Library: Geological &amp; Planetary Sciences (GPS): Open Access

Caltech's Open Access Policy

Caltech Open Access Policy
In June 2013, the Caltech Faculty Board adopted an Open Access Policy to help disseminate the fruits of Caltech research and scholarship as widely as possible.
To facilitate this policy, the Institute requests each faculty member to provide a copy of each scholarly article to the Provost’s Office, who may make it available to the public in Caltech Library’s open-access repository, CaltechAUTHORS.
After January 1, 2014, the policy automatically gives Caltech a license to any scholarly articles faculty members complete. It also allows faculty to legally make the manuscript of their peer-reviewed journal articles and conference papers openly accessible and enables Caltech to help them do so.
Open Access Policy Waiver Request Form
This form is only required for Caltech professorial and research faculty authors. The Caltech Open Access Policy applies exclusively to tenured/tenure-track faculty, research faculty, and postdoctoral scholars with appointments on the Caltech campus. The policy does not apply to research scientists, other staff, or graduate and undergraduate students.
If you have any questions about the Open Access Policy please contact us at coda@library.caltech.edu.
Caltech Open Access Policy FAQ
A complete guide and frequently asked questions about Caltech's Open Access policy.

Open Access Books and Journals

For the most up-to-date listing of open-access journals, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) site provides a directory of thousands of open-access journals.

For the most up-to-date listing of open-access books, the Directory of Open Access Books site provides a directory of thousands of open-access books.

The American Geosciences Institute (AGI) also provides a listing of open-access journals that GeoRef covers. Their listing only shows journals that appear to be stable, as well as a continual plan to remain open. Journals that require subscriptions to current issues are not included in their list.

Publishing Open Access with Nature

Open access at the Nature Portfolio

Publishing Open Access with AGU

Publishing Open Access with GSA

GSA's policies on open access

NSF Public Access Initiative

The U.S. National Science Foundation's Public Access Initiative ensures the outputs of NSF-funded scientific research are made publicly available to the greatest extent, with the fewest constraints possible and consistent with law.

Visit NSF's public access initiative page for more information.

NASA Public Access Plan

NASA's Public Access Plan was released January 6, 2025.

The full report can be found here: https://www.nasa.gov/nasa-science-policies-and-reports/

The updated plan highlights:

Requires scientific data underlying publications to be made freely available and publicly accessible by default at the time of publication.

The data must also have a persistent identifier, use metadata standards, and be shared in a repository designated by the appropriate NASA program or meet the guidelines provided by the Desirable Characteristics of Data Repositories for Federally Funded Research.

Requires peer-reviewed publications and the associated metadata to be made freely available at the time of publication in NASA's designated repository, PubSpace.

Researchers can either submit their accepted manuscripts directly to PubSpace or publish with a journal that has an agreement with NASA to deposit the Version of Record in PubSpace (e.g., journals that are part of CHORUS).

Requires scientific software underlying peer-reviewed publications or used to support data analysis to be made freely available and publicly accessible by default at the time of publication.