Global Land Programme Open Science Meeting - Part 2

The Land Systems 4 Sustainability Lab engaged in a vivid discussion on the scientific publishing industry and pathways for creating a community-based, not-for-profit, Open Access journal for Land System Science!

The research community spent almost 9 billion USD on article processing charges to six publishers between 2019 and 2023 Haustein et al. 2024. For-profit publishers contribute to an ever-growing strain on scientific publishing, with some contributing to the over-inflation of journal impact factors by promoting self-citation and other practices Hanson et al. 2024. Entire Editorial Boards have resigned from journals belonging to for-profit publishers over concerns ranging from insane subscription fees to deterioration of scientific independence. Some have created new journals, sometimes operating under the Diamond Open Access model (see the 2022 Action Plan for Diamond Open Access).

Multiple members of the Global Land Program Scientific Steering Committee, the GLP community, and the Land Systems for Sustainability Lab engaged in a constructive discussion on current publishing models, alternative pathways and models to organize a community-owned journal with moderate publication fees, a functioning waiver system increasing accessibility, and high scientific credibility. We really appreciated the enthusiastic and active participation in this session!