Our publishing models

As part of the ongoing changes in scientific publishing, which aim to increase the readership, reach and impact of published research, many journals are moving from the traditional, subscription-based publishing model to an Open Access (OA) model. Under a gold OA model, an article is made freely available online when published, rather than being behind a paywall. Payment for publication is made by the authors’ institutions or funding bodies, who pay an Article Processing Charge (APC) when the manuscript is accepted.

Authors submitting primary research articles* to Nature Geoscience are able to choose to publish their work either through the traditional subscription publishing route OR gold Open Access.

*Non-primary research articles (e.g. Reviews, Comments, News & Views) should not include original (previously unpublished) research findings and may only contain minimal new supporting data. These non-primary articles are not eligible for gold  Open Access and can only be published using the traditional subscription-based publishing route. 

Find out more about publishing in Nature Geoscience.

Authors may need to take specific actions to achieve compliance with funder and institutional open access mandates. If your research is supported by a funder that requires immediate open access (e.g. according to Plan S principles or the NIH public access policy) then you should select the gold OA route, and we will direct you to the compliant route where possible. Because authors warrant under our subscription licensing terms that they haven’t committed to licensing any version of their article under a licence inconsistent with the terms of our agreement – including the applicable embargo period - publication under the subscription model isn’t suitable for authors whose funders require no embargo.