the-cryosphere
The Cryosphere (the-cryosphere)
Journal positioning
The Cryosphere is an open-access European Geosciences Union (EGU) journal, published by Copernicus, and is the disciplinary journal of record for the frozen components of the Earth system — snow, land and sea ice, glaciers and ice sheets, ice shelves, permafrost, and frozen ground. Its defining character is the EGU interactive public peer-review model: a submitted manuscript is posted as a preprint in the discussion forum (EGUsphere), where named referee comments and open community comments appear publicly alongside the authors' responses before a final acceptance decision. The journal rewards complete, rigorous cryospheric studies — observational, remote-sensing, modeling, or theoretical — addressed to the specialist cryosphere community, and values transparency and reproducibility as part of the process, not only the product. This skill is a fit / venue-selection / re-framing tool. It does not replace the journal's current official submission guidelines. Before submitting, re-check the live author instructions on the EGU/Copernicus The Cryosphere site.
When to trigger
- The author names The Cryosphere as the target for a complete study of snow, ice, glaciers, ice sheets, sea ice, or permafrost.
- A manuscript reports cryospheric observations, remote sensing, or modeling with enough depth for full treatment, and the author is choosing between The Cryosphere and Geophysical Research Letters or JGR-Atmospheres.
- An author specifically wants — or needs to prepare for — the EGU interactive public peer-review process with public preprint and open referee discussion.
- The author needs The Cryosphere's open-access terms, data policy, and discussion-stage expectations, plus desk-reject criteria, before submission.