Archive by category | Author services

Making your mark on the journal cover

Making your mark on the journal cover

The Editorial in the March issue of Nature Chemistry (2, 147; 2010) provides some advice for authors keen to feature on the cover of a Nature journal. From the Editorial: Journal covers provide a convenient focal point for the content that lies inside them and are often used in marketing campaigns — whether in simple adverts, or as posters and calendars. It is not only the publisher that benefits, however, and it is quite common to see journal covers feature prominently on slides during talks or on the walls of offices and corridors in academic institutions. They are a source  … Read more

How Nature selects papers for publication

How Nature selects papers for publication

This is a shortened version of an editorial in Nature ( 463, 850; 2010 ; free to read online). One myth that never seems to die is that Nature‘s editors seek to inflate the journal’s impact factor by sifting through submitted papers (some 16,000 last year) in search of those that promise a high citation rate. We don’t. Not only is it difficult to predict what a paper’s citation performance will be, but citations are an unreliable measure of importance. Take two papers in synthetic organic chemistry, both published in June 2006. One, ‘Control of four stereocentres in a triple  … Read more

Nature paper a candidate for the Lancet’s “paper of the year” 2009

Nature paper a candidate for the Lancet's "paper of the year" 2009

A Nature paper is on the shortlist for The Lancet‘s 2009 Paper of the Year award, which was announced on Friday 22 January 2010. The journal invites people to “read the eight shortlisted papers and vote for the one you feel will most shape clinical research or practice”. From the Lancet’s introduction: The candidate papers cover a broad range of science from genomics to surgery to public health, and will inform research, clinical practice, and health policy. These strong contenders address common questions, such as predicting cardiac mortality; and common problems, such as the burdens of alcohol and obesity on  … Read more

Latest Nature videos up at YouTube

Latest Nature videos up at YouTube

The Nature Video editors have been busy this year, posting some beautiful movies at YouTube. Here’s a brief description of a few of them. Eight billion years of dwarf galaxy evolution, accompanied by Strauss. This beautiful animation shows how exploding stars are a key force in shaping dwarf galaxies. Fabio Governato and colleagues present computer simulations that appear to have solved a longstanding problem in cosmology — namely, how the standard cold dark matter model of galaxy formation can give rise to the dwarf galaxies we see around us. From: Bulgeless dwarf galaxies and dark matter cores from supernova-driven outflows  … Read more

Nature Medicine expands its horizons

Nature Medicine expands its horizons

Molecular medicine has undergone profound changes since the publication of the first issue of Nature Medicine 15 years ago this month (January). To keep up with these changes, the journal is strengthening its commitment to publishing the best research and the most topical news and commentary on translational medicine by adding more pages to the journal. The details are provided in the journal’s first Editorial of the year (Nature Medicine 16, 1; 2010) Nature Medicine‘s inaugural editorial (1, 1; 1995), stated that the journal would be “home to papers that bridge the gap between cutting edge biological research and more  … Read more

RNA silencing: first in NSMB series of web features

RNA silencing: first in NSMB series of web features

During 2010, Nature Structural & Molecular Biology is publishing a series of quarterly web features devoted to diverse areas within the journal’s scope. The first of these is on RNA silencing. Since initial observations indicating that small RNAs can mediate this process, silencing has come to be recognized as a key means of gene regulation, participating in a variety of processes across species. Still, research into small RNA-mediated regulation and the scope of this regulation, as well as its role in disease, continues to yield new insights and surprises. The NSMB Web Focus on RNA silencing comprises a core collection  … Read more

Method of the year, 2009

Method of the year, 2009

Nature Methods’ Method of the Year 2009 goes to induced pluripotency for its potential for biological discovery. A series of articles in the January issue of the journal — and a related video — showcase how induced pluripotency is coming into its own as a tool for discovery in both basic and disease biology, and explore the incredible impact this area promises to have in biological research. Also in this special feature is Methods to Watch, providing a glimpse of future Methods of the Year; and Reader’s Choice, noting methods nominated by readers and editors, and the votes that they  … Read more

Nature reprint collection: immuno-epigentics

Epigenetic mechanisms are increasingly appreciated to have an important role in immune cell functional diversity and adaptability, and understanding these mechanisms holds considerable potential for revealing new opportunities to therapeutically modulate the immune response in a range of diseases.  Read more

NPG’s annual letter to customers (2009)

Nature Publishing Group’s managing director, Stephen Inchcoombe, has just written his annual letter to the company’s customers. NPG’s customers are varied: as well as authors and peer-reviewers, they include readers, subscribers, librarians, institutions, advertisers, suppliers, partners, sponsors, and more. The annual letter is, necessarily, broad, so I’ll highlight here a few points of particular interest to authors:  … Read more