Journal Information

Mission

PLOS Climate will rapidly disseminate rigorous research, with a commitment to open research principles that empower academic researchers, policy-makers, governments, international organizations and industry to understand dynamic, changing climates and take positive, evidence-based action in the face of climate change. We will catalyze practical solutions and amplify perspectives from under-represented voices and regions about issues across the breadth of climate research.

Scope

PLOS Climate is an open-access journal that furthers understanding of climatic patterns, processes, impacts and solutions by publishing transparent, rigorous and open research from diverse perspectives. PLOS Climate provides a venue for all areas of climate research, with an emphasis on collaborative, interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary work that improves global and regional understanding of climate phenomena and informs critical strategies for combating climate change.

PLOS Climate publishes work that is methodologically rigorous and adheres to the principles of transparency and ethics that are the bedrock of trust and progress. Research from every angle and every region of the world is considered, including but not limited to earth, ocean and atmospheric science, palaeoclimatology, climate-smart energy and engineering, adaptation, mitigation, climate economics, social and health impacts of climate change, policy and governance, ethics and philosophy, and climate-related behavior and psychology.

We consider articles reporting primary research including theoretical, laboratory, field-based, computational and modelling work. In addition, we consider systematic reviews and meta-analyses, qualitative research, replication studies, submissions reporting null and negative results, and submissions describing methods, software, databases and tools.

Contents

PLOS Climate publishes primary Research Articles, as well as occasional Editorials, Opinions, and Reviews.

Criteria for Publication

1. The study presents the results of original research.
2. Results reported have not been published elsewhere.
3. Experiments, statistics, and other analyses are performed to a high technical standard and are described in sufficient detail.
4. Conclusions are presented in an appropriate fashion and are supported by the data.
5. The article is presented in an intelligible fashion and is written in standard English.
6. The research meets all applicable standards for the ethics of experimentation and research integrity.
7. The article adheres to appropriate reporting guidelines and community standards for data availability.

Editorial Oversight

The Editor-in-Chief and Executive Editor partner with an international board of Academic Editors to thoroughly review each submission.

Editor-in-Chief

Emma Archer

Executive Editor

Jamie Males

Submit Your Manuscript

For more information about submitting to PLOS Climate, read our guidelines for preparing a submission.

Publication Fees

PLOS employs several business models to support equitable Open Access. A full list of our publication fees, funding initiatives and fee assistance information is available here.

Open Access

PLOS applies the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license to works we publish. Under this license, authors agree to make articles legally available for reuse, without permission or fees, for virtually any purpose. Anyone may copy, distribute, or reuse these articles, as long as the author and original source are properly cited. Learn more.

Journal Impact and Article Metrics

PLOS does not consider Impact Factor to be a reliable or useful metric to assess the performance of individual articles. PLOS supports DORA – the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment – and does not promote our journal Impact Factors. We will provide the metric to individuals when specifically requested.

PLOS promotes the use of Article-Level Metrics (ALMs), which enable scientists and the general public to engage more dynamically with published research. ALMs reflect the changing impact of research over time, incorporate academic as well as social impacts of research, and assess the impact of research before the accrual of academic citations. Read more about ALMs.

Indexing and Archiving

To ensure research is widely accessible and discoverable, PLOS submits all of our titles to major indexing services for evaluation as soon as possible according to the schedule of the specific service. PLOS Climate began publishing its first articles in February 2022 and is currently indexed by the services listed below:

CABI CAB Abstracts, Crossref, Dimensions, DOAJ, Google Scholar.

We are continuing to work with services such as PubMed Central, Web of Science, MEDLINE, and Scopus and will update the list above as soon as the journal is indexed.

• See publishing details for all PLOS journal titles, including ISSN and indexing and archiving information.

PLOS

PLOS is a nonprofit, Open Access publisher empowering researchers to accelerate progress in science and medicine by leading a transformation in research communication.

Contact

Visit the Contact page for details about whom to contact with different queries.