EarthArXiv (pronounced "Earth
archive
An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located.
Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or ...
") is both a
preprint
In academic publishing, a preprint is a version of a scholarly or scientific paper that precedes formal peer review and publication in a peer-reviewed scholarly or scientific journal. The preprint may be available, often as a non-typeset versio ...
server and a volunteer community devoted to open scholarly communication. As a preprint server, EarthArXiv publishes articles from all subdomains of Earth Science and related domains of planetary science. These publications are versions of scholarly papers that precede publication in
peer-reviewed
Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...
scientific journals
In academic publishing, a scientific journal is a periodical publication intended to further the progress of science, usually by reporting new research.
Content
Articles in scientific journals are mostly written by active scientists such as s ...
. EarthArXiv is not itself a journal and does not evaluate the scientific quality of a paper. Instead, EarthArXiv serves as a platform for free hosting and rapid dissemination of scientific results. The EarthArXiv platform assigns each submission a
Digital Object Identifier
A digital object identifier (DOI) is a persistent identifier or handle used to uniquely identify various objects, standardized by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). DOIs are an implementation of the Handle System; they a ...
(DOI), therefore assigning provenance and making it citable in other scholarly works. EarthArXiv's mission is to promote open access, share open access and preprint resources, and participate in shared governance of the preprint server and its policies. EarthArXiv was launched on October 23, 2017.
History
The idea of an Earth Science-focused preprint service developed independently in the U.K and the U.S. in early-2017.
Christopher Jackson, inspired by
ArXiv
arXiv (pronounced "archive"—the X represents the Greek letter chi ⟨χ⟩) is an open-access repository of electronic preprints and postprints (known as e-prints) approved for posting after moderation, but not peer review. It consists of ...
, and preprints subsequent expansion into other fields (e.g.
BioRxiv
bioRxiv (pronounced "bio-archive") is an open access preprint repository for the biological sciences co-founded by John Inglis and Richard Sever in November 2013. It is hosted by the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL).
As preprints, papers h ...
), began gathering European support for an Earth science preprint service. Jackson inquired with the
Center for Open Science
The Center for Open Science is a non-profit technology organization based in Charlottesville, Virginia with a mission to "increase the openness, integrity, and reproducibility of scientific research." Brian Nosek and Jeffrey Spies founded the or ...
(COS), a U.S.-based non-profit about using their existing preprint infrastructure, which is based on the
Open Science Framework
The Center for Open Science is a non-profit technology organization based in Charlottesville, Virginia with a mission to "increase the openness, integrity, and reproducibility of scientific research." Brian Nosek and Jeffrey Spies founded the or ...
(OSF), to host the service. COS was hosting (at the time) 20 domain specific preprint systems and was interested in expanding into the Earth sciences. COS would provide the technical infrastructure – storage space, DOI generation, web hosting, etc. - with a community of international Earth scientist volunteers providing shared governance.
Around the same time, Bruce Caron and Tom Narock, having seen a COS demonstration at a meeting of the
Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP), also began discussing an Earth science themed preprint system with U.S. colleagues. COS put Caron and Narock in touch with Jackson in spring-2017, and a concerted effort was made to get the newly named EarthArXiv off the ground. The EarthArXiv principles resonated with ESIP, and they became a collaborating partner. ESIP supplied physical meeting space as well as multiple means of virtual communication to accelerate the effort. On June 1, 2017 the ESIP support coalesced into a formal working group, the Earth Sciences Pre-Print Cluster. The cluster held bi-weekly conference calls and hosted their first in-person meeting during a break-out session of the Summer 2017 ESIP Meeting in Bloomington, Indiana.
The group spent six months community building, exploring other platforms (such as PLOS and PeerJ), and soliciting community feedback on how EarthArXiv should be constructed, and how it should operate. During this time, over 100 international volunteers came forward offering to promote and help run EarthArXiv. A final decision was made to partner with COS and on October 23, 2017 – the first day of
Open Access Week
Open Access Week is an annual scholarly communication event focusing on open access and related topics. It takes place globally during the last full week of October in a multitude of locations both on- and offline. Typical activities include t ...
2017 – EarthArXiv began accepting preprints.
[Center For Open Science Press Release](_blank)
/ref> ESIP continues to support EarthArXiv; however, the Earth Sciences Pre-Print Cluster was disbanded and governance now maintained by the EarthArXiv Advisory Council.
On October 1, 2020, EarthArXiv moved its hosting to the California Digital Library, and the Janeway preprint platform.[CDL Press Release](_blank)
/ref>
Disciplines
EarthArXiv publishes pre- and postprints from all subdomains of Earth science and related domains of planetary science including geochemistry.
See also
* List of preprint repositories
This is a list of preprint repositories.
List
See also
* List of academic journals by preprint policy This is a list of Academic publishing, publishers of academic journals by their submission policies regarding the use of preprints prior t ...
References
External links
* {{official website, https://eartharxiv.org
Eprint archives
Open-access archives
American digital libraries
Internet properties established in 2017
Earth sciences organizations