The policy outlined on this page applies to Nature journals (those with the word "Nature" in their title). NPG publishes many other journals, each of which has separate publication policies described on its website. A current list of these journals, with links to each journal's homepage is available.

Material submitted to a Nature journal must be original and not published or submitted for publication elsewhere. This rule applies to material submitted elsewhere while the Nature journal contribution is under consideration.

Authors submitting a contribution to a Nature journal who have related material under consideration or in press elsewhere should upload a clearly marked copy at the time of submission, and draw the editors' attention to it in their cover letter. Authors must disclose any such information while their contributions are under consideration by a Nature journal - for example, if they submit a related manuscript elsewhere that was not written at the time of the original Nature journal submission.

If part of a contribution that an author wishes to submit to a Nature journal has appeared or will appear elsewhere, the author must specify the details in the covering letter accompanying the Nature submission. Consideration by the Nature journal is possible if the main result, conclusion, or implications are not apparent from the other work, or if there are other factors, for example if the other work is published in a language other than English.

The Nature journals allow and encourage prior publication on recognized community preprint servers for review by other scientists in the field before formal submission to a journal. The details of the preprint server concerned and any accession numbers should be included in the cover letter accompanying submission of the manuscript to the Nature journal. This policy does not extend to preprints available to the media or that are otherwise publicised outside the scientific community before or during the submission and consideration process at the Nature journal.

Nature journals allow publication of meeting abstracts before the full contribution is submitted. Such abstracts should be included with the Nature journal submission and referred to in the cover letter accompanying the manuscript. This policy does not extend to meeting abstracts and reports available to the media or which are otherwise publicised outside the scientific community during the submission and consideration process.

In case of any doubt, authors should seek advice from the editor handling their contribution.

If an author of a submission is re-using a figure or figures published elsewhere, or that is copyrighted, the author must provide documentation that the previous publisher or copyright holder has given permission for the figure to be re-published. The Nature journal editors consider all material in good faith that their journals have full permission to publish every part of the submitted material, including illustrations.

Editorials in the Nature journals providing details of policies on this topic:

Nature Materials: The cost of salami slicing

Nature Medicine: Truth in numbers

The entire guide for Editorial Policies is available in PDF format.