Aims and scope

The Cryosphere (TC) is a not-for-profit international scientific journal dedicated to the publication and discussion of research articles, short communications, and review papers on all aspects of frozen water and ground on Earth and on other planetary bodies.

The main subject areas are the following:

• ice sheets and glaciers;
• planetary ice bodies;
• permafrost and seasonally frozen ground;
• seasonal snow cover;
• sea ice;
• river and lake ice;
• remote sensing, numerical modelling, in situ and laboratory studies of the above and including studies of the interaction of the cryosphere with the rest of the climate system.

The Cryosphere has an innovative two-stage publication process which involves a scientific discussion forum and utilizes the full potential of the Internet to do the following:

• foster scientific discussion;
• enhance the effectiveness and transparency of scientific quality assurance;
• enable rapid publication;
• make scientific publications freely accessible.

In the first stage, papers that pass a rapid access review by one of the editors are immediately published on the The Cryosphere Discussions (TCD) website. They are then subject to interactive public discussion, during which the referee’s comments (anonymous or attributed), additional short comments by other members of the scientific community (attributed), and the author’s replies are also published in TCD. In the second stage, the peer-review process is completed and, if accepted, the final revised papers are published in TC. To ensure publication precedence for authors, and to provide a lasting record of scientific discussion, TCD and TC are both ISSN-registered, permanently archived, and fully citable.