Geodynamica Submission

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About

Geodynamica is a community-led Diamond Open Access Journal (DOAJ) that publishes research in the field of geodynamics.

The mission of Geodynamica is to facilitate the dissemination of scientific work by publishing high quality peer-reviewed research within its [scope]l. Geodynamica is not-for-profit, exclusively managed and supported by volunteers from the scientific community, and strives to provide scientists with a platform where they can openly communicate their science amongst themselves and to the wider public world.

Focus and Scope

Geodynamica publishes research focussing on the understanding of the geodynamic processes that shape the Earth and (exo)planets. We welcome studies based on observations, experiments, and/or models. 

The scope of Geodynamica includes the following non-exhaustive list of disciplines, methods, and research directions:

  • Internal dynamics, structure, chemical, thermal, and magnetic evolution of planets.
  • Interior-surface-atmosphere interactions, biological feedbacks and planetary habitability.
  • Tectonics, volcanism, magmatism, metamorphism, and planetary surface evolution.
  • Rheological, mechanical, thermodynamic, and transport properties of geomaterials.
  • Methodological and technical developments.
  • Community initiatives: education, outreach, and equality, diversity, and inclusion efforts.

Submission Checklist

Geodynamica welcomes the submission of original manuscripts on original research on topics falling within the scope of the journal. Contributions from any person are welcome, and should follow these guidelines:

Submitted manuscripts must follow one of the available Geodynamica templates (Microsoft Word template[download link], LaTex template[download link]).

  • Manuscripts must be clearly written in the English language, suitable for reading by knowledgeable experts in the field of geodynamics.
  • Figures are accepted in the following formats: .png, .jpeg, .pdf, .tiff, .eps, .svg, .ps
  • Figures should meet the following criteria: 
    • A minimum resolution of 150 dpi
    • A minimum font size of 7pt
    • Use of unambiguous conceptually-uniform and accessible (e.g., colourblind-friendly) colour scales
    • Explicit labeling of subpanels with a, b, c, d, etc.
    • Manuscripts must be logically presented and structured (including sections, paragraphs, etc.), laying out the context and motivation of the study, and how it aims to advance our understanding of the subject.
  • Manuscripts must include a description of the methods, which is sufficient to enable reproduction of the results by other experts.
  • Authors are encouraged to follow the FAIR principles, which enhances reproducibility of the results (also see Open Data Policy).
  • Authors must provide a clear and unbiased presentation and analysis of the results.
  • Manuscripts must offer an interpretation/conclusion that is logically supported by the results.
  • Speculation and extrapolation are welcome so long as they are explicitly identified as such and add value to the scientific discourse.

Copyright Notice

The following is an agreement between Geodynamica (the Journal) and the submitter (the Author), governing the work currently being submitted, including the primary contribution as well as any supporting materials such as an abstract, data sets, media files, figures, or tables created by the Author and any co-authors (the Submission), and, if the work is accepted for publication, the published article (the Work).

The Journal is a diamond open access journal, which means that all content is freely available without any fee, cost, or charge under a Creative Commons license (see Section 5) to readers or their institutions. Subject to correctly referencing the Work, anyone is allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author.

1. As consideration for publication in the Journal, the Author grants the Journal the following rights:
1.1. A non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free right to publish, reproduce, publicly display, publicly perform and distribute the Work in perpetuity throughout the world in all means of expression by any method or media now known or hereafter developed; and
1.2. A non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free right to license others, including databases or printing vendors, to do any or all of the above on a non-exclusive basis.

2. The Author warrants that:
2.1. The Author is the author of the Submission, or is authorized to act on behalf of the author(s) and copyright holder(s) (if different from the author(s)), and has the power to convey the rights granted in this agreement.
2.2. If the Submission has multiple authors, the other authors are identified in the Submission, and the Author will inform the other authors of the terms of this agreement.
2.3. Any textual, graphic or multimedia material included in the Submission that is the intellectual property or work of another is identified and cited in the Submission. 
2.4. If the Submission reproduces any material that is the intellectual property of another, the Author has received permission to publish that material in the Submission, or the material is being incorporated based on an informed, reasonable, and good faith application of fair use.
2.5. The Submission is the original work of the Author(s). To the best of the Author’s knowledge, it does not contain matter that is obscene, libelous, or defamatory; it does not knowingly violate another’s right of privacy, right of publicity, or other legal right; does not contain false or misleading statements; and is otherwise not unlawful.
2.6. The Submission has not been previously published, and is not pending review elsewhere. If this is not the case, the Author will provide the Journal with information about the other locations where the Submission appears or is pending review. Prior distribution of a Submission, including on a preprint server or in a repository, does not disqualify a Submission from potential publication; the Journal is primarily concerned with other appearances in similar publications.
2.7. If the Author is a student, the Author agrees to share their work and waive any privacy rights granted by FERPA or any other law, policy or regulation, with respect to the Submission, for the purpose of publication. If the Author has any student co-authors, the Author will obtain a signed copy of this agreement from those co-authors. 

3. Indemnification
The Author will indemnify and hold the Journal harmless against loss, damages, expenses, awards, and judgments arising from breach of any of the above warranties.

4. Author’s Rights and Obligations
4.1. Nothing in this agreement constitutes a transfer of the copyright by the Author. As such, the Author retains all rights not expressly granted herein, including but not limited to, the right:
4.1.1. To reproduce and distribute the Submission, and to authorize others to reproduce and distribute the Submission, in any format;
4.1.2. To post the Submission in an institutional repository or the Author’s personal or departmental web page.
4.1.3. To include the Submission, in whole or in part, in another work.
4.2. If the Author distributes the Submission on another website or in another publication (as described above), the Journal will be cited as the source of first publication.

5. Rights for Readers
The Journal and the Author agree that the Submission will be distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), or other later version of the same license, that allows others to copy, distribute, translate, adapt, and build upon the Submission, even commercially, as long as they provide appropriate credit to the author(s). Anyone who uses or redistributes the Submission under this license must indicate any changes that were made, must link to the license, and cannot imply that the author(s) endorse them or their use. More information about this license is available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. 

6. Termination
The Author agrees to the terms of this agreement for the Submission being considered for publication. If the Submission is declined, this agreement is terminated.

 

Peer Review

Our peer-review process proceeds as follows:

Original submission & cover letter

The authors may submit their manuscript and any related materials via the designated manuscript submission system, following the format guidelines (see Manuscript submission guidelines above). 

The submission should be accompanied by a cover letter containing a brief summary and motivation of the work and including any particular requests from the authors to the editorial team. Authors are also invited to suggest a maximum of 3 names of the Editorial Team as handling editors. 

Upon submission, authors are required to accept the Author Agreement and declare originality of the manuscript, sole ownership of copyright by the author(s), that the manuscript is not submitted to another journal, and that all co-authors agree with the submission and the author order. Author contributions should be listed according to the CRediT system. 

All requests pertaining to the manuscript handling process (peer review style, suggested reviewers, etc.) should be made at the submission stage. In the absence of any specific requests the Editorial Team will manage the submitted manuscript according to the default options indicated below. The Editorial Team will consider all requests, and will let the authors know if they are not able to accommodate particular requests.

Assignment of a handling editor and secondary editors

Upon submission of a manuscript, all editors get a notification of submission. All editors (with preference given to the editors selected by the authors) then have 3 working days to self-assign the manuscript as handling editor. Any editor can volunteer to be the handling editor or propose other editors who might have the technical knowledge required to judge the manuscript at this stage. 

If no editor has volunteered to handle a manuscript within 3 working days, the two editors on monitoring duty are responsible for assigning an editor to handle the manuscript. Using this process, a handling editor with expertise on the manuscript topic should be assigned within 10 working days after manuscript submission. 

To assist the handling editor, two secondary editors are assigned to the manuscript from the secondary editor duty list, which lists editors in reverse chronological order in terms of their previous editorial tasks (i.e., an editor who has not recently been a secondary editor on a manuscript is the first person to be assigned secondary editor on a manuscript). Exceptions to this order are made in case of a) unavailability; b) if they are the current handling editor; c) if multiple editors volunteered to handle the manuscript. In the latter case, all volunteering editors who are not the handling editor are automatically assigned as secondary editors. 

Pre-review screening

Our standard for deciding whether to handle a manuscript is rooted in the sustainability of our collective efforts. Specifically, the time and effort of our team (including reviewers) is precious and must be respected to ensure the journal’s long-term sustainability. Editors will only send papers for review after agreeing that the submitted manuscript is clear, topical, original, of interest to our readership, and worthy of the effort that we request from our editors and reviewers. Therefore, we may return manuscripts without requesting the assessment of external reviewers if the manuscript does not meet these criteria. Our decision will be justified to the authors.

Assignment of reviewers

A minimum of two solicited reviewers will be assigned by the handling editor to examine each manuscript, chosen from experts in the subject area who are among the target audience of the manuscript. In the cover letter accompanying the submission, authors may suggest potential reviewers, and also persons they do not wish to review the manuscript. However, in making these suggestions the authors are encouraged to include a justification for these suggestions, and to state any conflicts of interest. We cannot guarantee that these suggestions will be followed by the handling editor, who will make an independent judgement regarding the final assignment of solicited reviewers. Depending on the peer-review option chosen by the authors, solicited reviewers may choose whether or not to remain anonymous. 

Review process

Concerning anonymity, Geodynamica offers three peer-review options: Open Peer Review, Double Blind Peer Review, and Reviewer Discretion (default, see section on Anonymity of Authors and Reviewers for more details). The purpose of peer review is to improve the scientific dialogue in a constructive spirit, to more clearly convey ideas and results accurately, thereby enhancing the general impact of the science. Reviewers are asked to assess the positive aspects of each manuscript, check for errors (logical, mathematical, analytical, conceptual, etc.), and where applicable to suggest ways to improve the presentation, citations, explication, conceptualization, robustness, and impact of the study. The handling editor will ask reviewers to offer a recommendation regarding the suitability of the manuscript for publication, and to clearly outline any issues they believe need to be addressed if it requires further work and/or revision. Any abusive and inappropriate language by the reviewers and/or the authors during the peer-review process will not be tolerated. The handling editor may request reviewers/authors to revise their review/rebuttal. The handling editor may decide to reject a review if they deem the language used inappropriate. The handling editor may decide to reject a manuscript if the authors’ rebuttal is inappropriately formulated. 

Editor decision

Based on the reviews and their own assessment of the manuscript, the handling editor and two secondary editors jointly decide whether to (1) recommend publication of the manuscript in its present form, (2) solicit a revision from the authors outlining the particular aspects that require improvement, or (3) reject the manuscript. In case (2) the editor will set a timeline for submission of a revised version of the manuscript. If the revision is not received by the deadline, or an extended deadline is not requested by the authors, the manuscript will revert to case (3).

In exceptional cases, the editorial team can be consulted for decisions on the manuscript. 

After acceptance, the submitted materials will be sent to the technical team to prepare the final manuscript for publication. 

Production

The authors are expected to have followed the technical guidelines to help our volunteer team tackle the required formatting work, and respond to any queries or requests in a timely manner to ensure that the publication will not be delayed.

Postproduction 

  • Publication: The published manuscript will be listed and made available for download on the journal website. Solicited peer reviews will be published on the journal website along with the manuscript, with credit to the reviewers unless they decide to remain anonymous.
  • Withdrawal: The authors will have an opportunity to withdraw their manuscript at any time during the review process. After withdrawal, Geodynamica will cease all work related to the manuscript. A copy of the submitted files may be kept only for our internal records and to satisfy any legal requirements.
  • Retraction: The retraction of a publication may occur at the request of authors or editors in case significant problems are discovered. In this event, the publication will remain accessible online and clearly marked as “RETRACTED”.  

Anonymity of Authors and Reviewers

Authors may choose one of the following peer-review options:

  • Open Peer Review: Throughout the peer-review process the identity of the authors is revealed to the reviewers, and the identity of the reviewers is revealed to the authors. Nobody remains anonymous. 
  • Double-Blind Peer Review: The identity of the authors and the identity of the reviewers remain unknown during the peer review process. If the paper is accepted after peer review, the identity of the author(s) will be published and reviewers will retain the option to remain anonymous.
  • Reviewer Discretion (Default): The identity of the author(s) is revealed to the reviewers during the peer-review process. Reviewers remain anonymous by default, unless they choose to reveal their identity by signing their name under their review.

Note that the open peer review and double-blind peer review options may limit the pool of available reviewers and increase the effort required by the handling editor. This may increase the length of time the manuscript spends in peer review.

After acceptance Geodynamica offers the following options with regards to reviewer and author anonymity:

  • Reviewers: All reviews are published along with the manuscript after acceptance. We encourage all reviewers to identify themselves at this stage. However, unless the paper has been handled under the Open Peer Review option, the reviewers will remain anonymous by default, and will only be identified if they sign their review comments to the authors. It is the reviewers’ responsibility to ensure that their remarks do not reveal their identity if they wish to remain anonymous.
  • Authors: The identity of the authors will be revealed after the manuscript has been accepted. Exceptions to this policy should be directed to the editorial team.

Geodynamica will do its best to honor any requests for anonymity from authors and reviewers. However, we cannot guarantee strict anonymity will be maintained, and there may be cases in which Geodynamica is not able to ensure or to honor such requests owing to legal or other reasons.

Licences

Geodynamica allows the following licences for submission:

  • CC BY 4.0
    Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Publication Cycle

This journal published continuously all year round. Published articles are grouped in biannual issues.

Sections

Section or article type

Public Submissions

Peer Reviewed

Indexed

Article