Geophysical Journal International is one of the world’s leading primary research journals in solid-Earth geophysics, with a Board of Editors international in representation. The journal moved to fully open access as of January 2024.


A publication of the prestigious Royal Astronomical Society, the journal has a well-earned reputation of publishing high quality research which supports the Society’s mission.


Funds raised by publishing in the journal directly support the RAS’ charitable endeavours to support and connect astronomers and geophysicists, in the UK and globally, throughout their careers.


With a diverse and internationally renowned editorial board your work is supported by our Editors’ experience and reach; from submission to publication and beyond.


Geophysical Journal International publishes high-quality research papers, express letters, review papers and data notes on all aspects of theoretical, computational, experimental, applied and observational geophysics. We aim to publish all papers in a timely fashion. Authors who submit a paper are expected to be able to certify that the paper is original work, has not been published before, and is not being considered for publication elsewhere.

The Journal’s mission is to promote our understanding of the Earth’s internal structure and physical properties, the processes operating in, on, and around it, and its evolution. Contributions presenting new data, methods and interpretations, of interest to a broad readership, are welcome on all aspects of:

• elastic waves in the Earth: their measurement and the information their propagation and characteristics provide on the Earth’s internal structure; this consideration includes gravity and acoustic waves (e.g., Tsunamis) in the ocean and atmosphere when related to some part or aspect of the solid Earth;

• sources (natural or artificial) of elastic, acoustic, and gravity waves, including methods for their detection and characterization, their physics, statistics, and relationship to other solid-Earth processes, such as tectonic motions but also anthropogenic activities;

• the Earth’s rotation, shape, surface and deep motions, and gravity field (static and varying), including their link to Earth’s internal structure, and the physics and characteristics of their sources;

• natural magnetism over all temporal and spatial scales, and solid-Earth electromagnetic processes related to natural or artificial sources, as applied to problems across the solid-Earth, environmental and planetary sciences;

• temperature and thermal processes in the solid Earth, including those that produce motions on any temporal or spatial scale

• relationships between the composition, physical state or other influences on solid-Earth materials, and their properties (elastic, inelastic, magnetic, electrical, or otherwise measurable)

• methods for determining the properties and behaviour of any part of the solid Earth (in the field at sea or on land, or in a laboratory; either contemporary or preserved in the rock record), using any of the phenomena or properties described above.


A manuscript presenting a new method is more likely to proceed to external review insofar as it presents a substantial innovation, or exhibits interdisciplinary approaches and implications. Interdisciplinary papers need to use a general, understandable, problem-oriented language. In all cases, authors presenting a new method should show that they know about existing approaches. If a method is claimed to be superior, this must be demonstrated by comparisons with existing methods. Manuscripts are less likely to be sent out for external review when they report only incremental changes to established or previously presented techniques.

Manuscripts reporting on development of geophysical methods are less likely to be favourably considered if they do not include a proof of concept against real data. When the use or development of a method is motivated by an industry-related or otherwise applied-science problem, the manuscript should demonstrate the method’s potential for transfer to more fundamental research, and/or the research’s implications beyond the specific region where it was applied or for which it was developed. The manuscripts’ contents should constitute a fundamental scientific advancement of a geophysical discipline to be communicated by the main section and the title, with any application serving only as an illustration of the main idea in a subsection.


All submissions will be carefully examined by members of GJI’s editorial board for

• convincing demonstration of the potential interest in geophysics

• use of reproducible methods and freely provided data, computer codes, and simulation results (if applicable).