Publication policy

Biogeosciences (BG) and its discussion forum Biogeosciences Discussions (BGD) are open access. Open access is the free immediate access to, and unrestricted reuse of, original works of all types by any user. Therefore, all content of BG and BGD is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) and authors retain copyright.

Biogeosciences and its discussion forum Biogeosciences Discussions are issued by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union, offering the following:

• rapid posting of high-quality preprints in BGD after an access review by an editor;
• interactive public discussion (BGD): immediate posting of referee comments (anonymous or attributed) by at least two independent referees, author comments (on behalf of all authors), and short comments by any registered member of the scientific community (attributed) alongside the manuscript in discussion;
• permanent archiving and accessibility of manuscripts in discussion together with the interactive comments;
• post-discussion peer-review completion and final acceptance for BG or rejection;
• thorough layout and processing of text, figures, tables, and equations (BG);
• English language copy-editing (BG);
• immediate open-access publication in BG, financed by moderate article processing charges (please also note the financial support for authors);
• publication of supplementary material at no extra charge and linkage to assets stored externally (data sets, model codes, samples, or videos);
• DOI (digital object identifier) assignment and article URLs according to the classic citation;
• distribution of articles and bibliographic metadata to scientific databases and indices;
• collections of articles resulting from standard peer review as well as special issues with articles supervised by guest editors;
• article alert service and RSS feeds;
• long-term preservation by external archives;
• commercial advertising is not allowed.

For further information on the definition and standing of manuscripts in discussion, please read the EGU Position Statement.

BG and its discussion forum adhere to high ethical standards which are summarized in the journal's publication ethics. In order to warrant integrity of the published works, Biogeosciences also has a clear policy on competing interests.

To improve the traceability and reproducibility of the presented works, BG has implemented a data policy. Data and other underlying or related material having a digital object identifier (DOI) can also be displayed in the article's asset tab.

General aspects concerning the role of authors, editors, and referees are summarized under general obligations for authors, general obligations for editors, and general obligations for referees.

Copernicus Publications makes sure that the online, open-access publications are indexed and archived worldwide in electronic archives, search engines, and databases, in order to guarantee their maximum dissemination and impact. BG is archived and indexed in

• CLOCKSS
• German National Library
• Library of Congress
• Portico

AGRICOLA, Agricultural & Environmental Science Collection (ProQuest), Algology Mycology and Protozoology Abstracts (Microbiology C) (ProQuest), Astrophysics Data System (ADS), Aquatic Science & Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA) 1: Biological Science (PorQuest), Aquatic Science & Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA) 2: Ocean Technology (ProQuest), Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts (ProQuest), Biological Science Collection (ProQuest), Biological Science Database (ProQuest), Biological Science Index (ProQuest), Biotechnology Research Abstracts, CAB Abstracts, Cabell's, Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), CNKI, Continental Europe Database (ProQuest), Current Contents/Agriculture, Biology & Environmental Sciences, Current Contents/Physical, Chemical & Earth Sciences, Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), Earth, Atmospheric & Aquatic Science Collection (ProQuest), Earth, Atmospheric & Aquatic Science Database (ProQuest), EBSCO, Ecology Abstracts (ProQuest), Engineering Collection (ProQuest), Engineering Database (ProQuest), Engineering Index (ProQuest), Environmental Science Collection (ProQuest), Environmental Science Database (ProQuest), Environmental Science Index (ProQuest), Geological Survey of Austria (GBA), Gale/Cengage, GeoBase, GeoRef, GoOA (Chinese Academy of Sciences), Google Scholar, J-Gate, Journal Citation Reports, Materials Science & Engineering Collection (ProQuest), Meteorological & Geoastrophysical Abstracts (ProQuest), Natural Science Collection (ProQuest), Oceanic Abstracts, ProQuest Central, ProQuest Central Basic (Korea), ProQuest Central Essentials, ProQuest Central Student, Publicly Available Content Database (ProQuest), Science Citation Index Expanded, SciTech Premium Collection (ProQuest), Scopus, Technology Collection (ProQuest), Water Resources Abstracts (ProQuest), World Public Library

Corrections and retractions

BG pursues the following policy for making corrections to its content:

• Modification of a paper: Copernicus Publications reserves the right to replace the posted files if purely technical corrections are necessary (e.g. corrupt file or incorrect bibliographical entry). In such cases, archives and indices are informed. Under no circumstances will the content be changed.
• Corrigendum (final-revised papers only): notification of an important error made by the author(s) or by the journal that affects the publication record or the scientific integrity of the published, peer-reviewed work or the reputation of the author or the journal. Corrigenda are represented by a formal online notice. Corrigenda have to be submitted to Copernicus Publications within 3 years from the publication date of the original journal article. Should there be reasons for publishing a second corrigendum within these 3 years, the first one will be substituted by a single new corrigendum containing all relevant corrections.
• Corrections to supplements can only be made in exceptional cases (e.g. major errors that compromise the conclusion of the study). The availability of new data is not a reason for the revision of a posted supplement. A supplement is an integral part of the manuscript in discussion or the journal article, and hence part of the record.
• Withdrawal after discussion: authors of preprints that are not accepted for further review after discussion or where a revised manuscript was not accepted for final journal publication can request a withdrawal. The preprint stays online but the reader is notified about the withdrawal.
• Retraction: authors or, in specific cases, editors can decide to formally withdraw a published journal article. The article stays online but the reader is notified about the retraction. Such retractions are most often accompanied by an editorial note explaining the background.
• Marked as fraud: in the unlikely case that Copernicus Publications is notified that a posted manuscript in discussion or a published journal article turns out to be a fraud, the paper stays online but is formally withdrawn. The reader is notified about the status and fraud papers are always accompanied by an editorial note pointing out the malpractice.