Aims and scope

Climatic Change is dedicated to the totality of the problem of climatic variability and change - its descriptions, causes, implications and interactions among these. The purpose of the journal is to provide a means of exchange between those working on problems related to climatic variations but in different disciplines. Interdisciplinary researchers or those in any discipline, be it meteorology, anthropology, agricultural science, astronomy, biology, chemistry, physics, geography, policy analysis, economics, engineering, geology, ecology, or history of climate, are invited to submit articles, provided the articles are of interdisciplinary interest. This means that authors have an opportunity to communicate the essence of their studies to people in other climate related disciplines and to interested non-disciplinarians, as well as to report on research in which the originality is in the combinations of (not necessarily original) work from several disciplines. The journal also includes vigorous editorial and book review sections.     

Since June 2010, all manuscript submissions have been received via the electronic Editorial Manager system.  Upon receipt, a manuscript will now be assigned to one of five deputy editors whose names are indicated on the Editorial Board page. Each deputy editor is experienced in interdisciplinary approaches to research, and more than one of them may become involved in managing the progress of each manuscript to assure that editorial expertise is well-matched to the disciplines applied in the manuscript. Working in conjunction with associate deputy editors who also combine expertise  in various subfields with interdisciplinary experience, the deputy editors will assign reviewers, evaluate reviews when they are returned, decide whether revisions are needed, evaluate revised manuscripts, decide if re-review is required, and make a recommendation to the Co-Editors.  The Co-Editors will make the ultimate decision on whether to accept or reject a manuscript, and they will work in conjunction with the Editorial Advisory Board to maintain a close watch on the process to assure consistency across subject areas.

To further speed the publication process, we have also made some changes in manuscript requirements and review procedures.  Our goal is to encourage original research articles of up to 10,000 words, inclusive of all text, references, figures and tables, equivalent to about 12 published pages. We urge authors to take full advantage of our capacity for Electronic Supplemental Material.  In the case of manuscripts with little promise of developing sufficient novelty, clarity, or interdisciplinary reach via the review process to merit publication in Climatic Change, we allow our editors discretion to recommend rejection of submissions without external review, subject to approval by the Editors-in-Chief in each case. Reviewers are now being asked to return reviews within four weeks, but we hope to shorten this time line in the future.  When re-review of a manuscript indicates that a substantial number of significant, unresolved problems remain, it will generally be returned to the author without further consideration.  These changes have already shortened  the time between submission and online publication.  Climatic Change will continue to publish essays, commentaries on published papers, our unique, invited springboard commentaries, and invited book reviews. More information on these categories, including word limits, may be found under Instructions for Authors.

Climatic Change Letters will continue to accept brief submissions that merit faster publication.