Frequently Asked Questions

A passionate community of volunteers run the day-to-day management of Seismica and carry out editing, reviewing and typesetting responsibilities. Seismica’s web interface and DOI assignment are directly supported and hosted by the library at McGill University, Canada.

Seismica believes that science should be accessible to everyone and has created an open platform for sharing peer-reviewed research in geophysics and earthquake science. Open Access publishing  is sometimes criticized as being less inclusive and accessible due to the very high author processing charges (APCs) charged by some hybrid and Gold Open Access journals. Seismica is run by a large, dedicated team of unpaid volunteers passionate about making the publishing landscape more equitable and fair in seismology and earthquake science. Because Seismica is a Diamond Open-Access journal, we do not charge for publishing or reading papers. This reflects our mission to make the products of our research accessible to global stakeholders.  We would love you to be part of this like-minded community!

 No. Non-profit society journals continue to offer excellent publishing options for scientists in our field. Seismica was inspired in part by extortionate Gold Open Access fees charged by many for-profit publishers. There are few options available to scientists who cannot afford such fees. The team behind Seismica is committed to offering a new, more equitable opportunity for our community.

Seismica accepts any submission that roughly covers the fields of earthquake science or geophysics. A detailed list of subject areas can be found under Scope. Please get in touch with the Editorial Team if you have any questions about the subject that you would like to submit.

Authors should expect to receive a decision from editors based on peer review reports on their initial submission within 8 weeks. We expect reviews to be back within 4 weeks of submission for Fast Reports. In all cases, initial desk-based decisions from handling editors will take less time than these estimates.

Research articles can be of any length of between 3,000 and 10,000 words, and Fast Reports should be less than 3,000 words.

Seismica encourages posting preprints on any channel of the authors’ choice, including preprint servers, authors’ or institutional websites. Authors may post preprints at any time during the peer-review process. Authors should disclose details of preprint posting, including DOI and licensing terms, upon submission of the manuscript or at any other point during consideration at Seismica.

An impact factor is calculated based on the previous 2 (or 3) years of published papers and citations for a journal. Seismica just launched in 2022, so we can’t apply to Clarivate Analytics (the company that calculates and publishes IFs) until 2024 at the earliest.

Seismica ensures a transparent and respectful review process by publishing reviews alongside published research articles. The scientific publishing ecosystem can sometimes produce discouraging language for researchers, so Seismica will take a more mindful approach. All parties must agree to our Code of Conduct, and the Editorial Committee does not tolerate the use of disrespectful language. Finally, manuscripts can be reviewed anonymously (i.e., double-blind) at the author's request. We will mentor reviewers, editors, and authors to achieve an inclusive, responsive, and productive publishing process.

 Seismica is a volunteer-run journal, and we ask that authors help smooth their submissions through our review and copy-editing processes by taking responsibility for keeping submissions consistent with the templates (Word, Open Office, or LaTeX) and responding thoroughly to reviewer and editor comments. If a submission appears to be unready for peer review (for example: not original; grammatical or other issues that would prevent proper scientific assessment, non-compliance with open data requirements), Handling Editors may return the submission to author for corrections and re-submission prior to sending the manuscript out for peer review.  We are building a robust recruitment, replacement and expansion plan to ensure Seismica will grow in the future to keep up with submissions and training workshops to support a consistent and high-quality review experience for authors, reviewers, and editors.

Please sign up to join our reviewer database with your contact details and subjects of expertise: https://seismica.eu.pythonanywhere.com/. You can log-in with your ORCID number.

Please email tech@seismica.org with any questions or issues related to registering on the website or submitting a paper.