From 1 July, Nature Photonics will be adopting a single Article format for its primary research papers and dropping its Letter format for submissions. The new format will be almost identical to our existing Article format, providing authors with a main text limit of up to 3,000 words, 6 figures, ~50 references and a 200-word unreferenced abstract plus an online Methods section and Supplementary Information, as necessary.

That said, this is designed to be a flexible format and we are happy to receive shorter Articles that are not near these maximum limits. The rationale behind the move is really one of simplification and the benefits in clarity and efficiency that a single format brings for publishing research findings. It removes any inconsistencies and potential confusion for authors and typesetters as to the format that a paper should be published under and eliminates any inefficiencies associated with the need to reformat between different paper types, which can happen on occasion.

Several other Nature Portfolio journals, including Nature and Nature Physics have recently taken a similar approach and adopted a single format for their papers, so we are in good company.

Further information about all our content types can be found at: https://www.nature.com/nphoton/content.