Birth and Developing of Mongolian Geoscientist journal

Since the publication of the first issue of Mongolian Geoscientist, in October 1996, 25 years have passed and the journal has successfully evolved over a quarter of a century into a periodical publication well-known also outside the borders of Mongolia. Background and episodes of early publications were reviewed by Y.Takahashi, N.Ichinnorov, and S.Jargalan, who were members of the JICA-IGMR project. The present status of Mongolian Geoscientist is that of an internationally peer-reviewed, open-access journal, published by the School of Geology and Mining Engineering, Mongolian University of Science and Technology, with support from the Geological Society of Mongolia; managed by Editor-in-Chief B.Batkhishig, Consultant Editorial Board member O.Gerel, and Associate Editors B.Munkhtsengel, B.Altanzul, and Kh.Tseedulam.


INTRODUCTION OF THE JICA-IGMR
PROJECT The Institute of Geology and Mineral Resources (IGMR) project had been carried out from March 1994 for 5 years under the scheme of "Project-Type Technical Cooperation" of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The project purpose was to improve Mongolian technical staff's ability in the field of mineral resources investigation and chemical and mineral analyses. Over goal of the project is to contribute to the promotion of the mineral resource development in Mongolia. The project activities aimed to train Mongolian counterparts in Japan, to dispatch Japanese experts, and to supply necessary equipment. Mongolian counterpart organizations comprise the Geological Investigation Center and the Central Geological Laboratory. Technical cooperation organizations from Japanese side are mainly the Geological Survey of Japan and the Dowa Mining, Co., Ltd. Outputs of the project are (1) texts and manuals in Mongolian language for equipment donated by JICA, (2) delivering lectures and local seminars, (3) establishing a scientific journal "Mongolian Geoscientist" (Fig. 1), (4) designating the area of mineral prospects, which was continued by the Metal Mining Agency of Japan, (5) organizing international meetings (Fig. 2), and (6) producing the geologic maps of the Bayankhongor area (Geology Group of IGMR Project, 1999).

Preparing and policy
Editing and publishing a journal was a big issue in 1996, a turning year of the project. What type of journal should be aimed at, academic articles, mining activities records, or advanced education texts? Officially this journal would be published to show the reports, lectures and topics of the technical transfer programs of the IGMR Project. However, overall the project aimed to contribute to the promotion of the mineral resource development in Mongolia. Therefore, the journal should be opened for not only the IGMR project members but also to all geologists in Mongolia.

Name of the journal
The journal name was discussed in the project internal meeting. Some names were proposed, e.g. Project Report of IGMR, Bulletin of IGMR, Mongolian Mineralogist, and Mongolian Geoscientist. The former two names were soon cancelled because the name containing IGMR could not be used after completion of the project. Mongolian Mineralogist followed very famous international journals, American Mineralogist, Canadian Mineralogist, and Indian Mineralogist. This name was finally cancelled because this name might only target the subject of mineralogical sciences. After all, "Mongolian Geoscientist" was adopted because this name covered all subjects of relevant geoscience.

Editing of the first issue
Dr. G.Dejidmaa had cooperated with Geological Survey of Japan before the IGMR project. IGMR project staff asked her to undertake a review of the mineral deposits of Mongolia and she compiled and kindly submitted "Gold Metallogeny of Mongolia". The IGMR mapping groups could participate in the field excursion "The Lake Zone -Khantaishir Ophiolite" organized in liaison with the International Geological Congress, Beijing 1996. A Note on this excursion was also included in the journal. Mr. Y.Sakamaki, chief advisor of the IGMR project, prepared a preface for the first publication. The first journal rough copy was prepared in the end of summer, 1996. Next step was finding the suitable printing company in Mongolia.

Printing company
At that time, it was very difficult to find a printing company which could print cameraready copy in color. It took one month to find a suitable company. The printing company was found at last. This company donated a new printing machine with cooperation of the Japanese sport journal company. First volume was published just before geologists' day in October 1996.

CONTRIBUTION FROM OUTSIDE OF THE PROJECT
Continuously, second publication was under preparation. The article on lead-zinc mineral deposits in Mongolia was contributed in early 1997 (Batjargal et al., 1997). Editing and publishing were constantly continuing after the second publication. Mongolian Geoscientist was becoming the common platform for Mongolian geologists and mineralogists of the IGMR project, the universities, the academic institutes, and the mining companies. Some articles under editing in the IGMR project are archived (http://y95480.g1.xrea.com/ indexen.htm#MonGeo )

Field Excursion Guide;
Gerel and Lkhamsuren (1998) Granitic pluton of Gorkhi. This was prepared for the field excursion related to East Eurasian Geological Seminar.

PRESENT STATUS OF THE MONGOLIAN
GEOSCIENTIST The Geological Society of Mongolia defines its mission to cover regional and global information The journal focuses on new data and discussion of any aspect of geology, including tectonics, paleontology, geochemistry, petrology, mineralogy, ore deposit studies, mineral resources, geophysics, exploration drilling, permafrost, hydrogeology, engineering geology, geo-ecology, environmental issues, laboratorial and experimental studies and their results. The Mongolian Geoscientist publishes two volumes per year, in English. Each contribution to the Mongolian Geoscientist is a subject to doubleblind peer review by at least two independent reviewers of the Editorial Board, typically at least one member of Managing Board. As an online journal, Mongolian Geoscientist started using an open access submission system with ISSN 2220-0622 and eISSN 2663-5151, and the articles are equipped with DOI numbers and ORCID inclusion. The journal has been registered and accepted to the DOAJ, Dimensions, CNKI and search engines like Google Scholar. Its quality is regularly assessed by the International Journal Publishing Practices and Standards (JPPS). According to this assessment, the Mongolian Geoscientist journal rated by One Star in 2019 and Two Stars in 2021.