Mineralogical Society of America, Founded December 30, 1919
revised 07/03/2015
The Mineralogical Society of America (MSA) has a variety of publications that are available in print, electronically, or both:
Publications available on the MSA website are in pdf format. These can be searched with google.com within the MSA website.
MSA publications available through GeoScienceWorld are in both pdf and html version. The html version has reference linking, downloadable high resolution figures and tables, capability to export bibliographic references to various citation managers, and searching of the full text. GeoScienceWorld and DeGruyter are the only location wherein a user can obtain useage statistics.
No responsibility or liability is assumed by The Mineralogical Society of America (MSA) or any copyright owner for any injury or damage to persons or property as a consequence of the reading, use or interpretation of published content. While every effort is made to ensure accuracy, The Mineralogical Society of America (MSA), the authors, Editors and copyright owners cannot be held responsible for published errors. The views or opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect views of The Mineralogical Society of America (MSA) or copyright owners. Inclusion of any advertising material does not constitute a guarantee or endorsement of any products or services or the claims made by any manufacturer.
The Mineralogical Society of America (MSA) attempts to ensure that all published descriptions of working practices contribute to the objectives of the individual papers in which they appear. The inclusion of such content should not be taken as an endorsement of the practices depicted or described by The Mineralogical Society of America (MSA), the authors, Editors, copyright owners or any other person or body.
Subscriptions to print + electronic versions of MSA publications for institutions are available through the society and DeGruyter. Specific details for institutional subscriptions can be found at the MSA and DeGruyter websites. Individuals interested in a subscription to the journal should consider a membership in the society.
Subscriptions to electronic-only versions of MSA publications, either on the MSA, GeoScienceWorld, or DeGruyter websites, are available. Specific details for institutional subscriptions can be found at MSA, GeoScienceWorld and DeGruyter websites.
At the moment there are articles in MSA publications that are open access, but very few. There may be a concern that MSA is charging both authors and readers for the same material. This will not be the case for MSA. When the subscriptions rates for the publications are set each year, the amount of Open Access fees received in the previous calendar year are treated as income to offset expenses. Increasing numbers of Open Access articles will decrease the subscription rates.
Access to all electronic back issues online of American Mineralogist, Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, and Elements is included in a current subscription with MSA.
Back print issues of the American Mineralogist for the three years preceding the current subscription year are available from the Society. Earlier issues are available from Periodicals Service Company.
Back print issues of the Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry can be purchased in the MSA Book Store. Earlier print issues of Elements are available from Elements Magazine Customer Service.
For electronic publications hosted on the MSA website, authentication is the IP or range of IP addresses for institutional subscribers. Authentication for members is by member ID and password.
Access to MSA publications hosted on GeoScienceWorld and DeGruyter require a subscription. The method of authentication is by IP address.
If IP addresses are supplied with the new or renewal subscription with MSA, activation will be done as the order is processed. If no IP addresses are supplied with the order, the subscriber will have to send the addresses to MSA. There is no need for renewals to reactivate their online access each year unless their IP addresses have changed.
Organizations that network their environment with a proxy server may register the IP address of the proxy server for authentication provided they limit the access to the authorized sites and users by technical methods, such as router setting, or some other means. The proxy server must be owned by the end-user, not a subscription agency or reseller.
MSA places no restrictions on the number of concurrent users.
A site is defined as a geographical location in a specific city or locale e.g. The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. All IP addresses within the range supplied by the end-user can access the electronic version. Such a site would normally have been covered by a single subscription to the paper version.
A signed license agreement is not required for online access. However, all subscribers are expected to follow MSA's Publishing Policies described here.
If an subscriber discontinues its subscriptions they will have online access to the years for which they subscribed on the MSA website. A record maintenance fee may be imposed. The policies for GeoScienceWorld and DeGruyter would be spelled out in the subscriber's Site License Agreement with those vendors.
MSA grants a grace period after subscription has expired in order for the next year's subscription to be received. The grace period is generally a time period that covers up to 2-3 issues, depending how soon the issues are published after the first of the year. However, there may be an additional fee charged for late renewals.
The MSA website does not now have the capability to provide usage reports for subscribers. Usage reports are available to subscribers of GeoScienceWorld and DeGruyter.
The MSA site does not now have the capability for account administration by subscribers. Account Administrator sites are available for subscribers to GeoScienceWorld and DeGruyter.
Information and instructions for preparing and submitting articles can be found at American Mineralogist.
Information and instructions for the proposing of a volume or short course, as well as preparing and submitting of chapters can be found at Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry.
Information and instructions for proposing a thematic issue to be published in Elements magazine, preparing an article for an upcoming issue, and guidelines about how to write and structure your article at at Elements.
Article XIII. Publications, Section 4 of the MSA Bylaws states:
"Ownership of Content of Publications. The Society shall own the copyright for the original and any renewal terms for any writing in collected works that are published by the Society. The author of any such writing shall have the right to make a nonprofit or noncommercial use of the work, other than for the Society, provided that the author affixes to each copy the copyright notice used by the Society when the writing was first published. The author shall have the right to make or authorize for profit or commercial use of any such writing only after first obtaining the written consent of the Society. Copyright ownership may be waived upon approval by the Council."
Before 2011, MSA required transfer of the copyright ownership to the Society of all works it published. With adoption by Council of MSA's License to Publish starting 2012, authors or their institutions retain copyright ownership of the accepted manuscript after peer-review (the Accepted Manuscript). However, MSA owns the copyright of the Version of Record published in the American Mineralogist and Elements. MSA still requires transfer of the copyright ownership for the Reviews because the series has different content, audiences, and business model. Copyright on MSA Monographs is either retained by the authors, or has been transferred to MSA, based on the language of the contract signed by the authors and MSA.
With MSA's License to Publish, authors have the same rights they had previously when they published with MSA:
"The author of any such writing shall have the right to make a nonprofit or noncommercial use of the work, other than for the Society, provided that the author affixes to each copy the copyright notice used by the Society when the writing was first published. The author shall have the right to make or authorize for profit or commercial use of any such writing only after first obtaining the written consent of the Society.
Authors may reuse their own material in print without permission from the Society provided that, when reproducing the accepted manuscript after peer-review (the Accepted Manuscript) or extracts from it, the Author(s) include a reference and citation to the MSA Publication containing the Version of Record. The Author(s) shall retain the following non-exclusive rights:
You may make limited hard copies of an article for your own research, presentations, or educational purposes (not including course packs) if you have access rights to the material. You do not need to request permission to do this.
If the thesis is to be included in the institution's electronic repository or other online host, authors must use the accepted manuscript after peer-review (the Accepted Manuscript), not the published Version of Record (unless it is Gold Open Access).
Remember that some publications have strong policy against duplicate publication and do not allow republication of whole articles, or substantial parts of them, unless there are very exceptional circumstances. This does not prevent the inclusion of whole articles in course packs and the like (which do not constitute republication).
The License grants an important new electronic publishing right to the author(s):
"to post a copy of the Accepted Manuscript, subject to the embargo period of 12 months after appearance of the Version of Record in the MSA Publication, on the Author(s)' own website or institutional open access digital repository, the Author(s)' funding body's designated archive, or elsewhere provided the original publication to the Version of Record in the MSA Publication is acknowledged by a note or a citation and a hyperlink included to the MSA Publication website."
The important distinction here is what is made accessible (Accepted Manuscript), and when (12 months after the Version of Record appears in the publication):
In addition to its own License to Publish, MSA offers two Creative Commons (CC) licenses if Gold Open Access authors need those to satisfy the requirements of their institutions or funding agencies.
Gold Open Access. Authors submitting manuscripts for publication have the option to make their published article fully Open Access (= Gold Open Access) on payment of the article processing fee. Gold Open Access means the full text of an article in the MSA publication as posted on the MSA website, GeoScienceWorld, or DeGruyter is made freely available to read to anyone from the moment it is published. The authors are also free to post the published version of the article on their own websites, or include it in an institutional repository. Open Access articles have an Open Access logo with the article both in the online table of contents and on the first page of the article.
MSA offers two Creative Commons (CC) licenses if Gold Open Access authors need those to satisfy the requirements of their institutions or funding agencies. The standard ones are:
The open access fee for the American Mineralogist is priced to reflect the per page creation and distribution costs to us. Inquire as to the open access fee for Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry and Elements as these require specific quotes. Authors who choose Gold Open Access will need to complete their payment before their article is accepted and finishes preparing their article for publication.
Green Open Access. If you are required to make your research Open Access, but do not have the resources for Gold Open Access, the License to Publish agreement with MSA allows you to post your your final accepted manuscript online twelve (12) months post-publication. This is Green Open Access. MSA notifies all the authors post-twelve (12) months publication to aid them in this task. Note that the peer-reviewed accepted version of their paper is NOT the edited, proofread, laid-out, and typeset version published online or in print.
e-link. Another option that may be useful to authors as well as fulfill funding requirements is an "e-link." The e-link – whether sent in an email to an inquirer or colleague or posted on a c.v. website or other internet or intranet site – takes the user to the version of the paper on GeoScienceWorld (GSW). The user can see the full article in html and PDF as well as use other GSW features. This is a free member benefit for authors who are MSA members or low cost otherwise.
Self-archiving and institutional repositories. Self-archiving and institutional repositories mean the accepted article in some version is posted and made available on a website, other than that of MSA, GeoScienceWorld, or DeGruyter, presumably for free to anyone. The same policies as above apply here. If you plan to do this, the important distinctions to be aware of are differences in what can be posted (the published version of the article or the final accepted manuscript) and the timing (immediately or twelve (12) months after publication). In the case of Gold Open Access, authors or their institutions can include or post the published version of the article for which an author or institution pays the article processing fee immediately upon publication. In the case of Green Open Access, authors or their institutions can include or post the final accepted manuscript online twelve (12) months after publication.
The US National Institutes of Health's (NIH) requests any author whose research received any direct support from NIH-funding to submit their accepted, but not necessarily edited, manuscripts related to that research to PubMed Central, the digital library maintained by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) within 12 months of acceptance. PubMed Central will post the paper within twelve (12) months of the final publication date. This new policy is voluntary. Although this new policy will only affect NIH-funded research, and very few MSA members or publications, it will probably influence the future of publication and dissemination practices for all federally-funded scientists, publishers and funding agencies. MSA acknowledges that the Author retains the right to provide a copy of the accepted, peer-reviewed manuscript to NIH for public archiving in PubMed Central. MSA asks that the statement be added that deposited material was published in American Mineralogist, Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry or Elements, and include the reference to the orginal MSA publication.
If a published paper is "retracted" by the author(s), and the situation will be handled as follows:
Much of the material contained in Mineralogical Society of America print and electronic publications is protected under copyright and other laws of the United States, and, under international conventions, similar laws abroad. Copyright of the materials including, but not limited to, the textual material, artwork, photographs, computer software, audio and visual elements, is owned by the Mineralogical Society of America, by the author(s), or the author's institution. In addition, copyright in the selection, arrangement and coordination of materials in its print and electronic publications is owned exclusively by MSA.
Open or public access does not mean the material is un-copyrighted.
All materials protected by United States copyright law may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of The Mineralogical Society of America. Trademark, copyright or other notice may not be altered or removed any from copies of the content. Instructions for obtaining permission to reproduce material are given on the MSA website at http://www.minsocam.org/MSA/Permission.html. Please check that the Society is the original copyright holder and that the material has not been reproduced with permission from another source. In those cases, you must contact the original copyright holder.
You may use material from MSA copyright in another MSA publication without permission from MSA.
The abstracts of articles can be reproduced without permission or fees provided that a full reference and a link to the article abstract page are included.
This section should not be interpreted to limit in any way whatsoever Licensee's or any Authorized User's rights under the Fair Use provisions of United States or international law to use the materials.
Material from the American Mineralogist, Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, Elements, and The Lattice online on the MSA and GeoScienceWorld website may be downloaded (one machine readable copy and one print copy per page) for personal, noncommercial use only.
A Subscriber may incorporate article-level links to the materials in password-protected Electronic Reserve collections for the use of Authorized Users in the course of instruction at the Subscriber’s institution, but not for commercial use. Each such item shall carry appropriate acknowledgement of the source. Links to such items shall be deleted by the Subscriber when they are no longer used for such purpose.
Authorized Users may transmit to a third party, in hard copy or electronically, minimal, insubstantial amounts of the materials for personal use or scholarly, educational, or scientific research or professional use but in no case for resale or commercial purposes.
A subscriber may not:
An "authorized user" of an institutional subscriber is:
The Subscriber will use reasonable efforts to prevent unauthorized use of the subscription service materials.
Subscribers found in violation of these policies shall be furnished a written notice of MSA's intention to terminate this and the Subscriber shall be allowed thirty (30) days after receipt of such notice to remedy the specified violation before termination becomes effective.
An institutional subscriber may fulfill requests from other institutions, a practice commonly called Interlibrary Loan. Licensee agrees to fulfill such requests in compliance with Sections 107 and 108 of the United States Copyright Act (http://www.loc.gov/copyright/title17/92chap1.html) and with payment of a copyright fee to the Copyright Clearance Center (http://www.copyright.com/). The library or archives receiving copies in any interlibrary arrangement must not, in purpose or effect, do so in such ways or aggregate quantities as to substitute for a subscription to purchase of MSA publications.
You can purchase single journal articles or book chapters, in either print or electronic form, from the American Mineralogist (v85 (2000) to present), Elements (v1 (2005) to present), and Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry) (v1 (1974) to present) at MinPubs.org. It is also possible to purchase:
Articles that have the Open Access padlock logo can be accessed by anyone at no cost. However, if you reuse opr republish figures or other parts of the article you must acknowledge the author and the source of the material depending on the copyright. Open Access does not do away with the copyright protection.
MSA offers two Creative Commons (CC) licenses if Gold Open Access authors need those to satisfy the requirements of their institutions or funding agencies. MSA also offers its own MSA Open Access License for those who do not chose the Creative Commons licenses.
The two Creative Commons (CC) licenses are:
The MSA Open Access License:
Articles in the American Mineralogist can be accompanied by Deposit Items (supplemental or unpublished data and documents). They may include large data sets, bibliographic data or image files. The names and URLs of such supplementary files are given in the corresponding hard copy papers (or online journal papers), and the files are intended to be viewed in conjunction with those papers.
Deposit Items first appeared in American Mineralogist in 1964. From v.49 (1964) through v.53 (1968), 23 items were deposited with the Library of Congress' ADI Auxiliary Publications Project. In 1968 this was changed to the National Auxiliary Publication Service, and 128 items were deposited from v. 53 (1968) to v. 59 (1974). These are now available from Burrows Systems (248 Hempstead Turnpike, West Hempstead, NY 11552, Tel: 516-481-2300). The cost is $15.00 for the first 20 pages, and $0.50 a page for any additional pages.
Starting with v. 60 (1975), MSA assumed responsibility for archiving deposited documents. From v.60 (1975) through v. 83 (1998) paper copies submitted by the authors were microfilmed. Because capabilities for making readable hard copies from microfiche were rapidly disappearing, and customers usually asked for hard copy in preference to microfiche, MSA stopped making microfiche and, starting with v. 84 (1999), only the paper copies submitted by the authors were archived and any electronic versions were posted on MSA's American Mineralogist website.
MSA started retaining the original paper copies of deposited items with establishment of its own Business Office in 1985. MSA had only the microfilm format of items from v. 60 (1975) through v.70 (1984). In 2000 MSA had student worker from George Washington University make print copies of all the documents for which we had only the microfiche, before the library there did away with the fiche printers.
Claims for replacement copies will be honored if the request is received within 120 days of the mailing date. An issue of the journal is generally mailed the month of its cover date. Send claims to: