Scientific community articles within Nature Geoscience

Featured

  • Editorial |

    The eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815 has been linked to climate change and social unrest. Such historical eruptions could serve as test cases for models used to assess future climate changes.

  • Commentary |

    The 1815 eruption of Tambora caused an unusually cold summer in much of Europe in 1816. The extreme weather led to poor harvests and malnutrition, but also demonstrated the capability of humans to adapt and help others in worse conditions.

    • J. Luterbacher
    •  & C. Pfister

  • Editorial |

    Many insights of Russian scientists are unknown or long-forgotten outside of Russia. Making the Russian literature accessible to the international scientific community could stimulate new lines of research.

  • Editorial |

    Sharing data is key for efficient scientific progress. More open code would be beneficial too.

  • Commentary |

    Journals and funders increasingly require public archiving of the data that support publications. We argue that this mandate is necessary, but not sufficient: more incentives for data sharing are needed.

    • Jens Kattge
    • , Sandra Díaz
    •  & Christian Wirth

  • Editorial |

    Guidance for mitigation action should come from the insights that global mean temperatures respond to cumulative carbon emissions and that there are risks beyond warming alone. Momentum for the negotiations requires a sense of opportunity.

  • Editorial |

    At Nature Publishing Group we offer a transfer system that allows authors to move papers between our journals at the click of a button if their first-choice journal declined. We encourage authors to use that service.

  • Editorial |

    The successful launch of a carbon-observing satellite could make a start on tracking emissions shifts around the globe.

  • Commentary |

    As well as being a milestone in technology, the Chang'e lunar exploration programme establishes China as a contributor to space science. With much still to learn about the Moon, fieldwork beyond Earth's orbit must be an international effort.

    • Long Xiao

  • Editorial |

    What happens to manuscripts after they are submitted to our online manuscript tracking system is a source of much speculation. To learn how we decide what is published in Nature Geoscience, read on.

  • Editorial |

    In our trial of a double-blind procedure for peer review, authors' awareness of their peer-review choices in the early stages of writing a paper is key for their decision to opt in or out.

  • Commentary |

    Geological and biological processes have eliminated all but the faintest traces of our earliest ancestors on Earth. To understand the origin of life, we must investigate other planets — but we can find what we seek only if we do not contaminate them with Earth life first.

    • Catharine A. Conley
    •  & John D. Rummel

  • Commentary |

    Planetary protection policies aim to guard Solar System bodies from biological contamination from spacecraft. Costly efforts to sterilize Mars spacecraft need to be re-evaluated, as they are unnecessarily inhibiting a more ambitious agenda to search for extant life on Mars.

    • Alberto G. Fairén
    •  & Dirk Schulze-Makuch

  • Editorial |

    Allowing authors of research papers to be anonymous to referees has long been recommended. We will offer such an option, as a trial, from 10 June 2013.

  • Commentary |

    Over the past fifty years, NASA has pushed the frontiers of science and exploration to the edges of our Solar System. Declining funding for research and robotic missions may leave planetary exploration unfinished and young scientists stranded.

    • Paul O. Hayne

  • Editorial |

    With this issue, we are celebrating the fifth anniversary of the launch of Nature Geoscience — a good time to look at some numbers.

  • Editorial |

    Not enough young people enter the geosciences. A passion for the subject should be sparked early on.

  • Editorial |

    Research in Asia, and particularly in China, is catching up with the traditional hotbeds of science. The next step towards a more even geographical distribution of research will be a higher proportion of top-level publications led by scientists at Chinese labs.

  • Editorial |

    In response to a survey conducted in June, 886 of our readers have told us what they think about Nature Geoscience. We look forward to acting on the responses.

  • News & Views |

    The ancient Central Asian Orogenic Belt formed during a period of extensive continental crust formation. Comparison with modern continent-building systems suggests that the processes that operate today were already active at that time.

    • Karel Schulmann
    •  & Scott Paterson

  • Commentary |

    Reluctance to deposit data is rife among researchers, despite broad agreement on the principle of data sharing. More and better information will reach hitherto empty archives, if professional support is given during data creation, not in a project's final phase.

    • Dirk Fleischer
    •  & Kai Jannaschk

  • Editorial |

    A cultural divide separates science from the media. To bridge the gulf, Nature Geoscience presents a science writer's perspective on the Earth sciences in a new monthly column.

  • Backstory |

    Samantha Joye and her colleagues donned respirators and safety suits to survive the fumes when tracing an underwater gas plume following the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

  • Editorial |

    Thomson Reuters has released its 2009 journal impact factors. We thank all our authors, referees and readers for their continuing trust and support.

  • Commentary |

    Aquifers are the primary source of drinking water for up to two billion people. To avoid overexploitation, lengthy renewal periods of some aquifers must be taken into account.

    • Tom Gleeson
    • , Jonathan VanderSteen
    •  & Yangxiao Zhou

  • Editorial |

    Unlike accountants, scientists need to store their data forever. This expanding task requires dedication, expertise and substantial funds.

  • Editorial |

    Online publishing has blurred the boundary between accepted and published articles.

  • Backstory |

    After dodging icebergs and flying fish, Jeff Standish and colleagues collected a suite of basalts from the Southwest Indian Ridge, to try and determine the mechanisms of mid-ocean-ridge formation.

  • News & Views |

    Decision makers are in need of decadal climate forecasts, for example, to help plan infrastructure investments. When — or whether — climate modellers will be able to deliver is not yet clear.

    • Mark A. Cane

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