Nature Data Availability Statement: What Nature Requires (2026)
Pre-submission and post-decision guide for Nature authors. Grounded in pre-submission reviews on Nature-targeted manuscripts.
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Quick answer: Every research paper in a Nature Portfolio journal, Nature and Nature Communications included, must carry a data availability statement that tells readers how to reach the minimum dataset needed to interpret, verify and extend the findings. If custom code or an algorithm is central to the conclusions, add a separate "Code availability" section after the data availability statement and before the references, saying whether and how the code can be accessed and on what terms (Nature Portfolio reporting standards, read October 8, 2026). Nature's formatting guide places the separate data and code availability statements at the end of the Methods section, before the Extended Data legends, so the publisher's documents differ on placement; follow the formatting guide for a Nature Article.
Each item is grounded in pre-submission reviews on Nature-targeted manuscripts and Nature's public author guidelines.
Run the Nature pre-submission readiness check which flags data availability statement issues automatically, or work through this guide manually. Need broader cluster context? See the Nature journal overview.
The Manusights Nature readiness scan. This guide tells you what Nature's editors look for at data availability statement. The scan tells you whether your manuscript or response passes that check before you submit. We have reviewed manuscripts targeting Nature and peer venues; the named patterns below are the same ones the journal's handling editors and outside reviewers flag. 60-day money-back guarantee. Your manuscript is not used for model training, and access is limited to the review workflow.
Editorial detail (for desk-screen calibration). Verify the current Editor-in-Chief and handling-editor list on the journal's editorial-team page before quoting any name in a submission cover letter. Submission portal: Nature Portfolio journal page. Manuscript constraints: Nature's summary paragraph is ideally no more than 200 words, and its formatting guide describes typical Articles of about 2,500 words (6 print pages) or about 4,300 words (8 print pages); for initial submissions Nature says that, within reason, style and length will not influence consideration. We reviewed Nature's data availability statement requirements against current author guidelines (accessed 2026-10-08).
Word limit at Nature is documented above; exact word and figure limits should be verified against the latest author guidelines. The named editorial-culture quirk: a first editorial decision in a median of 8 days, made by professional editors who judge whether a paper will interest a broad readership.
Manusights internal preview corpus also documents this pattern across Nature-targeted manuscripts in 2025.
What does the Nature data availability statement require?
Nature requires a data availability statement (DAS) for published manuscripts reporting original research. The statement must make the conditions of access to the "minimum dataset" needed to interpret, verify and extend the research transparent, and Nature's policy says supporting data must be made available to editors and peer reviewers where requested. For clinical trial data, the statement should follow the ICMJE recommendations and say whether individual de-identified participant data will be shared ("undecided" is not acceptable), what will be shared, when, and by what access criteria.
DAS type | What Nature's policy says |
|---|---|
Open repository (Figshare, Zenodo, Dryad) | General repositories are acceptable for the minimum dataset; give accession codes or other unique identifiers where relevant; large datasets in supplementary information are strongly discouraged |
Domain repository (GenBank, PDB, GEO) | Deposition in a community-endorsed public repository is mandatory for certain data types (for example sequences, macromolecular structures, gene-expression data), with accession numbers provided in the paper |
Controlled access (dbGaP, EGA) | Describe the reasons for controlled access, the conditions of access with contact details, the timeframe for response, and any restrictions imposed through data use agreements |
Restricted (third-party or proprietary) | State the restrictions clearly; the third-party provider's identity must be made known to the editors; editors may decline the study if restrictions are unduly prohibitive |
No new data | A data availability statement is required for all published manuscripts reporting original research |
Source: Nature Portfolio reporting standards, accessed 2026-10-08.
How should you write a Nature data availability statement?
The Nature-acceptable DAS structure includes: specific repository name, repository DOI or accession number, access conditions (open vs controlled), embargo dates if applicable, and contact for restricted-access requests. For advance with broad significance to the natural-sciences readership submissions, Nature reviewers expect the DAS to be specific enough that a third-party reader can independently verify access without contacting the authors.
"All raw data underlying the analyses reported in this manuscript are available at Zenodo (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.XXXXXX) under a CC-BY 4.0 license. Custom analysis code is available at GitHub (github.com) with a Zenodo deposit (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.YYYYYY). Patient-level data, where used, are available through the controlled-access dbGaP repository (study accession phsXXXXXX.v1.p1) subject to data-use agreement with the original consenting institution."
What is unlikely to meet Nature's requirement that the conditions of access be transparent:
- "Data are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request." (Too vague)
- "All data are in the manuscript and supplementary materials." (Insufficient if the data could be deposited)
- "Data will be made available upon publication." (Embargo without explicit terms)
- Empty DAS without explanation. (Editorial query)
What is the Nature DAS preparation timeline?
Stage | Duration | What you do |
|---|---|---|
Identify all data sources | 1-2 days | Catalog raw data, processed data, code |
Choose repositories | 30-60 minutes | Match data type to Nature-acceptable repo |
Deposit data + obtain DOIs | 2-5 days | Upload to repositories, get persistent identifiers |
Draft DAS language | 1-2 hours | Combine repository links into single statement |
Co-author review | 1-2 days | All authors confirm DAS accuracy |
Final manuscript inclusion | 30 minutes | Place DAS in Nature's required section |
Source: Manusights internal review of Nature-targeted submissions, 2025 cohort.
What do pre-submission reviews reveal about Nature DAS failures?
Generic "available on request" language. In our reviews, this is a common failure pattern. Check whether your DAS is specific enough
Repository named but no DOI/accession. Nature asks for accession codes or other unique identifiers where data are publicly available. Check your DAS specificity
Controlled-access language without conditions. Nature's policy asks controlled-access statements to describe the conditions of access precisely. Check your controlled-access framing
Submit If
- The DAS specifies a repository (Zenodo, Dryad, domain-specific) with DOI or accession number.
- Controlled-access data has explicit access conditions, not vague "available on request" language.
- All cited DOIs in the manuscript are verified clean against Crossref + Retraction Watch.
- The DAS is placed in Nature's required manuscript section, not in the Acknowledgments.
Readiness check
Run the scan while the topic is in front of you.
See score, top issues, and journal-fit signals before you submit.
Think Twice If
- The DAS uses "available from corresponding author on reasonable request" without specifying conditions.
- The repository is named but no DOI or accession number is provided.
- The DAS is missing for a paper that could deposit data publicly.
- The DAS is in the wrong manuscript section against Nature's author-guideline placement.
What does the Nature editorial culture mean for data availability statement?
Nature's editorial culture is shaped by three forces: the advance with broad significance to the natural-sciences readership reviewer pool's expectations, the editor-in-chief's top-line triage philosophy, and the publisher policy framework. For data availability statement, this translates into specific desk-screen patterns. Nature authors who internalize these patterns before drafting tend to clear editorial review on first attempt. Authors who treat data availability statement as a checklist exercise rather than an editorial-culture conversation face longer review rounds.
The named editorial-culture quirk: a first editorial decision in a median of 8 days, made by professional editors who judge whether a paper will interest a broad readership. The named failure pattern that consistently predicts revision rounds: manuscripts whose abstracts read to the subfield rather than to a general scientific audience get desk-screened within the first week. These are testable against your manuscript before submission, not theoretical concerns.
How should Nature authors prepare for data availability statement?
Preparation step | Time investment | Expected payoff |
|---|---|---|
Read Nature author guidelines | 30 minutes | Understand published rules |
Read Nature recent editorial pieces | 60-90 minutes | Internalize editorial culture |
Review SciRev community signal | 30 minutes | Author-experience patterns |
Run pre-submission readiness check | 15 minutes | Automated flag detection |
Co-author alignment discussion | 60-90 minutes | All authors on same page |
Draft data availability statement response | 1-3 hours | Apply guidelines + culture |
Source: Manusights internal review of Nature-targeted submissions, 2025 cohort.
Manusights submission-corpus signal for Nature. Of the manuscripts our team screened before submission to Nature and peer venues in 2025, the editorial-culture mismatch most consistent across the cohort is a first editorial decision in a median of 8 days, made by professional editors who judge whether a paper will interest a broad readership. In our analysis of anonymized Nature-targeted submissions,
What does this guide add beyond Nature's author guidelines?
Nature's author guidelines describe the rules for advance with broad significance to the natural-sciences readership submissions. This guide describes the editorial culture behind the rules at Nature specifically.
Authors targeting Nature who read only the official guidelines often submit manuscripts that technically comply but fail at editorial review because they miss the advance with broad significance to the natural-sciences readership editorial culture, particularly the named pattern: manuscripts whose abstracts read to the subfield rather than to a general scientific audience get desk-screened within the first week.
The pre-submission reviews documented in our Manusights submission corpus surface these Nature-specific patterns.
The named editorial-culture quirk for Nature is a first editorial decision in a median of 8 days, made by professional editors who judge whether a paper will interest a broad readership. The named failure pattern for data availability statement: manuscripts whose abstracts read to the subfield rather than to a general scientific audience get desk-screened within the first week.
- Manusights internal preview corpus (2025 cohort)
Frequently asked questions
This guide covers what Nature editors look for at data availability statement, grounded in pre-submission reviews on Nature-targeted manuscripts. It is calibrated to advance with broad significance to the natural-sciences readership submissions and aligned with Nature's public author guidelines.
Nature's editorial culture quirk: a first editorial decision in a median of 8 days, made by professional editors who judge whether a paper will interest a broad readership. Other journals share core requirements but apply enforcement intensity differently. Use this guide for Nature-specific calibration.
Each pattern documented below is a known failure mode at Nature. Authors who follow the guide tend to clear the editorial check on first attempt; authors who skip the guide face longer revision rounds.
This guide is grounded in pre-submission reviews on Nature-targeted manuscripts in 2025, plus Nature's public author guidelines and the editor-team policy framework.
Sources
- Nature author guidelines (accessed 2026-10-08)
- Clarivate JCR 2024 (impact factor data, accessed 2026-05-08)
- Crossref retraction registry (accessed 2026-05-08)
- Retraction Watch database (accessed 2026-05-08)
- ICMJE recommendations (accessed 2026-05-08)
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