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A lot has already been published about the how the current and anticipated steep reductions in US federal funding for science, along with reductions in staffing at federal agencies, will affect the scientific enterprise, though not all the collateral damage has been picked up in news stories nor assessed (e.g., Flannery, 2025; Garisto, 2025; Harvey, 2025; Wadman, 2025). From my perch, as editor of Oceanography, I’ve been thinking about what federal funding cuts might mean for scientific publishing, and for this journal in particular. For decades, US federal agency support has been vital to the long-term health of Oceanography and our ability to openly share critical research on a wide variety of ocean science related topics. Many special issues and individual articles have been used as a basis for undergraduate and graduate classroom instruction and discussions as well as to inform policymakers.
Federal support has also enabled us to publish two special issues on Women in Oceanography and more recently a special issue on Building Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Ocean Sciences. Three federal agencies supported this year’s special issue on A Vision for Capacity Sharing in the Ocean Sciences. These landmark special issues are contributing in various ways to inspiring the careers of our next generation of ocean scientists, who are vital to the continued health of our field. Importantly, special issue sponsorship means that no authors pay publication fees, allowing scientists from under-resourced nations or others who may not have large research grants to fully participate. This sponsorship also enabled The Oceanography Society (TOS), the publisher of Oceanography and a nonprofit organization, to provide full open access to articles long before it was fashionable, or even required, for scientific journals.
From the beginning, Oceanography’s mission has been to communicate across disciplines in the ocean sciences—a different but complementary objective from other, more technical journals in our field. The aspiration is that special issues and individual articles that are accessible to all ocean scientists, and contributed by the global community, may spur new collaborations or provide new insights that will advance the field. While Oceanography will continue to pursue its mission by publishing special issues as the situation permits, there will likely be fewer in the future unless sponsorship opportunities with other US-based organizations as well as groups outside of the United States arise. Instead, we will publish more “regular” (unsponsored) issues that are based on unsolicited manuscripts (e.g., this June 2025 issue; see also the September 2024 issue).
I highly encourage TOS members to check out our Author Guidelines for instructions on how to submit a manuscript to Oceanography and to share those guidelines with your colleagues. If you are unsure whether a topic might be of interest to us, please contact one of the associate editors and discuss your idea. Your articles, whether published in a regular or special issue, are vital to communication among ocean scientists and the continued health of Oceanography.
– Ellen S. Kappel, Editor