Publication policy

State of the Planet (SP) and its discussion forum State of the Planet Discussions (SPD) feature the principle of open-access publication which means the free immediate access to, and unrestricted reuse of, original works of all types by any user. Therefore, all content of SP and SPD is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) and authors retain copyright.

State of the Planet and its discussion forum State of the Planet Discussions are issued by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the Copernicus GmbH and offer the following:

• rapid posting of high-quality preprints in SPD after an access review by an editor;
• interactive public discussion (SPD): immediate posting of referee comments (anonymous or attributed) by at least two independent referees, author comments (on behalf of all authors), and short comments by any registered member of the scientific community (attributed) alongside the preprints;
• permanent archiving and accessibility of preprints together with the interactive comments;
• post-discussion peer-review completion and final acceptance for SP or rejection;
• thorough layout and processing of text, figures, tables, and equations;
• English language copy-editing;
• immediate open-access publication of full-text XML, HTML, and PDF files in SP;
• publication of supplementary material at no extra charge and linkage to assets stored externally (data sets, software & model codes, interactive computing environments (e.g., Jupyter Notebooks), samples, or videos);
• DOI (digital object identifier) assignment and article URLs according to the classic citation;
• distribution of articles and bibliographic metadata to scientific databases and indices;
• collections of articles resulting from standard peer review as well as special issues with articles supervised by guest editors;
• article alert service and RSS feeds;
• long-term preservation by external archives;
• commercial advertising is not allowed.

SP and its discussion forum adhere to high ethical standards which are summarized in the journal's publication ethics. In order to warrant integrity of the published works, State of the Planet also has a clear policy on competing interests.

To improve the traceability and reproducibility of the presented works, SP has implemented a data policy. Data and other underlying or related material having a digital object identifier (DOI) can also be displayed in the article's asset tab.

General aspects concerning the role of authors, editors, and referees are summarized under general obligations for authors, general obligations for editors, and general obligations for referees.

Copernicus Publications makes sure that the online, open-access publications are indexed and archived worldwide in electronic archives, search engines, and databases, in order to guarantee their maximum dissemination and impact. SP is archived and indexed in

• CLOCKSS
• German National Library
• Library of Congress
• Portico

EBSCO, GeoRef, Google Scholar, J-Gate, World Public Library

Corrections and retractions

SP pursues the following policy for making corrections to its content:

• Modification of a paper: Copernicus Publications reserves the right to replace the posted files if purely technical corrections are necessary (e.g. corrupt file or incorrect bibliographical entry). In such cases, archives and indices are informed. Under no circumstances will the content be changed.
• Corrigendum (final-revised papers only): notification of an important error made by the author(s) or by the journal that affects the publication record or the scientific integrity of the published, peer-reviewed work or the reputation of the author or the journal. Corrigenda are represented by a formal online notice. Corrigenda have to be submitted to Copernicus Publications within 3 years from the publication date of the original journal article. Should there be reasons for publishing a second corrigendum within these 3 years, the first one will be substituted by a single new corrigendum containing all relevant corrections.
• Corrections to supplements can only be made in exceptional cases (e.g. major errors that compromise the conclusion of the study). The availability of new data is not a reason for the revision of a posted supplement. A supplement is an integral part of the preprint or the journal article, and hence part of the record.
• Withdrawal after discussion: for preprints posted in the discussion forum SPD that are not accepted for further review after discussion or where a revised manuscript was not accepted for final journal publication, authors can request a withdrawal. The preprint stays online but the reader is notified about the withdrawal.
• Retraction: authors or, in specific cases, editors can decide to formally withdraw a published journal article. The article stays online but the reader is notified about the retraction. Such retractions are most often accompanied by an editorial note explaining the background.
• Marked as fraud: in the unlikely case that Copernicus Publications is notified that a posted preprint or a published journal article turns out to be a fraud, the paper stays online but is formally withdrawn. The reader is notified about the status and fraud papers are always accompanied by an editorial note pointing out the malpractice.

Political correctness

• Jurisdictional claims: Copernicus Publications is neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims made in published papers, including in maps, institutional affiliations, or any other geographical representation. Therefore, during final paper production, Copernicus Publications adds a standard disclaimer at the end of the article.
• Place names: in all published papers, Copernicus Publications aims to include appropriate and uncontested place names (e.g. indigenous names) and will work with authors to achieve this. The final responsibility, however, lies with the authors.
• Depoliticization of scientific articles: authors are obliged to adhere to United Nations naming conventions and should avoid the use of contested place names and borders. During peer review, the editors reserve the right to insert the label "under dispute" if contested borders are presented. If disputed territories are relevant for maps, authors are requested to ensure that the figure caption stays neutral as well as the legend and labelling within the map. In the case of disagreement, Copernicus Publications reserves the right to include a publisher's note to notify the reader of the contested status.
• Inclusive language: Copernicus Publications fosters the use of inclusive language in all publications. Therefore, authors are obliged to use neutral terms whenever possible. This includes, but is not limited to, avoiding gendered terms, stereotypes, and discriminatory and offensive language. Prominent examples and their recommended substitutions include the following:
  • he/she or s/he – they;
  • his/her – their;
  • daughter nuclide/ion/cell – child/offspring nuclide/ion/cell;
  • unmanned – uncrewed/autonomous;
  • unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) – uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV);
  • manned – staffed;
  • manpower – workforce/personnel;
  • mankind – humankind/humanity;
  • manmade – anthropogenic/humanmade/synthetic/non-natural/artificial;
  • no-man's-land – uninhabited land/neutral zone;
  • chairman – chair/chairperson;
  • middleman – go-between/broker;
  • ombudsman – ombudsperson;
  • man-hour – person-hour;
  • layman – layperson;
  • freshman – first-year student;
  • master/slave – primary/secondary.
  • blacklist – denial list
  • blacklisted – excluded
  • whitelist – safe list
  • whitelisted – allowed