Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
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What major advantages does the interactive scientific journal HESS offer to the authors of scientific papers?
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What major advantages does HESS offer to the readers and scientific community?
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How are efficient distribution and permanent archiving and accessibility of HESS articles achieved by the publisher Copernicus Publications? HESS and its discussion forum are accessible online and free of charge. Copernicus Publications makes sure that the open-access publications, preprints as well as final journal articles, are indexed and archived worldwide in electronic archives, search engines, and databases to guarantee their maximum dissemination and impact. |
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How are preprints and interactive comments archived, and are the interactive comments citable? All preprints are either archived in EGUsphere, EGU's preprint repository, or the discussion forum HESSD. Depending on the author's choice for posting, preprints receive either a DOI HESS-YEAR-NUMBER or EGUSPHERE-YEAR-NUMBER. The community comments, referee comments, editor comments, and author comments posted in the interactive discussion also receive their own DOI, which allows citation of every individual interactive comment. |
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How does HESS ensure the quality of its preprints?
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What happens if a manuscript that has been posted as a preprint is not accepted for publication as a final paper in HESS? Can the preprint be removed? All preprints, independent whether they are posted on EGUsphere or in HESSD, remain permanently archived, citable, and publicly accessible and therefore cannot be removed. This approach has been chosen for a number of practical and conceptual reasons, and it has proven to be beneficial for scientific communication and quality assurance as explained above. For further information, please see the EGU Position Statement. Nevertheless, we are aware that the appearance of a manuscript as preprint and subsequent non-acceptance for HESS can be inconvenient for authors. In such cases, the authors have the following options to proceed:
Overall, we are confident that the advantages of permanent archiving outweigh the potential disadvantages. For exceptional individual cases in which this policy may be disadvantageous, we regret any potential inconvenience. Nevertheless, we hope that we have the authors' understanding and continued support in the effort to improve scientific communication and quality assurance via interactive open-access publishing. |
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What is the difference between a preprint in the discussion forum HESSD and an EGUsphere preprint? Preprints that are targeting publication in an EGU journal, whether following the direct route with a journal, or the route via EGUsphere, are from an editorial and review perspective handled in the same manner. They have different DOIs (e.g., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2022-3 vs https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-1). In the future, the EGU aims at all preprints to be hosted on EGUsphere. |
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Will EGUsphere preprints aimed at publication in HESS be visible on the HESS page? Yes, all preprints aimed at publication in HESS that are submitted to EGUsphere are posted on EGUsphere and co-listed on the HESS website as long as the peer-review process including public discussion and peer-review completion is going on. If a final revised journal article is published in HESS, the corresponding EGUsphere preprint is again co-listed there, but if the revised manuscript is rejected from HESS, the EGUsphere preprint is no longer co-listed on the HESS website. Preprints submitted to the discussion forum HESSD are only posted on the HESS website. |
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Why does the discussion forum HESSD show both preprints with HESS DOI and EGUsphere DOI? Both types of manuscripts are preprints that are submitted with the intention of publication in HESS and undergo the same editorial handling applying identical standards and review criteria. Preprints with EGUSPHERE-YEAR-NUMBER are also posted on EGUsphere for public discussion. |
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Will rejected preprints with DOI EGUSPHERE-YEAR-NUMBER remain on EGUsphere? Yes, just like any other document with a DOI. However, they will not show a relation to the journal for which it was intended since its citation is EGUSPHERE-YEAR-NUMBER. Therefore, after rejection, the EGUsphere preprint will no longer be listed on the HESS website. |
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I am aiming to resubmit. Can a manuscript that was previously posted in the HESS discussion forum be resubmitted via EGUsphere? Manuscripts should only be resubmitted after rejection if they were significantly enhanced and substantially revised to compensate the weaknesses reported by reviewers in the first instance. However, a substantially revised version of a manuscript can be submitted via either the discussion forum of HESS or EGUsphere. |
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A preprint targeting peer-review in an EGU journal is already posted on another preprint server. How should authors proceed? The EGUsphere guidelines state that "it is inappropriate for an author to submit preprints describing essentially the same research to more than one server to be posted simultaneously". Hence, additional submission of a preprint to EGUsphere is not possible. For such cases, we allow linking of a previous preprint to EGUsphere as an external preprint where it will undergo full peer review guided by an EGU editor. Please find more information on external preprints joining EGUsphere. The action authors need to take is:
How do editors treat such manuscripts? Please note that no corrections or revisions can be implemented at the access-review stage since the external preprint will not be re-posted on EGUsphere, but only opens a public discussion page with the abstract and the preprint PDF linked to the original source (external preprint server). Other than that, editors apply all criteria as for any other preprint submitted to HESS. |
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I have an EGUsphere question, who do I contact?
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Where can authors find guidance on data and software deposition, availability, and citation? Copernicus Publications is a signatory of the Commitment Statement in the Earth, Space, and Environmental Sciences. The Enabling FAIR data project provides extensive guidance on questions relating to data and software deposition, citation, and availability. This guidance is mostly also applicable for data outside the Earth, space, and environmental sciences: http://www.copdess.org/enabling-fair-data-project/enabling-fair-data-faqs/ |