Quaternary Science Reviews

Quaternary Science Reviews
Title	Quaternary Science Reviews
Discipline	Quaternary science
Abbreviation	QSR
Publisher	Elsevier
Country	Netherlands
Frequency	24/year
History	1982–present
Impact	6.5
Impact-year	2023
Issn	0277-3791

Quaternary Science Reviews is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering research on the Quaternary period, paleoenvironments, and Earth surface processes. It publishes original research, syntheses, and reviews that integrate data from stratigraphy, paleoecology, geochemistry, and geochronology, engaging a readership that includes researchers associated with British Antarctic Survey, Smithsonian Institution, Max Planck Society, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and Natural History Museum, London. The journal frequently features contributions tied to field programs at sites such as Loch Ness, Lake Baikal, Greenland Ice Sheet, Sahara Desert, and Andes.

Overview

Quaternary Science Reviews addresses multidisciplinary topics linking field investigations from Yellowstone National Park, Grand Canyon, Mount St. Helens, Denali National Park, and Haleakala to laboratory analyses at institutions like California Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, and ETH Zurich. Articles often draw upon methods developed at facilities such as Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory, and Plymouth Marine Laboratory. The journal is positioned within publishing networks that include Elsevier, Springer Nature, and Wiley-Blackwell.

History and Development

Founded in the early 1980s, the journal evolved alongside landmark projects including the International Geophysical Year, Deep Sea Drilling Project, International Ocean Discovery Program, European Pollen Database, and the establishment of research centers such as Scott Polar Research Institute and Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research. Editorial leadership has featured researchers affiliated with University of Cambridge, University of Copenhagen, University of Bergen, Stockholm University, and University of Hamburg. The journal has mirrored community developments tied to conferences like the International Union for Quaternary Research meetings, American Geophysical Union Fall Meetings, and symposia at Royal Society venues.

Scope and Topics Covered

The journal covers stratigraphic records from regions including Sierra Nevada (Spain), Patagonia, Himalayas, Tibetan Plateau, and East African Rift. Topics include paleoclimatology using proxies from Greenland Ice Core Project, Vostok Station, EPICA, Lake Ohrid research, and Cariaco Basin sediment cores, as well as applications of chronologies from radiocarbon dating, optically stimulated luminescence dating, argon–argon dating, and uranium–thorium dating. Biotic responses and extinction studies link to findings about Neanderthals, Homo sapiens, Mastodon, Woolly Mammoth, and Giant Ground Sloth, while paleoecological reconstructions reference work on pollen analysis from the European Pollen Database and macrofossils from La Brea Tar Pits. Geomorphology and periglacial studies reference research in Svalbard, Iceland, Alps, Appalachians, and Rocky Mountains.

Editorial and Publication Details

The editorial board has included scholars connected to University of Michigan, University of California, Berkeley, University of Toronto, University of Sydney, and University of Tokyo. The journal maintains peer review standards comparable to titles like Nature Geoscience, Geology, Journal of Quaternary Science, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, and Holocene. Production, copyediting, and distribution are handled through Elsevier operations with links to indexing services maintained by organizations such as Clarivate, Scopus (Elsevier), and Google Scholar.

Impact and Reception

Quaternary Science Reviews has been cited in major assessments and syntheses by bodies including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, United Nations Environment Programme, International Union for Conservation of Nature, and the European Commission science reports. Influential articles have informed debates alongside work published in Science, Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A. The journal’s reception within provincial and national research funding agencies—such as National Science Foundation (United States), Natural Environment Research Council (United Kingdom), Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Agence Nationale de la Recherche, and National Natural Science Foundation of China—reflects its role in shaping project proposals for field campaigns in places like Antarctica, Greenland, Amazon Basin, and East Antarctica.

Notable Articles and Special Issues

The journal has published high-profile syntheses related to the Last Glacial Maximum, the timing of the Younger Dryas, human dispersal in association with Out of Africa theory, and megafaunal extinctions tied to regions like Pleistocene Park and Clovis culture sites. Special issues have compiled work from collaborative programs such as INTIMATE (INTegration of Ice-core, MArine and TErrestrial records), PAGES (Past Global Changes), the Neotoma Paleoecology Database initiatives, and themed volumes on topics like sea-level change impacting Bering Land Bridge and sedimentary records from the Black Sea. Guest editors have hailed from Columbia University, Brown University, Yale University, Princeton University, and University of Leiden.

Abstracting and Indexing

The journal is abstracted and indexed by services including Science Citation Index Expanded, Scopus (Elsevier), GeoRef, AGRICOLA, EI Compendex, and bibliographic aggregators used by institutions such as Harvard University, University of California system, University of Melbourne, University of São Paulo, and Peking University. Libraries and consortia like OCLC, JSTOR, and the British Library include holdings and catalog entries for archival and current issues.

Category:Earth science journals