The Geological Society offers a range of subscription and access options for libraries subscribing to the journals and book series we publish in the Lyell Collection.
Subscription options and ratesTransparent pricing | MARC records and KBART records | Accessibility | Perpetual access to subscribed-to-content | Pay-per-view | Digital preservation | Access for Developing Countries | Usage statistics
Open Access articles
The Geological Society offers authors the opportunity to publish Open Access articles which are free to all and designated by an Open Access logo.
These articles are published under the terms of the CC BY license.
Transparent pricing
Geological Society of London publications are hybrid and include both Open Access (OA) and paywalled content. Geological Society of London has implemented a transparent pricing policy to ensure that we do not receive both an article processing charge (APC) and subscription income for OA articles in our journals and book series.
To arrive at pricing for 2025 we calculated the number of non-OA articles over a 3-year rolling period. The percentage change between the periods 2020-2022 and 2021-2023 was used to offset prices prior to any price adjustment in relation to inflation and other economic factors. We chose to use a 3-year period to help iron out short-term fluctuations in content publishing and we cap any changes at +/-10%. For the purposes of this calculation, any OA articles where the APC was waived were counted as non-OA.
Each year we will publish the percentages and article counts on our website. The figures used for the 2025 subscription prices are shown below.
| 2020-2022 | 2021-2023 | |||||
| Journal / Book series | Non-OA articles | APC articles | Non-OA articles | APC articles | Change in non-OA | Offsetting prior to price adjustment |
| Special Publications | 197 | 26 | 171 | 116 | -13% | -10% |
| Journal of the Geological Society | 71 | 18 | 68 | 24 | -5% | -5% |
| Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology & Hydrogeology | 60 | 5 | 56 | 9 | -7% | -7% |
| Petroleum Geoscience | 30 | 5 | 24 | 9 | -18% | -10% |
| Geochemistry: Exploration, Environment, Analysis | 29 | 6 | 22 | 9 | -23% | -10% |
| Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society | 11 | 1 | 8 | 1 | -26% | -10% |
| Scottish Journal of Geology | 12 | 2 | 12 | 2 | -8% | -8% |
| Geoenergy | Launched in 2023 | n/a | n/a | |||
Perpetual access to subscribed-to content
Subscribers since 2008 can request perpetual access to their subscribed-to content published in final volume form. For example a subscriber for the years 2012 to 2024 who does not renew for 2025 can request perpetual access to the content published from 2012 to 2024. This does not include access to articles which were not published in final volume form by 31 December 2024. Please email us to request perpetual access.
Subscriptions prior to 2008 do not entitle subscribers to access Lyell-hosted past content. For 2007 and earlier the print copy was the version of record and electronic access was a free add-on. Electronic access was discontinued when a subscription lapsed.
MARC records and KBART records
MARC records are available for all book series available on the Lyell Collection. KBART records are available for all journal, book series and monographs available on the Lyell Collection. MARC records and KBART files are now also added to the WorldCat® knowledge base regularly to ensure the latest content selections are available to aid discoverability. Please see the list of available files here.
Accessibility
We aim to make our online journal and book content accessible to all our visitors and improvements to the site are made on an ongoing basis. Our commitment to this endeavour reflects the growing customer need for accessibility to our content in order to best support the science and communities we serve. You can find out more here.
Pay-per-view
Individual articles, book volumes and eBooks are available for purchase for personal use (please see Access and Subscriptions page for pay-per-view information).
Digital preservation
The Geological Society of London has partnered with CLOCKSS to ensure the digital preservation of Lyell Collection content for the future.
Access for Developing Countries
Not-for-profit institutions from eligible countries, areas and territories can register for free or low-cost access to Lyell Collection content via Research4Life (R4L).
Corresponding authors at developing and emerging countries classified as 'Group A' and 'Group B' via R4L are eligible for free Open Access publication in Earth Science, Systems and Society (ES3), the Geological Society's fully open access journal and in GeoHorizons the Society's open access book series.
Usage statistics
Please see the Lyell Collection Access FAQs page for usage report instructions.
JUSP for the UK HE and FE sector - Track your usage with JUSP - the Journals Usage Statistics Portal. JUSP gives librarians in the UK HE and FE sector a simple way of analysing the value and impact of their electronic journal subscriptions through accurate and comparable usage statistics. JUSP saves academic libraries time and duplicated effort by providing a single gateway for them to access their usage statistics from participating publishers.
Online book series and eBooks
Special Publications, Engineering Geology Special Publications, Geological Society Memoirs and the Petroleum Geology Conferences are available online with an annual Lyell Collection Complete subscription for institutional or corporate purchase.
Selected eBooks are available for purchase in ePub format from the Lyell Collection website. This content is not included in any annual subscription options or archive purchases. Pay-per-view purchases are for personal use only.
A selected number of books (including some titles not previously available electronically) are included in the GeoScienceWorld eBook Collection which is designed for institutional purchase. To find out more about the GSW eBook Collection and to discuss a trial contact GeoScienceWorld direct.
Please also see:
Frequently asked questions including administrator registration and usage reports
Technical access information including registering IP addresses, authentication, OpenAthens and Shibboleth
Contact us or our regional representative