Guide to authors

• Aims and scope of journal
• Sample issue
• Enhanced online features
• 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 an international monthly journal that provides a high-visibility forum for the publication of top-tier original research and commentary for the chemical biology community. Chemical biology is an emerging field that combines the scientific ideas and approaches of chemistry, biology and allied disciplines to understand and manipulate biological systems with molecular precision. The journal publishes papers from the expanding community of chemical biologists, including contributions from chemists who are applying the principles and tools of chemistry to biological questions and from biologists who are interested in understanding and controlling biological processes at the molecular level.

We give priority to studies that report significant conceptual or practical advances in any area where chemistry and biology intersect. The journal is primarily interested in basic research, especially those studies that report new chemical or biological tools or present significant new molecular-level insights into the mechanisms underpinning biological processes. Additionally, because chemical biology approaches have broad utility for manipulating or engineering biological systems, the journal also considers manuscripts describing applied molecular studies at the chemistry-biology interface. Independent of the scientific area, we seek manuscripts that blend chemistry and biology in new ways, particularly those that provide major conceptual or methodological advances that are likely to open up innovative avenues of research in the field. The journal strives for a fair but comprehensive review process that emphasizes rigorous chemical and biological characterization.

In addition to publishing original research, Nature Chemical Biology is a forum for the exchange of ideas between scientists in the chemical and life sciences and a community resource for this emerging field. To this end, we publish content including scholarly reviews and perspectives, highlights of research published in our pages and in other journals, correspondence and commentaries that present topics of scientific and community interest.

Sample issue

Free online access to the December 2008 issue.

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.

Editorial process

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 initial submission, revision, and final submission are slightly different, so please consult the directions before proceeding to the online submission system. Presubmission inquiries are not a prerequisite for the regular submission process, but are intended as a mechanism for authors to receive rapid feedback on whether a manuscript in preparation is likely to be of interest to the journal. We encourage authors who have already prepared their manuscripts to bypass the presubmission inquiry process and upload their papers as a regular submission to the journal.

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:

Author responsibilities
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 2007 impact factor for Nature Chemical Biology is 13.683, according to the Thomson Reuters 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 2007 impact factor represents the number of citations in 2007 to papers published in 2005 and 2006, divided by the total number of papers published in 2005 and 2006. 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)
To the editor (June 2008)
Data shown (October 2008)
Decoding decisions (December 2008)
New in 2009 (January 2009)
A very good place to start (February 2009)
Screening we can believe in (March 2009)

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