Publishing and editorial policies
General information | Relationship between Nature journals | Conditions of publication | Duplicate publication | Authorship | Confidentiality | Consent & permissions | Copyright and license to publish | Competing interests | Peer review | Privacy | Corrections & retractions | Abstracting & indexing | HINARIGeneral information
The Nature Clinical Practice journals review developments in each medical area and keep practicing physicians up to date with recent research and opinion. By synthesizing the wealth of information available and providing it in an accessible format, the time needed to stay informed decreases – a benefit to both physician and patient. Content is generally invited, but proposals for articles can be suggested through the online submission system on each journal's website.
Top of pageRelationship between Nature journals
The Nature Clinical Practice journals are editorially independent, and the editors make their own decisions, independent of the other Nature journal editors. The editor of each journal has full responsibility for the content, but is advised by the journal's Editor-in-Chief and Advisory Board. The Editor-in-Chief of Nature Publications, Philip Campbell, is ultimately responsible for the quality of all publications bearing the name Nature in their titles.
Most papers published in the Nature journals are submitted to them directly; therefore, each Nature journal has to decline many papers of very high quality but insufficient interest to their specific readership. An editor may suggest that a paper declined for editorial (not technical) reasons might be suitable for submission to another Nature journal, including Nature Clinical Practice, if the article is appropriate to its scope.
Guide to Nature and its related journalsTop of page
Conditions of publication
All material submitted to Nature Clinical Practice, for any section in a journal, is considered for publication on the understanding that authors (including all coauthors of contributions with more than one author) agree to Nature Clinical Practice's publication policies as stated in this section of its website.
In the event of noncompliance with Nature Clinical Practice's conditions of publication, including matters that come to light after a contribution is published, Nature Clinical Practice reserves the right to take sanctions such as informing authors' employers and funding agencies, and/or informing readers via imposition of a correction (noting failure to comply), which will be linked to the original contribution via electronic indexing and become part of the formal published record, and/or informing readers by a published announcement in the journal (for example via an editorial).
Top of pageDuplicate publication
Duplicate publication means that two or more journals publish the same information; this could be research data and results, or more than a legally specified amount of text. Although the Nature Clinical Practice journals do not publish original research themselves, inclusion of unpublished data that are under consideration by, or accepted for publication in, another journal could result in that material being rejected by the other journal, if it is published by Nature Clinical Practice first. It is, therefore, in everyone's interests to ensure that duplicate publication does not take place.
Authors submitting articles to Nature Clinical Practice who (a) have related material that is under consideration or accepted for publication elsewhere or (b) have included unpublished data (including personal communications) should submit a clearly marked copy, including any information they have about the material's publication status with the other journal. It is the responsibility of the authors to obtain permission to use data transmitted as personal communications. Further information can be found in Consent and permissions.
If part of a contribution has appeared or will appear elsewhere, the author must specify the details in the covering letter accompanying the Nature Clinical Practice submission. Consideration by Nature Clinical Practice is possible if the main result, conclusion, or implications are not apparent from the other work. Other exceptions can apply at the editor's discretion, for example if the other work is not published in English, or if it is published on a recognized preprint server for review by other scientists in the field before formal submission to a journal.
This information will be considered confidential and will be used to ensure, as far as possible, that duplicate publication does not take place. This might mean delaying publication of a Nature Clinical Practice article until after the original research it mentions has been published elsewhere.
If in doubt, please contact the editor for advice.
Top of pageAuthorship
Nature Clinical Practice does not require all authors of a paper to sign the letter of submission, nor does it impose an order on the list of authors. Submission to Nature Clinical Practice is taken to mean that all the listed authors have agreed to submit the content. The corresponding (submitting) author is responsible for ensuring that this agreement has been reached.
Authors are required to submit a signed statement of the actual contribution made by each coauthor. If any author is deemed by the Editors not to have contributed substantially to the writing of the paper, his or her name will be removed from the list of authors, but may be listed in the Acknowledgments section. The contribution statement will not be published.
The corresponding author is designated the contact author for any matters arising from the published paper, for example, feedback from readers. It is this author's responsibility to inform all coauthors of matters arising and to ensure such matters are dealt with promptly. This author does not have to be the senior author of the paper. The name and email address of the corresponding author are published in the paper.
Authors of published Nature Clinical Practice material have a responsibility to inform the journal promptly if they become aware of any part that requires corrections.
Top of pageConfidentiality
Nature Clinical Practice aims to keep information relating to individuals confidential whenever possible. When an individual could be identified (for example, through case study information), authors are required to ensure that the individual has consented to the publication of that material. See Consent and permissions for details of this process.
Before agreeing to review a manuscript and before Nature Clinical Practice sends it to them, all peer-reviewers agree to keep Nature Clinical Practice manuscripts confidential, and to redistribute them only with permission from Nature Clinical Practice. By this and by other means, Nature Clinical Practice endeavors to keep the content of all submissions confidential until the publication date, but it is not responsible for the conduct of peer-reviewers.
Peer-reviewers should be aware that it is Nature Clinical Practice's policy to keep their names confidential with respect to individual articles (blind peer-review), and Nature Clinical Practice does its utmost to ensure this confidentiality. In recognition of their contribution to journal quality, however, after at least 12 issues have been printed the names of all those who peer-reviewed articles in those issues may be published as a list in alphabetical order.
Under normal circumstances, blind peer-review is protected from legislation. Nature Clinical Practice cannot, however, guarantee to maintain this confidentiality in the face of a successful legal action to disclose identity in the event of a peer-reviewer having made personally derogatory comments in their reports about the authors. For this reason as well as for reasons of normal professional courtesy, Nature Clinical Practice requests peer-reviewers to refrain from unnecessarily personally negative comments about the authors of submitted manuscripts.
Top of pageConsent and permissions
For all articles that include information or clinical photographs relating to individual patients, where those patients could be identified by readers in any way, written and signed consent to publish must be obtained from each patient and this should be mailed or faxed to the editorial office. A statement such as "Written consent for publication was obtained from the patient or their responsible relative" should also be included in a text section entitled Acknowledgments.
Authors are responsible for obtaining, before publication in a Nature Clinical Practice journal, permission to use tables, figures or images, or boxes, direct quotes of ≥200 words or scattered quotes from a single source of ≥400 words in total previously published elsewhere. Citations of personal communications must be authorized by the correspondent involved, with signed permission to cite being sent to the editorial office by mail or fax.
Top of pageCopyright and licence to publish
Authors are required to sign a Copyright Assigment form transferring all rights relating to the contribution to Nature Publishing Group. The following nonexclusive, nontransferable rights are, however, granted after the article's first publication in the journal, provided that these rights are not exercised before first publication of the article by Nature Publishing Group and, when reproducing or referring to the article as a whole or parts thereof, an acknowledgment is included in the following format: First published in [Journal name, issue number, volume number, year, DOI] © Nature Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited].
- The author and any academic institution where they work at the time may reproduce the contribution for the purpose of course teaching.
- The author or a third-party publisher may reproduce the contribution in whole or in part in any printed volume (book or thesis) written by the author, subject to prior written approval for Nature Publishing Group and granted at their discretion.
- A copy of the article, as accepted for publication after peer-review (in Word or Text format), may be posted on the author's own website, the author's institutional repository, or the author's funding body's archive, 6 months after publication of the printed or online edition of the Journal, including a link to the Journal article on the Nature Publishing Group website (e.g. through the DOI)
- Figures or tables created by the author and contained in the contribution can be reproduced in oral presentations and other works created by them. Nature Publishing Group should be acknowledged when reproducing or referring to the contribution elsewhere.
Copyright forms are sent to authors when they agree to write an article, or when an article reaches the 'accepted in principle' stage. Until the form has been signed and returned, articles will be held without further processing. Articles cannot be published without this signed agreement.
We recognize that some US Government employees are prevented from signing away copyright. A License to Publish form for such articles can be requested in relevant circumstances.
Sample license form (PDF 76k) US Government employees' sample license to publish form (PDF 62k)Top of page
Competing interests
In the interests of transparency and to help readers to form their own judgments of potential bias, the Nature Clinical Practice journals require authors to declare any competing interests in relation to their submitted articles. For articles with more than one author, the corresponding author is required to complete the declaration form (PDF, 31k) on behalf of his or her coauthors.
For full details, please refer to the Nature Clinical Practice journals' Competing interests policy.
A shortened form of the declaration is published as part of the printed article, with a more detailed version, if appropriate, as part of the article online.
Peer-reviewers are also asked to declare any conflicts if they agree to peer-review an article. If the Editor believes any declared conflict is substantial, additional peer-review reports will be requested before a decision is made on whether to publish. Further information on the Peer-review policy is available below.
Top of pagePeer-review
Invited articles undergo peer-review to reinforce the quality and integrity of the content. Peer-reviewers are asked to complete their reports with a checklist of points to consider; additional comments may also be included in the report. Frank comments about the scientific and medical content of submitted manuscripts are strongly encouraged.
Peer-reviewers accept conditions of confidentiality when agreeing to peer-review a manuscript. Details are included in the Confidentiality policy.
All contributions that are selected for peer-review are sent to at least one, but usually two or more, independent reviewers, selected by the editors. Authors are welcome to suggest suitable independent peer-reviewers and may also request that Nature Clinical Practice excludes one or two (but no more) individuals or institutions if there is a specific, declared competing interest. Nature Clinical Practice sympathetically considers such requests, but the editor's decision on the choice of peer-reviewers is final.
Nature Clinical Practice editors may seek advice about submitted papers not only from technical peer-reviewers but also on any aspect of a paper that raises concerns. These may include, for example, ethical issues or issues of data or materials access. Very occasionally, concerns may also relate to the societal implications of publishing a paper. In such circumstances, advice will usually be sought simultaneously with the technical peer-reviewing process. As in all publishing decisions, the ultimate decision on whether to publish is the responsibility of the editor of the journal concerned.
Corresponding authors are notified of acceptance, rejection or request for revision within 6 weeks from submission of initial revisions whenever possible. Revised manuscripts should be returned within 3 weeks, together with a covering letter detailing responses to every point made by editors and peer-reviewers.
The following types of contribution are peer-reviewed: Viewpoints, Practice Points, Reviews, Case Studies, and any supplementary files associated with these articles. Supplements to the journals are also peer-reviewed.
The following types of contribution are not usually peer-reviewed: Editorials, Book Reviews, Research Highlights, Article Responses, Errata and Corrigenda. Nevertheless, contributions of these types may be peer-reviewed at the discretion of the Editor.
Top of pagePrivacy
The Nature Publishing Group is committed to providing quality information and services to the scientific and medical community. In order to do this, we need to know a little about you. For the purposes of data protection, nature.com is the Internet publishing platform for Nature Publishing Group. The web site is hosted in the US, and on content distribution servers worldwide. Nature Publishing Group is a trading name of Macmillan Publishers Ltd, and Nature America Inc., a wholly owned US subsidiary of Macmillan Publishers Ltd.
The Nature Publishing Group Privacy Policy Statement contains further details.
Top of pageCorrections and retractions
The Nature journals (including the Nature Clinical Practice journals) operate a broadly similar policy for making corrections to the print and online versions of their content. For full details, please refer to Nature journals' correction and retraction policy.
If an author of a published paper subsequently becomes aware of a significant error in it, a paragraph of correction should be sent to the journal by using the article response link within the published article online. The Authorship policy also applies to corrections.
If a reader believes that an article in a Nature Clinical Practice journal contains an important error, he or she should submit this information by using the article response link within the published article online. The journal will consider these responses if they include verification to substantiate the information, and the case is made using reasoned language.
Published clarifications can take a variety of formats, not necessarily in the form of a publication by the person who sent the initial comment to the journal. Nature Clinical Practice's decisions about clarifications are made in the interests of maximum clarity for readers, succinctness, fairness, and maintenance of the integrity of the published record.
Further general enquiries about corrections should be sent by email to the relevant journal.
Top of pageAbstracting and indexing
The Nature Clinical Practice journals launched in 2004 are indexed in Index Medicus/MEDLINE, PubMed, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, ISI Web of Knowledge (Science Citation Index Expanded), Current Contents Clinical Medicine, CINAHL, and CAB Abstracts. They will also be submitted to Cambridge Scientific Abstracts and INIST. All journals launched are submitted to the same services for inclusion in their products, and others as appropriate.
MEDLINE's selection committee considers several published issues before deciding whether to index a journal. This means that decisions on indexing will be made several months after the journal's first issue has been published. In general, indexing will then be backdated to include articles for all issues published to date.
Thomson's ISI reviews at least 3 years' of a journal before deciding whether to index it. All articles are indexed but not all count towards the calculated impact factor. The impact factor is calculated by adding the total number of citations in the current year to articles published in the 2 preceding years, and dividing this number by the total number of articles published in those 2 years.
Top of pageHINARI
Nature Publishing Group is proud to be involved in initiatives that support the communication of scientific research in the developing world. All the Nature Clinical Practice journals are part of the World Health Organization's HINARI, the Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative, which provides free access to public institutions in developing countries.
