Aims and scope of journal
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 Genetics publishes the very highest quality research in genetics. It encompasses genetic and functional genomic studies on human traits and on other model organisms, including mouse, fly, nematode and yeast. Current emphasis is on the genetic basis for common and complex diseases and on the functional mechanism, architecture and evolution of gene networks, studied by experimental perturbation.
Integrative genetic topics comprise, but are not limited to:
- Genes in the pathology of human disease
- Molecular analysis of simple and complex genetic traits
- Cancer genetics
- Epigenetics
- Gene therapy
- Developmental genetics
- Regulation of gene expression
- Strategies and technologies for extracting function from genomic data
- Pharmacological genomics
- Genome evolution
SAMPLE ISSUE
Free online access to the February 2007 issue of Nature Genetics.
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 Genetics has no external editorial board. Instead, all editorial decisions are made by a team of full-time professional editors. 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 Genetics 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. These journals, including Nature Genetics, 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 2005 impact factor for Nature Genetics is 25.797, according to the ISI Journal Citation Reports. This places Nature Genetics first out of 124 journals in the field of genetics and heredity. The 2005 impact factor represents the number of citations in 2005 to papers published in 2003 and 2004, divided by the total number of papers published in 2003 and 2004. A more detailed explanation of impact factors appears on the ISI web site.
EDITORIAL BLOGS
We encourage community participation in all Nature journal blogs. Free Association is the Nature Genetics blog for links and editorial comment on research and news in genetics, as well as reader feedback. Nautilus is a blog for authors and aspiring authors of Nature Publishing Group journals. Peer-to-Peer is a blog for reviewers and is 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. Genet.
ISSN AND EISSN
The international standard serial number (ISSN) for Nature Genetics is 1061-4036, and the electronic international standard serial number (EISSN) is 1546-1718.
FURTHER EDITORIAL INFORMATION
Please see the following editorials for more information on various aspects of journal policy.
Providing clinical data in genetic studies
Descriptions of human population groups
Portraying research participants
Materials sharing policy
Minimum information about a microarray
Criteria for genetic association studies
The guide for authors and the editorial policies, including the guide for referees, are available in PDF format.
