Following EGU’s tradition of transparency in scientific publishing and to encourage the valuable publication of all studies independently of their outcome, EGU has today introduced two new manuscript types to join the current formats provided in our publications: LESSONS (Limitations, Errors, Surprises, Shortcomings and Opportunities for New Science) reports and LESSONS posts. LESSONS reports will be peer-reviewed articles peer-reviewed on EGUsphere and published in one of the participating journals, while LESSONS posts will be shorter, non-peer reviewed articles hosted on EGUsphere only to provide an opportunity to share ideas at an earlier stage of development.

LESSONS articles (both reports and posts) will fill a critical and often overlooked gap in Earth, planetary and space science publications, providing a venue for reporting on failed or unsuccessful experiments, research, or fieldwork. EGU Publications Committee chair, Barbara Ervens, commented on the new formats, 

“The new LESSONS formats are a natural extension to our publishing portfolio. Building on our long-standing commitment to transparency, by sharing referee, editor, community, and author comments with all manuscript versions, the LESSONS formats encourage the publication of negative or inconclusive results and outcomes that did not meet initial expectations despite meticulous and systematic science execution. Often it is only later, when informally discussing unexpected outcomes of an experiment that you learn that the unsuccessful approach had been tried previously by others.” She continues, “The intention with the LESSONS’ articles is to take those conversations out of the break room and into our publications – to share the lessons learned by unexpected results with everyone so we can all benefit.”

Although facing the results of an investigation failure is much more common than many would expect, the experience also highlights a gap in scientific publications; a bias to only publish positive results in literature. EGU’s important step towards challenging this bias, and developing the new ‘LESSONS’ formats was taken by the organisers of a special session of the EGU General Assembly in 2025; the BUGS (Blunders, Unexpected Glitches and Surprises) session, organised by Ulrike Proske, Laetitia Le Pourhiet, Daniel Klotz, Nobuaki Fuji, and Jonas Pyschik (taking place again in 2026). 

Lead convener Ulrike Proske said of the inspiration for the session, “Scientists need to openly discuss failures and mistakes in order to allow science to progress. The bias towards positive publications leads to a waste of time, money, and resources. This session is intended to allow for a more transparent discussion of our mistakes but also suprises, and, in a friendly environment, to understand the impact of errors and abandoned paths onto our work. In the best case, it allows to generate new insights for our science or scientific practice. As organisers of the BUGS session we are delighted to see EGU adopt the new LESSONS format, carrying the spirit of open science to new audiences.”

From today, several EGU journals (Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Biogeosciences, Earth Surface Dynamics, Geoscience Communication, Solid Earth, and The Cryosphere) have adopted this new format, that will lower the barrier for null and negative reporting, and the option to submit LESSONS on EGUsphere will be available soon. Details of the criteria and requirements for LESSONS articles and posts are available on participating journal webpages and in the editorial: Introducing a new article type: Limitations, Errors, Surprises, Shortcomings and Opportunities for New Science (LESSONS).  With this initiative, EGU continues our long-standing commitment to community-driven initiatives that help to enhance transparency in science and science communication.

• Publications Committee