Aims and scope statement

The Indiana Journal of Earth Sciences aims to serve as a top-tier outlet for earth science-related research having regional impact. Emphasis is given to articles that present or synthesize data, maps, archives, or methods that relate to the mineral, energy, or water wealth of Indiana or that clearly establish linkages illustrating the impact of such work upon Indiana and the surrounding region. The scope of publications spans earth surface processes; petrology and stratigraphy; hydrologic and biogeochemical cycles; and the identification, management, and use of mineral, energy, or water resources.

The journal, therefore, offers the opportunity to all scientists working in these fields to publish original data sets, GIS layers, maps, StoryMaps, technical notes, research articles, review papers, or other forms of scholarly communication in an open-access and widely distributed peer-reviewed scientific journal at no cost. The journal also offers authors online-first, open-access, publishing; a free pdf of their article; and a wide range of abstracting and indexing services.

Review process for submitted articles

All IJES items are assigned an internal tracking number and fall into two broad categories: an archive for public consumption and a dark archive. The types and workflow of all forms of review are outlined in the Author Guidelines.

• The archive for public consumption includes, but is not limited to, monographs, maps, brochures, CDs, metadata, posters, guidebooks, bookmarks, postcards, websites, and marketing pieces that will be solely reviewed by and published by the journal. Appropriate items in the public archive will be assigned a digital object identifier (DOI).
• The dark archive includes all scholarly, technical, or outreach products (for example, journal articles, book chapters) of the Indiana Geological and Water Survey that need administrative approval and may need review but will not be published in IJES. Under specific publication or copyright agreements, outside recipients of these products may publish and assign a DOI number.

Publication frequency

One volume annually, published in January and added to throughout the calendar year. All items that complete the review process and that are scheduled for publication will be available to the public on the journal website.

Open-access statement

All content for the Indiana Journal of Earth Sciences is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), wherein the author retains copyright. As a service to the research community and as an outlet of its public mission, the IGWS commitment to true open access to scholarly information extends to authors, thus the Indiana Journal of Earth Sciences content is archived at the IGWS and the IU Open ScholarWorks Archive.

The Indiana Journal of Earth Sciences has no set article processing charges; however, we do ask for voluntary contributions to offset the costs of journal management. 

Sponsoring institution

Indiana Geological and Water Survey