Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics: an interactive open access journal for nonlinear geosciences

Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics (NPG) was launched in 1994 as the first journal of a section of the European Geophysical Society (EGS), which preceded the European Geosciences Union (EGU). It very quickly became a joint journal with the American Geophysical Union (AGU). A unique feature compared to other geophysical journals is that NPG has focused heavily on methodological issues, building on what has often been described as the nonlinear revolution with bold attempts to fundamentally renew the approach to nonlinear/complex systems.

In 2002, NPG became an interactive open-access journal, which represented a profound change for its community, in fact a pioneering transformation for the nonlinear community. To succeed, it was necessary to renovate NPG, clarifying its objectives and practices: "NPG is an international, inter/transdisciplinary, non-profit journal dedicated to breaking through the impasses often encountered by standard approaches in Earth and space sciences. It therefore solicits disruptive and innovative concepts and methodologies, as well as original applications of these...‘. It created NPG Letters, the first EGU journal of this kind, ’to report on particularly important results and major advances in a concise and engaging style", which can also be selected for EGU Letters. Due to the difficulties faced by its community, NPG has been vigilant in helping to develop new funding mechanisms, with the general idea that no article should be prevented from being published due to lack of funding.

Having noted these points, we will be happy to discuss how to better use and improve NPG in order to overcome the current difficult context for research, particularly when it addresses fundamental issues.