Frequently Asked Questions
If you have any questions that are not covered in this FAQ, please feel free to contact us at
1. How will Earthquake Spectra benefit from this partnership?
- Increased international visibility of EERI and the journal through SAGE’s sales and marketing channels.
- Support for the Earthquake Spectra editorial team in developing journal content and strategies for increasing citation rates and impact factor.
- More robust platforms for increased article discoverability combined with modern author submission and peer review systems.
2. What will this mean to me as an Earthquake Spectra author?
- Will there be any new costs?
- Author fees will remain comparable to the current pricing. Efforts are underway to make non-member, page-overage, and color-print fees more transparent and straightforward.
- What changes will there be to the licensing and copyright agreements?
- There will be a new author contributor form for authors to sign. Once available, we will share more details about new policies and how they differ from the current form.
- Will my articles get more readership?
- We expect that this partnership will result in a greatly increased international institutional circulation – likely a 10-fold increase, so your articles will enjoy greater exposure, which in turn means more potential for practical impact and citations.
- How long will it take for my article to be produced?
- SAGE offers high-quality production and fast acceptance-to-online publication times. New articles will be published online in their final copy-edited format within about 30 working days after acceptance to increase the discoverability and citations for your paper. They will then be bundled into print issues quarterly.
- What else can I expect from SAGE?
- You’ll have the opportunity to access more templates and other resources (like regular email tips) that will help you increase the visibility and impact of your articles. For more information, visit SAGE’s Author Gateway.
3. What will this mean to me as an Earthquake Spectra reader?
- EERI members will have exclusive online access to all current and past Earthquake Spectra volumes since the establishment of the journal in 1984, enhanced by the following features:
- Articles available online before issue publication
- Clean, uncluttered space for readers, with enhanced tools for downloading, sharing, citing articles and discovering related content from any device
- Tools that give deeper insight into the impact of research through metrics and collaboration tools such as Kudos and Altmetrics
- Responsive design that automatically resizes to the device of your choice
- A flexible and dynamic homepage that will showcase new content and other featured content, such as new virtual collections of papers or special issues
- Electronic table of contents notification sign-up
- EERI members can choose to receive a print copy of each annual Earthquake Spectra Volume of four regular issues for the price of $90 per member in 2020 (compared to the previous price of $60 for domestic and $100 for international subscribers). This price will apply to both U.S. and international addresses and will be paid during the annual membership renewal cycle at the end of each calendar year.
4. What will this mean to me as an Earthquake Spectra Editorial Board Member or Reviewer?
- EBM’s and reviewers alike will appreciate the new manuscript management platform, Sage Track. The Editor will be sharing more updates and information as the transition process continues in the coming months.
5. When will the new website and submission portal be ready?
- We expect the new journal website will be live on or before January 1, 2020
- The new author submission portal is now accepting submissions.
6. Will the electronic and print version of papers look any different?
- We’ve tried to keep the format and look as similar as possible, though with some improvements. We will retain the one-column print format, and references will now be in two columns. Downloadable electronic pdf versions have a “Check for Updates” button that will easily allow readers to access the latest online file. DOI, ORCID and other modern PDF interactivity will now be present.
7. What if I have a manuscript currently in the peer-review process?
- If you have a paper in the peer review process, your peer review will stay in the current portal until the completion of the peer review.
- If your manuscript is a pending revision, you should continue submitting any revisions into the current portal.
8. What if I currently have a manuscript that is accepted for publication?
- If your manuscript is already in the copy-editing process, this publishing change will not affect the publication of your paper.
- As new manuscripts get accepted, authors will receive instructions on the new production steps and procedures.
- All manuscripts that are accepted going forward will be copy-edited by the SAGE team and will be published in 2020 or beyond.
9. What if I currently have a manuscript that is ready for submission?
- You can submit into our new submission portal (https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/earthquakespectra), no new submissions will be accepted in our old system and any submitters will be redirected to the new website.
10. How does this affect my library’s / institution’s subscription?
- All Institutional Subscribers will now work with SAGE sales team for Earthquake Spectra subscriptions.
- SAGE will contact each institutional subscriber to provide them with 2020 pricing and subscription information. For questions, please contact your regional contact at SAGE.
