Preprint server live following AGU/Atypon collaboration
The American Geophysical Union (AGU) and Atypon have announced that the Earth and Space Science Open Archive (ESSOAr), a community server for the open dissemination of earth and space science early research outputs, is now live and available in a fully functioning beta release for researchers to begin submitting preprints and posters, and for community use and feedback.
A preprint is a freely accessible communication, traditionally a scholarly manuscript, not yet published in a peer-reviewed outlet, such as a journal. In addition to hosting preprints that represent new research findings, ESSOAr will preserve posters from scientific conferences and allow them to be fully citable. Future release plans include the ability to post other types of rich conference presentations and a simplified manuscript submission transfer process. All content posted on ESSOAr will be freely accessible.
With more than 50,000 posters presented across earth and space science conferences each year, these presentations can add to the understanding of the scientific process, help accelerate discovery, and allow researchers to receive credit for this work. Preservation on ESSOAr ensures they are archived and remain discoverable. ESSOAr will also allow researchers the chance to receive peer feedback on manuscripts to improve their final published output, and facilitates faster, open dissemination of research.
ESSOAr offers researchers seamless single sign-on via their ORCID credentials and a user-friendly one-page submission process with drag-and-drop functionality to quickly submit content. Research outputs posted on ESSOAr are fully citable via digital object identifier (DOI), and their citations and attributions will be automated via CrossRef linking between the preprint and final published version of the article. Altmetric badges will track online attention and mentions.
The beta launch of the server is the result of a community effort guided by an international advisory board led by AGU that includes representatives from societies across the Earth and space sciences including the American Geosciences Institute, American Meteorological Society, Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography, Earth Science Information Partners, European Geosciences Union, Geochemical Society, Geological Society of America, Japan Geoscience Union, Mineralogical Society of America, Seismological Society of America, Society of Exploration Geophysicists, and Soil Science Society of America, and powered by Atypon. Its initial development is supported by Wiley, AGU’s publishing partner.
'AGU has long been an advocate for open science and proper attribution of research, in collaboration with other organisations in the Earth and space science community,' Chris McEntee, AGU executive director and CEO, said in a previous statement announcing ESSOAr in 2017. 'The introduction of a preprint server for the Earth and space sciences builds on our previous efforts and public statements in open science, which include the expansion of AGU’s open access journals and development of data management programs, and advances this work even further.'
