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The idea of creating a new English-language electronic journal devoted to the problems of Earth Sciences originated in the late 80s of the last century. There were several motivations that led to the emergence of this idea. Most of the journals published in the former Soviet Union in Earth sciences, were deeply specialized, for example: "Tectonics", "Lithology", "Petrology", etc. Therefore it was difficult to publish articles dealing with problems at the interface of different scientific disciplines. Another important problem was the limited number of illustrations, which also had to be in black and white, significantly reducing their perception. One more important difficulty was related to the fact that conventional academic journals could take more than one year for publication.
The "Russian Journal of Earth Sciences" has none of these deficiencies. It publishes articles in English treating all areas of geology, geophysics and geochemistry, including geoinformatics, ecology and physics of the atmosphere and ocean. The lead time for publication of articles, after approval of the Editorial Board, is from 3 days to 1 month (depending on the technical complexity of the article). It is important to note that since the first issue (1998) the journal published articles and presentations with multimedia and interactive content, almost a decade ahead other well-known scientific journals. The first two volumes of the journal were published in Russian and English, with the financial support of the Schmidt Institute of Physics of the Earth, the USSR Academy of Sciences, both in electronic and printed versions. Later on the Editorial Board and the American Geophysical Union concluded a Grant Agreement to publish the English-language edition of the journal, which operated until the end of 2006. According to the agreement between the Editorial Board and the Geophysical Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (GC RAS) since 2007 GC RAS became the publisher and legal successor of the journal.
Performed at the same time, an analysis of readership has shown that over 60% of the journal's readers are in North America, mostly in the center and on the west coast, where most of the research centers in Earth sciences are located. For this reason, and given the limited financial resources of the publisher, it was decided to continue publishing only the English version of the journal.
Prof. A. F. Grachev
Editor-in-Chief
RJES Founder, August 2016
