Advanced Geoscience Research Letters exists to serve the geoscience research community and, through it, to contribute to society's understanding of the Earth and its future. In pursuing this mission, we are guided by the following values.
We publish research that advances understanding, challenges prevailing assumptions, or opens new areas of enquiry across the Earth and planetary sciences. We select manuscripts on the basis of scientific rigour, originality, and likely significance to a broad geoscience readership — not on the basis of novelty alone, nor on whether findings confirm a prevailing view. Negative results and null findings that meaningfully constrain Earth system processes are as welcome as positive results.
We require that all published research meet the highest standards of scientific integrity. This means complete and accurate reporting of methods and data, transparent disclosure of conflicts of interest, honest attribution of contribution, and rigorous statistical practice. We require data availability statements in all published articles and encourage deposition of primary data in recognised community repositories. We take allegations of misconduct — including fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, and undisclosed duplication — seriously and investigate them thoroughly in accordance with COPE guidelines.
All manuscripts are evaluated on their scientific merits, regardless of the authors' nationality, institutional affiliation, career stage, gender, or any other personal characteristic. Editorial decisions are made by professional editors without influence from commercial interests, funders, or institutional stakeholders. The journal has no external advisory board that participates in editorial decisions. Reviewers are selected for scientific expertise and absence of conflict of interest; their identities are kept confidential by default.
We actively seek to broaden the geographic and demographic diversity of our author and reviewer communities. We recognise that structural inequities in the global research system have historically under-represented scientists from the Global South, from minority communities, and from under-resourced institutions. Our full APC waiver programme, our investment in regional editorial partnerships, and our efforts to cultivate diverse reviewer pools are concrete commitments to redressing these imbalances.
We are accountable to our authors, reviewers, and readers. We aim to provide constructive, specific, and timely decisions. When we make mistakes — in assessment, in review management, or in published content — we correct them openly and promptly. We publish corrections and retractions in accordance with COPE guidelines, clearly linked to the original article, and never removed from the record.
Earth science knowledge is essential to society's response to climate change, natural hazards, resource security, and environmental sustainability. We regard the open dissemination of high-quality geoscience research as a public good and are committed to the principle that access to knowledge should not be determined by wealth. All primary research in AGRL is published immediately under a CC-BY 4.0 licence, freely available to every reader on Earth.