Content types

The npj Series publishes a range of content types. We do not impose strict limits on word count or page numbers as the journals are online only and fully Open Access. However, we strongly recommend that you write concisely and follow the below formatting guidelines for the different content types published by our journals. All submissions should be accompanied by:

A cover letter
An English language manuscript file formatted to the desired content type, provided in an editable format
Figures and optional Supplementary Information files and any relevant reporting checklists. Supplementary Information should be combined and supplied as a single, separate file, preferably in PDF format.

Please see the journal’s submission guidelines for detailed information, including how to format and submit Tables, Figures, and Supplementary Information.

Article

Articles should report substantial original primary research. Articles include received and accepted dates and are peer reviewed.

Please note that systematic reviews, scoping reviews, and meta-analyses should be submitted as Articles, not Reviews.

Articles are formatted as follows:

Section	Guidance
Title page	A title that is up to 15 words in length and free of punctuation, idioms, and puns; the full author list; author affiliation information, including institution, city, and country; and the corresponding author(s) email address
Abstract	No subheadings permitted and up to 150 words in length
Introduction	No subheadings permitted
Results	Subheadings should be used
Discussion	No subheadings, limitations, or conclusions sections are permitted
Methods	Subheadings should be used. For clinical trials, it is mandatory to provide the trial registration number and date of registration. If the Article reports results from a randomized clinical trial, it is mandatory to include a completed CONSORT checklist or the appropriate extension checklist in the Supplementary Information. If your study includes human or animal participants, human or animal material, or human data, it is mandatory to provide details of the ethical approval(s) obtained and how human participants consented to take part in the study. If the Article reports a pre-clinical animal study, authors are strongly encouraged to include a completed ARRIVE Essential 10 checklist in the Supplementary Information. All descriptions of Methods should be provided in the main manuscript file and not in the Supplementary Information
Data availability	Mandatory
Code availability	Where applicable
Acknowledgments	Where Funding for the study should be declared, a separate Funding statement is not permitted
Author contributions	Mandatory, the statement should refer to all authors individually, denoted by their initials
Competing Interests	Mandatory, you should declare all financial and non-financial competing interests for each author. If there are no competing interests to declare, this should be stated
References	Limited to 60 references, though not strictly enforced
Figure legends	Limited to 350 words per figure

Figure files can be provided in the manuscript or uploaded separately. Please note that multi-panel figures should be presented on a single page with each panel labeled using an a), b), c) convention.

The journal permits but does not edit Supplementary Information files. They will be uploaded with published Articles as they are submitted with the final version of your manuscript. Any tracked changes should be removed from the file and the file should be provided as a PDF file. Supplementary Information should be combined into a single, separate file, preferably in PDF format.

Brief Communication

Brief Communications report a concise study of high quality and broad interest that do not fulfill the criteria of a full research article. Brief Communications include received and accepted dates and are peer reviewed.

Brief communications are formatted as follows:

Section	Guidance
Title page	A title that is up to 15 words in length and free of punctuation, idioms, and puns; the full author list; author affiliation information, including institution, city, and country; and the corresponding author(s) email address
Abstract	No subheadings permitted and up to 70 words in length
Main text	No subheadings permitted and should be no more than 1,000-1,500 words (not including the abstract, methods, references, and figure legends)
Methods	Subheadings should be used. For clinical trials, it is mandatory to provide the trial registration number and date of registration. If the Article reports results from a randomized clinical trial, it is mandatory to include a completed CONSORT checklist or the appropriate extension checklist in the Supplementary Information. If your study includes human or animal participants, human or animal material, or human data, it is mandatory to provide details of the ethical approval(s) obtained and how human participants consented to take part in the study. If the Article reports a pre-clinical animal study, authors are strongly encouraged to include a completed ARRIVE Essential 10 checklist in the Supplementary Information. All descriptions of Methods should be provided in the main manuscript file and not in the Supplementary Information
Data availability	Mandatory
Code availability	Where applicable
Acknowledgments	Where Funding for the study should be declared, a separate Funding statement is not permitted
Author contributions	Mandatory, the statement should refer to all authors individually, denoted by their initials
Competing Interests	Mandatory, you should declare all financial and non-financial competing interests for each author. If there are no competing interests to declare, this should be stated
References	Brief Communications have around 20 references, as a guide
Figure legends	Limited to 350 words per figure

The journal permits but does not edit Supplementary Information files. They will be uploaded with published Brief Communications as they are submitted with the final version of your manuscript. Any tracked changes should be removed from the file and the file should be provided as a PDF file. Supplementary Information should be combined into a single, separate file, preferably in PDF format.

Comment

Comments have a very flexible format and may cover policy, science and society, or purely scientific issues. The main criteria are that they should be of immediate interest to a broad readership and be written in an accessible, non-technical style. Comments include received and accepted dates and are typically peer reviewed.

Comments are formatted as follows:

Section	Guidance
Title page	A title that is up to 15 words in length and free of punctuation, idioms, and puns; the full author list; author affiliation information, including institution, city, and country; and the corresponding author(s) email address
Abstract	No subheadings permitted and up to 70 words in length
Main text	Subheadings are permitted, typically 1,000-2,000 words in length
Acknowledgments	Where applicable
Author contributions	Mandatory, the statement should refer to all authors individually, denoted by their initials
Competing Interests	Mandatory, you should declare all financial and non-financial competing interests for each author. If there are no competing interests to declare, this should be stated
References	References typically do not exceed 25
Figure legends	Limited to 350 words per figure

The journal permits but does not edit Supplementary Information files. They will be uploaded with published Comments as they are submitted with the final version of your manuscript. Any tracked changes should be removed from the file and the file should be provided as a PDF file. Supplementary Information should be combined into a single, separate file, preferably in PDF format.

Editorial

Editorials are typically written by the senior editorial team of the journal, under the direction of the Editor-in-Chief. Unsolicited Editorials will not be considered. Editorials include received and accepted dates and are not typically peer reviewed, although they can be at the discretion of the editorial team.

Editorials are formatted as follows:

Section	Guidance
Title page	A title that is up to 15 words in length and free of punctuation, idioms, and puns; the full author list; author affiliation information, including institution, city, and country; and the corresponding author(s) email address
Abstract	No subheadings permitted and up to 70 words in length
Main text	Subheadings are permitted
Acknowledgments	Where applicable
Author contributions	Mandatory, the statement should refer to all authors individually, denoted by their initials
Competing Interests	Mandatory, you should declare all financial and non-financial competing interests for each author. If there are no competing interests to declare, this should be stated
References	Limited to 60 references, though not strictly enforced
Figure legends	Limited to 350 words per figure

The journal permits but does not edit Supplementary Information files. They will be uploaded with published Editorials as they are submitted with the final version of your manuscript. Any tracked changes should be removed from the file and the file should be provided as a PDF file. Supplementary Information should be combined into a single, separate file, preferably in PDF format.

Matters Arising

Matters Arising serve as important scientific comments and clarifications on peer-reviewed articles published in the journal and aim to facilitate post-publication commentary. They may highlight challenges, clarifications, or in some cases, replication of the published work. They are usually published alongside a Reply from the original authors and are bidirectionally linked with the original published paper. The guidelines for Matters Arising are outlined here. Matters Arising and Replies include received and accepted dates and are peer reviewed.

Matters Arising are formatted as follows:

Section	Guidance
Title page	A title that is up to 15 words in length and free of punctuation, idioms, and puns. Matters Arising Reply articles are formatted in the same manner, however, the Reply article title should be formatted as ‘Reply to: [Matters Arising title]’. A full author list must be provided with author affiliation information, including institution, city, and country; and the corresponding author(s) email address
Abstract	No subheadings permitted and up to 70 words in length
Main text	Subheadings are permitted and should be written as concisely as possible, not exceeding 1,200 words
Acknowledgments	Where applicable
Author contributions	Mandatory, the statement should refer to all authors individually, denoted by their initials
Competing Interests	Mandatory, you should declare all financial and non-financial competing interests for each author. If there are no competing interests to declare, this should be stated
References	References do not typically exceed 15. The original research article under discussion should be the first citation in the reference list.
Figure legends	Limited to 350 words per figure

The journal permits but does not edit Supplementary Information files. They will be uploaded with published Matters Arising as they are submitted with the final version of your manuscript. Any tracked changes should be removed from the file and the file should be provided as a PDF file. Supplementary Information should be combined into a single, separate file, preferably in PDF format.

Perspective

Perspectives provide a forum for authors to discuss evidence-based opinions, models, and ideas. They are more forward-looking and/or speculative than Review articles and may take a narrower field of view. They may be opinionated but should remain balanced and are intended to stimulate discussion and new experimental approaches. Perspectives include received and accepted dates and are peer reviewed.

Perspectives are formatted as follows:

Section	Guidance
Title page	A title that is up to 15 words in length and free of punctuation, idioms, and puns; the full author list; author affiliation information, including institution, city, and country; and the corresponding author(s) email address
Abstract	No subheadings permitted and up to 70 words in length
Main text	Subheadings are permitted, text should not normally exceed 3,000 words
Acknowledgments	Where applicable
Author contributions	Mandatory, the statement should refer to all authors individually, denoted by their initials
Competing Interests	Mandatory, you should declare all financial and non-financial competing interests for each author. If there are no competing interests to declare, this should be stated
References	Limited to 70 references, though not strictly enforced
Figure legends	Limited to 350 words per figure

The journal permits but does not edit Supplementary Information files. They will be uploaded with published Perspectives as they are submitted with the final version of your manuscript. Any tracked changes should be removed from the file and the file should be provided as a PDF file. Supplementary Information should be combined into a single, separate file, preferably in PDF format.

Review

Reviews narratively summarize recent advances in the scientific literature within a given research field. Although Reviews should be recognized as scholarly by specialists in the field, they should be written to inform non-specialist readers. Reviews should be presented using simple prose, avoiding excessive jargon and technical detail. The scope of a Review should be broad enough that it is not dominated by the work of a single laboratory, and particularly not by the author's own work. Reviews include received and accepted dates and are peer reviewed.

Please note that all systematic review types, scoping reviews, and meta-analyses, should be submitted as Articles, not Reviews.

Reviews are formatted as follows:

Section	Guidance
Title page	A title that is up to 15 words in length and free of punctuation, idioms, and puns; the full author list; author affiliation information, including institution, city, and country; and the corresponding author(s) email address
Abstract	No subheadings permitted and up to 70 words in length
Main text	Subheadings are permitted, typically 3,000-4,000 words in length
Acknowledgments	Where applicable
Author contributions	Mandatory, the statement should refer to all authors individually, denoted by their initials
Competing Interests	Mandatory, you should declare all financial and non-financial competing interests for each author. If there are no competing interests to declare, this should be stated
References	Limited to 60 references, though not strictly enforced
Figure legends	Limited to 350 words per figure

The journal permits but does not edit Supplementary Information files. They will be uploaded with published Reviews as they are submitted with the final version of your manuscript. Any tracked changes should be removed from the file and the file should be provided as a PDF file. Supplementary Information should be combined into a single, separate file, preferably in PDF format.