Re: Ocean Science from EGU

["Anthony Watkinson" <anthony.watkinson@btopenworld.com>]

I am not a geoscientist either, but, I have been looked at the site of 
this journal from time to time. Dr. Prosser obviously knows more than I do 
because I am unable to judge the quality of the articles it is attracting. 
There are 11 published so far. The journal has a very interesting 
refereeing policy, which may well be a pointer to future permutations of 
traditional peer review.

My only concern about this policy as described at 
http://www.copernicus.org/EGU/os/publication_process.html is that it seems 
rather labour intensive. I cannot see editors I deal with being keen to 
adopt it for that reason. There is certainly no reason why the peer review 
should not be seriously rigorous.

As far as I can tell there is no explanation of how much it costs the 
author to publish in this journal in the instructions for submission - see 
http://www.copernicus.org/EGU/os/guidelines_for_publication.html.  The 
only reason why I assume that there are or will be submission charges is a 
statement in red at http://www.copernicus.org/EGU/os/os.html which says 
that they are waived for 1000 pages.

There is at the moment considerable interested in the sustainability of OA 
publishing models sparked in part by the excellent independent survey by 
ALPSP, the body representing learned society publishers - see 
http://www.alpsp.org/publications/pub11.htm. It is impossible to tell what 
model this and sister journals adopt. They have a print version, which 
does have a subscription rate - which means that they do not get the cost 
advantages of an entirely e-publication. As I have mentioned the editorial 
costs in terms of time are likely to be higher than a journal operating a 
standard peer review system. More time spent by editors usually (in my 
experience) means higher payments by the publisher.

It would be very interesting to know whether the EGU is subsidising its 
publications alongside the impressive range of other activities it 
supports - .http://www.copernicus.org/EGU/EGU.html. It seems to me that 
there can be no objection if a learned society does wish to subsidise its 
publications, but the money has to come from somewhere. Is Dr. Prosser in 
a position to tell us more? I am sure that SPARC Europe must be involved 
somewhere or do I overestimate his outreach?

Anthony Watkinson

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Prosser" <david.prosser@bodley.ox.ac.uk>
To: <liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, November 30, 2005 11:53 PM
Subject: RE: Ocean Science from EGU

> Dear Peter
>
> I am not in any way associated with the European Geosciences Union or
> ocean studies, but:
>
> The European Geosciences Union is a highly respected international
> scientific society formed in 2002 as a merger of the European Geophysical
> Society and the European Union of Geosciences.
> (http://www.copernicus.org/EGU/EGU.html)  As such, it represents
> approximately 60,000.
>
> The societies that formed the EGU had 20 years' experience in scholarly
> publishing, and their open access titles are proving very popular and are
> listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals.  Ocean Science is a new
> journal, having been launched this year, but is already attracting
> high-quality articles.  Perhaps you should contact one of the Topical
> Editors, many of whom are based in the US
> (http://www.copernicus.org/EGU/os/editors.html).
>
> Best wishes
>
> David C Prosser PhD
> Director
> SPARC Europe
> E-mail:  david.prosser@bodley.ox.ac.uk
>
> -----Original Message-----
> [mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Fritzler, Peter
> Sent: 29 November 2005 00:23
> To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
> Subject: OA: Ocean Science from EGU
>
> Dear list members,
>
> A faculty member at my institution recently inquired about publishing in
>
> the open access journal, Ocean Science, a publication from the European
> Geosciences Union. As far as open access goes, the journal appears to
> subscribe to many of the tenets of OA publishing including Budapest,
> Berlin, Bethesda, and Wellcome Trust. However, does anyone know anything
> about the reputation of this journal and/or EGU?
>
> Thank you.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Peter Fritzler
> Sciences Librarian
> William Randall Library
> UNC Wilmington
> <mailto:fritzlerp@uncw.edu>