The present editorial 2020 continues the series of status reports in Environmental Earth Sciences (EES) in previous years 2017 and 2019 (Kolditz et al. in Environ Earth Sci 77: 8, 2018, Kolditz et al. in Environ Earth Sci 79: 11, 2020). The year 2020 coming to an end was heavily influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic affecting all areas of life including research work and, therefore, scientific publishing as well (“Introduction”). One bright spot which shows longevity of journals that produce a quality product is that Environmental Earth Sciences (EES) is celebrating its 45th anniversary of publication.