The Geological Society’s Open Access policy evolves with the research funding and publishing landscape. There are several routes to Open Access publishing with the Geological Society which make the final published article freely accessible and usable to all.
Open Access articles have an Open Access logo against the article in the online table of contents and on the first page of the online article. Such articles are subject to the Creative Commons CC BY license (see below).
The Lyell Collection also includes free articles without the Open Access logo (for example, the introductory chapters of books). Those articles can be accessed by all, but the regular terms and conditions of use apply.
Geological Society Open Access articles are published under the Creative Commons CC BY License. This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon the work, even commercially, as long as they credit the author for the original creation. This license allows maximum dissemination and use of licensed materials.
Authors are still bound by the Society’s code of publishing ethics.
The Geological Society of London is committed to responsible subscription pricing and has implemented a transparent pricing policy. This ensures that both an Article Processing Charge (APC) and subscription income is not received for Open Access articles in Geological Society of London journals and books.
View the pricing methodologyA discount is available to members of the Geological Society of London for Society-owned journals (where the first author or at least half the authors are members).
There are also discounts for:
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members of AAG for Geochemistry: Exploration, Environment, Analysis
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members of EAGE for Geoenergy and Petroleum Geoscience
Research4Life: corresponding authors based in countries classified as ‘Group A’ and ‘Group B’ (via R4L) are eligible for a full APC waiver on articles published in Earth Science, Systems and Society (ES3) and GeoHorizons.
Authors at institutions that have signed a read and publish agreement with the Geological Society of London may qualify for an APC discount. The list of qualifying institutions can be found on our Read and Publish Agreements page.
Only one form of discount or deal can be applied to the APC.
Current Open Access APCAny article that is to be published online in the Lyell Collection will be eligible, including those published for partner societies. Your funder's open access policy may differ between journals and books, or article types, and it is recommended you check this.
There will be a section in the online submission form allowing authors to choose Open Access.
The article will go through the peer-review and production process in the same way as other articles. No preferential treatment will be offered other than free access and use of the published article.
Authors should check that any material that they use in their article that was not created by them has full permission to publish under the CC BY license. Some picture libraries and other copyright holders might have policies against commercial reuse. You cannot use those figures in a Geological Society Open Access article. All material in the article must be compliant with the CC BY license.
