Geophysical Research Letters is a semi-monthly peer review

Peer review

Peer review is a process of self-regulation by a profession or a process of evaluation involving qualified individuals within the relevant field. Peer review methods are employed to maintain standards, improve performance and provide credibility...

ed scientific journal

Scientific journal

In academic publishing, a scientific journal is a periodical publication intended to further the progress of science, usually by reporting new research. There are thousands of scientific journals in publication, and many more have been published at various points in the past...

 published by the American Geophysical Union

American Geophysical Union

The American Geophysical Union is a nonprofit organization of geophysicists, consisting of over 50,000 members from over 135 countries. AGU's activities are focused on the organization and dissemination of scientific information in the interdisciplinary and international field of geophysics...

 that was established in 1974. The editor-in-chief is Eric Calais (Purdue University

Purdue University

Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S., is the flagship university of the six-campus Purdue University system. Purdue was founded on May 6, 1869, as a land-grant university when the Indiana General Assembly, taking advantage of the Morrill Act, accepted a donation of land and...

).

Aims and Scope

The stated purpose of Geophysical Research Letters is rapid publication of conscise research reports that may significantly influence one or more American Geophysical Union

American Geophysical Union

The American Geophysical Union is a nonprofit organization of geophysicists, consisting of over 50,000 members from over 135 countries. AGU's activities are focused on the organization and dissemination of scientific information in the interdisciplinary and international field of geophysics...

 disciplines. These particular geoscience disciplines are atmospheric sciences

Atmospheric sciences

Atmospheric sciences is an umbrella term for the study of the atmosphere, its processes, the effects other systems have on the atmosphere, and the effects of the atmosphere on these other systems. Meteorology includes atmospheric chemistry and atmospheric physics with a major focus on weather...

, solid earth, space sciences, ocean sciences

Oceanography

Oceanography , also called oceanology or marine science, is the branch of Earth science that studies the ocean...

, hydrology

Hydrology

Hydrology is the study of the movement, distribution, and quality of water on Earth and other planets, including the hydrologic cycle, water resources and environmental watershed sustainability...

, land surface processes, and the cryosphere

Cryosphere

The cryosphere is the term which collectively describes the portions of the Earth’s surface where water is in solid form, including sea ice, lake ice, river ice, snow cover, glaciers, ice caps and ice sheets, and frozen ground . Thus there is a wide overlap with the hydrosphere...

. GRL also publishes twelve invited reviews that cover advances achieved during the past two or three years. The target readership is the earth science

Earth science

Earth science is an all-embracing term for the sciences related to the planet Earth. It is arguably a special case in planetary science, the Earth being the only known life-bearing planet. There are both reductionist and holistic approaches to Earth sciences...

 community, the broader scientific community, and the general public.

Abstracting and indexing

This journal is indexed in the following databases:

• SPIN
  SPIN bibliographic database
  SPIN bibliographic database is an indexing and abstracting service produced by the American Institute of Physics . The content focus of SPIN is described as the most significant areas of physics research. This type of literature coverage spans the major physical science journals and magazines...
  
  
• Computer & Control Abstracts
• Electrical & Electronics Abstracts
• Physics Abstracts. Science Abstracts. Series A
• Electronics and Communications Abstracts Journal
• ISMEC Bulletin
• Pollution Abstracts with indexes
• Safety Science Abstracts Journal
• Life Sciences Collection
• Excerpta Medica
  Excerpta Medica
  Excerpta Medica is a [medical] communications agency that partners with pharmaceutical industry clients around the world to provide services to physicians and other healthcare professionals....
  
  
• Coal Abstracts
• International Aerospace Abstracts
• GeoRef
  GeoRef
  The GeoRef database is a bibliographic database of scientific literature in the geosciences, including the geology of North America and the world. Coverage ranges from 1785 to the present for North American literature, and 1933 to the present for the rest of the world. It currently contains more...
  
  
• Chemical Abstracts
• GEOBASE
  GEOBASE (database)
  GEOBASE is a database, multidisciplinary in scope, which indexes bibliographic information and abstracts for the Geographical, Earth, and Ecological sciences. The broad subject coverage includes earth sciences, ecology, geomechanics, human geography, physical geography, social geography and...
  
  
• Energy Research Abstracts
• Scopus
  Scopus
  Scopus, officially named SciVerse Scopus, is a bibliographic database containing abstracts and citations for academic journal articles. It covers nearly 18,000 titles from over 5,000 international publishers, including coverage of 16,500 peer-reviewed journals in the scientific, technical, medical,...
  
  
• PubMed
  PubMed
  PubMed is a free database accessing primarily the MEDLINE database of references and abstracts on life sciences and biomedical topics. The United States National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health maintains the database as part of the Entrez information retrieval system...
  
  
• Web of Science
  Web of Science
  ISI Web of Knowledge is an academic citation indexing and search service, which is combined with web linking and provided by Thomson Reuters. Web of Knowledge coverage encompasses the sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities. It provides bibliographic content and the tools to access, analyze,...
  
  

According to the Journal Citation Reports

Journal Citation Reports

Journal Citation Reports is an annual publication by the Healthcare & Science division of Thomson Reuters. It has been integrated with the Web of Knowledge, by Thomson Reuters, and is accessed from the Web of Science to JCR Web. It provides information about academic journals in the sciences and...

, the journal has a 2010 impact factor

Impact factor

The impact factor, often abbreviated IF, is a measure reflecting the average number of citations to articles published in science and social science journals. It is frequently used as a proxy for the relative importance of a journal within its field, with journals with higher impact factors deemed...

 of 3.505, ranking it 12th out of 165 journals in the category "Geosciences, Multidisciplinary". Geophysical Research Letters was also the 5th most cited publication on climate change

Climate change

Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...

between 1999 and 2009.