Invitation to “Progress in Earth and Planetary Science (PEPS)” by Japan Geoscience Union

Welcome to Progress in Earth and Planetary Science (PEPS), the new full open access peer-review e-journal covering all the branches of Earth and Planetary Sciences including Space and Planetary Sciences, Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Sciences, Human Geosciences, Solid Earth Sciences, and Biogeosciences. PEPS has been launched by the Japan Geoscience Union (JpGU–the organization which represents earth and planetary science societies in Japan), and aims to serve as an international platform for the publication of high-quality articles covering a wider field than the usual specialist journals. The choice of the name “Progress in Earth and Planetary Science” expresses our hope for progress in our various research areas, whilst the word “Science” is left in the singular to representing our desire for greater unity between the various subfields.

The main objective of this open-access e-journal is to publish high-level research and review articles and by doing so to disseminate information and basic knowledge at very low cost to readers around the world. In order to achieve this we are working with Springer-open as a publishing partner. Since I think it is fair to say that worldwide most scientific research in our field has been supported by government money, and therefore of course by the general public, it is only fair and reasonable that the results of this research should be freely available to all.

One of the further attractions of PEPS is that the copyright of all articles rests with the author. So of course everyone is free to post copies of their PEPS papers on their home pages.

In addition to regular scientific papers, PEPS also aims to promote the publication of review articles. Journals tend to provide newer information than is available in books, and, given the rapid progress in many scientific fields, the relative importance attached by academic libraries to journals has been increasing. Major international scientific publishing houses think that this trend will continue for the foreseeable future. In view of this, the JpGU thinks that the emphasis placed by the new journal on review articles will provide an opportunity for scientists to read organized descriptions of new developments before such material appears in book form. We see the review article, which provides a summary of the latest systematic developments, as being mid-way between a scientific paper and a book. We hope that the review articles in PEPS will be useful educational resources for the geoscience community, for instance by forming the basis for university seminars.

The JpGU will be responsible for the development of PEPS, and would like to contribute to the future success of the journal. PEPS will be run by the Journal Steering and Planning Committee and the Journal Editorial Committee in cooperation with the JpGU Board of Directors and the JpGU member societies. It is our intention to publish high quality articles either discussing specific research results or explaining general unifying concepts. We will accept manuscripts from authors based anywhere in the world, regardless of affiliation or JpGU membership.