Nature Submission Process

Nature's published median is eight days from submission to the first editorial decision. It does not publish a universal timetable for each internal stage, so estimates such as a fixed number of days for editorial screening or reviewer reports would overstate what the source supports.

Nature's initial-submission guidance is deliberately flexible about presentation. That flexibility does not remove the need for a complete, internally consistent package.

For a draft-level check before upload, use the Nature manuscript readiness check. It can help identify a gap in the manuscript package; it does not predict Nature's editorial decision.

Nature Portfolio defines this metric as the median time from receipt to the first editorial decision about whether a paper was sent for formal review. The published figure is helpful for setting expectations, but it has three limits:

• It is a median, so individual submissions can take less or more time.
• It combines first editorial decisions; it does not disclose a separate timetable for every possible route.
• It is not an acceptance probability, a desk-rejection rate, or a signal that a particular manuscript is progressing well.

If you need the current state of a live submission, consult the submission system and the editorial correspondence. If you need help interpreting an under-review state, see what to expect while under review at Nature.

Nature's author and referee guidance describes an editorial assessment before formal review. Its published criteria emphasize original research, strong evidence for conclusions, novelty, importance to the field, and interest to a broad scientific audience.

That does not mean this page should give a made-up timeline or claim to know an editor's internal reading sequence. Use the right owner for the question in front of you:

The useful author action is to make the manuscript's central conclusion, supporting evidence, and scope legible in the manuscript itself. A cover letter can provide context, but Nature says it should not simply repeat the abstract, and it cannot repair a package whose core claim is unclear.

Using final-submission rules at the initial stage. Nature is flexible about initial formatting and encourages a readable manuscript-and-figures file for review. Its detailed production-quality file instructions apply after an editor has requested final material. Check the current initial-submission page rather than spending time on a requirement that belongs later in the process.

Treating the optional cover letter as the manuscript's rescue argument. Nature calls the cover letter optional and says not to repeat the abstract or introduction. Use it for concise fit context, confidential information, or related work, but make the central result and evidence legible in the manuscript itself.

Reading the eight-day median as a promise about your status. The metric is an aggregate median to first editorial decision. It cannot identify your manuscript's route, forecast peer-review duration, or show whether a delay is positive or negative.

Nature offers presubmission enquiries as an optional service for Articles. They can help an author ask whether a manuscript is likely to interest the journal, but Nature says an enquiry is not compulsory and cannot commit the journal to formal review before it sees the full paper.

If Nature does not offer publication, its initial-submission guidance says authors may be able to transfer manuscript materials, the decision letter, and referee comments to selected Springer Nature journals without re-entering submission information. Treat a transfer as a new venue-choice decision: review the target journal's scope and its own current instructions before accepting it.

Nature also describes an appeal route for authors who believe a decision was made in error or who have critical new information or data. An appeal should address the decision and relevant evidence directly; it is not a substitute for resubmitting the same manuscript unchanged.

• Confirm that every author has agreed to the submission and author order.
• Check the current Nature initial-submission guidance for the contribution type you are submitting.
• Make the manuscript and figures readable together in the initial file.
• Verify declarations, including competing interests and the applicable data-availability information.
• Keep the cover letter brief if you use one, and do not rely on it to make the central scientific case.

If the package is complete but the journal-fit decision is still uncertain, use the Nature manuscript readiness check before you submit.

• Nature submission guide
• Nature pre-submission checklist
• Nature editorial-triage guide
• Nature cover-letter guide
• Nature acceptance-rate guide

Ready to test the manuscript package before the official submission step? Get a Nature-focused manuscript review.

This guide was reviewed on 2026-09-09. Nature's official pages are the source of truth for submission requirements, policies, article types, transfer, and appeals. Manusights does not have access to Nature's internal manuscript-handling data, so this page does not infer a fixed desk-decision, reviewer, revision, or publication timeline.

• Nature initial submission guidance
• Nature Manuscript Tracking System
• Nature author information and editorial-process entry point
• Nature formatting guide
• Nature Portfolio journal metrics
• Nature policies and processes for referees