Julia K. Parrish

Key Points: The editors thank the 2025 peer reviewers!

Our peer-reviewed journal and innovative editor-vetted Hub offer new ways to share research performed by, with, and for communities.

The recent U.S. executive order “Restoring Gold Standard Science” poses a significant threat to the U.S. national economy and security. The order replaces the scientific experts who lead U.S. governmental scientific organizations with non‐scientific political appointees who would have the power to decide what science could and could not be published. In doing so, the executive order threatens to reverse more than 80 years of scientific advancements that have given the U.S. its world‐leading military, technology, and economy. The justifications provided in the executive order for this change in policy are false or misleading in their assessment and representation of the current state of U.S. scientific scholarship. Hypocritical in its aims, the executive order claims to promote integrity in science while at the same time calling to remove the “Framework for Federal Scientific Integrity Policy and Practice” that currently ensure veracity and credibility in science. The executive order is also unconstitutional, threatening to take away the First Amendment rights of scientists by punishing them if they publish truthful and accurate science that is contrary to the administration's political agenda. Such censorship of scientists has been attempted by failed governments of the past such as Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and early communist China, always with disastrous consequences for their citizens. “Restoring Gold Standard Science” needs to be rescinded to avoid catastrophic consequences for the U.S. economy and national security.

Addressing global challenges and advancing knowledge in the Earth and space sciences requires an equitable, diverse, and inclusive scholarly community where researchers must be freely able to conduct, collaborate on, share, review, and discuss their research on important economic and societal topics such as climate change. The current Executive Orders in the United States focus on censoring research and researchers by banning specific words, removing access to data sets, or by restricting what type of research can be funded or published, therefore compromising the knowledge that researchers are able to produce. As Editors‐in‐Chief of AGU publications we stand by our mission to support the publication of evidence‐based, rigorously vetted research without political pressure. Collectively, our peer‐reviewed journals and books provide inclusive publication outlets for the global research community to advance Earth and space sciences and to strengthen the public's trust in scientific evidence.

Community Science is an experiment. The premise is that centering on a broad range of disciplinary, and interdisciplinary, science called for, created, and conducted by teams of place‐based community residents and professional scientists will positively push the boundaries of what we understand as science, from discoveries to solutions. In this pursuit, we define science broadly: natural science, both physical and living; social science; health science; and ingrained ways of knowing that have been emerging and evolving since time immemorial within Indigenous cultures. Community is similarly a term that signifies a wide range of publics engaged in a myriad of ways; from those who may engage in only a single activity, to those who are formative to the work, including those who span the boundaries between the worlds describing community and science. Just as we seek those on the creative edge as authors, we depend on those with deep experience in both the scientific discipline and the community, whatever form it may take, to serve as peer reviewers. Part of our publication experiment is to step back and ask the questions: who are “peers?” Can we expand the approachability and usefulness of published work beyond traditional scientific professionalism and disciplinary boundaries through thoughtful selection of reviewers who are more, and perhaps different, than the degree‐credentialed professionals journal editors have traditionally turned to? And will these peers and near‐peers have the ability to set aside time from their own work to bring community science to the forefront and participate in patient, positive, thoughtful reviews?

Recent marine heatwaves have had pervasive effects on marine ecosystems, from declines in primary production to die-offs of top predators. Seabird mortalities are often observed in association with heatwaves, but population impacts are not well understood. In this work, we report the rapid mortality of approximately half of Alaska’s common murre ( Uria aalge ) population in response to an extreme marine heatwave. Between the 7-year period before (2008–2014) and after (2016–2022) the heatwave, murre numbers plummeted 52 to 78% at 13 colonies across two large marine ecosystems. We calculated a loss of 4.00 million common murres, the largest documented wildlife mortality event in the modern era. No evidence of recovery has yet been observed, suggesting that these ecosystems may no longer support historic numbers of seabird top predators.

The editors of the Community Science Exchange want to say a big thank you to the 29 reviewers for reviewing for Community Science in 2023. Peer‐review is essential to the process of doing and publishing scientific findings, and will be a pillar of our successful expansion of science by, with and for communities into mainstream science. Many papers start with an inquiry, allowing us to assist prospective authors in inclusion of community voice. These consultations also allow us to respect reviewers' time as we only send papers for review that meet our criteria.

Key Points: Ethical science must include community engagement The Community Science Exchange promotes ethical responsibilities of editors and authors The grand environmental challenges can only be faced and surmounted with ethical, inclusive approaches

Key Points: The editors thank the 2022 peer reviewers