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

19 May 2026
Bowen ratio-constrained global dataset of bulk air–sea turbulent heat fluxes from 1993 to 2017
Yizhe Wang, Ronglin Tang, Meng Liu, Lingxiao Huang, and Zhao-Liang Li
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 3391–3414, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-3391-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-3391-2026, 2026
Short summary
19 May 2026
CoralCache: a virtual coral core repository for transparent and reproducible annual growth rate analyses
Thomas M. DeCarlo, Oliwia Jasnos, Avi Strange, Andreas Andersson, Angel T. Bautista VII, Sierra Bloomer, Isaiah W. Bolden, Maartje Bosman, Thomas C. Brachert, Giulia B. Braz, Gabriel O. Cardoso, Juan P. Carricart-Ganivet, Jessica E. Carilli, Karl D. Castillo, Leticia Cavole, Sylvia Chan, Xuefei Chen, Ben Chomitz, Thierry Correge, Travis A. Courtney, Mikayla Deigan, Juan Pablo D'Olivo, Robert Dunbar, Ian C. Enochs, Ludmilla Falsarella, Thomas Felis, Gabriela Gutierrez-Estrada, Brighton Hedger, Shijian Hu, Seamus Jameson, Stacy Jupiter, Paul Kench, Diego K. Kersting, Ke Lin, Yi-Wei Liu, Carla A. B. Lorigados, Derek P. Manzello, Malcolm T. McCulloch, Miguel Mies, Rodrigo L. Moura, Ferdinand Oberle, Natan Pereira, Nancy Prouty, Riovie D. Ramos, Haojia Ren, Emma Ryan, Diane M. Thompson, Lauren T. Toth, Marina J. Vergotti, Jody M. Webster, and Jens Zinke
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 3341–3353, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-3341-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-3341-2026, 2026
Short summary
19 May 2026
Riverine phosphorus gain and loss across the conterminous United States
Yiming Wang, Xuesong Zhang, Kaiguang Zhao, Robert D. Sabo, Yuxin Miao, and Christopher M. Clark
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 3355–3365, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-3355-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-3355-2026, 2026
Short summary
19 May 2026
ICEland-1: a geochronological database for reconstructing Late Quaternary glacier, relative sea level, and paleoclimate patterns in Iceland
David J. Harning, Áslaug Geirsdóttir, John T. Andrews, Aaron M. Barth, and Ingibjörg Jónsdóttir
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 3367–3390, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-3367-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-3367-2026, 2026
Short summary
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

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.