Tektonika: one more year of open science

Science, without effective dissemination, has a very short life and little impact. Yet, most scientific research is hidden away behind exclusive and expensive paywalls imposed by traditional publishers. Tektonika is an Earth Science community-led diamond open-access journal (DOAJ: free for authors, free for readers) publishing peer reviewed research in tectonics and structural geology. It is a grass-roots initiative driven by the enthusiasm and devotion of a wide and diverse spectrum of Earth Scientists from around the globe, intended to help shape a new landscape for publishing in the geosciences. 

Since its launch at EGU2022, Tektonika has been growing steadily thanks to a constant stream of new manuscript submissions, many of which have already been published as part of the journal’s first two issues (the first compiled in July 2023, and the second in January 2024). In order to meet the increasing demands of running a growing journal, the original team of editors was expanded in 2023 (from 6 to 8 Executive editors, and from 13 to 21 Associate Editors). 

Despite initial external skepticism, our experience over the last few years mirrors those of our sister journals, proving that community-driven DOAJs can not only succeed but thrive. The community support has been palpable throughout - from those submitting their work for publication, to others helping us reach a wider audience through social media, to the many that volunteer their time to support the editorial work, the review process, and the typesetting and pagination of the accepted research papers.