Gerilyn Soreghan

January 14, 2022

Gerilyn Soreghan, Ph.D. is David L. Boren Professor, Director, and Eberly Family Chair of Geosciences in the Mewbourne College of Earth and Energy School of Geosciences at the University of Oklahoma. As a primarily field-based sedimentary geologist, she studies Earth’s history to better understand what Earth's sedimentary record can teach us about climate behavior, including the drivers of climate change and carbon cycling, and the responses of the biosphere to climate change. She is the author of openly published articles such as Loess in eastern equatorial Pangea archives a dusty atmosphere and possible upland glaciation and Seismic Reflection and Electrical Resistivity Imaging Support Pre-Quaternary Glaciation in the Rocky Mountains (Unaweep Canyon, Colorado).   

 How have you benefited from publishing open access?

I think the best aspect of open-access publishing is the free availability to all readers. As scholars, this hopefully translates into a wider dissemination and readership, and thus greater impact for both my and OU’s research profile. Critically, it also represents part of our payback to society for the privilege of pursuing research, because we do so with (typically) the support of the general public and others.   

 Would you encourage others to publish open access? If so, why?

Yes, for the reasons I stated above. However, with the caution to guard against publishing in predatory or low-quality journals. I like to target society and not-for-profit publishers, but these can sometimes require payment for open access, which can be a financial barrier.   

 In making your work openly available, do you feel like you received the support you needed from OU Libraries?

Certainly OU Libraries has been enormously helpful in a number of ways. For example, for helping to partially fund open access (through subvention funds), as well as in-kind support in the form of substantial time spent in helping to upload previously published materials to SHAREOK, and checking the legality of such postings. I’ve always found OU Libraries to be incredibly supportive, responsive, and knowledgeable in help navigating the publishing landscape.   

 Do you have any specific advice for other scholars who are considering publishing openly?

Mainly to reinforce the caution to guard against falling prey to predatory journals, and also the positives (to oneself, OU, and society) of trying to publish open access.