Announcements

Read the latest news and announcements from the journal here.

Contents

 

Expanding our scope to psychology

19th October 2021

We live in a world that is increasingly technology-oriented and driven by data. But to address the challenges of modern times, we must understand a phenomenon that is often not easily captured by data, nor necessarily affected by technology – and that is human behaviour.

At Scientific Reports we have long been, in the spirit of inclusivity, considering submissions looking at various aspects of human behaviour. Now, to better meet the needs of this community we are formally expanding our scope to include psychology.

Psychologists will find a warm welcome for their work at Scientific Reports and can take advantage of our recent commitment to consideration of Registered Reports, which are a format of particular benefit to the field. We also believe that our focus on the assessment of methodological rigour and scientific validity, rather than perceived importance of the findings, aligns well with the community's dedication to tackle problems with research reproducibility.

Browse our psychology articles or get to know our experienced Psychology Editorial Board Members who are experts in their fields.

Find out more about the benefits of publishing in Scientific Reports; or submit your research to upcoming Guest Edited Collections in psychology:

 

 

Expanding our scope to engineering

5th May 2021

The world is changing faster than ever. Breakthroughs in areas from artificial intelligence to biotechnologies are now permeating our daily lives at a relentless pace. Advances in engineering and technology are creating opportunities to transform the way things are made and to address global challenges and sustainable development goals.

Engineers undisputedly play a crucial role in the development of technologies to tackle some of the world's biggest challenges, helping to save lives and create new technological advancements that can improve the way we live.

We are delighted to announce that Scientific Reports is now expanding its scope to include engineering disciplines. We aim to help the engineering community promote their findings, shape this technological revolution, enable multidisciplinary collaborations, and collectively create a better future. The journal will provide an interdisciplinary, inclusive outlet where engineers, scientists, and professionals can champion their innovation, by offering a fast route to publication and the ability to share research with the widest possible audience across the globe.

Browse all our engineering articles or get to know our experienced Engineering Editorial Board Members who are experts in their fields.

Read our recently published open access articles by discipline:

Find out more about publishing in Scientific Reportsor submit your research to upcoming Guest Edited Collections in engineering:

 

 

Scientific Reports is open to Registered Reports submissions

22nd January 2021

Few phenomena damage research more than only publishing results that support the hypotheses, also known as publication bias, and questionable research practices. Both stem from incentives to publish eye-catching results. At Scientific Reports we have always fought publication bias and have worked to ensure that there is a place in the peer reviewed literature for original contributions that are incremental, or not quite complete, but are also methodologically robust with conclusions supported by the evidence presented. While we cannot change what incentives motivate researchers, we can provide an outlet for work that is done to the quality that makes it unassailable.

We are now able to better fulfil this mission of the journal by offering a new article format: Registered Reports. Registered Reports are articles which undergo a two-stage peer review process, one before data collection and one afterwards, and while they have been gaining ground mostly in the fields stricken by 'reproducibility crises', such as psychology, neuroscience and cancer research, we believe they can be beneficial for all fields of science, and therefore open our doors to Registered Reports submissions from across all disciplines in the scope of Scientific Reports.

Our policy and requirements around Registered Reports is explained in more detail on our policy pages.

If you are interested in contributing a Registered Report submission to Scientific Reports, please contact us at scientificreports@nature.com.

 

 

What to do when matters arise?

28th September 2020

One of the major principles underlying Scientific Reports' ethos is that submissions to the journal are not judged based on perceived significance or interest. While we encourage readers to discuss our papers in the comments section of the article, we appreciate that an ability to provide a substantial scientific critique of a published article in a way that ensures its visibility and recognition – through a peer-reviewed, indexed article – is an important part of the scientific discourse. A refutation is, after all, the yin to the yang of conjecture in Karl Poppers' description of the scientific advance. At Scientific Reports we believe that conjectures deserve to be refuted in their original venue and we have always welcomed papers that refute our published articles.

In October 2018 Nature announced a new article format to accommodate this type of scientific discussion – Matters Arising. This format was formally introduced at Scientific Reports late last year. For these submissions, the original handling editor and reviewers, but also advisors independent of the original review process, are asked for their input, which guides editorial decision-making. If we decide to consider a Matters Arising further, we would always give the original authors an opportunity to respond and defend their work.

Our policy around Matters Arising is explained in more detail on our policy pages.

If you are interested in contributing a Matters Arising submission to Scientific Reports, please contact us at scientificreports@nature.com.

 

 

Black Lives Matter

11th June 2020

At Scientific Reports we reject all forms of racism, and stand in solidarity with our Black authors, reviewers and Editorial Board Members. We will strive to do more to improve diversity and end bias in research.

Springer Nature has launched a freely available collection of books, articles and magazine content that amplifies Black voices and the issues raised by the Black Lives Matter movement. It aims to help readers gain insights, not least in the history and social science of racism and police violence.

 

 

COVID-19 pandemic – find out how we are supporting the research community

4th May 2020 / Updated 8th June 2020

At this unusual and challenging time I would like to express solidarity with you – our readers, authors, reviewers and Editorial Board Members.

All of our journal teams are currently home-based and we are adapting to new ways of working to minimise the impact on our authors, reviewers and Editorial Board Members. But we are very aware that the COVID-19 pandemic is causing significant disruption, and we know that you may have difficulty in meeting the timelines associated with our peer review process during normal times. If you need additional time to submit a revision or a reviewer report, please contact us.

At Springer Nature we taking a coordinated approach to help researchers, health professionals and policymakers tackle the virus and its effects by opening up access to all relevant content that we publish (see our Covid-19 content hub).

To help you carry on with your research, whatever your discipline, we are ensuring that library users have remote access to content. For more, see this message from Springer Nature's CEO, Frank Vrancken Peeters.

We are currently welcoming submissions on a rolling basis to our COVID-19 Collection which brings together advances in the tools being developed to combat the pandemic – from methods of detection, to potential treatment – updates relating to current events and epidemiological research, and insights into the virus' origin, evolution and biology. You can also look at some of the COVID-19 preprints currently undergoing peer review at Scientific Reports, on our Under Consideration website.

We are extremely grateful for your support, and all of us at Scientific Reports wish you well.

Richard White
Chief Editor, Scientific Reports