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OPEN ACCESS

What is Open Access?

Open Access (OA) refers to journal articles and other published materials that are distributed online and are completely free to access by the reader. The costs of publication are borne by the author(s) or their funder(s) through a publication fee rather than readers or institutions through either a subscription or pay-to-view charges. This business model was the spark for a larger movement towards greater access and transparency of scientific research.

We created a guide on how to publish open accesspdf icon with AGU. 

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Open Access options in AGU publications

AGU is a proud supporter of open science, which seeks to make scientific research more accessible to all. As part of this commitment we are increasing access to our published content via Open Access and other means.

AGU has 10 fully Open Access journals: AGU Advances, Community Science, Earth’s Future, Earth and Space Science, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, Geophysical Research Letters (starting January 2023), Geohealth, Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, Perspectives of Earth and Space Scientists, and Space Weather. 

  • Authors must pay an Article Processing Charge (APC) for their article to be published.
  • Authors can select one of several Creative Commons (CC) licenses.
  • Articles published in these journals are freely available online immediately upon publication.

AGU has 13 hybrid journals where readers will find some articles available via Open Access while others will be behind a paywall unless their institution has a subscription.

  • If an author wants their article to be available free of charge to all readers (i.e. Open Access) they will need to pay an Article Processing Charge. Authors can select this option after their article is accepted. Authors select one of several Creative Commons (CC) licenses. The article is freely available online immediately upon publication.
  • Alternatively authors do not pay an Article Processing Charge to be published in the journal but their article is only accessible via subscription or purchase.

AGU has published two Open Access books: Carbon in Earth's Interior (2020) and Large Igneous Provinces: A Driver of Global Environmental and Biotic Changes (2021). These were pilots but we are currently exploring ways to make Open Access an option for all books in our portfolio.

Many funders and institutions now completely cover or take advantage of discounts on open access author publishing charges in AGU journals through accounts with our publishing partner, Wiley. These instances may apply to any author while others apply only for the corresponding author of the paper. Find out if your institution has an account.

AGU through Wiley offers discounts or waivers on fees from authors under particular circumstances and from certain countries. Specific information can be found here.

Free content

In addition to Open Access articles, plenty of other AGU content is free to read, download and share, including almost two decades’ worth of articles in the digital archive.
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Contacts: [email protected]

Staff headshot of Matt Giampoala

Matthew Giampoala

Vice President, Publications | Staff partner for Publications Committee & AGU governance structures

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Jenny Lunn

Director of Publications | Books & promotion of journal content

Staff headshot of Margaret Moerchen

Margaret Moerchen

Director, AGU Journals | Advances & enhanced content

AGU Staff Headshot Panning

Jeanette Panning

Director of Publications | Editor relations

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Mia Ricci

Director of Publications | Journal Operations

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Paige Wooden

Sr. Program Manager | Publications data & analysis