Other types of submissions | Nature (original) (raw)

This document provides details of the other material that _Nature_publishes, in addition to original research Articles. With the exception of Analysis articles, all other content types mentioned below should not include original (previously unpublished) results or data and may only contain minimal new supporting research findings. These non-primary articles are not eligible for gold Open Access and can only be published using the traditional subscription-based publishing route.

Authors intending to contribute to any of these sections are advised to read the relevant section of published issues of Nature to gain an idea of which section is most suitable and how to present their work, and, if they have not published in one of these sections before, they must read the appropriate section guidelines below, before submission.

Many _Nature_sections are commission-only and do not accept unsolicited contributions; where applicable this is stated in the section guidelines below. _Nature_editors cannot give details when declining unsolicited suggestions or contributions.

All articles for all sections of Nature are considered according to our usual conditions of publication, including being subject to our embargo. All material is considered for publication on the understanding that it is original and that any similar or related material submitted or in press elsewhere is disclosed to Nature at submission.

Authors of material submitted to any section of _Nature_must provide a current full postal address, phone, fax and e-mail address. It is helpful if authors note their surname and the section of Nature for which the article is being considered in the subject line of any e-mails they send to Nature.

News and Commentary

These sections are written and commissioned by Nature 's editors. They do not contain unsolicited material. Information for use by Nature for these sections can be sent via e-mail, with the title of the section in the subject line. Please provide full address and contact details.

Correspondence

Correspondence items are 'letters to the Editor'.They are brief comments on topical issues of public and political interest relating to research, or on magazine material published in Nature (for example, Editorials, World View, News, News Features, Books & Arts reviews, Comment pieces or Correspondence).

Excluded contributions. The Correspondence section does not publish technical comments on peer-reviewed research papers. If appropriate, you may submit these instead to Matters Arising.

We do not consider submissions responding to articles published in journals other than Nature.

Correspondence submissions are only rarely peer-reviewed. Contributions that present primary research data are therefore excluded.

Formatting. To be considered, Correspondence submissions must be under 250 words in length, with up to 3 references (and with links to those citations). Further citations can be included for fact-checking purposes. Supplementary material is not permitted. Please include a link to the Nature article under discussion and a full print citation, if applicable.

Signatories. A Correspondence can have a maximum of FOUR authors (see also Nature's authorship guidelines).

Collective authorship designated as consortia, research programmes, societies, workshops or group initiatives is not permitted. These can instead be mentioned in the main text with a link, if essential.

Please supply all correspondents’ postal and e-mail addresses, ORCID IDs if applicable, and telephone contact numbers, clearly indicating any accents on names or places. Note that multiple affiliations cannot be published, so please highlight the preferred affiliation. Affiliations are trimmed before publication to include only the institution, city and country.

If the corresponding author is likely to be away from e-mail in the 4 weeks after submission, please identify an alternative contact.

Submission. Submissions should be sent to correspondence@nature.com. These may include 100 words outlining the pertinence of the correspondence. Please present the correspondence text in the main body of your e-mail. Attachments are not accepted.

Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT do not currently satisfy our criteria for authorship. An attribution of authorship carries with it accountability for the correspondence content, which cannot be effectively applied to LLMs. Use of an LLM should instead be properly documented in a footnote to the main text.

Dual submission. An article making a similar point to the correspondence should not be published in another outlet until the correspondence is published (see https://www.nature.com/nature-portfolio/editorial-policies/plagiarism#policy-on-duplicate-publication).

Proofs. All accepted contributions are edited before publication for length, accuracy and accessibility. Titles are chosen by the editors. Proofs are sent by e-mail. Occasionally, letters must be cut after proofs have been sent. _Nature_will endeavour to ensure authors see these changes, but cannot guarantee it.

Sharing your article online: Our Springer Nature SharedIt tool allows you to generate a shareable pdf version of your Correspondence (view only) that you can post anywhere yourself. This includes on social media platforms, author websites and in institutional repositories. Please enter the doi of your article here: https://www.springernature.com/gp/researchers/sharedit

Obituaries

Unsolicited contributions are not accepted; this is a commission-only section covering a very small number of researchers of Nobel or equivalent global impact on science or society.

Commentary and World View

Unsolicited contributions are not accepted. Comments, Book Reviews and World Views are part of a commission-only section intended to be accessible and appealing to the whole global Nature readership, of all disciplines.

Commentary pieces are generally agenda-setting, authoritative, informed and often provocative expert pieces calling for action on topical issues pertaining to scientific research and its political, ethical and social ramifications. They road-map a proposed solution in detail; they do not simply snapshot a problem.

Alternatively comment pieces can be writerly historical narratives or conceptual or philosophical arguments of pressing contemporary relevance, told with authority, colour, vivacity and personal voice. These attempt to bring an original perspective before the widest readership, through erudite reasoning and telling examples.

Books & Arts

Unsolicited contributions are not accepted. The Books & Arts section of Nature publishes timely reviews of books, as well as art exhibitions, performances and cultural events of interest to leading scientists and policy makers; the section also runs comment pieces on trends in these matters. Reviews and articles are commissioned by Nature 's Books & Arts Editor.

To be considered for review, books or bound proofs must be sent at least 3 months prior to publication to the Books & Arts Assistant (Nature, The Campus, 4 Crinan Street, London N1 9XW, UK); details of arts events should be e-mailed at least six weeks in advance to naturebooks@nature.com.

Futures

Futures is the award-winning science-fiction section of _Nature_and it accepts unsolicited articles. Each Futures piece should be an entirely fictional, self-contained story of around 850–950 words in length, and the genre should, broadly speaking, be 'hard' (that is, ‘scientific') SF rather than, say, outright fantasy, slipstream or horror. Each item should be sent as a Word document attachment to futures@nature.com, including full contact details and a 30-word autobiographical note to be appended to the story if published.

We ask contributors not to send presubmission enquiries but to send the whole story. Unsolicited artwork is not considered. Before submitting, prospective authors are advised to read earlier Futures stories at nature.com/futures; selected examples are also available at SF2 Concatenation. More detailed guidelines can be found in this blogpost.

News & Views

These articles inform nonspecialist readers about new scientific advances, as reported in recently published papers (in Nature and elsewhere). This is a commission-only section.

Review and Perspective articles

Nature publishes two kinds of review, Review and Perspective articles.

Most articles are commissioned, but authors wishing to submit an unsolicited Review or Perspective must do so through our online submission system.

• The synopsis should outline the basic structure of the article; list the material to be covered with an indication of the proposed depth of coverage; and indicate how the material will be logically arranged.
• The synopsis should be accompanied by a 300-500 word outline of the background to the topic which summarizes the progress made to date and should also make the case succinctly for publication in a topical, interdisciplinary journal.
• Synopses prepared at this level of detail enable Nature's editors to provide editorial input before they commission the article, and can reduce the need for substantial editorial revisions at a later stage.
• The synopsis should include any very recent, key publications in the area.

Reviews

• They focus on one topical aspect of a field rather than providing a comprehensive literature survey.
• They can be controversial, but in this case should briefly indicate opposing viewpoints. They should not be focused on the author's own work. Language should be accessible, novel concepts defined and specialist terminology explained.
• They are peer-reviewed, and are substantially edited by Nature's editors in consultation with the author.
• All Reviews start with a 200-word maximum preface, which should set the stage and end with a summary sentence. Please note that the preface will also appear on PubMed and Medline, so it is important that it contains essential key words.
• Reviews vary in length depending on the topic and should not generally be more than 9 pages long. As a guideline, most reviews should include no more than 150 references. Display items and explanatory boxes (used for explanation of technical points or background material) are welcomed. As a guideline, 5000 words, 4 moderate display items (figures/tables/boxes) and a modest citation list (no more than 150 references) will occupy 9 pages.
• Highlighted references: for Review and Perspective articles, please write a single sentence, in bold text, beneath each of what you consider to be the most important or relevant 5 to 10 per cent of the references in your list, to explain the significance of the work.
• The author is responsible for ensuring that the necessary permission has been obtained for the re-use of any figures previously published elsewhere.

Perspectives

Perspective articles are intended to provide a forum for authors to discuss models and ideas from a personal viewpoint. They are more forward looking and/or speculative than Reviews and may take a narrower field of view. They may be opinionated but should remain balanced and are intended to stimulate discussion and new experimental approaches.

Perspectives follow the same formatting guidelines as Reviews. Both are peer-reviewed and edited substantially by Nature's editors in consultation with the author.

Analysis

These articles are published only occasionally. They do not report original data, but are review-based reports including a new analysis of existing data (typically large biological data sets such as genomes, microarrays and proteomics) that lead to a novel, exciting and arresting conclusion. They are peer-reviewed.

Authors interested in submitting an Analysis should send a synopsis through our online submission system with 'Analysis:' inserted before the title.

Careers

The Careers section welcomes suggestions for articles, which can be sent by email to the editors at naturecareers@nature.com.

Technology features

These articles are news-style reports, and are published a few times a year to review techniques and technologies in fast-moving fields of research. For further information, contact techfeatures@nature.com.

Outlooks

Nature Outlooks are supplements to Nature that contain news, features and opinion written and commissioned by the Nature supplements editor. They do not contain unsolicited material. For further information, contact the Outlooks editor on nature@nature.com.