Information for authors producing WCRP publications

Please note that WCRP is changing its logo. Updated information and new templates will be available soon.

WCRP maintains a series of WCRP reports and special WCRP publications as outcomes of the major activities of our Core Projects, Working Groups and other WCRP initiatives by the community. To ensure quality, consistency and accessibility to a wider audience, as well as to make things easier for authors, we follow a set publication submission procedure:

  1. CONTENT: Authors submit a draft report (formatted according to the WCRP format and layout guidelines if using the WCRP template) to their responsible WCRP Senior Scientific Officer (SSO) for approval. The SSO should be involved at an early stage, to make sure all elements of the publication have been considered and to encourage timely completion. Once the publication content is approved, the SSO will send the publication to the WCRP Communication Officer.
  2. PRESENTATION: The WCRP Communication Officer assigns the publication a WCRP publication number and works with the authors to ensure that the layout and formatting of the publication is good (either using WCRP template or an alternative according to wishes of the authors) and that all images are of reasonable resolution. Note that while the Communication Officer will fix any typos that they observe, responsibility for editing the document rests with the authors.
  3. PUBLICATION: Once the content and presentation are finalized, a final copy of the publication is placed on the WCRP website (and on project websites as appropriate) and advertised via WCRP web news and social media. The Communication Officer ensures that a copy (in the original format (e.g. MS Word) and as a .pdf) is sent to the responsible administrator for backup.

This procedure involves the authors working with two of the Joint Planning Staff in the production of the publication in a clear and systematic way.

Preparation of publications should be made easier by the MS Word publication template and formatting guidelines that are now available from the ‘Community resources’ section of the ‘Resources’ tab on the WCRP Website. These documents will be periodically updated to reflect feedback from users, so please send us your feedback!

Note that this does not mean that all WCRP publications have to use the official template. This may not be preferable if one of the authors of the publication is external to WCRP or the authors wish to produce a publication for higher impact that is overarching in nature. In these cases authors can format their publication as they prefer and place the WCRP logo on the cover. The publication should still be approved in terms of both content and presentation by the responsible SSO and Communication Officer, respectively.

The contact details of the staff members mentioned above can be found on the Joint Planning Staff Contact page or contact us on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..