New Open Journal of the Anthropocene

BBISS Deputy Director, Michael Chang, is a founding editor-in-chief for the new online academic journal Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene.  Elementa is based on an innovative publication model for an academic journal. It is online, open-access, and peer-reviewed. Elementa publishes timely and high quality articles that deal with the interactions between human and natural systems and behaviors. Elementa is a nonprofit initiative of BioOne, Dartmouth, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Michigan, and the University of Washington.

The editors of Elementa embrace the idea that basic knowledge can foster sustainable solutions for society.  The journal’s focus will be original research reporting on new knowledge of the Earth’s physical, chemical, and biological systems; interactions between human and natural systems; and steps that can be taken to mitigate and adapt to global change.  Elementa will report on fundamental advancements in research organized initially into six knowledge domains.  Each of the six knowledge domains is edited by one of the journal’s founding editors.  The six domains are:

• Atmospheric Science – Detlev Helmig, University of Colorado Boulder

• Earth and Environmental Science – Joel D. Blum, University of Michigan

• Ecology – Donald R. Zak, University of Michigan

• Ocean Science – Jody W. Deming, University of Washington

• Sustainable Engineering – Michael Chang, Georgia Institute of Technology

• Sustainability Sciences – Anne Kapuscinski and David R. Peart, Dartmouth

Dr. Chang, in a Q & A on the journal’s website, puts the new publication model in context in this way, “Elementa is a ground-up reinvention of the way the research community communicates even as it holds onto the requirement of rigor in peer review. And given these changes, it is wholly appropriate then that Elementa is about the Science of the Anthropocene. The speed and magnitude of change occurring in the publishing paradigm is an excellent metaphor for the speed and magnitude of change occurring on the planet. New challenges call for new solutions.”

Submissions will be accepted beginning in April 2013 with publishing dates for the first articles in July.

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