Author Fees for Online Publication

A major advantage of electronic publication is that it costs no more to deliver a color figure online than a black-and-white one. Printing color is, however, still a costly proposition. When publishing each article as soon as it is ready, another significant advantage of electronic publication, the placement of the color pages within the subsequent printed version of the journal can no longer be controlled.

For a variety of reasons, articles in the printed version of AGU journals appear in the order in which they were published. Economical reproduction of printed color requires grouping the color in as few signatures as possible. (A signature is a group of 16 or 32 pages that is printed at the same time on a single sheet.)

Working within these constraints, AGU journals offer several options for authors who wish to use color. Of course, only the journal editor can determine whether color is required for adequate presentation of the science. The options are described below and the accompanying table indicates which options are available for the different journals.

Color Only Online

Color is free if the author chooses to have color only in the online version. Authors may have a black-and-white version of the figure in the printed journal, or may describe the figure if it does not lend itself to conversion to black and white. Because AGU's electronic version is the journal of record, all content published online is an integral part of the article even though it may not appear in the printed version.

Plate Section in Printed Journal

Color figures are printed together at the end of the journal. As is true with the online-only option, authors may provide a black-and-white version of the color figure to appear within the article; or if the figure cannot be reasonably converted to black and white, the author may describe the figure in the article. The figure legend will appear within the article in either case, and there will be a note that a color version of the figure is available online and in the plate section of the printed journal. Color figures will appear at the end of the article in the online pdf.

Authors may have one page of color free as long as they provide appropriate electronic files that can be used for the printing process. If authors are unable to provide electronic files, there will be a charge for making separations from hard copy.

For an additional fee, the author may have the color integrated in the online pdf of the article. Providing this option requires AGU to make up the pages twice (once for printing without color in place, and once for online with the color in place), and the fee covers the added costs for this duplicate work.

Integrated Color in Printed Journal

Color figures are reproduced within the article both in the printed version and in the online pdf. The charge for this option is considerably higher than that for the plate section, for which the cost of the color press is shared by several articles.

Authors who are unable to provide appropriate electronic files can provide hard copy and pay to have the separations made, as is true for the plate section.

Details about the prices for the different options can be found at http://www.agu.org/pubs/journal_forms/colorpricing.html. Specifications for figure files can be found at http://www.agu.org/pubs/guides3a.html.