Editorial policies

As part of Nature Portfolio, Nature Communications follows common policies as detailed via the menu on the left that our authors and prospective authors must follow.

In particular, when you submit a manuscript to Nature Communications its content must not significantly overlap with any other papers from you or your co-authors’ groups that are under consideration or in press at other journals, with the exception of conference abstracts. We do, however, support the posting of preprints.

If you submit a related manuscript to any other journals while the submission to Nature Communications is under consideration, you must send us a copy of the related manuscript and details of its progress towards publication. Nature Portfolio journals take publication conduct seriously. We reserve the right to decline publication of a paper even after it has been accepted if it becomes apparent that there are serious problems with the scientific content or violations of our publishing policies.