Dataset of litterature review of soil heterotrophic respiration and soil Cu concentration. dataset was build with run of a Wos Core Collection research lastly actualized in December 2019 to find papers in which titles, abstracts or subjects (“TS”) refer to the items of interest using the following equation of research: TS= (("soil C" OR "soil organic C" OR "soil organic matter") NEAR/10 (minerali OR decomposition)) OR TS=((soil near/4 ("CO2 emission" OR "CO2 release" OR "basal respiration" OR respiration )) OR "soil respiration" ) AND TS= (Cu OR cupric OR copper). In order to focus mainly on Cu effect, we excluded papers from multi-contaminated soil if the contribution of copper contamination was identified by the authors as minor compared to other contaminants. We excluded soil remediation studies using mineral (lime, beringite, Ca) or biochar amendment because these soil inputs introduced a bias in the soil carbon emissions and their side effects were poorly documented. The final selection consisted in 92 papers from both in-situ or ex-situ (laboratory) Cu contamination. Papers with unclear protocols regarding to the incubation lengths, or with supply in carbohydrates or in the presence of plant (particularly in the case of field measurements) were also discarded. Furthermore we extracted data giving outcomes only with long term measurements (> 7 days) so that database provided is on the basis of 46 papers. (2020-07-07)