On July 1, 2022, an international team of researchers launched a new journal, Seismica, supporting free global access to cutting-edge seismological and earthquake engineering research.

Hub researcher Prof Carmine Galasso (University College London) is Seismica’s Executive Editor for Operations and part of the journal’s management committee. He has led a task force aiming to develop the new journal’s editorial policies.

Seismica will publish original, novel peer-reviewed research in seismology, earthquake science and engineering, and related disciplines. The new journal initiative began nearly two years ago when a group of seismologists was motivated to address the restrictive and expensive barriers to public and global access to research. More than 250 researchers from around the world, led by a core group of 44 editors, have designed and launched a community-cantered journal. They have taken on the mammoth task of setting up the journal, such as developing the Editorial policies, IT platform, journal branding, publishing templates, reviewer database, and marketing. This initiative follows from a movement of other journals specializing in volcanoes, tectonics, and sediments. Seismica’s mission is to publish rigorous peer-reviewed research that impacts the global community through accessible, transparent, respectful, credible, and progressive policies.

Prof Carmine Galasso, Professor of Catastrophe Risk Engineering, who has been a member of the Seismica initiative for the past 12 months, said “The most up-to-date and cutting-edge research and data must be shared freely. But the vast majority of research across multiple disciplines is published by for-profit companies, either hidden behind publisher paywalls or published by charging thousands of dollars to the authors who must pay them from public research funds. This makes access to science and engineering advances scarce and elitist, which is highly problematic. Therefore, it is essential to support global research, particularly concerning societally important global challenges such risks from natural hazards, including earthquakes, and their management and mitigation.”

Professor Christie Rowe, Canada Research Chair in Earthquake Geology and Associate Professor at McGill University – McGill University assists the journal by running the IT platform – and Executive Editor for Community of Seismica, said, “Seismica is a community-driven journal dedicated to seismology, fully volunteer-run, diamond open-access journal. Articles are free to publish and free to read, without a subscription, and authors retain full copyright“. Seismica aims to appeal not only to academics and researchers alike but also to the industry, which plays a crucial role in this field of study.

Seismica has an ongoing call for reviewers to subscribe to the journal database, for volunteers to help run the journal, and for scientists to submit their research. Interested people are asked to

Register at http://seismica.org.

Follow Seismica:

• https://twitter.com/WeAreSeismica
• https://www.facebook.com/WeAreSeismica
• https://www.instagram.com/weareseismica
• https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuXzivYc6eqiGikSj82dYGg