submitted in 2026:
Birkbeck, University of London
Cardiff University
Heriot-Watt University
Imperial College
Queen's University of Belfast
Royal Holloway University of London
The Open University
University College London
University of Aberdeen
University of Birmingham
University of Bristol
University of Cambridge
University of Durham
University of East Anglia
University of Edinburgh
University of Exeter
University of Glasgow
University of Leeds
University of Liverpool
University of Manchester
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
University of Oxford
University of Plymouth
University of Portsmouth
University of Sheffield
University of Southampton
University of St Andrews
University of Strathclyde
Authors at the following Jisc member institutions may publish with GSL under a Read and publish agreement for the Geological Society’s Lyell Collection for articles submitted in 2025:
Bangor University
Birkbeck, University of London
Cardiff University
Heriot-Watt University
Imperial College
Lancaster University
Queen's University of Belfast
Royal Holloway University of London
The Open University
University College London
University of Aberdeen
University of Birmingham
University of Bristol
University of Cambridge
University of Durham
University of East Anglia
University of Edinburgh
University of Exeter
University of Glasgow
University of Leeds
University of Liverpool
University of Manchester
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
University of Oxford
University of Plymouth
University of Portsmouth
University of Sheffield
University of Southampton
University of St Andrews
University of Strathclyde
Authors at the following CAUL member institutions may publish with GSL under a Read and publish agreement for the Geological Society’s Lyell Collection for articles submitted in 2026:
Australian National University
Flinders University
Macquarie University
Monash University
University of Melbourne
University of Otago
University of Queensland
University of Sydney
University of Tasmania
University of Western Australia
Victoria University of Wellington
Authors at the following CAUL member institutions may publish with GSL under a Read and publish agreement for the Geological Society’s Lyell Collection for articles submitted in 2025:
CSIRO
Australian National University
Macquarie University
Monash University
University of Melbourne
University of Otago
University of Queensland
University of Sydney
University of Tasmania
University of Western Australia
Victoria University of Wellington
Authors at the following ZB Med consortia institutions in Germany may publish with GSL under a Read and publish agreement for the Geological Society’s Lyell Collection for articles submitted in 2026:
Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe (BGR)
Freie Universität Berlin
GEOMAR: Helmholtz-Zentrum für Ozeanforschung Kiel
GFZ Helmholtz-Zentrum für Geoforschung
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Bremen
Technische Universität Berlin
Universität Hamburg
Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster
Authors at the following ZB Med consortia institutions in Germany may publish with GSL under a Read and publish agreement for the Geological Society’s Lyell Collection for articles submitted in 2025:
Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe (BGR)
Freie Universität Berlin
GEOMAR: Helmholtz-Zentrum für Ozeanforschung Kiel
GFZ Helmholtz-Zentrum für Geoforschung
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Bremen
Technische Universität Berlin
Universität Hamburg
Authors at the following Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research (SIKT) consortia institutions in Norway may publish with GSL under a Read and publish agreement for the Geological Society’s Lyell Collection for articles submitted in 2026:
Norges Geologiske Undersøkelse
Universitetet i Bergen
Universitetet i Oslo
Universitetssenteret på Svalbard
The eligible author must be the corresponding author and submit using their institutional affiliation and matching email address.
Authors at the California Digital Library institutions listed below are able to take advantage of a 25% discount off APC for articles submitted in 2025 and 2026:
University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Davis
University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, San Diego
