[ESIP-all] Help us build a broad, community-based Earth science preprint system

[Narock, Thomas]

A preprint is a version of a scholarly paper that precedes publication in a peer-reviewed journal. The preprint may persist with it’s own unique DOI after a paper is published in a journal. A preprint server is a platform built to host preprints.

While a preprint server related to physics, mathematics and computer science has been around for decades  https://arxiv.org/, preprint servers have only recently become available for other science disciplines such as biology  https://bioarxiv.org/. Major funders, including the German Science Foundation (DFG), Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council (MRC), and Cancer Research, now accept preprints in support of funding applications. Given this, and the desire amongst researchers to accelerate sharing and use of research material, we believe the time is right to enable a preprint service for the Earth sciences - EarthArXiv.


A group of international volunteers has gathered through ESIP to help coordinate an effort to build a community-led preprint service for the Earth sciences. We have been approached by the Center for Open Science  https://cos.io/, a non-profit organization focused on open, reproducible research, to partner with them and use their preprint server platform. Now we need to build awareness of the existence and benefits of EarthArXiv. By combining our efforts into a common preprint service we can grow this more quickly and realize its potential that much sooner for all Earth scientists. Thus, there are two aspects to advancing EarthArXiv, 1.) providing a physical preprint infrastructure for all Earth science domains not currently publishing preprints elsewhere and 2.) bringing together all interested parties, regardless of where they publish preprints, to discuss topics surrounding scholarly publishing.


We are inviting any interest ESIPers to officially join our governance team.


Please complete a brief form  http://bit.ly/2xgwM6q to confirm your willingness to serve, and to provide us with additional data that will help us collectively ensure our governance is as diverse as the community we wish to serve.


We are looking for an Advisory Council, of 15 people, to oversee the technical, administrative, and roadmapping issues of publishing preprints. We are also looking for any number of Community Ambassadors who are willing to promote EarthArXiv to their respective communities. After ensuring for the desired level of diversity, a random sample of 15 Advisory Council members will be chosen; this committee will be expected to, amongst other tasks: (i) monitor content submitted to EarthArXiv; (ii) work with OSF to establish the taxonomic structure and overall look of EarthArXiv; (iii) coordinate future efforts to obtain funding and/or endorsements for EarthArXiv from professional societies; and (iv) work with OSF to develop future functionality for EarthArXiv . The remaining folks will become Community Ambassadors, serving the community by: 1) promoting EarthArXiv in their home institutions, communities, and countries via social media, presentations, etc,; 2) moderate content submitted to EarthArXiv and which falls outside of the immediate area of expertise of the committee; and 3) work with Earth science publishers and funders to accept preprints as a valid step in the publishing pipeline. We anticipate that Advisory Council members will serve a 2-year term.


Thanks for your support!

Tom Narock, ESIP Preprint Cluster Chair

Twitter: @EarthArXiv
Slack:  https://esip-all.slack.com and look for the #earth-sci-preprint-ch channel. Here is your INVITATION  https://esip-slack-invite.herokuapp.com/.
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