ESSD cover
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.

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.

Highlight articles

29 Apr 2026
Creation and analysis of a multi-hazard dataset: Tenerife (Canary Islands) as a case study
Marta López-Saavedra, Joan Martí, and Marc Martínez-Sepúlveda
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 2979–2998, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-2979-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-2979-2026, 2026
Short summary Editorial statement

Recent papers

21 May 2026
Hydrometeorological and hydrological data from Baker Creek Research Watershed, Northwest Territories, Canada, release V.3
Christopher Spence and Newell Hedstrom
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 3435–3447, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-3435-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-3435-2026, 2026
Short summary
20 May 2026
Development of historical maps of land use-land cover, crop type, nutrients, and irrigation across CONUS (1938–2020) at different spatial resolutions
Eric G. Booth and Christopher J. Kucharik
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 3415–3433, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-3415-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-3415-2026, 2026
Short summary
20 May 2026
High-Resolution Karst Spring Discharge Datasets of the Euro-Mediterranean Mountain Regions
Süleyman Selim Çallı, Kübra Özdemir Çallı, Brahim Akdim, Bruno Arfib, Aleksey Benderev, Sandra Beranger, Avi Burg, Onur Can, Jean-Baptiste Charlier, Mehmet Çelik, Arda Melih Çetin, Fehdi Chemseddine, Miroslava Deliyska, Lucio Di Matteo, Marco Dionigi, Romeo Eftimi, Jutta Eybl, Davide Fronzi, Nico Goldscheider, Ergin Gökkaya, Jorge Jodar, Herve Jourde, Eva Kaminsky, Konstantina Katsanou, Alireza Kavousi, Melike Kaya, David Labat, Tanja Liesch, Peter Malik, Christian Massari, Cyril Mayaud, Naomi Mazzilli, Pavel Pracny, Natasa Ravbar, Nathan Rispal, Simon Seelig, Vianney Sivelle, Marc Steinmann, Daniela Valigi, Gerfried Winkler, Ahmet Kemal Yahşi, and Andreas Hartmann
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-281,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-281, 2026
Preprint under review for ESSD (discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary
20 May 2026
An Ensemble Dataset of Permafrost Thaw Conditions for Northern High Latitudes from Open Satellite Data
Dianfan Guo, Cuizhen Wang, and Shuyi Zang
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-299,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-299, 2026
Preprint under review for ESSD (discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary
20 May 2026
High-resolution dataset of 2024 typhoons in the northern South China Sea captured by a collaborative network of underwater gliders and autonomous underwater vehicles
Jiawei Qi, Lei Liu, Wenhu Liu, Jianfang Fei, Jiancheng Yu, Zhanhong Ma, Zhentao Chen, Huabin Mao, Zhiduo Tan, Xiaogang Huang, and Xiaoping Cheng
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-300,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-300, 2026
Preprint under review for ESSD (discussion: open, 0 comments)
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.