As the new year dawns, the editorial team of Polar and Cold Regions Research (PCRR) extends our deepest gratitude and warmest wishes to the international community of scientists, scholars, and collaborators who have supported the journal’s mission throughout 2025.

We sincerely thank our Editor-in-Chief, our distinguished Editorial Board, and our global network of peer reviewers—researchers from polar institutes, universities, and environmental agencies across the Arctic, Antarctic, and beyond. Your expertise in glaciology, atmospheric science, cryospheric dynamics, polar ecology, and Earth system modeling has been instrumental in establishing PCRR as a rigorous and inclusive forum for frontier research in Earth’s most vulnerable regions.

To our authors: thank you for entrusting us with your groundbreaking work. From investigations into total ozone variability over the Kamchatka Peninsula and its links to endogenous geological hazards, to studies on how Greenland warming weakens the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation—and even amplifies fire risk in Northern Europe—your research exemplifies the journal’s interdisciplinary spirit. You are advancing our understanding of rapidly changing cold regions not just as remote frontiers, but as integral components of the global climate system.

We also express our appreciation to readers, data providers, field teams, and policy stakeholders who engage with our open-access publications. In an era of accelerating ice loss, permafrost thaw, and ecosystem transformation, your attention affirms the urgent need for science that bridges observation, theory, and planetary stewardship.

Looking ahead to 2026, Polar and Cold Regions Research reaffirms its unwavering commitments:

• To uphold the highest standards of peer review, scientific integrity, and ethical publishing;
• To publish original, data-rich, and conceptually innovative research that spans physical, biological, chemical, ecological, and social dimensions of polar and cold regions—including high mountains, subpolar zones, and icy worlds beyond Earth;
• To support early-career researchers and promote diverse geographic and disciplinary perspectives, especially from Indigenous communities and underrepresented polar nations;
• To remain a fully open-access journal, ensuring that knowledge about these critical regions is freely available to all.

The challenges facing the cryosphere demand global cooperation, long-term observation, and bold scientific inquiry. Therefore, we warmly invite researchers from around the world to submit your manuscripts to Polar and Cold Regions Research. Whether your work explores sea-ice dynamics, permafrost carbon feedbacks, polar governance, cold-region engineering, or astrobiological analogues in icy environments—we welcome studies that deepen our collective understanding of these extraordinary places.

Wishing you a safe, insightful, and collaborative 2026—whether you’re analyzing satellite data, conducting fieldwork on the ice, or modeling Earth’s future from your lab.

With sincere thanks and best wishes,
The Editorial Office
Polar and Cold Regions Research (PCRR)