Towards new frontiers

Abstract

Geoscience Frontiers" (GSF) has just completed one year, bringing out its maiden issues promptly and gaining reputation as a high quality multidisciplinary journal. As a 'fledgling' journal, GSF is just spreading its wings and preparing to soar into the skies.Several reforms and innovations are being implemented at GSF to enhance quality control and to ensure maximum visibility. We have reconstituted our editorial board by bringing in experienced editors and reputed scientists from different parts of the world. The manuscript submission, editorial workflow and review processing have been streamlined, and these are now fully handled online through the EES of Elsevier for GSF. A group of dedicated staff at the GSF Editorial Office assists authors, editors and reviewers with the EES procedures and other matters related to manuscript submission and workflow. They also perform the Journal Management and distribution at the Journal Headquarters. Our counterparts at Elsevier provide valuable support for online publication in ScienceDirect, production and proofs, as well as publication of the online versions of the journal issues, among other aspects.GSF provides several unique offers to our authors which include: (1) publication of selected colour figures free of charge in colour in the print version of the journal; (2) complimentary off-prints to the corresponding author of each article published in our journal; (3) complimentary journal issue; and (4) full access to the articles in GSF through hosting 'open access' in the ScienceDirect homepage of GSF. Our editors are also committed to arrange rapid review processing and scholarly editorial decisions.We have also introduced some of the recent innovative developments of Elsevier for higher visibility of GSF articles through ScienceDirect such as the Graphical Abstract (GA) and Research Highlights (RH).-A Graphical Abstract is a concise, pictorial and visual summary of the main findings of the article, which could either be a summary figure or concluding figure from the article, or a figure that is specially designed for the purpose. A Graphical Abstract captures the content of the paper for readers at a single glance. For more information and examples, please see: www.elsevier.com/ graphicalabstracts -Research Highlights are a short collection of bullet points that convey the core findings and provide readers with a quick textual overview of the article. These three or four bullet points highlight what is distinctive about the research and describe the essence of the article. For more information and examples, please see: www.elsevier.com/researchhighlights For GSF, the GA and RH are mandatory items during the submission process. As with all other sections of the article, these new features will be subject to the rigorous peer-review on which the journal prides itself.Elsevier's user surveys have indicated that readers greatly appreciate both of these features which enhance the reader experience in many ways, for instance by allowing readers to quickly gain an understa...