Seismica: a community-led Diamond Open-Access journal for seismology and earthquake science

Gareth J. Funning, Lucile Bruhat, Martijn van den Ende, Alice-Agnes Gabriel, Stephen Hicks, Romain Jolivet, Thomas Lecocq, & Christie D. Rowe

Published August 16, 2021, SCEC Contribution #11529, 2021 SCEC Annual Meeting Poster #001 (PDF)

Poster Image: 
Seismica is an effort to establish a Diamond Open-Access (OA) journal for the community of researchers working in the (broadly defined) fields of seismology and earthquake science. Diamond OA journals are free to read, do not charge authors to publish, and thus promise to widen access to published research to all. Such efforts require broad community participation beyond editing and reviewing articles, as all functions typically fulfilled by paid staff, including administration, production, typesetting and copy editing, must be undertaken by volunteers.

In December 2020, the Seismica Task Force, a spontaneously-organized group of seismologists and earthquake scientists, connected on Twitter. Inspired by the example of the established diamond OA journal Volcanica, we began to explore the possibility of founding such a journal in our own field. Through outreach via social media, blog posts, conference presentations and disciplinary mailing lists, we have built a community of over 180 interested participants. With broad input, this group has developed a roadmap (https://doi.org/10.31223/X5304V) for the build-out of the journal, including an editorial structure and policies, broad outreach and structures to ensure a diverse editorial team, a logo and visual branding, and agreements with the McGill University Library to host and support the journal. We are currently recruiting our editorial team, and hope to solicit our first article submissions in Q4 of 2021, for publication in early 2022.

In this presentation, we will update the broader community on these and other developments in the journal-building process, and share our experiences and lessons learned.

Key Words
diamond open-access, community engagement

Citation
Funning, G. J., Bruhat, L., van den Ende, M., Gabriel, A., Hicks, S., Jolivet, R., Lecocq, T., & Rowe, C. D. (2021, 08). Seismica: a community-led Diamond Open-Access journal for seismology and earthquake science. Poster Presentation at 2021 SCEC Annual Meeting.


Related Projects & Working Groups
Communication, Education, and Outreach (CEO)