Chief editors: Kirsten Elger, Sibylle K. Hassler, Conrad Jackisch, Graciela Raga, François G. Schmitt, Hanqin Tian, Baptiste Vandecrux & Yuyu Zhou
eISSN: ESSD 1866-3516, ESSDD 1866-3591
Earth System Science Data (ESSD) is an international, interdisciplinary journal for the publication of articles on original research data (sets), furthering the reuse of high-quality data of benefit to Earth system sciences. The editors encourage submissions on original data or data collections which are of sufficient quality and have potential to contribute to these aims. The journal maintains sections for regular-length articles, brief communications (e.g. on additions to data sets) and commentaries, as well as review articles and special issues.
This short commentary draws on ESSD author, reviewer and editor experiences over its first 10 years of operation to define guidelines, requirements and benefits of the ESSD processes.
News
07 May 2026
Temporary unavailability of article and preprint PDFs due to technical issues
Since Tuesday, 5 May, 06:30 CET, we have been experiencing technical issues caused by high demand on our systems, which have significantly affected our journal libraries. To maintain platform stability and ensure continued access to critical services, all preprint and journal article PDFs were temporarily restricted, while HTML full-text content and XML files remained available. Since Thursday, 7 May, 08:30 CET, we have made the preprint PDFs available again; however, journal article PDFs remain restricted until the technical issues have been resolved. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we work to restore full PDF access as quickly as possible. Thank you for your understanding.
07 May 2026
Temporary unavailability of article and preprint PDFs due to technical issues
Since Tuesday, 5 May, 06:30 CET, we have been experiencing technical issues caused by high demand on our systems, which have significantly affected our journal libraries. To maintain platform stability and ensure continued access to critical services, all preprint and journal article PDFs were temporarily restricted, while HTML full-text content and XML files remained available. Since Thursday, 7 May, 08:30 CET, we have made the preprint PDFs available again; however, journal article PDFs remain restricted until the technical issues have been resolved. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we work to restore full PDF access as quickly as possible. Thank you for your understanding.
02 Apr 2026
Australia's terrestrial industrial footprint and ecological intactness
The authors developed two datasets representing human industrial pressures and ecological intactness across Australia's landscapes. These datasets fill a long-standing gap in national-scale pressure mapping, providing key insights into human disturbance of the environment. Please read more. 
02 Apr 2026
Australia's terrestrial industrial footprint and ecological intactness
The authors developed two datasets representing human industrial pressures and ecological intactness across Australia's landscapes. These datasets fill a long-standing gap in national-scale pressure mapping, providing key insights into human disturbance of the environment. Please read more.
18 May 2026
25-year, quarterly land change maps of China's Loess Plateau reveal long-term and substantial water-induced soil erosion mitigation
Mofan Cheng, Zhuohong Li, Linxin Li, Wei He, Liangpei Zhang, and Hongyan Zhang
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 3303–3340, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-3303-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-3303-2026, 2026
Short summary
18 May 2026
OasisMap30: a 30 m annual land cover dataset of China's oases from 1987 to 2024
Peng Chen, Qiang Tang, Yanxu Liu, Yuchuan Luo, Linhai Cheng, Yijia Wang, Wenxuan Xu, and Shuai Wang
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 3289–3302, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-3289-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-3289-2026, 2026
Short summary
18 May 2026
Alaska-COLD: Linking Surface Temperatures and Subsurface Thermal Dynamics in a Multi-Year Hourly Dataset From Interior and Northern Alaska
Aymane Ahajjam, Anaí Caparó Bellido, Andrew Wilcox, Mary Soaper, Hayden Patterson, Sydney Weaver, Shishay Kidanu, and Timothy Pasch
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-213,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-213, 2026
Preprint under review for ESSD (discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary
18 May 2026
A Decade of Monthly Frontal Ablation at 147 Tidewater Glaciers in Svalbard
Dakota Pyles, Marcel Dreier, Anna Wendleder, Will Kochtitzky, Nora Gourmelon, Vincent Christlein, and Thorsten Seehaus
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-273,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-273, 2026
Preprint under review for ESSD (discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary
13 May 2026
The new seismic catalog of the Gargano area (Southern Italy) after a decade of seismic monitoring by OTRIONS network
Andrea Pio Ferreri, Annalisa Romeo, Rossella Giannuzzi, Teresa Ninivaggi, Marilena Filippucci, Gianpaolo Cecere, Luigi Falco, Maddalena Michele, Giulio Selvaggi, and Andrea Tallarico
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 3177–3209, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-3177-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-3177-2026, 2026
Short summary
Notice on APC invoices
In accordance with current European restrictions, Copernicus Publications does not step into business relations with and issue APC invoices (articles processing charges) to Russian and Belarusian institutions. The peer-review process and scientific exchange of our journals including preprint posting is not affected. However, these restrictions require that the first contact (contractual partner of Copernicus) has an affiliation and invoice address outside Russia or Belarus.
