TAG - Geological Society of Australia

Society UpdateFrom the AJES Hon Editor’s deskAJES ImpactOpen AccessThe movement towards open access (OA) began in the 1990sand has grown with the development of the internet. The OAmovement is commonly articulated in terms of transparency andpublic access to publicly funded research. Many funding bodies,particularly in Europe and North America, require and fundpublication in OA journals. Every major traditional academicpublisher offers authors access to OA publication that includesoffering hybrid OA at article level as well as pure OA journals.AJES, through our publisher Taylor & Francis, now offers hybridOA to authors.There are many types of OA. For example, science articlesare available immediately OA on payment of a fee (gold OA)or after an embargo period in an Institutional Repository orSubject Repository at no cost (green OA). For a more detailedexplanation of the types of OA available and the issues involvedlook at Peter Suber’s site at http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/overview.htm for an informative overview. Wikipedia alsoprovides a simple explanation.After acceptance, authors of AJES papers will be given theoption to sponsor access for non-subscribers. If authors take thisoption, and pay a fee, these articles become OA. As with OAjournals, the article processing fee (currently US$2950) coversthe costs associated with publishing, including managing thepeer review process, supporting our publishing and hosting platforms,typesetting, marketing and other publishing costs. Theprocess for authors who choose not to take the option for OAwill remain unchanged. For more information on Taylor &Francis’s Open Access program, see the Author Services site athttp://journalauthors.tandf.co.uk/preparation/OpenAccess.asp.Strategic planning for AJESIn March, the Editorial Board (EB) was asked to identify the goodand the bad of the journal and current publication contract.These were discussed with Taylor & Francis at a meeting held inCanberra that was attended by several members of the EB andSue Fletcher. With an overall positive view of the journal and itscontent, several areas of improvement were identified, as wellas issues that were poorly understood. Some of the issues raisedare summarised below.CopyrightGSA is the copyright owner for most published papers. Someorganisations retain copyright and give GSA a licence to publish.The ownership of the copyright is identified on the first page ofeach paper. Publishers such as Taylor & Francis do not own thecopyright and if a new publisher is contracted the digital filesare transferred to the new publisher.Journal contentThe AJES content is highly regarded bymembers of the EB. This is consistentwith our impact factor and ranking ofthe journal. Thematic issues and review papers are of particularinterest to readers. If you have proposals or suggestions forthematic issues or review papers please contact me.Pre-publication of papers has reduced the time for publication,particularly for thematic issues where delays can besignificant. Each paper submitted is processed individually andas soon as the proofs have been corrected and approved, papersare published online (see Forthcoming Papers on the AJESwebsite). The publication date for a paper is the date it ispublished online and not the print date.The alert system on the website can be set up so you receivean email when new papers are uploaded. These emails includethe authors and title of the new paper plus a hotlink to thepaper.PrintingAJES is currently printed in Australia using offset printing, whichresults in high-quality images and text. The decision to printin Australia has been the GSA’s. In the past this has added tothe costs and meant charges for colour in print. All the issuesrelating to printing will be re-evaluated as part of the tenderprocess but at least for the next contract period we are planningto retain the option for printed copies from members.Colour imagesColour is free for online publication. There is currently a chargefor colour in print and occasionally we publish a full-colour issuewhere we obtain external funding. As part of our current contractwith Taylor & Francis there are five free colour pages perissue, which I allocate among authors.Cost of downloadsThe cost of downloads of papers from the AJES website for nonmembershas been questioned. Download charges are paid bynon-members who do not have access to libraries with AJESsubscriptions. This issue is a difficult one. Currently GSA andTaylor & Francis have a profit-sharing arrangement for the saleof subscriptions and individual downloads. These funds areimportant to GSA and without them members’ costs would needto increase.12 |TAG December 2012