News and Commentary Sections
These sections contain articles that have been written and commissioned by Nature editors. They do not contain unsolicited material. Information used by Nature for these sections can be submitted via email, with the section title in the subject line. Please provide the full title and contact information.
Correspondence
Correspondence is considered “Letters to the Editor”. It consists of brief comments on current issues of general and political interest related to research, or materials published in Nature (for example, editorials, global perspectives, news, feature articles, book and arts reviews, opinion pieces, or correspondence).
Excluded contributions. The correspondence section does not publish technical comments on peer-reviewed research papers. Please submit these comments instead to the “Matters Arising” section (for author guidelines, see here). Alternatively, please upload these notes at the bottom of the Nature paper.
We do not consider contributions that respond to articles published in other journals than Nature.
Contributions submitted to the correspondence section are rarely reviewed. Therefore, contributions presenting preliminary research data are excluded.
Formatting. To be considered for the correspondence section, contributions must be fewer than 250 words in length, with up to 3 references (and links to those citations). Additional citations may be included for fact-checking purposes. No additional material is allowed. Please include a link to the relevant Nature article and a full citation if appropriate.
Signatories. Correspondence may contain up to four authors (see also Nature’s authorship guidelines).
Collective authorship designated as a consortium, research programs, societies, workshops, or collective initiatives is not allowed. These can instead be mentioned in the main text with a link if necessary.
Please provide all mailing and email addresses of the correspondents, ORCID identifiers if available, and phone contact numbers, noting any accents in names or places. Please note that multiple affiliations cannot be published, so please confirm 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 email for four weeks after submission, please indicate an alternative contact.
Submission. Contributions should be sent to correspondence@nature.com. This may include 100 words outlining the relevance of the correspondence. Please provide the text of the correspondence in the main body of your email. Attachments are not accepted.
Long language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT do not meet our current authorship standards. The responsibility for content in the correspondence rests with the authors, which cannot be effectively applied to LLMs. Instead, the use of LLMs should be properly documented in a footnote in the main text.
Dual submission. An article dealing with a similar point to the correspondence must 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 via email. Occasionally, messages may need to be cut after proofs are sent. Nature will strive to ensure that authors see these changes, but it does not guarantee this.
Share your article online: The Springer Nature SharedIt tool allows you to create a shareable version of your correspondence (view only) that you can publish anywhere yourself. This includes social media platforms, author websites, and institutional repositories. Please enter your article’s digital identifier here: https://www.springernature.com/gp/researchers/sharedit
Obituaries
Unsolicited contributions are not accepted; it is a section covering very few researchers who have won the Nobel Prize or who have an equivalent global impact on science or society.
Comments
Global Perspectives
Unsolicited contributions are not accepted. Comments, book reviews, and global viewpoints are part of a section commissioned to be both comprehensible and engaging for all global Nature readers, from all disciplines.
Commentary pieces are typically agenda-driven, reliable, informed, and often controversial, calling for action on current issues related to scientific research and its political, ethical, and social ramifications. They outline a proposed roadmap for resolution in detail; they do not simply depict the problem.
Instead, commentary pieces can be historical narratives or conceptual or philosophical arguments relevant to contemporary reality, told in a compelling, colorful, vibrant way with a personal voice. These pieces aim to bring an original perspective to the widest readership through scientific reasoning and illustrative examples.
Books and Arts
Unsolicited contributions are not accepted. The Books and Arts section of Nature publishes timely book reviews, as well as reviews of art exhibitions, theatrical performances, and cultural events of interest to prominent scientists and policymakers; the section also provides commentary pieces on trends in these matters. Reviews and articles are commissioned by the Editors of Nature for Books and Arts.
Futures
Futures is the award-winning science fiction section of Nature which accepts unsolicited articles. Each piece in Futures should be a completely independent short story of about 850-950 words, and the genre should generally be “hard” (i.e. “scientific”) SF rather than explicit or soft fantasy or horror. Each item should be submitted as a Word document attached to futures@nature.com, including full contact information and a short 30-word biography to accompany the story if published.
We ask contributors not to submit inquiries prior to submission but to send the complete story. Unsolicited artwork is not considered. Before submission, potential authors are advised to read previous Futures stories at nature.com/futures; selected examples are also available here. More detailed guidelines can be found here.
News and Views
These articles provide information to non-specialist readers about new scientific developments, as outlined in recent papers (in Nature and elsewhere). It is a section that is commissioned only.
Review and Perspective Article
Nature publishes two types of review: a Review and a Perspective Article.
Most articles are commissioned, but authors wishing to submit an unsolicited Review or Perspective should do so through our electronic submission system. The abstract should outline the basic structure of the article; it should state the materials to be covered with reference to the proposed depth of coverage; and it should indicate how the materials are logically arranged. The abstract should be accompanied by a 300-500 word summary of the background to the topic that summarizes the progress made so far and briefly outlines the case for publication in a multidisciplinary specialty journal. Abstracts prepared at this level of detail enable Nature editors to provide editorial input before commissioning the article and can reduce the need for major editorial revisions later on. The abstract should include any significant and recent publications in the field. Reviews focus on one aspect related to the field rather than providing a comprehensive survey of the literature. They may be controversial, but in that case, brief mention should be made of conflicting viewpoints. They should not focus on the author’s work. The language should be accessible, defining new concepts and explaining specialized terminology. They undergo peer review and are heavily edited by Nature editors in consultation with the author. All reviews begin with an introduction of up to 200 words, which should set the stage and conclude with a summarizing sentence. Please note that the introduction will also appear in PubMed and Medline, so it is important that it contains the key terms. Reviews vary in length depending on the subject and should generally not exceed 9 pages. As a guideline, most reviews should include no more than 150 references. Occasional items and illustrative boxes (used to explain technical points or background materials) are welcome. As a guideline, 5000 words, 4 moderate display items (figures/tables/boxes), and a modest reference list (no more than 150 references) will occupy 9 pages. Prominent references: For reviews and Perspective Articles, please write one sentence, in bold text, underneath each of the references you consider the most important or relevant, from 5 to 10 percent of your reference list, to explain the significance of the work. The author is responsible for ensuring that any previously published figures reused have the necessary permissions.
Views
Perspective
The aim of perspective articles is to provide a platform for authors to discuss models and ideas from a personal viewpoint. They are more future-oriented and/or proactive than reviews and may take a narrower scope. They may be opinionated but should remain balanced and aim to stimulate discussion and new experimental approaches.
Perspectives follow the same formatting guidelines as reviews. Both are heavily reviewed and edited by Nature editors in consultation with the author.
Analysis
These articles are published sporadically only. They do not present original data but include reports based on a review of new analysis of existing data (large biological datasets such as genomes, microarrays, and proteomics) that lead to new, exciting, and surprising conclusions. They are peer-reviewed.
Authors wishing to submit an analysis should submit a summary through our electronic submission system, including “Analysis:” before the title.
Jobs
Suggestions for articles in the jobs section are welcomed and can be emailed to the editors at naturejobs@nature.com.
Technology Features
These articles are considered news-style reports and are published several times a year to review techniques and technologies in fast-evolving research fields. For more information, please contact techfeatures@nature.com.
Outlooks
Nature Outlooks are supplements to the Nature journal that contain news, articles, and opinions written and commissioned by the Nature Supplements editor. They do not contain unsolicited material. For more information, please contact the Outlook editor at nature@nature.com.
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