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
The guide for authors and the editorial policies, including the guide for referees, are available in PDF format.
AIMS AND SCOPE OF JOURNAL
Nature Structural & Molecular Biology is an integrated forum for structural and molecular studies. The journal places a strong emphasis on functional and mechanistic understanding of how molecular components in a biological process work together. Structural data may provide such insights, but they are not a pre-requisite for publication in the journal.
Specific areas of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Structure and function of proteins, nucleic acids and other macromolecules
- Structure and function of multi-component complexes
- DNA replication, repair and recombination
- Chromatin structure and remodeling
- Transcription
- RNA processing
- Translation
- Regulation of transcription and translation
- Functions of noncoding RNAs
- Protein folding, processing and degradation
- Sorting and trafficking of proteins and RNA
- Signal transduction and intracellular signaling
- Membrane processes
- Cell surface proteins and cell-cell interactions
- Molecular basis of disease
SAMPLE ISSUE
Free online access to the November 2004 issue of Nature Structural & Molecular Biology.
A list of example papers published in recent issues of Nature Structural Biology that illustrate the scope of Nature Structural & Molecular Biology can be found here.
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 Structural & Molecular Biology 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 Structural & Molecular 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 the relationships between Nature titles.
EDITORIAL AND PUBLISHING POLICIES
Please see authors and referees @ npg for detailed information about author and referee services and publication policies at the Nature family of journals. These journals, including Nature Structural & Molecular 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
According to the Thomson Reuters Journal Citation Reports, the 2008 impact factor for Nature Structural & Molecular Biology is 11.0, placing it first among primary research journals in biophysics and among the top ten primary research journals in biochemistry and molecular biology as well as cell biology.
The 2008 impact factor represents the number of citations in 2008 to papers published in 2006 and 2007, divided by the total number of papers published in 2006 and 2007. A more detailed explanation of impact factors appears on the Thomson Reuters web site.
EDITORIAL BLOGS
We encourage community participation in all Nature journal blogs. 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. Struct. Mol. Biol.
ISSN AND EISSN
The international standard serial number (ISSN) for Nature Structural & Molecular Biology is 1545-9993, and the electronic international standard serial number (EISSN) is 1545-9985.
The guide for authors and the editorial policies, including the guide for referees, are available in PDF format.
