Guide to Authors

This section will help you when preparing your manuscript for initial submission and resubmission to one of the npj Series journals. Please ensure that you familiarise yourself with our Editorial and Publishing policies and our Submission Guidelines before submitting your work.
 

Manuscript submissions and relations to other Nature Portfolio journals

The npj Series journals are open access Nature Portfolio journals published by Springer Nature. For information on the journal aims and scope, as well as our content types, please refer to the about the journal section.

Please see our submission guidelines for key information on submitting primary research for publication in the npj Series journals. Authors are encouraged to include completed reporting summaries and editorial policy checklists at the time of submission. To submit your manuscript, please use our online submission system.

Each npj Series journal is editorially independent. The Editors make their own decisions, independently of the other Nature Portfolio journals. If a paper is rejected from one Nature Portfolio journal, the authors can use our manuscript transfer service to submit the paper to another journal.

For more information, please consult the following:
Details of the manuscript transfer service
Listing of all Nature Portfolio journals
A general explanation of the relationship between the Nature Portfolio journals
 

Editorial and Publishing policies

As part of the Nature Portfolio, all npj Series journals are guided by the Nature Portfolio editorial policies. Submission of a manuscript to npj Science of Food implies that all authors have read and approved their content and that the manuscript conforms to our editorial policies.
 

Authorship

Authorship provides credit for a researcher's contributions to a study and carries accountability. Guidance and criteria for authorship can be found in our editorial policies. The individual contributions of authors to the manuscript should be specified in this section, as well as any equal contributions or shared supervision.  Please use initials to refer to each author's contribution in this section. 
 

Competing interests

In the interest of transparency and to help readers form their own judgements of potential bias, Nature Portfolio journals require authors to declare any competing financial and/or non-financial interests in relation to the work described. The corresponding author is responsible for submitting a mandatory, signed, competing interests statement on behalf of all authors of the paper upon submission. Competing interests are defined as financial and non-financial interests that could directly undermine, or be perceived to undermine the objectivity, integrity and value of a publication, through a potential influence on the judgements and actions of authors with regard to objective data presentation, analysis and interpretation. Please read the full policy for guidance, which gives more information on how competing interests are defined and how it applies to authors, Peer-Reviewers, Editors, external Editors and editorial board members. All such interests have to be declared and if no such interest exists, this must also be declared upon submission.
 

Ethics and Biosecurity

Nature Portfolio journals' editorial policies on publishing primary research reporting experiments on living organisms, and on dual use research of concern.
 

Reporting standards and availability of data, materials, code and protocols

An inherent principle of publication is that others should be able to replicate and build upon the authors' published claims. Please note that all published manuscripts reporting original research in Nature Portfolio journals must include a data availability statement. The data availability statement must make the conditions of access to the “minimum dataset” that are necessary to interpret, verify and extend the research in the article, transparent to readers. This statement must be submitted with your manuscript. Please see the full policy for more information. Authors who need help understanding our data sharing policies, help finding a suitable data repository, or help organizing and sharing research data can access Springer Nature’s Author Support portal for additional guidance.

The npj Series journals advocate for the complete and transparent reporting of research. Please see our policies here and here for further information regarding our reporting requirements. For health and life sciences, the following checklists must be completed and submitted with your manuscript before peer review, and made available to the Editors and Reviewers.

  • Randomized controlled trials (CONSORT)
  • Systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA or appropriate extension version for other types of systematic review)

We strongly recommend that authors refer to the minimum reporting guidelines for health research hosted by the EQUATOR Network when preparing their manuscript, where applicable. We strongly encourage the use of the following checklists and reporting guidelines:

  • Protocols for randomized controlled protocols (SPIRIT)
  • Observational studies (STROBE)
  • Case reports (CARE)
  • Qualitative research (COREQ or SRQR)
  • Diagnostic/prognostic studies (STARD and TRIPOD)
  • Economic evaluations (CHEERS)
  • Pre-clinical animal studies (ARRIVE)

In addition, journals may mandate that other reporting guidelines are followed and the exact requirements may vary depending on the journal; please contact the journal for any questions.
 

Image integrity and standards

The Nature Portfolio journals' policies and guidelines on digital images and their manipulation.
 

Plagiarism and duplicate publication

The Nature Portfolio journals' policies on plagiarism and on providing due credit for published and unpublished data.
 

Corrections, Retractions and Matters Arising

The Nature Portfolio journals' policy on corrections, retractions and other amendments to published material.
 

Peer Review

The Nature Portfolio journals' advice for Reviewers, and policies relevant to the peer-review process.
 

Confidentiality

The Nature Portfolio journals' policies on confidentiality.
 

Acknowledgements

The Nature Portfolio journals’ acknowledgements policies.
 

Preprints & Conference Proceedings

The Nature Portfolio journals' policy on preprints and conference proceedings.
 

Press and embargo policies

The Nature Portfolio journals' policy on authors' communication with the media and at scientific meetings.
 

Self archiving and licence to publish

The Nature Portfolio licence to publish policy, and conditions of re-use, for authors.

Please note that any additional or different policy requirements are stated in our Submission Guidelines, so it is important to read and follow these instructions carefully before submitting your work. We reserve the right to decline publication of a paper even after it has been accepted if it becomes apparent that there are serious problems with the scientific content or violations of our editorial and publishing policies.
 

Related Manuscripts

When you submit a manuscript to npj Science of Food, its content must not significantly overlap with any other papers from you or your co-authors’ that are under consideration or in press at other journals, with the exception of conference abstracts. If you submit a related manuscript to any other journal while the submission to npj Science of Food is under consideration, you must send us a copy of the related manuscript and details of its progress towards publication. We encourage the posting of the pre-review version of the manuscript on preprint servers and this is not viewed as compromising the novelty of the submitted work.
 

Open Access

npj Science of Food is a fully open access journal. More information can be found on our open access page.