MARS | About

Overview

The success of recent spacecraft missions to Mars is resulting in an explosion of new scientific data that are revolutionizing almost every aspect of our understanding of the planet. The Mars Journal is aimed at accelerating the pace of Mars research and exploration, and supporting the growing Mars community by providing:

• Rapid peer review and publication of scholarly papers and supporting online data
• Free and open full-text access to all papers and online data
• An authoritative and interdisciplinary forum that includes Mars science, technology and policy

Scope

The Mars Journal publishes peer-reviewed scholarly papers in three general categories:

• MARS SCIENCE: Observations, data, theory, models, and reviews of scientific literature
• MARS TECHNOLOGY: Instruments, spacecraft, missions, tools and techniques, and software
• MARS POLICY: Exploration strategy, economics, planetary protection, history, and commentary

Editors

Chief Editor:
• David A. Paige

Associate Editors:
• Oded Aharonson
• Sushil Atreya
• Roger Bourke
• Alberto Fairén
• François Forget
• Jeffrey Plescia
• Margaret Race
• Donald Rapp

Assistant Editor:
• Carey Tanner

Format

Published papers are printable PDF manuscripts with links to author-supplied supporting data. See Information for Authors for more information.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who publishes and edits the journal?
The journal is published by Mars Informatics Inc., a non-profit corporation dedicated to providing greater access to information and tools. The Chief Editor of The Mars Journal is David A. Paige.

How is the journal supported?
The journal's first three years of operation were funded by NASA (See News). Operating expenses beyond this timeframe have been covered by donations. The journal employs commodity web hosting services to provide maximum service to its authors and readers at minimum cost.

When are papers published?
Papers are published online shortly after they are accepted, unless authors request that their paper be published next to another paper or group of papers in a special collection.

Will a print version of the journal also be available?
Like most journals, the Mars Journal is primarily an online journal. High-quality reprints of individual papers, and collections of papers in volume are avalable. Contact the editor for more information. The journal's PDF manuscripts utilize conventional sequential volume and page numbers, making them print-compatible. The journal's open access policy entitles anyone to make unlimited reproductions of the online journal's contents free of charge.

What is open access and what are its advantages?
Open access journals allow users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of published papers at no charge and without the need to register. Open access allows authors to retain copyright to their original work while enabling the widest possible access to their papers by other researchers and the public at large. Open access scholarly journals are becoming established in many fields and are part of a growing movement toward public access to publicly funded research.

What is a DOI and what are its advantages?
The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is a system for identifying and exchanging intellectual property in the digital environment that has been adopted by most scholarly journals. Papers published in The Mars Journal are assigned a unique DOI that is registered with The International DOI Foundation (IDF) through Crossref. A DOI is a permanent identifier that is independent of a document's web address. DOI's can be resolved through a central clearinghouse such as http://dx.doi.org/ that provides redirection to a document's current location. The DOI system provides a convenient and reliable approach for citations to digital documents. It also provides authors with a greater degree of confidence that their digital works can be located and accessed in the future, regardless of what happens to their publisher. See IDF's DOI Overview for more information.

Why does the journal have non-anonymous peer review?
Non-anonymous peer review encourages reviewer responsiveness and accountability, and provides public acknowledgment for reviewers' efforts. Reviewers that recommend publication of a paper will be acknowledged publicly, but reviewers that recommend rejection will remain anonymous.

What are the costs of publication?
The Mars Journal will offer free publication to authors that submit their papers online in the required format. See Information For Authors for more information. Mars Informatics will format manuscripts that are not submitted in the required format at a cost of USD $100.00 per printed page.

More Questions?   How can I get involved?
Contact editor@marsjournal.org.