Editorial process

On this page: Commissioning articlesSubmissionInitial editorial assessmentPeer reviewDetailed editingArtwork | Copy editingArticle proofs

Commissioning articles

Articles written by external authors are invited or commissioned by our in-house editors. Authors are welcome to submit proposals for Review-type and Comment-type articles, which may be formally commissioned by the editors. The Nature Portfolio journals are committed to promoting practices that support diversity and inclusion. One of these efforts involves aiming for a diverse representation within the author pool. The Nature Reviews journals therefore consistently try to obtain a diverse set of authors for commissioned content and encourage corresponding authors to keep diversity in mind when proposing co-authors. We recognise that there are many dimensions to diversity, including gender, race/ethnicity, geography and career stage; more information about our commitment to diversity can be found here.

Submission

Before submission, please ensure that your article has not been submitted to and is not being considered for publi­cation by another journal. Please refer to this section for more information on how to submit.

Initial editorial assessment

The editor will assess the organization, structure and accessibility of the article and may recommend changes to the manuscript and display items before formal peer review.

Peer review

To ensure balance and accuracy, our review-type articles undergo rigorous external peer review. The editors reserve the right to send other article types for peer review. Reviews should present an unbiased overview of a field or topic and include a fair discussion; that is, alternative points of view should not be ignored. For Perspectives, authors are encouraged to express their opinions but should distinguish clearly between generally accepted views and personal perspectives. Articles are peer reviewed by several experts in the field. The editor will return referee reports to the corresponding author and provide guidance on how to proceed where necessary. A formal rebuttal is required for articles for which revisions are requested. If the editor considers the article to have been adequately revised, it will be accepted in principle. Anonymized referee reports will be circulated to the referees.

Detailed editing

All articles and display items undergo editing by our in‑house editors, taking into account structure, flow, clarity, language and scientific correctness, to ensure that the article meets our high publication standards. The degree of editing varies from article to article. All suggested changes are subject to approval by the authors before formal acceptance.

Artwork

All figures are developed and redrawn by our in‑house art editors after peer review. Please ensure submitted figures are sufficiently informative and clear to send for peer review.  Readers and authors can use our graphics for presentations or teaching materials, in which case we request that the original article be mentioned as the source of the material.

Copy editing

All articles are copy edited before publication. Copy editing takes into account spelling, grammar, house style, official nomenclature use and final checks for consistency throughout the manuscript.

Article proofs

Authors have a chance to review the final text and dis­play items. Only essential changes (factual incorrectness, typing errors, serious lay­out problems) can be made at this stage.