Nature Climate Change

Nature Climate Change
Title	Nature Climate Change
Abbreviation	Nat. Clim. Change
Discipline	Climate science
Publisher	Nature Portfolio
History	2011–present
Frequency	Monthly
Impact factor	28.9 (2024)

Nature Climate Change is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Nature Portfolio that focuses on climate change research, policy, impacts, and responses. Launched in 2011 during a period of expanding interdisciplinary attention to anthropogenic warming, the journal positions itself at the intersection of atmospheric science, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Paris Agreement, Kyoto Protocol, and related policy debates. It frequently publishes research connected to institutions such as NASA, NOAA, European Union, World Bank, International Energy Agency, and international collaborations like Horizon 2020.

Overview

Nature Climate Change covers original research, reviews, commentaries, and analysis across physical, biological, social, and engineering dimensions of climate change, interfacing with organizations such as IPCC, Royal Society, National Academy of Sciences, European Commission, and World Health Organization. Articles often integrate datasets from facilities like Mauna Loa Observatory, Hadley Centre, Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory, Copernicus Programme, and modeling centers including NCAR, Met Office Hadley Centre, GISS, ECMWF, and Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. The journal targets readership among scholars affiliated with universities such as Harvard University, University of Cambridge, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Oxford, and policy stakeholders at think tanks including Brookings Institution, Chatham House, International Institute for Environment and Development, and World Resources Institute.

History and Development

The journal was established in 2011 by Nature Portfolio as climate science entered broader public attention following reports from the IPCC and events like the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference and the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference. Its founding coincided with advances at research centers such as Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and policy initiatives of the European Union and United States Department of Energy. Editorial leadership and board appointments have included scholars with affiliations to University of California, Berkeley, ETH Zurich, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Stockholm Environment Institute, Yale University, and Imperial College London. The journal’s development tracks the emergence of major studies published elsewhere in venues like Science (journal), Nature (journal), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Geophysical Research Letters, and Journal of Climate.

Scope and Content

Content spans atmospheric chemistry, paleoclimatology, climate modeling, impacts on ecosystems and human systems, mitigation technologies, and adaptation strategies, referencing work from NOAA, USGS, UNEP, Convention on Biological Diversity, Ramsar Convention, and Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Empirical studies frequently cite field programs such as Argo (oceanography), FLUXNET, GEOTRACES, International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, and satellite missions like Landsat, Sentinel satellites, Aqua (satellite), Terra (satellite). The journal publishes interdisciplinary pieces connecting to the Green Climate Fund, Carbon Capture and Storage, RE100, International Renewable Energy Agency, Global Carbon Project, and urban initiatives exemplified by C40 Cities. It has featured high-profile analyses involving datasets from Paleoclimatology, Ice core, Greenland ice sheet, Antarctic ice sheet, Amazon rainforest, and assessments relevant to events like the Indian Ocean Tsunami response or Hurricane Katrina resilience research.

Editorial Process and Policies

The editorial process follows peer review workflows similar to other Nature Portfolio journals, with handling editors and external reviewers drawn from institutions such as University of California, Los Angeles, Columbia University, Princeton University, University of Copenhagen, University of Tokyo, and research centers like Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Policies address data availability and reproducibility aligned with standards from Committee on Publication Ethics, CrossRef, ORCID, DataCite, and mandates by funding bodies such as National Science Foundation, European Research Council, Wellcome Trust, and UK Research and Innovation. The journal enforces conflict-of-interest disclosures, ethical guidelines consistent with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, and open-access options reflecting models used by PLOS, Science Advances, and Frontiers.

Reception and Impact

Scholarly reception has been strong among climate scientists at Columbia Climate School, Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of East Anglia, and policy audiences at United Nations Environment Programme, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, OECD, and European Parliament. Citations compare with those of leading titles like Nature (journal), Science (journal), PNAS, and discipline journals including Journal of Climate, Global Environmental Change, and Climatic Change. Media outlets such as The New York Times, The Guardian, BBC News, The Economist, and Reuters frequently report studies from the journal, influencing discussions at summits like the UN Climate Change Conference and negotiations under the Paris Agreement framework.

Abstracting and Indexing

The journal is abstracted and indexed in major services including Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, Google Scholar, Dimensions (database), and bibliographic resources used by libraries at Library of Congress, British Library, Bibliothèque nationale de France, and university consortia like JISC. Its metrics are tracked by organizations such as Clarivate, Elsevier, Eigenfactor, and analytics platforms used by research offices at National Institutes of Health, European Commission, and Australian Research Council.

Category:Environmental journals Category:Climate change publications