Archive by category | Format

Difference between Nature Articles and Letters

Q. I plan to submit a research article to Nature, but I am not sure what is difference between Nature article and letter. I notice there is usually only one article per issue of Nature, but several letters. I do not know how to decide to submit a manuscript as an article format or as a letter format. Would you please explain this to me?  Read more

Short is sweet, says EMBO reports

Scientific publishing seems to be moving in several contradictory directions. Against these conflicting trends, EMBO reports seeks to re-assert the importance of the short-format article, carrying a single key message of ground-breaking significance. So writes the journal’s Editor, Howie Jacobs (EMBO reports 10, 935; 2009). Against a background of screeds of scientific articles, blogs and other commentary available on the internet, and vast mountains of supplementary information and data, the short-format of EMBO reports is increasingly popular. From the Editorial:  … Read more

Nature Methods announces online methods

Nature Methods follows in the footsteps of Nature by ushering in an online methods section, fully integrated with the paper, for all original research articles. Details of the service described in the journal’s current (May) Editorial (Nature Methods 6, 313; 2009), and the editors welcome comments on the service at Methagora, the Nature Methods blog.  Read more

Nature Methods on “big data” and the scientific method

The rise of ‘omics’ methods and data-driven research presents new possibilities for discovery but also stimulates disagreement over how science should be conducted and even how it should be defined. Is the ability of these methods to amass extraordinary amounts of data altering the nature of scientific inquiry? These are the issues dicussed in the April Editorial of Nature Methods (6, 237; 2009).  Read more

Due credit for Asian authors

Chinese authors are publishing more and more papers, but are they receiving due credit and recognition for their work? Not if their names get confused along the way. Jane Qiu investigates these, and other questions, in a Nature news feature in the current issue of the journal (Nature 451, 766-767; 2008). The article covers the huge problem of how to distinguish between Asian researchers, given the vast numbers of people sharing relatively few surnames. The problem is particularly challenging in the publishing sphere, not only in identifying an author correctly in citation databases and other indeces, but for editors in choosing appropriate peer-reviewers. Asian researchers suffer in being hampered from full participation in the international scientific community, for example they are less likely to be invited to contribute to conferences, to be successful in grant applications or to win awards.  Read more

Language and languages of science

Martin Fenner, on his Nature Network blog Gobbledygook, notes that The Deutsche Ärzteblatt , the official journal of the German Medical Association, will from this month be publishing an English version. The reason? So that the journal is more clearly indexed in databases such as PubMed, hence available to more readers, leading to more citations of journal articles, a better Impact Factor, and enhanced reputation of the journal. Martin’s opinion is that although German was once an important scientific language, today only 2 per cent of articles indexed in Medline are in the language. “In the end”, he writes, ” it makes the exchange of ideas between scientists much easier if we can all use the same language. And Nature Network is a good example for this.”  … Read more