About Us
Open Science for Public Good
A mission-driven, nonprofit collaborative, Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene is a trans-disciplinary, open-access journal committed to the facilitation of collaborative, peer-reviewed research. With the ultimate objective of accelerating scientific solutions to the challenges presented by this era of human impact, it is uniquely structured into six distinct knowledge domains, and gives authors the opportunity to publish in one or multiple domains, helping them to present their research and commentary to interested readers from disciplines related to their own.
Elementa strives to expertly publish timely, peer-reviewed articles and help authors present their work in a particularly engaging way, offering the opportunity to display additional materials such as slideshows and videos alongside their research; and making all articles available in multiple formats such as PDF, HTML, EPUB and Mobipocket.
As a nonprofit initiative, the support of our collaborators BioOne, Dartmouth, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Michigan, and the University of Washington ensures that we keep our focus on the publication of timely, high quality research to advance the intellectual agenda of science.
Knowledge Domains
Detlev Helmig
University of Colorado Boulder
Joel D. Blum
University of Michigan
Donald R. Zak
University of Michigan
Jody W. Deming
University of Washington
Anne R. Kapuscinski
Dartmouth
Michael E. Chang
Georgia Institute of Technology
Full Editorial Board
A Note on Our Name
Elementa’s subtitle embraces the concept of the Anthropocene, a term widely used since its coining by Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer in 2000* to denote the present time interval, in which many geologically significant conditions and processes are profoundly altered by human activities.
Our title, “Elementa,” was given to us by Empedocles (ca. 490–430 BCE), the pre-Socratic philosopher credited with the invention of the four-element theory of matter (earth, air, water, fire), one of the earliest theories of particle physics. Empedocles’ four “roots” (ῥιζὤματα, rhizōmata) was translated in Latin as elementa, the essential components of which all that exists or ever might come to exist are composed. Our knowledge domains represent what we believe to be the minimal components necessary to address the grand-challenge issues facing all conscious beings on Earth in this time of environmental change.
*The original article, ‘The ‘Anthropocene,’” published in IGBP‘s Global Change Newsletter, is available here (PDF 622K).
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