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.
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.
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.
PLOS Climate publishes primary Research Articles, as well as occasional Editorials, Opinions, and Reviews.
PLOS is a nonprofit, Open Access publisher empowering researchers to accelerate progress in science and medicine by leading a transformation in research communication.
The Editor-in-Chief and Executive Editor partner with an international board of Academic Editors to thoroughly review each submission.
The PLOS Editorial Boards are a diverse, worldwide panel of expert researchers. We are committed to building and promoting an inclusive community that welcomes diversity in age, gender identity, race, sexual orientation, physical or mental ability, ethnicity, religion, or belief.
Editorial Board members oversee the peer review process for the journal, including evaluating submissions, selecting reviewers and assessing their comments, and making editorial decisions. Together with fellow Editorial Board members and internal staff, Section and Academic Editors uphold journal policies and Code of Conduct and work to promote the journal’s mission.
Read more about our Editors-in-Chief and Section Editors.
To find a member, browse the list, or search by name, country/region, Section or Classification.
For more information about submitting to PLOS Climate, read our guidelines for preparing a submission.
Related information for authors
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.
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.
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.
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.
The following policy applies to all PLOS journals, unless otherwise noted.
Best Practices in Research Reporting
Materials, Software and Code Sharing
Editorial Notes, Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions