These datasets were used for a study investigating the prevalence of diurnal variability of soil nitrous oxide (N¬2O) emissions. The datasets contain 286 diurnal N¬2O flux datasets and 160 diurnal soil temperature datasets, which were extracted from 46 published journal articles that were selected from a literature search and passed through a set of eligibility criteria. The datasets also include processed diurnal N¬2O flux data, which were used to classify the diurnal N¬2O pattern of the datasets. Data of non-diurnal factors from the literature including soil pH, bulk density, soil texture, season of measurement, soil water-filled pore space, irrigation and grazing are also included in the datasets. Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/94e37080-4383-4f6e-b14a-04ac2ac79bf0
