Dear all,
Thank you for your continued engagement with the AI Weather Quest. It has been fantastic to receive such a high volume of sub-seasonal forecasts every week.
We have been discussing the most effective way to publish AI Weather Quest findings in a high-impact, peer-reviewed journal. Coincidentally, the Royal Meteorological Society (RMetS) journals Meteorological Applications (Met Apps) and International Journal of Climatology (IJOC) are launching a joint special issue titled:
Advances in Machine Learning for Weather and Climate: Modelling, Forecasting and Applications
In my role as Associate Editor of Met Apps, I will be serving as a Guest Editor for this special issue. This offers a great opportunity to recognise Quest participation into a citable, peer-reviewed publications, providing both formal recognition and visibility. We are inviting AI Weather Quest participants to consider submitting manuscripts describing their modelling infrastructure and/or forecasting results.
If there is sufficient interest from Quest participants, our current plan would be to submit:
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One overarching AI Weather Quest manuscript, showcasing skill evaluation across both machine-learning and dynamical sub-seasonal prediction systems; and
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At least three participant-led papers, with which all will be cited by the overarching manuscript and special issue editorial. Submissions may focus on methodology, system design, verification, case studies, or applied forecasting results relevant to the AI Weather Quest and special issue.
Manuscripts from participants would most likely be published in IJOC and linked with Met Apps through the special issue. All submissions will follow standard RMetS peer-review procedures, with appropriate handling of any editorial conflicts of interest.
Key details of the special issue:
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Submission window: mid-March 2026 to 31st December 2026.
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Review timeline: typically 2 to 3 months.
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Publication: individual publication online upon acceptance, full special issue compiled in 2027.
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Open access: Gold Open Access is required.
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Article Processing Charge (APC): £2290 (discounts available for corresponding authors from developing countries). The AI Weather Quest cannot fund APCs but do get in touch if this is a barrier.
The special issue is also seeking additional guest editors to support the peer-review process. Guest editors would typically handle a small number of manuscripts aligned with their expertise. This role offers professional recognition through the special issue’s editorial, and we welcome expressions of interest from the community.
I would be very happy to answer any questions. To help us assess interest, I would be grateful if you could email me (joshua.talib@ecmwf.int) to indicate whether you would be interested in submitting a paper to this IJOC / Met Apps special issue by March 19th. At this stage, this is an expression of interest only.
Kind regards,
Joshua Talib