Nature Reviews Neurology

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author instructions

instructions for peer-reviewers

Author instructions

Summary

The editors of the Nature Reviews clinical titles aim to provide an unrivalled service to authors during the preparation, submission, peer review and publication of every article. A summary of our procedures follows.

Scope. Agreement is reached at the commissioning stage between the author and the editor about the general scope of the article, along with a submission deadline.
Synopsis. The figures in the Nature Reviews journals are all constructed or redrawn in house, in consultation with the author. Authors are encouraged to send rough drafts of figures early in the writing process, and to supply full-size, production-quality files at submission of the first article draft. Please click here to download our Artwork guidelines.
Submission. At submission the editor will assess whether the articles format and scope meet the journals requirements, and might request revisions to address any initial issues.
Peer-review. Reviews, Case Studies and Perspectives articles are peer-reviewed; News & Views articles are not. Articles are generally peer-reviewed by three experts in the field, although the number might vary. Once all reports are received the editor will decide whether to accept the article in principle with minor revisions (generally requested during editing), request more-substantial revisions before deciding how to proceed, or reject. The reports will be sent to the corresponding author. In the two former cases a full rebuttal from authors to all the peer-reviewers comments will be required.
Editing and Revisions. When a revised article is deemed suitable for publication, it will undergo editing for structure, flow, clarity, language, scientific correctness, consistency and house style; articles might be edited heavily to meet our high publication standards.
Copyright, Competing interests and Contributions. Copyright for content in the Nature Reviews clinical titles is transferred to Nature Publishing Group. Please inform an editor if any author is unable to assign copyright (e.g. a government employee). Authors must declare whether they do or do not have competing interests. Authors contributions to writing must be declared if an article has more than one author.

PDFs PDFs of the relevant forms are available here:

Competing interests

Continuing Medical Education (CME). All Reviews and Case Studies are by default eligible for inclusion in CME activities. Authors may opt out of this activity by checking the box on the Competing interests form.
Acceptance. Once all editing is complete and all relevant forms have been received, an article is accepted for publication, at which point it is deemed to be the final version. Authors will have a chance to review page proofs, but only essential changes (factual correctness, typing errors, serious layout problems) may be made at this stage. Authors are allowed 48 h to check proofs.
Publication. Review articles will be published online as soon as they are finalised (Advance Online Publication) then will appear in print an online in the issue to which they are allocated. All other articles will only be published in an issue (in print and online).

More-detailed guidelines for authors for the different clinical Nature Reviews article types can be found at:

Manuscript submission and tracking

The Nature Reviews clinical titles use a fully web-based manuscript submission and tracking system for all types of article. Please note the following important information:

Manuscripts should be submitted online only; please do not send contributions by post or email.
Submission of unsolicited full articles is not encouraged. Suggestions for articles may be made on the online submission system, via the Proposals form

Navigating the manuscript tracking system

Authors may access the tracking system by using a URL provided in their manuscript correspondence or by generating a password from the system Login page (click on Unknown/forgotten password). Signing in provides access to a personal Home page, on which manuscript-specific tasks are assigned, indicated by a red arrow . If a task needs to be completed, there will be a red arrow next to a Manuscript link. If no red arrows are visible on the Home page, no tasks are outstanding.

Before submission

Before submitting a manuscript, please gather the following information:

For all authors:

First name and last name
Postal address
Email address
Work telephone number
Work fax number

Article title (can be cut and pasted from the manuscript)
Article abstract (can be cut and pasted from the manuscript; maximum 200 words)
Covering letter
The manuscript file, saved in Word, which should include the main article and any tables and/or text boxes
Figure files; each figure should be saved as a separate file
Contact information (name, e-mail address and institution) of any peer-reviewers to be considered for contact or exclusion

Submission

The manuscript submission process is broken down into a series of 4 primary tasks that gather detailed information about your manuscript and allow you to upload the pertinent text and figure/image files. The sequence of screens is as follows:

The ‘Files’ primary task allows you to select the actual file locations (via an open file dialogue). You will be able to 'Browse' for the relevant files on your computer. Please include the figure number in the title line for each figure. On the completion screen, you will be asked to specify the order in which you want the individual files to appear in the merged document. Editors and/or reviewers will also be able to look at the individual PDF files if necessary.

The ‘Manuscript Information’ primary task which asks for author details, the manuscript title, abstract, other associated manuscript information and types/number of files to be submitted. Please note, if you are the corresponding author please submit your details in the corresponding author fields; DO NOT re-enter the same details in the contributing author fields.

The ‘Validate’ primary task gives you the opportunity to check and verify the manuscript files and manuscript information uploaded. If you are submitting manuscript files separately, we create a merged PDF containing your manuscript text, figures and tables to simplify the handling of your paper. You will need to approve the merged PDF file, and a PDF or any other file not included in the merge, to submit your manuscript. You may also update and/or change manuscript files and manuscript information by clicking on the ‘Change’ or ‘Fix’ links respectively.

The ‘Submit’ primary task is the last step in the manuscript submission process. At this stage the Manuscript Tracking System will perform a final check to ensure that all mandatory fields have been completed. Any incomplete fields will be flagged by a red arrow and highlighted by a red box. Click on the ‘Fix’ link to return to relevant section for completion. Once your manuscript has been finalised, click on the ‘Approve Submission’ button to submit your manuscript for consideration. A ‘Manuscript Approved’ message will display on your author desktop to confirm the submission.

The system will send an acknowledgement email once a paper has been successfully submitted, containing the Manuscript number, which will also be available the personal Home page of each associated author.

Getting Help

If additional help is needed, context-sensitive information is available through the system by clicking on Help signs . A dialogue box will pop up. Should further assistance be required, please contact nrneuro@nature.com

Check manuscript status

The following steps should be followed to check the status of a manuscript at any time during the review process:

Access the system with a password or via the URL included in the submission acknowledgement email.
Click on the link represented by the Manuscript number and abbreviated title, or the Live manuscripts link.
Click on the Check Status link at the bottom of the displayed page.

Please click on HOME to continue.