One Earth Submission Guide

Editors need to see a sustainability manuscript that is methodologically strong and cross-disciplinary in the actual evidence, not only in the framing. For One Earth, the abstract, methods, figures, science-for-society box, cover letter, and data availability statement should show how natural, social, and applied science connect to a real decision or implementation consequence.

Source: One Earth on Cell Press, Clarivate JCR 2024, accessed April 2026.

This is the One Earth-specific structural detail authors most often miss:

The journal explicitly bridges:

• Natural sciences (climate, ecology, biogeochemistry, Earth-system)

• Social sciences (sustainability policy, governance, environmental justice)

• Applied sciences (sustainability technology, engineering)

The strategic implication: substantive cross-disciplinary integration is valued. Single-discipline work without integration faces redirection. Authors should articulate cross-disciplinary integration in the framing.

Three operational signals govern editorial assessment:

1. Sustainability substance. The journal requires substantive sustainability or Earth-system contribution.

2. Cross-disciplinary integration. The journal favors work that bridges natural, social, and applied sciences.

3. Methodological rigor. Empirical, modeling, observational, or theoretical work must be top-tier.

Recent One Earth issues span:

• Climate-tipping points and mitigation pathways

• Biodiversity-climate co-management

• Sustainable food systems and agriculture

• Renewable energy systems and grid integration

• Water-energy-food nexus

• Environmental justice and sustainability transitions

• Planetary boundaries and Earth-system tipping

• AI and big-data for sustainability

For specific recent papers and DOIs, see One Earth on Cell Press. Representative recent papers:

• 10.1016/j.oneear.2023.12.001

• 10.1016/j.oneear.2024.04.012

• 10.1016/j.oneear.2024.06.023

• Initial decision: typically 1-3 weeks (selective editorial screen)

• First decision after review: typically 8-16 weeks

• Revision rounds: typically 1-2 major revisions to acceptance

• Time to publication after acceptance: weeks (online publication)

Official sources set the requirements, but the remaining question is manuscript fit. The review tells you whether your paper clears the One Earth fit check before upload, especially around failure pattern: Sustainability claim is broad but not cross-disciplinary, failure pattern: Earth-system evidence does not connect to policy or implementation consequence, and failure pattern: Cell Press article type is wrong for the manuscript. Paid Manusights reviews include a 60-day money-back guarantee, and we do not train models on submitted manuscripts.

Across sustainability and Earth-system manuscripts targeting One Earth, the strongest failures are visible before upload in the abstract, introduction, methods, figures, policy or implementation framing, science-for-society box, cover letter, and data availability statement. Cell Press gives One Earth a distinctive editorial contract: the paper has to speak across natural, social, and applied sciences while still satisfying a rigorous discipline-specific method standard. Manusights therefore evaluates the manuscript as both a sustainability contribution and a Cell Press article package.

Failure pattern: Sustainability claim is broad but not cross-disciplinary

Across Manusights submission reviews for climate, biodiversity, food-system, water, energy, land-use, planetary-boundary, environmental-justice, and sustainability-transition manuscripts targeting One Earth, this pattern appears when the abstract uses broad sustainability language but the evidence sits inside one discipline. A climate-modeling paper may never connect to governance or implementation. A social-science paper may not integrate Earth-system constraints.

An engineering paper may show technical performance without connecting the result to adoption, equity, policy, or systems consequence. The topic can be important and still not read as One Earth material.

The fix has to be visible in the manuscript components. The abstract should state the cross-disciplinary contribution, not only the problem domain. The introduction should explain why the natural-science, social-science, and applied dimensions belong together. Methods should make the integration auditable, whether through coupled models, mixed methods, stakeholder data, policy analysis, life-cycle assessment, scenario design, field evidence, or decision analysis.

Figures should include at least one panel that connects environmental process to human systems, implementation path, tradeoff, or governance decision. The science-for-society box should speak to non-specialist readers without becoming a second abstract.

The cover letter should explain why One Earth is a better fit than Nature Sustainability, Global Environmental Change, Environmental Research Letters, Sustainability Science, The Lancet Planetary Health, Joule, or a narrower discipline journal.

Check whether your One Earth manuscript proves cross-disciplinary sustainability fit →

Failure pattern: Earth-system evidence does not connect to policy or implementation consequence

For manuscripts targeting One Earth, this failure appears when the methods are strong but the consequence remains academic. One Earth readers expect sustainability research that helps interpret choices, transitions, tradeoffs, or interventions. A paper can present excellent observations, models, remote-sensing products, field experiments, synthesis, or survey evidence and still feel incomplete if the final figures and discussion do not explain who can use the result and what decision changes.

The component-level fix is to make consequence testable. The abstract should name the decision context without overselling direct policy impact. Methods should explain uncertainty, boundary conditions, sampling limits, model assumptions, inclusion criteria, stakeholder inputs, or validation choices.

Figures should distinguish discovery from implication: one figure can show the environmental signal, but another should map the implication for adaptation, mitigation, conservation, food systems, water systems, justice, governance, or investment. The discussion should identify real constraints and tradeoffs, not only aspirations. The data availability statement and supplementary files should support reproducibility for interdisciplinary readers.

The cover letter should explain the sustainability actionability in terms One Earth editors can evaluate. If the manuscript cannot yet do that, Nature Sustainability, Sustainability Science, Environmental Research Letters, Global Environmental Change, The Lancet Planetary Health, or a domain-specific journal may be a cleaner route.

Check whether your One Earth figures connect evidence to implementation consequence →

Failure pattern: Cell Press article type is wrong for the manuscript

For manuscripts targeting One Earth, this pattern appears when the paper's article type does not match its evidence. Authors sometimes submit an Article when the evidence is better framed as a Perspective, a Review when the manuscript actually argues for a policy or framework intervention, or a Voice or Comment idea as if it were a full empirical paper. Cell Press article-type fit matters because it shapes the abstract, methods, figures, references, length, and reader expectation from the first editorial scan.

The fix is to decide the article type before polishing prose. An Article needs methods, data availability, figures, and a contribution strong enough for original research. A Review needs a transparent synthesis logic and a figure architecture that reorganizes the literature. A Perspective should be forward-looking and argumentative, not just shorter than a Review.

A Voice or Comment should have a focused public or field-facing claim, not a disguised manuscript without enough data. The cover letter should name why the article type is the right one and how the submission serves One Earth's broad audience. The references should match the article type rather than trying to satisfy every possible reviewer.

When article type and evidence disagree, the paper often routes better to Nature Sustainability, Global Environmental Change, Sustainability Science, Environmental Research Letters, The Lancet Planetary Health, Joule, Chem, or a specialist environmental journal.

Check whether your One Earth article type matches the manuscript evidence →

The review tells you whether your paper passes One Earth cross-disciplinary fit, implementation-consequence, and article-type checks. Manusights checks do not train on your manuscript, and paid reviews include a 60-day money-back guarantee.

One Earth requires these at first submission:

• main manuscript file as PDF (text + all related material) OR Word file (with related material uploaded separately); LaTeX submissions must include compiled PDF

• cover letter explaining why the paper is significant, broadly interesting, and appropriate for One Earth's diverse cross-disciplinary readership (natural, social, applied sciences)

• title, abstract, and structured introduction

• "science for society" box (a key feature of all One Earth articles): non-expert-accessible description of the societal relevance, impact, and proposed transdisciplinary pathways forward (mandatory at first submission)

• presubmission-inquiry response reference if the submission follows an inquiry

• completed declaration of interests form (PDF, mandatory)

• author byline with full names, affiliations, and ORCID iDs

• author CRediT contribution statement

• ethics statements where applicable (animal protocols, human-subjects work, indigenous-knowledge use, biosafety statements)

• data and code availability statements with deposit accessions

• supporting information PDF with extended methods, supplementary figures, and supplementary tables

• double-anonymous peer review opt-in declaration at submission (irrevocable; authors remain anonymous to reviewers throughout consideration)

• $4,800 USD APC for the Cell Press OA option (2026; many institutional Elsevier transformative agreements cover the fee)

• declaration of generative AI use in the writing process per Cell Press policy

• for revised submissions, point-by-point reviewer response and marked-up manuscript with Cell Press journal-specific formatting (enforced at revision rather than first submission)

For One Earth submissions, the most common artifact-related issue is "science for society" boxes written for sustainability specialists rather than for the policy / society / cross-disciplinary readership Cell Press specifies. The "science for society" box is a substantive editorial filter, not a formatting box: One Earth editors use it during the desk-screen to triage whether the sustainability research can be communicated to non-experts in policy, civil society, and adjacent academic disciplines.

Boxes written as a second abstract face routine major-revision requests on the broad-readership-fit check.

Run an One Earth pre-submission readiness check before clicking submit to verify the package meets the journal's cross-disciplinary-sustainability-with-societal-impact bar.

One Earth manuscripts move through a four-stage editorial timeline. The editorial triage pattern at Cell Press sustainability journals favors submissions where the cover letter names a failure pattern in current sustainability practice that the manuscript addresses. Editors routinely reject single-discipline sustainability work without cross-disciplinary integration and consistently screen for cover letters that demonstrate awareness of the journal's recent editorial culture around natural-social-applied integration.

Day 0 to 5: Editorial Manager intake and Cell Press editorial-office technical check

The Cell Press platform performs intake checks (declarations, ORCID linking, "science for society" box presence, declaration-of-interests form, presubmission-inquiry reference if applicable). Editorial staff verify the cover letter and the broad-readership argument.

Day 5 to 21: Editor desk-screen on cross-disciplinary integration

A One Earth editor (full-time professional editor at Cell Press) reviews scope fit against the natural-plus-social-plus-applied integration bar. Submissions are routed to sister Cell Press journals (Matter for materials-sustainability, Joule for energy-sustainability, Chem for chemistry-sustainability) when the cross-disciplinary fit is wrong, or to Nature Sustainability / Sustainability Science when the editorial focus differs.

Week 4 to 12: External peer review (single-anonymous or double-anonymous)

Manuscripts that pass desk-screen go to 2-3 reviewers selected for cross-disciplinary expertise. Authors who opt into double-anonymous review at submission remain anonymous to reviewers throughout consideration.

Week 12 to 20: Decision, revision, and Cell-Press-formatting at revision

First decisions arrive at the 6-10 week median post-desk-screen, typically as major revision. Revision cycles add 6-12 weeks each. Cell Press journal-specific formatting is enforced at revision rather than first submission.

• Is One Earth a good journal?

• Nature Sustainability Submission Guide

• Joule Submission Guide

Last verified: April 2026 against One Earth editorial pages.