Information for authors

Papers in Nature Research journals may first be published online (as either an Advance Online Publication (AOP) or Accelerated Article Preview (AAP) publication) or go straight into an issue. In all cases, the embargo on the paper ends at the time when the paper is first published. Papers are provisionally scheduled for publication after they have been formally accepted and have entered production. The publication timing is then confirmed once the paper nears the end of the production process, and corresponding authors will be informed at this time.

For reference, please find below a summary of the notification service we provide to authors and press officers.

• For the below journals, the Nature Research press office contact corresponding authors one week ahead of publication to confirm the publication date and embargo details of their paper. For these journals, we also contact press officers at institutions and funders listed on the paper 1) soon after the paper is accepted for publication and enters production and 2) one week ahead of publication when the embargo time has been finalized.

Nature	Nature Astronomy	Nature Biomedical Engineering	Nature Biotechnology	Nature Catalysis	Nature Cell Biology
Nature Chemical Biology	Nature Chemistry	Nature Climate Change	Nature Ecology & Evolution	Nature Electronics	Nature Energy
Nature Genetics	Nature Geoscience	Nature Human Behaviour	Nature Immunology	Nature Machine Intelligence	Nature Materials
Nature Medicine	Nature Metabolism	Nature Methods	Nature Microbiology	Nature Nanotechnology	Nature Neuroscience
Nature Photonics	Nature Physics	Nature Plants	Nature Structural & Molecular Biology	Nature Sustainability	Nature Cancer and Nature Food (both launching 2020)

• For the below journals, the publishing teams contact corresponding authors a few days before publication to confirm the publication date. For these journals, if the Nature Research press office is producing a press release about a paper, we will contact corresponding authors and the press offices of institutions and funders listed on the paper to confirm the publication details a few days before publication.

Nature Communications	Scientific Reports	Scientific Data	Nature reviews journals
Communications Biology	Communications Chemistry	Communications Physics	NPJs (Nature Partner Journals)

Research and other content in the Nature Research journals is embargoed until the time of publication. The embargo policy for Nature Research journals is published on the journals website. We have also included these guidelines below for reference. For our policies regarding conference presentations and preprints, please refer to the 'Communication between scientists' section below, and the Nature Research preprints policy page.

Communication with the media

We strongly discourage authors and potential authors from direct solicitation of media coverage of material they have submitted to Nature and the Nature Research journals. Accepted contributions can be discussed with the media only once the publication date has been confirmed and no more than a week before the publication date under our embargo conditions. Please refer to the "Communications between scientists" section for more information about our embargo policy as it pertains to conference presentations and preprints.

Each Nature Research journal produces and distributes to a registered list a press release summarizing upcoming content. Journalists are encouraged to read the full version of any papers they wish to cover, and are given the names and contact details of corresponding authors. They receive access to the full text of papers about a week before publication on a password-protected website, together with other relevant material (for example, an accompanying News and Views article, and any extra images provided by the authors). The content of the press release and papers is embargoed until the time and date clearly stated on the press release.

Papers that are deemed especially newsworthy are highlighted by a brief summary on the press release for that journal, written by the editors and the press office. Authors may therefore receive calls or emails from the media during this time; we encourage them to cooperate with journalists so that media coverage of their work is accurate and balanced. Authors whose papers are scheduled for publication may also arrange their own publicity (for instance through their institutional press offices), but they must strictly adhere to our media embargo and are advised to coordinate their own publicity with our press office.

The Nature Research journals believe that their media embargo serves scientists, authors, journalists and the public. Our policy is to release information about our content in a way that provides fair and equal access to the media, allowing it to provide informed comment based on the complete and final version of the paper that is to be published. Authors and their institutions' press offices are able then to interact with the media ahead of publication, and benefit from the subsequent coverage.

The benefits of peer review as a means of giving journalists confidence in new work published in journals are self-evident. Premature release to the media denies journalists that confidence. It also removes journalists' ability to obtain informed reactions about the work from independent researchers in the field.

Journalists who break our embargoes have been removed from the press-release circulation list, and we shall continue to use this sanction when appropriate.

Nature Research journals do not wish to hinder communication among researchers. We support open communications between researchers whether on a recognised community preprint server or preprint commenting platforms, through discussions at research meetings or online collaborative sites such as wikis or the author's blog. Neither conference presentations nor posting on recognized preprint servers constitute prior publication. More information about our policies on preprints can be found here.

Researchers may respond to requests from the media in response to a preprint or conference presentation, by providing explanation or clarification of the work, or information about its context. In these circumstances, media coverage will not hinder editorial handling of the submission. Researchers should be aware however that such coverage may reduce or pre-empt coverage by other media at the time of publication. We also advise that researchers approached by reporters in response to a preprint make it clear that the paper has not yet undergone peer review, that the findings are provisional and that the conclusions may change. Authors are expected to keep the details of the peer review and editorial process confidential.

We believe it important that the peer-reviewed and published version of a paper should be available when the work is discussed in the public media, allowing the press to provide informed comment based on this version. For that reason, we strongly discourage the direct soliciting of media coverage to appear ahead of publication of the final version of a paper.

We also recommend that reporters who cover preprints clearly indicate that the study has not been peer reviewed and that the claims may change.

If further clarification is required, please contact the Nature Research press office by email.

Communication between scientists

Nature Research journals do not wish to hinder communication among researchers. We support open communications between researchers whether on a recognised community preprint server or preprint commenting platforms, through discussions at research meetings or online collaborative sites such as wikis or the author's blog. Neither conference presentations nor posting on recognized preprint servers constitute prior publication. More information about our policies on preprints can be found here.

Researchers may respond to requests from the media in response to a preprint or conference presentation, by providing explanation or clarification of the work, or information about its context. In these circumstances, media coverage will not hinder editorial handling of the submission. Researchers should be aware however that such coverage may reduce or pre-empt coverage by other media at the time of publication. We also advise that researchers approached by reporters in response to a preprint make it clear that the paper has not yet undergone peer review, that the findings are provisional and that the conclusions may change. Authors are expected to keep the details of the peer review and editorial process confidential.

We believe it important that the peer-reviewed and published version of a paper should be available when the work is discussed in the public media, allowing the press to provide informed comment based on this version. For that reason, we strongly discourage the direct soliciting of media coverage to appear ahead of publication of the final version of a paper.

We also recommend that reporters who cover preprints clearly indicate that the study has not been peer reviewed and that the claims may change.

If further clarification is required, please contact the Nature Research press office by email.

If you are an author of a manuscript that has been accepted for publication, we suggest that you contact your press office as soon as you are notified of the acceptance of your paper, as they may be able to help you promote your research or manage media enquiries. Please do let them know, however, that the paper remains under embargo until the time of publication.

Although we do not require press officers to send us drafts of press releases they have prepared about research to be published in our journals, we are happy to receive them and can sometimes add them to our embargoed press site as an additional resource for journalists. Authors of accepted papers and their press officers are welcome to contact us on press@nature.com at any stage if they have questions about media or embargoes.

We issue regular embargoed press release mailings to a registered list of journalists about a week before publication, summarizing upcoming content. We encourage journalists to read the full version of any article they wish to cover, and access to papers is provided to registered journalists through our password-protected press site along with any additional materials. Journalists who register to receive press releases, are also given the name and contact details of the corresponding author(s).

Papers that we consider to be of broadest media interest are highlighted with a brief summary on the press release mailing for that journal, written by the press office and the editors. These press releases are independent summaries of the work written in a style and at a level appropriate for the media. Press releases advertise the interest of a paper in a clear and attention-catching manner, but do not hype the findings. 

Although we do not require press officers to send us drafts of press releases they have prepared about research to be published in our journals, we are happy to receive them and can sometimes add them to our embargoed press site as an additional resource for journalists.

When deciding which papers we will press release, in consultation with the journal editorial teams, we select those papers that we feel will be of broadest interest to media. Sometimes, if we have not press released a paper we can also pitch it to specialist journalists, although because our team works across all of the journals in the Nature Research portfolio, this is not always possible. If a study has particularly striking images or videos that are available for journalists to use in their stories, we can highlight these on our press site.

If you are an author of a paper that has been accepted for publication in our journals, we encourage you to contact your press office as soon as you are notified of the acceptance of your paper so that they can obtain assistance with the management of media or other enquiries. Please do let them know, however, that the paper remains under embargo until the time of publication.

You may also like to refer to the following two Nature Careers columns, which provide advice for researchers seeking to promote their work:

• https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00883-7
• https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-06871-7

If you have any images, videos and/or audio files relating to your research that you are happy for media to use, we can make these available to journalists via our password-protected press site for registered media. Multimedia content can help to boost coverage of research stories. In particular, journalists tend to find images and B-roll video that showcase the research more useful than author headshots and “talking heads” video clips.

The best file formats for multimedia material are as follows:

• Images: .jpg or .png
• Video: .mov (or the embed code for an unlisted YouTube video)
• Audio: .wav or .mp3

For each file you send us, we also need:

1. Your permission for Nature Research and external media to use the file
2. A short caption (1-2 sentences) to accompany each file
3. A credit for the image (whoever created or owns the file)
4. An email address for the copyright holder (whoever created or owns the file)

Please contact press@nature.com if you need further clarification.

Press offices can use figures and/or supplementary videos from a paper published in our journals in press releases about the study, as long as they have permission from the authors and credit the authors and the journal. Journalists may use figures and/or supplementary videos from a paper in contemporaneous news stories about the study as long as they have permission from the authors, and credit the authors and the journal.

Please contact press@nature.com if you need further clarification.

We believe it important that the peer-reviewed and published version of a paper should be available when the work is discussed in the public media, allowing the press to provide informed comment based on this version. For that reason, we strongly discourage the direct soliciting of media coverage to appear ahead of publication of the final version of a paper.

If you have posted a version of your paper on a preprint server or discussed the work at a scientific content and receive enquiries from journalists, please refer to our embargo policy for more guidance.

Researchers may respond to requests from the media in response to a preprint or conference presentation, by providing explanation or clarification of the work, or information about its context. In these circumstances, media coverage will not hinder editorial handling of the submission. Researchers should be aware however that such coverage may reduce or pre-empt coverage by other media at the time of publication. We also advise that researchers approached by reporters in response to a preprint make it clear that the paper has not yet undergone peer review, that the findings are provisional and that the conclusions may change. Authors are expected to keep the details of the peer review and editorial process confidential.

Please refer to the “communication between scientists” section of our embargo policy, which is also included below:

Nature Research journals do not wish to hinder communication among researchers. We support open communications between researchers whether on a recognised community preprint server or preprint commenting platforms, through discussions at research meetings or online collaborative sites such as wikis or the author's blog. Neither conference presentations nor posting on recognized preprint servers constitute prior publication. More information about our policies on preprints can be found here.

Researchers may respond to requests from the media in response to a preprint or conference presentation, by providing explanation or clarification of the work, or information about its context. In these circumstances, media coverage will not hinder editorial handling of the submission. Researchers should be aware however that such coverage may reduce or pre-empt coverage by other media at the time of publication. We also advise that researchers approached by reporters in response to a preprint make it clear that the paper has not yet undergone peer review, that the findings are provisional and that the conclusions may change. Authors are expected to keep the details of the peer review and editorial process confidential.

We believe it important that the peer-reviewed and published version of a paper should be available when the work is discussed in the public media, allowing the press to provide informed comment based on this version. For that reason, we strongly discourage the direct soliciting of media coverage to appear ahead of publication of the final version of a paper.

Please refer to the “communication between scientists” section of our embargo policy, which is also included below. For further information about our preprint policies (including which versions of the manuscript may be posted at which stage), please also consult our preprint policy page.

Nature Research journals do not wish to hinder communication among researchers. We support open communications between researchers whether on a recognised community preprint server or preprint commenting platforms, through discussions at research meetings or online collaborative sites such as wikis or the author's blog. Neither conference presentations nor posting on recognized preprint servers constitute prior publication. More information about our policies on preprints can be found here.

Researchers may respond to requests from the media in response to a preprint or conference presentation, by providing explanation or clarification of the work, or information about its context. In these circumstances, media coverage will not hinder editorial handling of the submission. Researchers should be aware however that such coverage may reduce or pre-empt coverage by other media at the time of publication. We also advise that researchers approached by reporters in response to a preprint make it clear that the paper has not yet undergone peer review, that the findings are provisional and that the conclusions may change. Authors are expected to keep the details of the peer review and editorial process confidential.

We believe it important that the peer-reviewed and published version of a paper should be available when the work is discussed in the public media, allowing the press to provide informed comment based on this version. For that reason, we strongly discourage the direct soliciting of media coverage to appear ahead of publication of the final version of a paper.

We also recommend that reporters who cover preprints clearly indicate that the study has not been peer reviewed and that the claims may change.

If further clarification is required, please contact the Nature Research press office by email.