Seismica: a community-led Diamond Open-Access journal for seismology and earthquake science

Seismica is an effort to establish a Diamond Open-Access (OA) journal for the community of researchers working in the (broadly defined) fields of seismology and earthquake science. Diamond OA journals are free to read, do not charge authors to publish, and thus promise to widen access to published research to all. Such efforts require broad community participation beyond editing and reviewing articles, as all functions typically fulfilled by paid staff, including administration, production, typesetting and copy editing, must be undertaken by volunteers.

In December 2020, the Seismica Task Force, a spontaneously-organized group of seismologists and earthquake scientists, connected on Twitter. Inspired by the example of the established Diamond OA journal Volcanica, we began to explore the possibility of founding such a journal in our own field. Through outreach via social media, blog posts, conference presentations and disciplinary mailing lists, we have built a community of over 180 interested participants. With broad input, this group has developed a roadmap (https://doi.org/10.31223/X5304V) for the build-out of the journal, including an editorial structure and policies, broad outreach and structures to ensure a diverse editorial team, a logo and visual branding, and agreements with the McGill University Library to host and support the journal.

In this presentation, we will introduce our first editorial board, and solicit our first article submissions for publication in 2022.  We will also update the broader community on these and other developments in the journal-building process, and share our experiences and lessons learned.