Instructions to authors

• About the journal
• Editorial Policies
• Data Policy
• Submission
• Manuscript Preparation
• Production
• Manuscript Charges

About the journal

Oxford Open Climate Change is a fully open access peer-reviewed journal. All papers published in Oxford Open Climate Change are made freely available online under an open access licence, with applicable charges. Please refer to the open access section below.

Please read these instructions carefully and follow them closely. The Editors may return manuscripts that do not follow these instructions.

Scope of the Journal

Oxford Open Climate Change is a broad-reaching interdisciplinary journal that aims to cover all aspects of climate change, including its impacts on nature and society, as well as solutions to the problem and their wider implications. The journal will publish research from physical and biogeochemical aspects to social impact and response assessments; from economics and integrated assessments to health, politics, and governance; and from natural to technical solutions. The journal will play a key part in disseminating research findings across traditional fields, and in removing siloes in readership seen in more traditional discipline-specific journals. Oxford Open Climate Change embraces openness principles that will further contribute to both the dissemination and the reuse of the published materials. The journal will include both invited contributions and regularly submitted contributions, as well as special issues that consider key problems from a wide range of disciplines. Article types will range across multi-disciplinary reviews, research articles, research letters, short communications, and editorials. Rigorous peer review is central to all content.

Editorial Policies

Full details of Oxford University Press’s editorial policies are available.

Peer Review

This journal operates single-anonymized peer review. A minimum of two reviewers is required for every manuscript. For full details about the peer review process, see Fair editing and peer review.

Publication Ethics

Authors should observe high standards with respect to publication best practice. Falsification or fabrication of data, plagiarism, including duplicate publication of the authors’ own work without proper citation, and misappropriation of work are all unacceptable practices. Any cases of ethical or publication malpractice are treated very seriously and will be managed in accordance with the Commission on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines. Further information about OUP’s ethical policies is available on the Oxford ethics page.

Plagiarism

Manuscripts submitted may be screened with iThenticate anti-plagiarism software in an attempt to detect and prevent plagiarism. Any manuscript may be screened, especially if there is reason to suppose part or all of the text has been previously published. Prior to final acceptance any manuscript that has not already been screened may be put through iThenticate. More information about iThenticate is available.

ORCID

Oxford Open Climate Change requires all submitting authors to provide an ORCID ID at submission to the journal. You can find out more about ORCID, and the benefits of using an ORCID ID here. If you do not already have an ORCID ID, you can register for free via the ORCID website.

Data Policy

Availability of Data and Materials

Oxford Open Climate Change requires all authors, where ethically possible, to publicly release all data and software code underlying any published paper as a condition of publication. Authors are required to include a Data Availability Statement in their research article.

We require that data be presented in the main manuscript or additional supporting files, or deposited in a public repository whenever possible. Information on general repositories for all data types, and a list of recommended repositories by subject area, is available under Choosing where to archive your data.

Data Availability Statement

The inclusion of a Data Availability Statement is a requirement for research articles published in Oxford Open Climate Change. Data Availability Statements provide a standardised format for readers to understand the availability of data underlying the research results described in the article. The statement may refer to original data generated in the course of the study or to third-party data analysed in the article. The statement should describe and provide means of access, where possible, by linking to the data or providing the required unique identifier.

The Data Availability Statement should be included in the endmatter of your research article under the heading ‘Data availability’.

More information and example Data Availability Statements can be found under the Data Availability Statements heading.

Data Citation

Oxford Open Climate Change supports the Force 11 Data Citation Principles and requires that all publicly available datasets be fully referenced in the reference list with an accession number or unique identifier such as a digital object identifier (DOI). Data citations should include the minimum information recommended by DataCite:

              [dataset]* Authors, Year, Title, Publisher (repository or archive name), Identifier

*The inclusion of the [dataset] tag at the beginning of the citation helps us to correctly identify and tag the citation. This tag will be removed from the citation published in the reference list.

Preprint Policy

Authors retain the right to make an Author’s Original Version (preprint) available through various channels, and this does not prevent submission to the journal. For further information see our Online Licensing, Copyright and Permissions policies. If accepted, the authors are required to update the status of any preprint, including your published paper’s DOI, as described on our Author Self-Archiving policy page .

Self-Archiving Policy

You may self-archive versions of your work on your own webpages, on institutional webpages, and in other repositories. If you want more information about the reuse rights you retain if you publish with us, please visit our Author Self-Archiving Policy page.

Conflict of Interest

When submitting a paper, you and your co-authors must declare any potential conflicts of interest. You must do this by including a Conflict of Interest statement after the acknowledgements in your submitted manuscript.

You can find a detailed definition of conflicts of interests under the Conflict of interest heading.

Members of the editorial team of the journal should include the following COI disclosure in their article:  [Author] holds the position of [Editor-in-Chief/Deputy Editor-in-Chief/Assistant Editor/Editorial Board Member] for Oxford Open Climate Change and has not peer reviewed or made any editorial decisions for this paper.

Submission

We will consider your manuscript as long as

• it is your own original work and does not duplicate any previously published work, including your own;
• it is not under consideration, in peer review, or accepted for publication in any journal other than Oxford Open Climate Change;
• it has not been published in any other journal; and
• it contains nothing abusive, defamatory, libelous, obscene, fraudulent, or illegal.

Authors should observe high ethical standards and obey publication best practices. The following are all unacceptable:

• data falsification or fabrication
• plagiarism, including duplicate publication of your own work without proper citation
• misappropriation of work

We treat any case of ethical or publication malpractice very seriously. We will  address them in accordance with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines. Further information about OUP’s ethical policies is available.

How to Submit

You must submit your paper via our web-based submission system, which may be found at submission system. If you have not published with Oxford Open Climate Change before, you will need to create an account. For more information, please see ScholarOne Manuscripts-Author Support. Questions about submitting can be sent to the editorial office at [email protected].

Pre-submission enquiries

Oxford Open Climate Change welcomes pre-submission enquiries from prospective authors who wish to discuss the suitability of their work before sending a formal submission. Please send all enquiries to [email protected]. 

Article Type

This journal publishes several different article types. The multi-disciplinary nature of the journal requires that technical jargon is avoided wherever possible. A concise glossary of technical terms and acronyms may be added if required.

Research Article: A full article presenting new research results and interpretations that fall within the journal’s remit. A Research Article needs to include: an introduction of the underlying rationale, including a summary of preceding work/context that leads into a concise statement on the objectives of the new paper, as well as details of its wider importance; a description of materials and methods used that provides enough information to allow replication; results and discussion; and conclusions.  

Review Article: A comprehensive assessment and synthesis of a selected topic across a range of disciplines in climate science. Rather than a simple collection of statements, these reviews should work toward a synthesis of the collected information; this may include an element of novel (re-) analysis, although it should not dominate the article. Reviews require a well-crafted flow that avoids repetitions.

Short Communication: A brief discussion article highlighting a problem which has gained specific prominence, or offering hypotheses or solutions relating to a specific problem. This article type should be used where a full answer has not yet been concluded, but debate of a topic is warranted and timely.

Research Letter: A brief report answering a specific question of relevance to the scope of the journal. This may include the presentation of a set of empirical data, a new model, or new methodology, and should provide a concise and focussed, answer to a particular research question. 

Perspective Article: Perspectives are an assessment of developments within climate change research with implications for the future. Perspectives can be more philosophical in nature and can have a more personal style. They will typically outline a state of the art within its historical context, with an aim of triggering wider discussion; for example toward review and revision of existing concepts or practice, or development of new methods and approaches. Perspective Articles must be invited by an Editor. If you would like to discuss a potential perspective article please contact the Editorial Office: [email protected].

Third-Party Permissions

If you wish to reproduce any material for which you do not own the copyright—including quotations, tables, or images—you must obtain permission from the copyright holder. The permissions agreement must include the following documents:

• nonexclusive rights to reproduce the material in your article in Oxford Open Climate Change
• both print and electronic rights, preferably for use in any form or medium
• lifetime rights to use the material
• worldwide English-language rights

Further information on obtaining permissions is available.

Manuscript Preparation: Format, Structure, and Style

This journal offers format-free submission. At first submission, it is not necessary to apply formatting to match house style. Instead, simply ask: would I enjoy reading and reviewing a manuscript formatted in this way. Manuscripts can be submitted in any common document format that can be easily opened and read by others. A single PDF or Word file is usually reliable. We do require continuous line numbers to be included in all submissions, regardless of the file type or formatting.

After initial review, you may be asked to supply editable files that match journal formatting requirements, and high-resolution figures.

Presubmission Language Editing

If you are not confident in the quality of your English, you may wish to use a language-editing service to ensure that editors and reviewers understand your paper. Oxford University Press partners with Enago, a leading provider of author services. Prospective authors are entitled to a discount of 30% for editing services at Enago, via the Specialist English Editing Services for Oxford University Press Authors page.

Enago is an independent service provider, who will handle all aspects of this service, including payment. As an author you are under no obligation to take up this offer. Language editing is optional and does not guarantee that your manuscript will be accepted. Edited manuscripts will still undergo peer review by the journal.

Title Page

Please include the following:

• the title of your paper
• all author affiliations, using this format: department, institution, city, state, country
• mailing address and email address of one corresponding author
• a short running head of 50 characters or less

Abstract

Abstracts have a maximum length of 250 words and must not contain reference citations or abbreviations. Abstracts are required for research and review articles.

Graphical Abstracts

Authors of Research and Review articles, are encouraged to submit a graphical abstract as part of the article, in addition to the text abstract. The graphical abstract should clearly summarize the focus and findings of the article, and will be published as part of the article online and in PDF. The graphical abstract should be submitted for peer review as a separate file, selecting the appropriate file-type designation in the journal’s online submission system. The file should be clearly named, e.g. graphical_abstract.tiff. See Preparing and submitting your manuscript for guidance on appropriate file format and resolution for graphics.

Lay Summaries

Authors of Research and Review articles are encouraged to submit a lay summary as part of the article, in addition to the main text abstract. The lay summary should clearly summarize the focus and findings of the article for non-expert readers, and will be published as part of the article online and in PDF. The lay summary should be submitted for peer review as part of the main manuscript file, under the heading ‘Lay summary’, before the article’s main text. The lay summary should be no longer than 200 words. As with a main abstract, avoid citations and define any abbreviations.

Style

The journal follows Oxford SCIMED style. Please refer to these requirements when preparing your manuscript after initial review. More information is available in our style guide. UK or US spelling should be used throughout, except in quotations and in references. Please ensure consistency in spelling used.

Abbreviations

Please define nonstandard abbreviations at the first occurrence.

Tables

You must number all tables (e.g., table 1, table 2, table 3) and reference them in the text. You must place all tables at the end of the main text. Tables should be in an editable format, and not embedded as an image file.

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements should be included as required, at the end of your manuscript.

Author Contributions

Please list all author contributions as a separate subheading following the acknowledgements.

CRediT

The Journal uses the contributor roles taxonomy (CRediT), which allows authors to describe the contributor roles in a standardized, transparent, and accurate way. Authors should choose from the contributor roles outlined on the CRediT website and supply this information upon submission. You may choose multiple contributor roles per author. Any other individuals who do not meet authorship criteria and made less substantive contributions should be listed in your manuscript as non-author contributors with their contributions clearly described.

Study Funding 

Please fully declare all funding information relevant to the study, including specific grant numbers, under a separate subheading following the acknowledgements. 

APC Funding 

Please include full details of source(s) of funding provided for the APC under a separate subheading following the acknowledgements.

References

This journal follows Oxford SCIMED Style, please reference according to this reference guide.

LaTeX

Information on LaTeX files and formatting is available.

Figures

You must include figure titles and legends within the manuscript file—they should not be included in the image file.

You must submit each figure as an individual image file, and “Figure #” should be included in the image for reviewer convenience. Submit all panels of a multipanel figure on a single page as one file. For example, if the figure has 3 panels, the figure should be submitted as one file. Each panel should be labeled as a letter (A, B, C, D, etc.) in the upper-left corner of each panel.

Images of photographs or paintings can be provided as raster images. Common examples of raster images are .tif/.tiff, .raw, .gif, and .bmp file types. The resolution of raster files is measured by the number of dots or pixels in a given area, referred to as “dpi” or “ppi.”

• minimum resolution required for printed images or pictures: 350dpi
• minimum resolution for printed line art: 600dpi (complex or finely drawn line art should be 1200dpi)
• minimum resolution for electronic images (i.e., for on-screen viewing): 72dpi

Images of maps, charts, graphs, and diagrams are best rendered digitally as geometric forms called vector graphics. Common file types are .eps, .ai, and .pdf. Vector images use mathematical relationships between points and the lines connecting them to describe an image. These file types do not use pixels; therefore resolution does not apply to vector images.

Figures prepared as .doc/.docx or .jpeg/.jpg files will not be accepted.

Figure accessibility and alt text

Incorporating alt text (alternative text) when submitting your paper helps to foster inclusivity and accessibility. Good alt text ensures that individuals with visual impairments or those using screen readers can comprehend the content and context of your figures. The aim of alt text is to provide concise and informative descriptions of your figure so that all readers have access to the same level of information and understanding, and that all can engage with and benefit from the visual elements integral to scholarly content. Including alt text demonstrates a commitment to accessibility and enhances the overall impact and reach of your work.  

Alt text is applicable to all images, figures, illustrations, and photographs. 

Alt text is only accessible via e-reader and so it won’t appear as part of the typeset article. 

Detailed guidance on how to draft and submit alt text. 

Supplementary Material

You must submit supplementary data or supplementary material at the same time as the main manuscript.

• Supplementary material must be cited in the text of the main manuscript.
• Supplementary material will be available online only and will not be copyedited or typeset.
• Style and formatting of supplementary material should be consistent with that of the manuscript.
• Supplementary material should be formatted to function on any internet browser.
• Supplementary material files should be no larger than 2MB each.

Production

Licence to Publish and Open Access Options

Oxford Open Climate Change is a fully open access journal, and all articles are published in the journal under an open access licence immediately upon publication. You will need to pay an open access charge to publish under an open access licence.

Corresponding authors based in countries and regions, that are part of the developing countries initiative are eligible for a full waiver of publishing fees in our fully open access journals. For further details, please see our APC Waiver Policy.

OUP has a growing number of Read and Publish agreements with institutions and consortia which provide funding for open access publishing. This means authors from participating institutions can publish open access, and the institution may pay the charge. Find out if your institution is participating.

Manuscript Charges

Author Portal

You can pay open access charges on the same Author Portal site you used to sign your licence to publish.  You may also refer the charges to an institutional prepayment account. Any applicable discounts can also be applied prior to payment.

OA Licence Charges

Charges for the open access licence options offered by Oxford Open Climate Change are listed below.

Charges for CC BY: $1,899

Please see Author resources for generic author FAQs.