ESSD cover
Chief editors: Kirsten Elger, Sibylle K. Hassler, Conrad Jackisch, Ken Mankoff, Graciela Raga, François G. Schmitt, Hanqin Tian & 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

13 Feb 2026 University of Western Ontario partners with Copernicus Publications to support open-access publishing

Copernicus Publications has signed a new agreement with Western Libraries at the University of Western Ontario, providing a 50% APC reduction for eligible corresponding authors submitting from 1 January 2026. Please read more.

13 Feb 2026 University of Western Ontario partners with Copernicus Publications to support open-access publishing

Copernicus Publications has signed a new agreement with Western Libraries at the University of Western Ontario, providing a 50% APC reduction for eligible corresponding authors submitting from 1 January 2026. Please read more.

03 Dec 2025 New MS Word template available for manuscript preparation

The existing MS Word template for authors has been significantly expanded and now includes many important notes on the standard sections that must be included in the manuscript. Please visit the "Submission" page, section "Templates for your manuscript file" and download the new template before writing your next manuscript.

03 Dec 2025 New MS Word template available for manuscript preparation

The existing MS Word template for authors has been significantly expanded and now includes many important notes on the standard sections that must be included in the manuscript. Please visit the "Submission" page, section "Templates for your manuscript file" and download the new template before writing your next manuscript.

21 Aug 2025 The JapanFlux2024 dataset for eddy covariance observations covering Japan and East Asia from 1990 to 2023

The JapanFlux2024 dataset, created through collaboration across Japan and East Asia, includes eddy covariance data from 83 sites spanning 683 site-years (1990–2023). Please read more.

21 Aug 2025 The JapanFlux2024 dataset for eddy covariance observations covering Japan and East Asia from 1990 to 2023

The JapanFlux2024 dataset, created through collaboration across Japan and East Asia, includes eddy covariance data from 83 sites spanning 683 site-years (1990–2023). Please read more.

Recent papers

16 Feb 2026
A complete database of AMS radiocarbon estimates from Lake Baikal sediment cores with a lake-wide assessment of TOC age offsets
Samuel R. S. Newall, Anson W. Mackay, Natalia Piotrowska, and Maarten Blaauw
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 1225–1242, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-1225-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-1225-2026, 2026
Short summary
16 Feb 2026
ForestScan: a unique multiscale dataset of tropical forest structure across 3 continents including terrestrial, UAV and airborne LiDAR and in-situ forest census data
Cecilia Chavana-Bryant, Phil Wilkes, Wanxin Yang, Andrew Burt, Peter Vines, Amy C. Bennett, Georgia C. Pickavance, Declan L. M. Cooper, Simon L. Lewis, Oliver L. Phillips, Benjamin Brede, Alvaro Lau, Martin Herold, Iain M. McNicol, Edward T. A. Mitchard, David A. Coomes, Toby D. Jackson, Löic Makaga, Heddy O. Milamizokou Napo, Alfred Ngomanda, Stephan Ntie, Vincent Medjibe, Pacôme Dimbonda, Luna Soenens, Virginie Daelemans, Laetitia Proux, Reuben Nilus, Nicolas Labrière, Kathryn Jeffery, David F. R. P. Burslem, Dan Clewley, David Moffat, Lan Qie, Harm Bartholomeus, Gregoire Vincent, Nicolas Barbier, Geraldine Derroire, Katharine Abernethy, Klaus Scipal, and Mathias Disney
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 1243–1274, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-1243-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-1243-2026, 2026
Short summary
16 Feb 2026
Generation of angular-normalized, cloud-filled, 0.01°-downscaled land surface temperature from 2018 to 2023 based on official FY-4A dataset
Qiang Na, Biao Cao, Boxiong Qin, Tian Hu, Hua Li, Lixin Dong, Huanyu Zhang, Wenfeng Zhan, and Qinhuo Liu
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-74,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-74, 2026
Preprint under review for ESSD (discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary
13 Feb 2026
MLAWind: A Monthly Sea Surface Wind Dataset Derived from an Interpretable Machine Learning Approach Integrating In-Situ Observations and Satellite Data
Weihao Guo, Rongwang Zhang, Xin Wang, and Dongxiao Wang
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-725,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-725, 2026
Preprint under review for ESSD (discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary
13 Feb 2026
A Forty-Four-Year Comprehensive Dataset of Maize Phenology in China's Huang-Huai-Hai Plain
Quanjun Zhang, Dongli Wu, and Zhaojin Cheng
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-726,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-726, 2026
Preprint under review for ESSD (discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary

Notice on the current situation in Ukraine

To show our support for Ukraine, all fees for papers from authors (first or corresponding authors) affiliated to Ukrainian institutions are automatically waived, regardless if these papers are co-authored by scientists affiliated to Russian and/or Belarusian institutions. The only exception will be if the corresponding author or first contact (contractual partner of Copernicus) are from a Russian and/or Belarusian institution, in that case the APCs are not waived.

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.