The journal "Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology" publishes research papers on ancient environments, biomes, and climate records. Understanding past Earth systems requires a wide range of approaches, including marine and lake sedimentology, cave magma studies, the formation and flow of ice sheets, stable isotope analysis, trace elements and organic geochemistry, paleobiology and molecular paleobiology, evolutionary processes, mineralization phenomena, tree-ring formation, seismic stratigraphy, physical, chemical, and biological oceanography, geochemistry, climate, and Earth system modeling. The scope of the journal ranges from regional to global studies, covering research from any geological era (Precambrian to Quaternary, including modern analogs). Within this framework, the journal welcomes papers on the following topics: chronology, stratigraphy (related to paleoceanographic events), paleotectonics, paleoceanographic modeling, paleocirculation (deep, intermediate, shallow), paleoclimatology (e.g., ancient winds and cryosphere history), global sediment and geochemical cycles, anoxia, sea-level changes and impacts, the relationship between biological evolution and paleoceanography, biotic crises, paleobiology (e.g., the ecology of microfossils used in paleoceanography), techniques and methods in paleoceanographic inference, as well as modern paleoceanographic analogs, and quantitative and integrative analyses of coupled ocean-atmosphere-biosphere processes. Paleoceanography and paleoclimate studies enable us to leverage past information to gain insights into potential future climate and biological developments: the past is key to the future, and understanding the past is crucial for our present.