Publications

A preprint is an openly accessible scholarly manuscript containing new research and data that is yet to be published in a peer-reviewed outlet. The posting of a preprint to a preprint server is common before, or in parallel to, submission to a journal.

The Geological Society of London (GSL) supports initiatives that promote transparency, collaboration and speed up the process of dissemination of scholarly communications. Authors are encouraged to submit preprints to non-commercial preprint servers at any time, following these principles:

1. The posting of preprints to personal webpages, institutional repositories and preprint servers is allowed at any time. This will not be viewed as prior publication or preclude the manuscript being sent for peer review if it meets the editorial and ethical criteria.
2. Wherever possible authors should choose a non-commercial preprint server such as arXiv or EarthArXiv, or a scholarly collaboration network that has endorsed the ‘Voluntary principles for article sharing on scholarly collaboration networks’.
3. Authors should retain copyright of their preprint when posting to a preprint server and should not grant an exclusive licence to it. GSL will not publish submissions that have had copyright previously assigned. Authors should ensure they adhere to the chosen preprint server’s policies.
4. Authors should continue to follow the GSL publishing agreement and terms of use and should not post the final published version on a preprint server, or elsewhere, unless the published article is open access. The authors accepted version (post-peer review but prior to copyediting, typesetting etc.), otherwise known as a post-print, should not be posted until the embargo period of 12 months has passed.
5. Upon publication, authors should add citation details and provide a link using its DOI to the abstract of the final published version in the Lyell Collection from the posted preprint.
6. Citation of preprints are acceptable in submitted papers with a reference format that makes clear the preprint and non-peer reviewed status of the source.
7. Any media coverage of a preprint submitted to a GSL publication should be embargoed until the final version is published. 

Publications and Information Committee

12 March 2019