Nature Geoscience is a new research journal publishing some of the most significant new research in the Earth and planetary sciences from Nature Publishing Group (NPG), the publishers of Nature
The first issue of Nature Geoscience has gone live.
To limit the journal's impact on the environment, Nature Geoscience is the first NPG title to be printed on recycled paper, using vegetable-based ink.
With earth sciences on the global political agenda the launch of Nature Geoscience is timely, and understanding the Earth's history and what science can learn about its future evolution is becoming ever more important.
The journal's first articles have already garnered widespread media interest.
An article by Dian Seidel and colleagues, which shows that the tropics are expanding much faster than predicted, has generated more than 200 news stories worldwide, from the Wall Street Journal to the People's Daily in China, and the front cover of the Independent in the UK.
Elsewhere in the inaugural issue of Nature Geoscience, a study by Eelco Rohling and colleagues looks at the rise in sea levels during the last warm period about 120,000 years ago, and finds that sea levels can rise much faster than the IPCC's estimates suggest for the coming century.
Tom Parsons uses statistical analysis to identify regions of long-term earthquake quiescience and activity along the San Andreas Fault, while Birger Schmitz and colleagues suggest that far from causing mass extinctions, a meteoric bombardment of Earth about 470 million years ago increased biodiversity.
Press releases for these and other articles published in the first issue of Nature Geoscience are available online.
"Nature Geoscience is an important new journal for Nature Publishing Group.
"It strengthens our growing physical sciences portfolio, and really establishes us as a major player in the geoscience field.
"The media interest in the first articles demonstrates that Nature Geoscience is already publishing highly important research," said Jason Wilde, publisher for the physical sciences at NPG.
"We are very pleased to be able to offer the print issue on recycled paper using vegetable-based inks, a first for NPG".
A monthly multi-disciplinary journal, Nature Geoscience is aimed at bringing together top-quality research across the entire spectrum of the Earth Sciences along with relevant work in related areas.
The journal's content will encompass field work, modelling and theoretical studies.
The Nature Geoscience editorial team is led by chief editor Heike Langenberg, who has been a senior editor at Nature since 1999.
Langenberg is supported by three associate editors: Ninad Bondre, Alicia Newton, and Alexandra Thompson.
Nature Geoscience is printed on post-consumer-waste recycled paper, using vegetable-based inks, by an ISO 14001-accredited printer.
The internal pages are made from 100% post-consumer-waste recycled paper and the covers are made from 75% post-consumer-waste recycled paper and 25% virgin pulp from well-managed certified forests.
