T222 Open Data, Open Access: Trends in Geoscience Publications and Data Sources

Tuesday, 27 September 2016
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM
Room 504

THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF OPEN ACCESS PUBLISHING IN THE GEOSCIENCES

Paper number: T222-1
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 1:30 PM – 1:45 PM

Authors

Abstract

Open Access (OA) publishing in the geosciences began in the 1990s and has grown steadily. By 2013 the proportion of new earth and environmental science papers that were freely available online in some form had surpassed 50%, according to one analysis. Today more than 125 OA geology journals and series are indexed by the GeoRef bibliographic database. Open Access takes many forms, ranging from publication in OA journals to self-archiving (green OA) in open repositories of various kinds. This paper surveys recent trends in gold and hybrid OA journals in the geosciences and examines the impacts that OA publishing has had on the geoscience literature. We contrast OA vs. subscription journals using citation metrics, impact factors, and other measures on both the journal and article level. Publication fees of major geoscience publishers and those in related disciplines are compared. We report the results of an analysis of publishing patterns of geoscientists at our two institutions – a major research university and an independent research institute – to identify trends in authors’ acceptance of OA as a publishing option. The question of whether OA publishing offers a comparative citation advantage in the geosciences is considered.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 48, No. 7

doi: 10.1130/abs/2016AM-282933

© Copyright 2016 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.