Preparing your materials

Aims and scope

Environmental Data Science (EDS) is an open access journal dedicated to the use of data-driven approaches to understand environmental processes and aid sustainable decision-making. The data and methodological scope is defined broadly to encompass artificial intelligence, machine learning, data mining, computer vision, econometrics and other statistical techniques.

EDS is a venue for application and methods papers, whether they relate to climate change, or to particular environmental systems, e.g. the climate system, the geosphere (the solid earth and its processes), cryosphere (ice, snow, permafrost and tundra), biosphere (ecology), hydrosphere (water cycle) or atmosphere (meteorology, extreme weather events). It also welcomes work that shows how data science can inform societal responses to environmental problems (such as climate change, air quality, energy, transportation, and land use).

EDS promotes open data and data re-use - through data papers that describe valuable environmental data sets - and publishes shorter position papers relevant to the journal’s scope.

Types of article

Environmental Data Science publishes:

Application papers: Research progress, or tackling a real-world problem, in an environmental field, enabled by data science. For example, AI or data science could be used for understanding of environmental processes, or improving forecasting tools.
Methods papers: Novel data science methodology inspired by an environmental problem or application. Typically the methodology should be demonstrated in one or more environmental applications.
Data papers that describe in a structured way, with a short narrative and accompanying metadata, important and re-usable environmental data sets that reside in publicly accessible repositories. These papers promote data transparency and data re-use.
Survey papers: providing a systematic overview of a method, tool or approach, or a field or subfield that is relevant to environmental data science.
Position papers: examples include but are not limited to: a) providing an authoritative, personal view on the uptake or obstacles to AI and data science approaches for environmental problems, or b) exploring issues related to the use of environmental data, including ethical, legal and policy issues, as well as data standards, protocols and services. (Note that these are shorter articles: approx. 5,000 words in length)

* All or part of the publication costs for these article types may be covered by one of the agreements Cambridge University Press has made to support open access. For authors not covered by an agreement, and without APC funding, please see this journal's open access options for instructions on how to request an APC waiver.

Preparing your article for submission

Your may submit your prepared contribution here after following the author guidelines below.

Templates

Authors have the option of using the following templates, which will help minimise the possibility of the article being sent back to the author after the initial technical check that follows submission:

Download LaTeX template files
Download a Word template
Use Overleaf (a LaTeX-based collaborative authoring tool; read about benefits of this tool)

Main document

The first page of the main manuscript should include:

Title

A concise, informative and grammatically correct title, including determiner (e.g. “A Deep kernel learning approach to engine emissions modeling” rather than “Deep kernel learning approach to engine emissions modeling”)

Author details

The names and affiliations of the authors (university, department, city and country), indicating with asterisk the corresponding author and his/her email address

Authorship should be based on the following principles, as outlined by the ICMJE and in the Cambridge University Press Publishing Ethics Guidelines:

Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work;
Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content;
Final approval of the version to be published;
Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Our default position is that the corresponding author has the authority to act on behalf of all co-authors throughout the process, and we expect the corresponding author to confirm this at the beginning of the submission process.

Abstract

This must summarise the purpose of the paper and be no more than 250 words in length.

Impact statement

Beneath the abstract authors must provide a 120-word impact that summarises the significance of their work for a broad audience. This will be published in the article itself.

Keywords

Provide up to five keywords, separated by semi colons.

Abbreviations

If abbreviations are used in the text they should be defined in the text at first use. A list of abbreviations should be provided at the end of the main text.

Main text

The body of the article, which can be separated using headings and subheadings.

Figures

If your article is provisionally accepted pending minor revisions, we require you to upload the figures as separate files. This is not necessary with the original submission. Submitting your figures, illustrations, pictures and other artwork (such as multimedia and supplementary files) in an electronic format alongside the main article file helps us produce your work to the best possible standards, ensuring accuracy, clarity, and a high level of detail.

Disclosure Statements

Following the main text, articles should include the following disclosure statements in the interest of transparency:

Acknowledgments

This should recognize help and advice from associates and colleagues who contributed to the article but do not meet the criteria for authorship, as well as other kinds of non-financial support from individuals and organisations.

Author Contributions

Environmental Data Science uses the CRediT taxonomy to outline how authors have contributed to the work. The submitting author will be asked to complete the taxonomy on behalf of all authors in the online peer review system. The accepted version of a manuscript should include a section containing this information.

People who have contributed to the article but do not meet the full criteria for authorship (see above) should be recognised in the acknowledgements section; their contribution can be described in terms of the CRediT taxonomy.

Competing Interests

Authors should include a Competing Interest statement in their manuscript. If authors do not include this, their submission will not proceed to peer review.

Competing Interests are situations that could be perceived to exert an undue influence on an author’s presentation of their work. They may include, but are not limited to, financial, professional, contractual or personal relationships or situations.

Competing Interests do not necessarily mean that an author’s work has been compromised. Authors should declare any real or perceived Competing Interests in order to be transparent about the context of their work.

If the manuscript has multiple authors, the author submitting the manuscript must include Competing Interest declarations relevant to all contributing authors.

Example wording for a declaration is as follows: “Competing interests: Author A is employed at company B. Author C owns shares in company D, is on the Board of company E and is a member of organisation F. Author G has received grants from company H.” If no competing interests exist, the declaration should state “Competing interests: The author(s) declare none”.

Data availability statement

Environmental Data Science asks authors to make available the data and materials that support the findings in their article, when this is possible. See the research transparency policy for more details.

The article must contain a Data Availability Statement explaining how data and other materials were created, from where they are available (along with DOI or other permanent link), along with information about any restrictions on the accessibility of data and other resources.

Examples:

Data availability: The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in [repository name] at http://doi.org/[doi], reference number [reference number].

Data availability: The data that support the findings will be available in [repository name] at [URL / DOI link] following a [6 month] embargo from the date of publication to allow for commercialisation of research findings.

Data availability: The data that support the findings of this study are available from [third party]. Restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under licence for this study. Data are available [from the authors / at URL] with the permission of [third party].

Funding statement:

This must detail the sources of financial support for all authors in relation to the article, including grant numbers, or declare that no specific funding exists. The statement should also make it clear whether the funder had a role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

For example:

“This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under research grant XXXX. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.”

Where no specific funding has been provided for research, please provide the following statement: “This work received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.”

Research transparency

Environmental Data Science believes that research articles should contain sufficient information to allow others to understand, verify, and replicate findings. The journal requires authors to provide a data availability statement in their article on submission and awards Open Practice Badges to articles linking to openly available replication data and materials. For more details, see the research transparency policy.

Overleaf

Overleaf is a free online tool for writing and submitting scholarly manuscripts. An Overleaf template is available for this journal, which allows authors to easily comply with the journal’s guidelines. There is also a direct link to submit your manuscript from within the Overleaf authoring environment. Once you have completed writing an article in Overleaf, you can use the "Submit to Journal" button and select the appropriate link to be directed to this journal's manuscript submission system.

Benefits of using Overleaf include:

An intuitive interface, in which authors can write in LaTeX or rich text and see a preview of their article typeset in the journal’s style
Features enabling collaboration with co-authors (the ability to share, highlight and comment on versions of articles)
Sophisticated version control
Clean PDF conversion and submission into the journal’s online manuscripts system (supporting materials can also be added during this process)

Overleaf is based on LaTeX but includes a rich text mode. An author writing in Overleaf would need to have some knowledge of LaTeX, but could collaborate through the tool with an author who is not a LaTeX expert. Overleaf’s tutorial pages include a two minute video and an introduction to LaTeX course, and Overleaf also provides support for authors using the tool.

Authorship and contributorship

All authors listed on any papers submitted to this journal must be in agreement that the authors listed would all be considered authors according to disciplinary norms, and that no authors who would reasonably be considered an author have been excluded. For further details on this journal’s authorship policy, please see this journal's publishing ethics policies.

CRediT taxonomy for contributors

When submitting a manuscript, the corresponding author will be prompted to provide further details concerning contributions to the manuscript using the CRediT taxonomy. CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) is a high-level taxonomy, including 14 designated options, that can be used to represent the roles typically played by contributors to scholarly output. All parties who have contributed to the scholarly work, but do not meet the full criteria for authorship, should be recognised with their contributions described in terms of the CRediT taxonomy.

Our default position is that the corresponding author has the authority to act on behalf of all co-authors, and we expect the corresponding author to confirm this at the beginning of the submission process. When preparing your manuscript you should also ensure that you obtain permission from all contributors to describe their contributions using the CRediT taxonomy.

Author affiliations

Author affiliations should represent the institution(s) at which the research presented was conducted and/or supported and/or approved. For non-research content, any affiliations should represent the institution(s) with which each author is currently affiliated.

For more information, please see our author affiliation policy and author affiliation FAQs.

Use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools

We acknowledge the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the research and writing processes. To ensure transparency, we expect any such use to be declared and described fully to readers, and to comply with our plagiarism policy and best practices regarding citation and acknowledgements. We do not consider artificial intelligence (AI) tools to meet the accountability requirements of authorship, and therefore generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and similar should not be listed as an author on any submitted content.

In particular, any use of an AI tool:

to generate images within the manuscript should be accompanied by a full description of the process used, and declared clearly in the image caption(s).
to generate text within the manuscript should be accompanied by a full description of the process used, include appropriate and valid references and citations, and be declared in the manuscript’s Acknowledgements.
to analyse or extract insights from data or other materials, for example through the use of text and data mining, should be accompanied by a full description of the process used, including details and appropriate citation of any dataset(s) or other material analysed in all relevant and appropriate areas of the manuscript.
must not present ideas, words, data, or other material produced by third parties without appropriate acknowledgement or permission.

Descriptions of AI processes used should include at minimum the version of the tool/algorithm used, where it can be accessed, any proprietary information relevant to the use of the tool/algorithm, any modifications of the tool made by the researchers (such as the addition of data to a tool’s public corpus), and the date(s) it was used for the purpose(s) described. Any relevant competing interests or potential bias arising as a consequence of the tool/algorithm’s use should be transparently declared and may be discussed in the article.

Policy on prior publication

When authors submit manuscripts to this journal, these manuscripts should not be under consideration, accepted for publication or in press within a different journal, book or similar entity, unless explicit permission or agreement has been sought from all entities involved. However, deposition of a preprint on the author’s personal website, in an institutional repository, or in a preprint archive shall not be viewed as prior or duplicate publication. Authors should follow the Cambridge University Press Preprint Policy regarding preprint archives and maintaining the version of record.

Competing Interests

All authors must include a competing interest declaration in their main manuscript file. This declaration will be subject to editorial review and may be published in the article.

Competing interests are situations that could be perceived to exert an undue influence on the content or publication of an author’s work. They may include, but are not limited to, financial, professional, contractual or personal relationships or situations.

If the manuscript has multiple authors, the author submitting must include competing interest declarations relevant to all contributing authors.

Example wording for a declaration is as follows: “Competing interests: Author 1 is employed at organisation A, Author 2 is on the Board of company B and is a member of organisation C. Author 3 has received grants from company D.” If no competing interests exist, the declaration should state “Competing interests: The author(s) declare none”.

Supplementary materials

Material that is not essential to understanding or supporting a manuscript, but which may nonetheless be relevant or interesting to readers, may be submitted as supplementary material. Supplementary material will be published online alongside your article, but will not be published in the pages of the journal. Types of supplementary material may include, but are not limited to, appendices, additional tables or figures, datasets, videos, and sound files.

Supplementary materials will not be typeset or copyedited, so should be supplied exactly as they are to appear online. Please see our general guidance on supplementary materials for further information.

Where relevant we encourage authors to publish additional qualitative or quantitative research outputs in an appropriate repository, and cite these in manuscripts.

Seeking permissions for copyrighted material

Authors are responsible for obtaining necessary permissions to quote or reproduce material, including figures, from already published works and/or any copyrighted material. If a figure is from another source, this should be credited appropriately in the figure legend along with any terms of any re-use.

For further advice, see this page on seeking permission to use copyrighted material.

Publishing ethics

Authors should check the EDS publishing ethics policies while preparing their materials.

Note that authors should provide a Competing Interest statement, Funding Statement and a Data Availability Statement in their article, as detailed above. See the EDS research transparency page for detailed policy on sharing data, code and other replication materials.

Peer review

Environmental Data Science has adopted a transparent model for peer review in which the review reports are published alongside the accepted article. The reviewer has the option of being named alongside the published review, or remaining anonymous. This model for peer review applies only to those articles submitted on or after 25 January 2024. Articles submitted before this date are not accompanied by published review reports or reviewer identities.

Read more details about the review process here. Instructions for reviewers can be found here.

ORCID

We require all corresponding authors to identify themselves using ORCID when submitting a manuscript to this journal. ORCID provides a unique identifier for researchers and, through integration with key research workflows such as manuscript submission and grant applications, provides the following benefits:

Discoverability: ORCID increases the discoverability of your publications, by enabling smarter publisher systems and by helping readers to reliably find work that you have authored.
Convenience: As more organisations use ORCID, providing your iD or using it to register for services will automatically link activities to your ORCID record, and will enable you to share this information with other systems and platforms you use, saving you re-keying information multiple times.
Keeping track: Your ORCID record is a neat place to store and (if you choose) share validated information about your research activities and affiliations.

See our ORCID FAQs for more information.

If you don’t already have an iD, you will need to create one if you decide to submit a manuscript to this journal. You can register for one directly from your user account on ScholarOne, or alternatively via https://ORCID.org/register.

If you already have an iD, please use this when submitting your manuscript, either by linking it to your ScholarOne account, or by supplying it during submission using the "Associate your existing ORCID iD" button.

ORCIDs can also be used if authors wish to communicate to readers up-to-date information about how they wish to be addressed or referred to (for example, they wish to include pronouns, additional titles, honorifics, name variations, etc.) alongside their published articles. We encourage authors to make use of the ORCID profile’s “Published Name” field for this purpose. This is entirely optional for authors who wish to communicate such information in connection with their article. Please note that this method is not currently recommended for author name changes: see Cambridge’s author name change policy if you want to change your name on an already published article. See our ORCID FAQs for more information.

Author Hub

You can find guides for many aspects of publishing with Cambridge at Author Hub, our suite of resources for Cambridge authors.

English language editing services

Authors, particularly those whose first language is not English, may wish to have their English-language manuscripts checked by a native speaker before submission. This step is optional, but may help to ensure that the academic content of the paper is fully understood by the Editor and any reviewers.

In order to help prospective authors to prepare for submission and to reach their publication goals, Cambridge University Press offers a range of high-quality manuscript preparation services, including language editing. You can find out more on our language services page.

Please note that the use of any of these services is voluntary, and at the author's own expense. Use of these services does not guarantee that the manuscript will be accepted for publication, nor does it restrict the author to submitting to a Cambridge-published journal.

Peer review

Read more details about the review process here. Instructions for reviewers can be found here.