Guide to authors

• Aims and scope of journal
• Enhanced online features
• Sample issue
• Editorial process
• Editors and contact information
• Relationship to other Nature journals
• Editorial and publishing policies
• Impact factor
• Editorial blogs
• Abbreviation
• ISSN and EISSN
• Further Editorial Information

The guide for authors and the editorial policies, including the guide for referees, are available in PDF format.

AIMS AND SCOPE OF JOURNAL

Nature Chemical Biology is a monthly multidisciplinary journal providing an international forum for the timely publication of significant new research at the interface between chemistry and biology. Published in hard copy and online, Nature Chemical Biology is a medium for rapid publication and for the exchange of ideas between scientists in both the chemical and the life sciences.

Nature Chemical Biology is committed to publishing the top tier of original research in chemical biology through a fair and rapid review process that emphasizes rigorous chemical and biological characterization. The journal is particularly interested in contributions from chemists who are applying the principles, language and tools of chemistry to the understanding of biological problems and from biologists who are interested in understanding biological processes at the molecular level. Priority is given to work that reports fundamental new advances in biology or chemistry and provides insight into the molecular mechanisms of biological processes. Research areas at the interface of chemistry and biology covered in the journal include, but are not limited to:

Chemical Synthesis

• Diversity-oriented synthesis
• Template-directed synthesis
• Biomolecular modification and labeling chemistry
• Solid-phase biomolecular synthesis: peptides, oligonucleotides, oligosaccharides
• Synthesis of small biomolecules: lipids, carbohydrates, nucleosides, amino acids
• Combinatorial chemistry
• Natural products synthesis
• Biomimetic synthesis
• Asymmetric catalysis

Expanding Chemistry through Biology

• Enzymatic synthesis
• Natural products isolation and characterization
• Combinatorial biosynthesis
• Biosynthetic engineering
• Virus-based chemistry
• Directed evolution and characterization of macromolecular catalysts and receptors
• Chemical informatics

Chemical Mechanisms in Biology

• Enzyme inhibition and reaction mechanisms
• Mechanisms of drug action in vivo
• Small molecule-biological target interactions
• Evolution and novel chemistry of catalytic nucleic acids
• Pharmacological determination of protein function in vivo
• Molecular probes of biological function
• Mechanistic analyses of post-translational modification chemistry
• Chemical insights into post-genomic approaches, including RNA interference and proteomics
• Metal ions in biological systems
• Chemical imaging agents
• Single-molecule chemistry of small molecules and biomolecules
• Experimentally-validated theoretical simulations and modeling of biomolecules
• Molecular recognition
• Small molecular model systems for metalloenzymes
• Molecular machines
• Pharmacologically active natural products
• Biosynthetic pathway elucidation
• Chemical approaches to protein interaction networks
• Chemical ecology

Expanding Biology through Chemistry

• Chemical genetics and high-throughput screening
• Biomolecular and small molecular array fabrication and validation
• Chemical insights into drug design and development
• Synthetic biology
• Unnatural biomolecular analogs in biological systems
• Chemical genomics
• Chemical regulation of biosynthetic pathways
• Chemical methods for protein, carbohydrate and nucleic acid design
• Chemical approaches to systems biology

ENHANCED ONLINE FEATURES

In addition, the online journal includes functionality developed specifically for Nature Chemical Biology including:

Pubchem linking
A PubChem link allows users of Nature Chemical Biology to go, in a single click, from the mention of a molecule in a paper to a rich and growing collection of information about chemical structures and their biological assay results, hosted by the NCBI.

Chemical compound information
For all significant compounds included in Nature Chemical Biology original research papers, a compound data page, linked directly from the compound reference in the full text, appears in the online journal.

3D rendering of compounds
Using a jmol window within the 'compound data index page', users can view and manipulate chemical compounds in three dimensions on the journal web site.

SAMPLE ISSUE

Free online access to the June 2006 issue.

EDITORIAL PROCESS

Presubmission inquiries may be made via our online submission system before a manuscript is submitted, but they are not required. Editors can give the authors a rapid judgment of whether a particular paper is likely to be of interest, but cannot promise that the paper will be reviewed until they have received the entire manuscript as a regular submission.

The overview of the journal's manuscript decision process includes submission, editorial decision on whether the paper should be reviewed, peer review, decisions after review, revision, acceptance in principle, final submission and acceptance, proofs, advance online publication, and print publication. Before submitting a paper, authors should consult our editorial policies as well as technical tips for using our online submission system.

Please also consult our general guide for manuscript preparation and submission, which includes information on article formats, journal style, and figure preparation tips. Note that procedures for presubmission inquiries, initial submission, revision, and final submission are slightly different, so please consult the directions before proceeding to the online submission system.

Journals in the Nature family no longer take copyright on the primary research articles we publish. Instead we ask authors to sign a license for us to publish their work. US government employees, sign a different license.

EDITORS AND CONTACT INFORMATION

Like the other Nature titles, Nature Chemical Biology has no external editorial board. Instead, all editorial decisions are made by a team of full-time professional editors, who are PhD-level chemists and biologists. For information on their research backgrounds and scientific interests, see About the Editors.

A full list of journal staff appears on the masthead.

RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER NATURE JOURNALS

Nature Chemical Biology is editorially independent, and its editors make their own decisions, independent of the other Nature journals. If a paper is rejected from one Nature journal, the authors can use an automated manuscript transfer service to submit the paper to another Nature journal via a link sent to them by the editor handling the manuscript. Authors should note that referees' comments (including any confidential comments to the editor) and identities are transferred to the editor of the second journal along with the manuscript. In that case, the journal editors will take the previous reviews into account when making their decision, although in some cases the editors may choose to take advice from additional or alternative referees. Alternatively, authors may choose to request a fresh review, in which case they should not use the automated transfer link, and the editors will evaluate the paper without reference to the previous review process. More details are available on the manuscript transfer service and on the relationships between Nature titles.

EDITORIAL AND PUBLISHING POLICIES

Please see authors & referees @ npg for detailed information about author and referee services and publication policies at the Nature family of journals. The Nature journals, including Nature Chemical Biology, share a number of common policies including the following:

License agreement and author copyright
Embargo policy and press releases
Use of experimental animals and human subjects
Competing financial interests
Availability of materials and data
Digital image integrity and standards
Security concerns
Refutations, complaints and corrections
Duplicate publication
Confidentiality and pre-publicity
Plagiarism and fabrication

IMPACT FACTOR

The 2006 ISI impact factor for Nature Chemical Biology is 12.409, according to the ISI Journal Citation Reports. This places Nature Chemical Biology as the leading primary research journal not only in chemical biology but also across related chemical sciences.

The 2006 impact factor represents the average number of citations per paper in 2006 and is calculated on the basis of the previous two years' worth of a particular journal's publications. A more detailed explanation of impact factors appears on the ISI web site.

EDITORIAL BLOGS

We encourage community participation in all Nature journal blogs. The Sceptical Chymist is a chemistry blog by the editors of Nature Chemical Biology and the Research journals and a forum for readers, authors and the entire chemical community. Nautilus is a blog for authors and aspiring authors of Nature Publishing Group journals. Peer-to-Peer is a blog for peer reviewers and about peer review. Other Nature Publishing Group blogs can be found on the blog index page.

ABBREVIATION

The correct abbreviation for abstracting and indexing purposes is Nat. Chem. Biol.

ISSN and EISSN

The international standard serial number (ISSN) for Nature Chemical Biology is 1552-4450, and the electronic international standard serial number (EISSN) is 1552-4469.

FURTHER EDITORIAL INFORMATION

Please see the following editorials for more information on various aspects of journal policy.
A community of chemists and biologists (June 2005)
Keeping it real (April 2007)
A new look for chemical information (June 2007)
Plus ça change (November 2007)