Journal of Studies of the Earth’s Deep Interior (jSEDI) is an interdisciplinary journal devoted to publishing original research on planetary deep interiors. Edited by ENS Éditions, the journal is published annually.
jSEDI publishes original scientific research in the broadly defined domain of studies of the Earth’s deep interior (SEDI). We welcome contributions from any discipline or field of study that seeks to expand our understanding of the origin, state, evolution, and role of planet interiors. The “Earth” in SEDI is meant in an expansive sense, referring to planets in general, and our subject matter is not restricted to the planet Earth’s interior. Fields that commonly contribute to SEDI science include (but are not limited to): geochemistry, seismology, gravity, mineralogy, mineral physics, petrology, geomagnetism, geodynamics, and planetary exploration. Although the broader scope of SEDI is interdisciplinary in nature, focused disciplinary work is also required to tackle challenges and specialized contributions are welcome.
The journal shall be composed of two bodies: a Board of Directors and an Editorial Board. All members of the organization shall be volunteers, no financial compensation will be paid.
Area of responsibility: All matters concerning the journal, except for those roles that are specifically delegated to the other journal bodies.
The BoD shall consist of 5 or more members.
At least one member of the BoD is the legal/named contact with ENS Edition, Episciences, and any other contracted entity maintaining relations with the journal.
Members of the BoD Include the present Chair and Vice-Chair of IUGG-SEDI.
One of the BoD members serves as an Editor-in Chief.
BoD Members may also serve in other journal roles, but it is not mandatory.
All BoD members should be knowledgeable in all facets of the journal’s operations.
If a BoD member steps down, the entire BoD (including the outgoing member) will recruit a suitable replacement.
The BoD should meet (at least twice a year) to discuss the status of the journal and consider whether major changes are needed to address present challenges.
Decision-making: Each BoD member has one vote. Permanent decisions are only possible by consensus of all board members, ideally with input by/consultation with the broader journal team. If there is a lack of consensus, then the majority opinion shall be adopted for the case at hand, and must be re-visited again in future similar cases or in 6 months (whichever is relevant).
Areas of responsibility: Managing the peer review process, contact with authors and reviewers, and rendering decisions on submitted manuscripts.
The Editorial Board retains complete autonomy in all editorial decisions. Their decisions on manuscripts are final.
The Editorial Board consists of at least one Editor-in-Chief, a Promotions Editor, a Technical Editor, and a field of Handling Editors.
Editor(s)-in-Chief: The full Editorial Board shall nominate and vote for the Editor(s)-in-Chief, with one exception: any who are current members of the BoD may not cast a vote for Editor-in-Chief. The Editor(s)-in-Chief is(are) responsible for managing the editorial process, assigning a Handling Editor to each manuscript, convening meetings and communications between Editors, recruiting new Editors, trouble-shooting issues in the organizational workflow, and any other matter that is not delegated to the other editorial board members.
Promotions Editor(s): The Editorial Board shall appoint at least one Promotions Editor, who is responsible for promoting the journal to the scientific community and the public (e.g., via social media), soliciting submissions to the journal, launching/coordinating special issues, inviting review papers, disseminating papers published in jSEDI, serving as a contact for the press/media, and other communications.
Technical Editor(s): The Editorial Board shall appoint at least one Technical Editor, whose role is to work with the technical staff of Episciences, handle problems that may arise with the platform, manage the website, monitor the submission system, onboard new editors in technical aspects, maintain and update templates, and enforce formatting standards on submitted documents, and to render decisions on copy-edited documents.
When a manuscript is submitted to jSEDI it will be pre-screened to ensure that it meets the scope, guidelines, and required format(s) of the journal. An Editor-in-Chief will communicate with Handling Editors to consider whether the paper should be sent for peer review, and upon mutual agreement will assign a particular Handling Editor to conduct the peer review process (see below for details). If the Handling Editor assigned to a manuscript is unable to complete the peer review process, the Editor-in-Chief will assign another Handling Editor to carry on the process. Following the peer review process, the assigned Handling Editor will recommend a manuscript for acceptance or rejection, and the Editor-in-Chief will render the final decision. Once a manuscript is accepted for publication, the Technical Editor(s) will perform a final check to ensure that it meets the journal formatting guidelines, that it is properly indexed and archived, and list the paper on the journal website. The Promotions Editor(s) will then promote the paper to the broader scientific community and the public.
jSEDI will publish one volume each year, in two semi-annual issues.
In accordance with the principles of open science, jSEDI does not discriminate against any person for any reason. Our work and our decisions are exclusively restricted to matters of science alone.
jSEDI strives to maintain a welcoming and positive environment as a requisite to achieve our mission of open science. The interactions carried out in connection to the journal are a reflection upon our entire community. We shall adhere to the following standards:
The entire jSEDI team, our reviewers, and authors will strive to work and interact with one another in a respectful and positive manner.
Critiques, comments, and other interactions should be limited to scientific and practical matters alone.
Abusive, impolite, or extraneous matters may be flagged by anyone. We encourage all to bring these instances to the attention of any member of the Board of Directors.
Editors will not accept or utilize reviews that contain abusive, overtly biased, ad hominem, discriminatory, or other kinds of inappropriate content.
Every participant is encouraged to act in a manner that serves as a role model for the behavior of the entire community.
jSEDI welcomes the submission of original research manuscripts falling within the scope of the journal (see our Scope for details). Contributions from any person are welcome, and should meet the following guidelines:
The entire work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC-BY 4.0)
Submitted in a format that meets our technical standards (see Technical Guidelines for details).
Clearly written in the English language, at a technical level that is suitable for reading by the journal’s target audience (see Target Audience for details).
Logically presented, laying out the context and motivation of the study, and how it aims to advance our understanding of the subject.
Include a description of methods sufficient to enable reproduction of the main results by other experts.
Follow the FAIR principles (https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/) regarding open data.
Offer an interpretation/conclusion that is logically supported by the results.
Modest speculation and extrapolation are welcome so long as they are explicitly identified as such, add value to the scientific discourse/dialogue, and/or motivate future studies of the topic.
The primary target audience of jSEDI are those performing research in topics related to SEDI (e.g., https://hope.simons-rock.edu/~bergman/sedi/). Because SEDI encompasses many fields of specialization, and we invite specialized manuscripts, there is no guarantee or requirement that every paper will be readily understood by all members of the SEDI community. However, the topic of the manuscript should be of interest to the broader SEDI community. Authors should do their best to explain the science in a manner that can be understood in basic terms by the entire SEDI community.
In the interests of simplicity, for the first phase of operations jSEDI editors will consider all reviews to be anonymous by default, unless otherwise specified by the reviewer (e.g., by signing the review). If there is interest from the community, then we may consider adding other peer review options in the future (e.g., open, double-blind, etc.).
Diamond open access journals are free to author and free to read, and require volunteer efforts by the community to sustain the workflow. We do not have any funds to employ a staff of copy editors. Therefore, authors bear responsibility for helping to facilitate the peer review and publication process by submitting their work in the required format. We strongly recommend the use of our latex template to facilitate the process. Our technical guidelines are as follows:
The initial submission is already uploaded to a publicly available repository/pre-print server.
The pre-print to be submitted should be double-spaced, with a font size no smaller than 11pt, and include line and page numbers.
Pre-print figures/tables should be referenced in the text, included in an orderly and easily legible manner, with labels readily legible in a font size no smaller than 11pt.
The final published manuscript must be formatted in the journal’s template. It is the authors’ responsibility to ensure that it meets the criteria.
Manuscripts that do not meet our technical guidelines will be returned to authors for corrections.
As jSEDI grows and evolves it will be necessary for us to be flexible and adapt as our needs evolve. For this reason, our policies are subject to change without notice. We will do our best to include the broader SEDI community (authors, reviewers, readers) in these discussions and to keep them informed of any changes in policy. Such policies will not take effect until after they have been updated on the journal website.
The Editorial Board will adopt procedures for handling potential conflicts of interest, both internal and external. For example, an internal conflict of interest arises when a jSEDI editor submits a manuscript to to the journal. Other cases (especially external) may be less obvious. All participants in jSEDI are encouraged to bring any perceived potential conflicts of interest to the attention of the Editorial Board and Board of Directors.