Changes to ACP submission routes

30 January 2023

More than 20 years ago, ACP pioneered its highly successful publication model with interactive discussion and open peer review, which is now applied in all 19 EGU journals. A year ago, EGUsphere, EGU's repository and preprint discussion forum, was launched as a novel feature for the EGU publications. EGUsphere combines the features of traditional preprint servers (e.g., Arxiv, ESSOAr) with the advantages of our well-established and pioneering journal discussion forum ACPD: traditional preprints (not submitted for peer review in a journal) can be discussed in an open forum just like on other preprint servers (no editor involvement), while manuscripts submitted to ACP can undergo public discussion and peer review guided by an ACP editor. Also external preprints (e.g., on ESSOAr) can receive peer review for consideration as an ACP article.

For the past year, there were three submission routes for manuscripts intended for ACP: (1) submission of a preprint to be posted on the ACPD forum only, (2) submission of a preprint to be posted on EGUsphere and listed in the ACPD forum, and (3) linking an external preprint (that is posted, e.g., on ESSOAr or Arxiv) to EGUsphere seeking peer review for potential publication in ACP. To take full advantage of the features of EGUsphere while keeping the traits of our well-established interactive discussion, we decided to retire option 1. From now on, all submissions accepted by an ACP editor for discussion receive a DOI 'egusphere-number-year' and are posted on EGUsphere and listed on the ACP discussion forum.

This move represents a continuation of the leading role of ACP, EGU, and Copernicus in developing new publication features that enhance the options for authors and strengthen the commitment to open science.